Best practices for archiving topics

[tobiaseigen]

What are best practices for archiving topics? I’ve not used this feature before, and don’t fully understand what happens when you archive something and when we should use it. Appreciate any explanation/links

[cpradio]

Should closing a topic remove wiki edit-ability?

There is no such thing as locking a topic. Do you mean close? If so then yes, as the description for close indicates, this is correct. Close only prevents new replies, that is all. Archive freezes the topic in carbonite, preventing any changes at all, it becomes a stone monument, or tombstone, depending on how you look at it…

We don’t use archive on our instance (except our staging instance where we like to try and break things), so I can’t really say when to use each as we don’t focus on archive at all in our live site.

[Mittineague]

A lot depends on your edit time window and much work your Mods feel like doing.

eg. if you have a very long edit time window, you may want to archive an older discussion so posts don’t get edited into something not desirable.

We’ve found that having a shorter edit time window (many have complained that it’s too short) and auto-closing topics that gone dormant works well.

[codinghorror (Jeff Atwood)]

It’s a subtle distinction but

Close only prevents new replies.

and

Archive freezes a topic in carbonite so nothing about it can ever change. Ever.

Refer to this handy diagram:

The idea is that archived topics would eventually be moved out or deleted. Archiving a topic means it has one foot in the grave.

[kensims]

My main set of categories are configured with auto-close. I don’t plan to ever archive in those categories.

I have an Admin category for Administrative Announcements. Everyone can read, but only Staff can create and reply. This category is not configured for auto-close, but I archive topics when they are no longer applicable.

[tobiaseigen]

Thanks everyone - and esp @codinghorror for the amusing visual. I think I actually understand pretty clearly what happens when you archive a topic, but I am still wrapping my head around why we would use archiving. Looks like we just won’t use it.

I will reflect on auto-closing of topics as well - that’s an interesting thought. Thanks @kensims. One of the issues we are running into is that we go back and close topics that are old, because the discussions have run their course. But that then bumps them up in lists and generates notifications which is unfortunate, and causes some complaints because people think they should be paying attention to them.

[cpradio]

@tobiaseigen

One of the issues we are running into is that we go back and close topics that are old, because the discussions have run their course. But that then bumps them up in lists and generates notifications which is unfortunate, and causes some complaints because people think they should be paying attention to them.

This was fixed… It should only notify the OP and it definitely no longer bumps the topic…

[tobiaseigen]

@cpradio

OP

OP means Original Poster?

@cpradio

It should only notify the OP and it definitely no longer bumps the topic…

That would be good. Thanks for clarifying. What about moderators? Do moderators get notified?

[cpradio]

OP = Original Poster

@tobiaseigen

What about moderators? Do moderators get notified?

Well they likely closed it… so no they don’t. If they were watching the category/topic, it does appear under the Unread tab (may not be true for auto-close), but nothing in the notifications area.

[tobiaseigen]

Ah - so we have a category that we require everyone to watch. When a topic is closed in that category, does everyone get notified?

[cpradio]

In the Unread tab, yes, an actual Notification in the top right - no.

Again, may not apply for auto-close, but it seems to apply for a moderator closing a topic (based on the experience I have at Sitepoint and here at Meta)

[calmh (Jakob Borg)]

Is there a difference in search engine visibility for Archived topics? I for one would like to see archived topics be not-indexed by Google and co., and be invisible or deprioritized in the in-Discourse search. This for many of the reasons stated here, but still leaving the topic around for people who have the link or otherwise know where it is…

[codinghorror (Jeff Atwood)]

I think that is a very good idea and would be another important point of distinction between closed. @techapj can you add this to your list?

[riking (Kane York)]

I’m not sure that “archived = hidden” is a good line to draw. Alternatively, you could do something crazy like automatically submitting archived topics to www.archive.org.

[TechnoBear]

I always understood an archive to be a place of public record, to be referenced when required. So I assumed the purpose of archiving a topic was to ensure a particularly-important topic remained preserved and unchanged - like locking cells in a spreadsheet to prevent accidental changes.

This sounds more like bundling up old business records, ready to throw them out when they get beyond the seven-year limit (or whatever the local legal requirement is). I’m not sure quite what I’d call that, but it wouldn’t be archiving.

[cpradio]

@codinghorror

I think that is a very good idea and would be another important point of distinction between closed. @techapj can you add this to your list?

@riking

I’m not sure that “archived = hidden” is a good line to draw. Alternatively, you could do something crazy like automatically submitting archived topics to www.archive.org.

Yeah, I don’t like that idea either. They can unlist if they want it hidden from Search Engines, why should Archived be removed?

Archived simply means you want to store it in its original state, you don’t want it modified. It would be similar to a static page which are still visible to search engines.

There is already a solution for this, they can unlist it and archive it. Done. Bam. Easy. Archive does not equal invisible.

With the change proposed, it is impossible for me to save a discussion in its current state without making it invisible/impossible to find. That’s frustrating.

Definition of archive:
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/archive

Keywords: “Long term storage”

What if all of the important documents from our history were archived in the way you’ve outlined? They would be nearly impossible to find by new users because they don’t have a link to it. Hardly the best use of long term storage, yes?

[cpradio]

@cpradio

We don’t use archive on our instance (except our staging instance where we like to try and break things), so I can’t really say when to use each as we don’t focus on archive at all in our live site.

So it seems we do actually have a few archived topics (over 20 pages worth). So the impact on us is real (just an FYI).

[codinghorror (Jeff Atwood)]

@cpradio

There is already a solution for this, they can unlist it and archive it. Done. Bam. Easy. Archive does not equal invisible.

Yes that is an even better idea. @techapj make it so unlisting a topic removes it from Google search results by adding the no index header.

[DeanMarkTaylor (Dean Taylor)]

この投稿は更新され、再投稿されました:

Understanding closed, unlisted, and archived topics

This guide explains the differences between Closed, Unlisted, and Archived topics in Discourse, including their characteristics and use cases. Required user level: All users Discourse offers various ways to manage topics, including closing, unlisting, and archiving. Each of these options serves a different purpose and has specific effects on how topics are displayed and interacted with. This guide will explain the differences between these three states and th…

元の投稿は以下

---

「トピックのアーカイブ化」と「クローズ（閉鎖）」の違いを把握しようとしてコードをたどり、いくつかのメモを作成しました。それを共有しようと思います。

まず、@codinghorror の以下の投稿がこの機能を非常に視覚的によく説明していることを改めて強調しておきます。

@codinghorror

微妙な違いですが、

クローズは新しい返信のみを防止します。

そして、

アーカイブはトピックをカーボナイトの中で凍結し、何も変更できなくします。決して。

便利な図を参照してください：

アーカイブ化されたトピックは最終的に移動または削除されることを想定しています。トピックをアーカイブ化するということは、すでに一歩墓場の一歩手前にあるということです。

##では、「アーカイブ化」と「クローズ」を比較するとどうなるでしょうか？

###両者に共通する点

• リスト内のトピックの横に「鍵」アイコンが表示されます。
  • クローズとアーカイブの両方が設定されている場合、鍵アイコンが 2 つ表示される可能性があります：Close and Archive a Topic
• トピックへの返信を無効化します。
• 投票を無効化します。
• トピック下部の「招待」ボタンを無効化します。
• トピックをクローズまたはアーカイブ化しても、最終活動日は更新されません。

###アーカイブ化されたトピックに特有の点

• ユーザーによる投稿の削除を無効化します。
• 「いいね」を無効化します。
• 「すべてのカテゴリ」の「最新」ページ（通常はログインユーザーのホームページ）での表示を無効化します。
• /top ページでのトピック表示を無効化します。
• 要約メールへの含めを無効化します。
• トピックページフッターの「ランダム」トピックリストでの表示を無効化します。
• トピックまたは投稿のフラグ付けは引き続き可能です。
• ブックマークは引き続き可能です。
• Unread（未読）リストには引き続き表示されます（つまり、アーカイブ化されたことが示される投稿が表示されます。これは設計によるものです）。

##どこに行くのか？

• status=archived クエリ文字列パラメータを使用してアーカイブ化されたトピックを表示できます：Discourse Meta
• 特定のカテゴリを閲覧する際にも、アーカイブ化されたトピックは引き続き表示されます。

##将来について

また、アーカイブの最終的な意味が変更される可能性があることを示す以下のコメントにも注目しました：

@codinghorror

これは「アーカイブトピックの状態が何を意味し、何を行うべきか」というより深い議論だと思います。はい、アーカイブとは「ある時点でコールドストレージに移動させること」を意味し、最終的にそれを定義する必要があります。

このトピックでさらに議論されています：
How should category archiving work?

誤りや変更点を見つけた場合は、この投稿に返信してください。更新いたします。
もしかすると、これはアーカイブ化されたトピックに関する仕様投稿の始まりになるかもしれません。

[mcwumbly (Dave McClure)]

My 2 cents for added features:

• archived topics should also behave like unlisted topics
• should be excluded from search by default
• should not be crawled by bots.
• should remain available to search with a special search operator (include:archived or something?)
• should remain available to those with a link

In other words, they should be put in a state where they are out of the way enough you don’t have to delete them.

(or should those be just features of ‘unlisted’ and a shortcut could exist to “archive and unlist”?)