Archived and Closed
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I went back through my message board posting history in search of a particular thread I started in the Hunger Games message board, only to find that it was not there. Upon further searching, I discovered that every thread prior to February 14, 2013 has been deleted. Is there a particular reason why?
I know that it isn't a board wide issue as some posts of mine from as far back as 2007 are still there.
I know that it isn't a board wide issue as some posts of mine from as far back as 2007 are still there.
Posted 7 years ago
Dan Dassow, Champion
Well, is there any way to have them retrieved, or are they gone forever?
This policy of theirs is rather counter intuitive, if you ask me.
This policy of theirs is rather counter intuitive, if you ask me.
Emperor, Champion
They are gone for good.
What a waste. They really need to rethink this system and fix it. Instead of deleting them forever, they should dump them into a searchable archive.
This is totally unacceptable and bad business practice on their part.
This is totally unacceptable and bad business practice on their part.
Emperor, Champion
I'm not a fan of the policy but don't feel it is worth suggesting just that improvement. What we really need is a completely overhaul of the message board system:
https://getsatisfaction.com/imdb/topi...
Which reminds me that I was threatening to post that as a suggestion.
https://getsatisfaction.com/imdb/topi...
Which reminds me that I was threatening to post that as a suggestion.
Mine are gone entirely!!! I followed the steps to see my message board history, and there is NOTHING!! Everyone keeps saying to try this & that but there is nothing to try when I can't see them to begin with? I hate that you already have to go to the full site to see your history of posts, but now they aren't even there anymore. My last post was less than 2 weeks ago. What is going on IMDB???????!
bluesmanSF, Champion
The smaller boards need for the activity to not be deleted. No one wants to post in a message board that's a ghost town.
I am fine with boards with lots of activity having their older posts removed.
I am fine with boards with lots of activity having their older posts removed.
bluesmanSF, Champion
I've hit boards where nothing gets deleted and didn't feel like posting because there's little point in replying to a 5 year old comment or starting a new one where there's been no one posting anything for years. So, I don't get that point. It's still a ghost town if no one has posted there for years (which is more of what a ghost town is than a totally empty space).
As a filmmaker I would rather see posts from 2+years ago than have it be completely empty. Bigger movies will always have people coming in to talk about them. The smaller ones don't have that luxury.
bluesmanSF, Champion
You could certainly post on your page once in a while on helpful threads. Active threads don't expire (whatever the rate for that board is, it's only threads with no replies for that period of time that expire). Also, there are threads going back 10 years on some boards. Small, Indie and lesser known titles are not likely going to have threads expire very often. The rate gets faster as traffic increases on a board. So, you're not as likely to be affected by expiry. Commenting in threads on your board will fend off expiry and make discussions far more interesting there.
I think this policy is ridiculous as well. There was a very lengthy discussion on "Somewhere in Time" a couple years ago, and now it is gone and the only remaining threads go back to April 2013. It is not a particularly busy board either, since there are a barely two pages of discussions over the course of less than one year.
The funniest part is that some people are asking the same questions that were already addressed in the older threads that have since been deleted. I think that's kind of counterproducive to force new users start the same topics over and over again just but because IMDB feels the need to keep the boards "fresh". How is that even sensible? The forums have the potential to function as a vast knowledge base of vital movie insights and criticisms, but instead that information is lost. Isn't that the antitheses of the site's namesake: Internet movie database?
There are 2TB+ hard drives being sold nowadays for barely $100, and IMDB can't afford to store plain-text data (which consumes virtually no space in comparison) going back even one year? Meanwhile, YouTube hosts millions of videos many of which are well over 100 megabytes in size -- and they aren't deleted just to conserve memory. Honestly, in this day and age of computing, I've never understood services that have to delete any content that is still relevant. That's so 20th century.
The funniest part is that some people are asking the same questions that were already addressed in the older threads that have since been deleted. I think that's kind of counterproducive to force new users start the same topics over and over again just but because IMDB feels the need to keep the boards "fresh". How is that even sensible? The forums have the potential to function as a vast knowledge base of vital movie insights and criticisms, but instead that information is lost. Isn't that the antitheses of the site's namesake: Internet movie database?
There are 2TB+ hard drives being sold nowadays for barely $100, and IMDB can't afford to store plain-text data (which consumes virtually no space in comparison) going back even one year? Meanwhile, YouTube hosts millions of videos many of which are well over 100 megabytes in size -- and they aren't deleted just to conserve memory. Honestly, in this day and age of computing, I've never understood services that have to delete any content that is still relevant. That's so 20th century.
bluesmanSF, Champion
Since there is no search function, they'd very likely re-ask the same questions anyway (and probably would even with a search function). Several times per day, people ask here how to merge two accounts even though this board automatically searches for them and hands them a list of many threads with the same question and containing the answer (not to mention all you have to do is hit the "help" link on any page of the main site and the answer is right there on that page as one of the most asked questions. So I doubt leaving threads from 10 years ago will keep people from asking the same questions...much.
bluesmanSF, Champion
Bc, expiry is based on the amount of traffic on a board. The more traffic the shorter life for inactive threads. See http://www.imdb.com/help/show_leaf?bo...
Bc and rkrause. Keep in mind, if there is helpful or interesting information about a film that has come to light on tBhe message boards, the theory is, it should be submitted to and stored on, the title's page where it's available to all users and not just the relative few that will wander to the message boards. Also, message boards are not searchable. Message boards arensimply not an effecient way of storing data and the site never intended for them to be a storage feature.
Much like "I Need To Know" is just a clever name for the board, which is in fact a film/tv trivia board, GetSatisfaction is the name. It's not meant to mean everyone who posts will get their way. Further, IMDb didn't name it. They use it because it provides better functionality than the old Help Board.
Bc and rkrause. Keep in mind, if there is helpful or interesting information about a film that has come to light on tBhe message boards, the theory is, it should be submitted to and stored on, the title's page where it's available to all users and not just the relative few that will wander to the message boards. Also, message boards are not searchable. Message boards arensimply not an effecient way of storing data and the site never intended for them to be a storage feature.
Much like "I Need To Know" is just a clever name for the board, which is in fact a film/tv trivia board, GetSatisfaction is the name. It's not meant to mean everyone who posts will get their way. Further, IMDb didn't name it. They use it because it provides better functionality than the old Help Board.
I only have one account. I followed the directions to the T, and they are not there. They used to be there up until about a month ago.
"... if I go in to a post that I remember posting in, I still see mine ...."So your posts are not really gone, but as you said they are not listed in your Boards Profile history.
Just to make really sure that you are logged into the correct account, take another look at one of your posts and see if the "Edit" option is present.
If the "Edit" link is there, you are logged into the account in which you wrote the post. If the "Edit" link is missing, then either you are not logged into the account in which you wrote the post, or something else has gone wrong with the login.
Have you tried logging out and clearing your browser's
"cache" and "cookies" and then logging back in?
You can also try asking staff for help via this contact form:
http://www.imdb.com/helpdesk/contact_form?subject=GS+fallback
(Edited)
I have every option but edit.
OK, I'm not an expert but if the Edit link isn't there, then my guess is that you're not properly logged in to the account that created the post, or something is wrong with the login.
You've tried clearing the browser's cache and cookies and then logging in again?
Maybe try a different web browser?
You've tried clearing the browser's cache and cookies and then logging in again?
Maybe try a different web browser?
I'll try those too. Who knows? I did send an email to IMDB. Thanks for the link and all your help!
