The discussion revolves around a plugin called Yearly Auto Archive, designed to automatically archive topics based on configurable dates. eriko introduced the plugin, which archives topics posted before a certain date annually, such as archiving all posts before day 30 on day 120 of the year. The plugin targets only default topics, excluding messages, and aims to reduce outdated content in forums. meglio questioned the need for mass archiving, prompting eriko to explain its use in a college setting where old discussions become irrelevant. codinghorror gave another example: game companies archiving outdated beta/alpha discussions. fefrei cited using Discourse for courses, where content becomes obsolete yearly. patrickemin suggested archiving entire categories, like newsflash, due to their time-sensitive nature, while Jagster questioned the structure of such categories. The plugin’s future includes configurable days and category-specific settings.
Basically on a certain (configurable) day of the year all topics posted before a certain (configurable) day get marked as Archived. This happens once a year.
Example on the 120th day of the year all posts from before the 30th day of the year will get archived.
In our case we are a college and conversations that span over a year gather kruft of no longer valid information. It is better to begin again the fight over smoking on campus again in the context of current policies. The old conversation still exists for reference.
Another valid example is, a game company has a beta or alpha for a game. Three years later, the game is no longer like the beta or alpha and much different, if anyone even plays it any more? So why keep the alpha and beta categories at all..
No, I mean, archive the posts in a category after a certain period of time. The posts in a news category, for example, are inherently perishable, so this is a good example of use. A category could have an auto archive property.
Why would someone ever do such structure?