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- WebmasterWorld
-- Community Building and User Generated Content
---- Preserving a Forum's Best Content


rogerd - 4:10 pm on Dec 8, 2005 (gmt 0)


Most busy forums generate some great threads - ones where a particularly clear solution is provided to a common problem, a great give-and-take discussion takes place, etc. Unfortunately, these great threads fall off the radar screen eventually, to be stored in the archive with hundreds or thousands of much less useful threads. Keyword-based search functions won't help much since many posts other than the "best" ones may turn up for the same search terms.

A well-run forum finds a way to identify and preserve these for easier retrieval by new (and old) members.

Here at WebmasterWorld, for example, there are a few ways good content is highlighted and preserved. Important threads can be headlined on the front page, and will gradually scroll off into an archive list. In individual forums, moderators can add top quality threads to the forum library.

In another forum I'm familiar with, threads can be "featured" on the home page and/or the individual forum page. (Five threads are featured on the home page, while two are shown on the forum page). In each case, older entries scroll into a permanant archive list.

Both of these systems are largely dependent on human identification - a mod or admin decides to highlight the thread on his/her own or after a member's recommendation. That's probably less than perfect, as some forum mods may be very diligent about this task and others less so.

What systems have you implemented or observed to keep the best forum posts accessible in the long run?


Thread source:: http://www.webmasterworld.com/community_building/677.htm
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