Should archived topics be "cleaned up"?

Should archived topics be "cleaned up"?

  • No - editing would be misrepresentation

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Yes - the Archive should be pristine

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Doesn't matter - it's the mod's discretion

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Maybe - depends on the content being edited

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Total voters
    0

Ted Wolff

Rookie
So, the forum bodygoers have done another GR Awards Topic - for 2007! and it's been edited.

For those who weren't following: I, essentially, made a couple replies that were trolling, and malakian assisted for a couple replies as well. This was even after maca2kx said he'd like the topic to go into the Archive, essentially saying he wanted a nice, peachy-keen topic to show off, like a Van Gogh in a museum.

So maca went back a day, or so, in the posts, and edited out the "dirty" posts and archived the topic. What this essentially does, then, is misrepresent what exactly goes on in the topics at this forum. OK, big deal; it's not like someone misrepresented himself on his résumé and got hired at Wikipedia as a result, right? Right.

Yet, shouldn't we frown at all of the cockamamy posts just as we enjoy the fruitful posts? All of them are indicative and paint a picture of what these forums are, which is what an archive is, presumably, for. The Internet archive doesn't edit Web sites for being uncleanly. Truthfully, a lot of Web sites look atrocious from the mid-90s compared to the CSS-driven Web sites of today. Regardless, a full picture is painted.

What's more, the heralded Post Your Pics topic is also in the archive, yet the last couple pages consist largely of unrelated spam posts. It has not been cleaned up, nor should it be. Everyone knows the Post Your Pics topic devolve into nonsense, and that makes them enjoyable as the actual pictures.

The Archive, of course, is a place for lauded, worthy topics to go. Not just any tripe from Misc. or Sony is moved, but a significant topic that speaks to the volume of this forum. In the case of the GR Awards 2007 post, we have the celebration of forum goers voting for others, congratulating them, and also calling into question the results. The negatives are worthy and contribute just as the postive ones. The question is then whether the spam posts of the final page are necessary or contribute anything to what's being archived, and they do. They represent a shift in power at the forums: maca's coming-of as a co-administrator and being forthright in dealing with a problem. Yet we now have no record of his coming-of, an event that many delighted in because trust_no_one no longer ran the forums at his leisure. Not only this, but surely there's some worth to malakian's and my baiting of maca, giving him a sort of hazing as a co-admin, pushing him with senselessness to make him act â€â€
 
Remember, you're listening to the opinions of people who moderated when the forum and chat were popular!

The facts are people who want to simply get the gist of the awards will seldom look past the first page. The third and fourth will be reserved for those who want to see responses, and inane or not, removing replies distorts what went on for the future generations of GR posters.

It is true, not in factual logical ways of thinking, but on a level which is higher for moral values.
 
Must agree with you malakian, if you're going to archive the discussion, you've got to keep the whole thing and not alter it.

Edit
Interestingly enough Ted, your link to the archived thread points to Pokemon Battle Evolution on Gamestop. :)
 
masterchris said:
Must agree with you malakian, if you're going to archive the discussion, you've got to keep the whole thing and not alter it.

Edit
Interestingly enough Ted, your link to the archived thread points to Pokemon Battle Evolution on Gamestop. :)

true. you don't include only what you want to include in history books. What are we, Japan or something?
 
Keep the topics as they were. An archive is a record of history, you just don't go altering history because you didn't like it. We all know GR isn't filled with guys with monocles and suits, having intellegent conversations and always use proper manners. No need to try to put on a false image.

Also, in some cases it is the retarded posts which make the topic special!
 
I agree that the topics should remain fully intact if they're going to be archived. And Mala, i like that last line.
 
malakian said:
JCD said:
Why keep the retarded posts though?

I was hoping someone would bring that up; I'm all for banning Piracer.


And i like you too.

I feel that in whatever is archived should be untouched, it keeps it in a nice original state, lets not have too many alterations, yes?
 
Silent_Player said:
The Archive exists to enshrine the Best of GR Forums

after reading SPs post, i honed in on that one sentence fragment. but after reading the opinions of others we are now of two minds. i can see the importance of leaving a topic untouched when it is preserved, yet i can also see the desire to 'prune' said topic as well when it devolves from archive worthy into a spammy marshland.

such is the reason i casted my vote for maybe. should sam have trimmed the posts he did? in my own opinion, perhaps not. but i do understand that in some instances, it would be allowable.
 
^but your argument rests on that "archive worthy" is devoid of the reality that some posts aren't serious business. I think as much spam as there is is archive worthy!
 
Personally, I'd like the contributing comments of some mods on this matter as to how they figure to represent the GR community in the glorious time immemorial archive.
 
As a moderator, I can assure you.. If I ever need to archive a topic, you have my word that I will leave it unedited, raw, uncensored, and out of control.

grgwyt3.gif
 

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