What occasioned this was a private (members-only) discussion on another board I’m part of relative to proper moderation policy. Since I’m a Doper and have a very high opinion of SDMB staff methodology, I volunteered myself to ask here:
Some versions of VBB apparently allow one to “hide” a thread in a public forum pending cleanup and/or staff decision about it, leaving it in the same forum as far as staff view goes but hiding it from non-staff members’ view. I have no idea if the SDMB’s version allows this or not.
I certainly won’t attempt to speak athoritatively for the mods, but, IIRC, there is at least one “hidden” forum. I remember reading once that it was open for view once, and some members found out about it. I suspect that TPTB keep probably a couple of these to move obnoxious threads into. Better than deleting - this way they keep a record.
ETA: It’s not “poof.” It’s “vanishing into the cornfields.”
In general, we as mods/admins never delete threads. We move them to our version of [del]secret prisons in Europe[/del] a forum that only we can access. We archive this in case we need it later.
I, again personally, quite often delete posts which are duplicates. I try to be careful about this.
I think that years ago, sometimes posts were deleted by admins/mods, especially in the case of returning posters/trolls. This is almost certainly NOT the case in the last 2-3 years.
You have to know the secret password, only attempt to gain access at midnight (Chicago time) of the fifth Thursday of each month, and you must bring at least a pound of high-quality chocolate with you to appease the Gate-Diva, Then, and only then, will She consider your request to be allowed to view the sacred Forum of Hidden Posts.
Last month’s password was **Ekky-ekky-ekky-ekky-z’Bang, zoom-Boing, z’nourrrwringmm". **
You have an odd notion of “treasures”. We’re mainly talking about a bunch of threads with titles like “Ganar dinero internet”, “Buy Cheap - valium phentermine cialis xanax - only NOW !” and “21423 Free Porn Free Viagra Xanax Porno Free Porn Porn Movie” (all actual titles)–you can get pretty much the same effect by going and browsing through your e-mail account’s spam filter. We mainly keep this crap around so when the Reader finally gets that Orbital Death Ray Satellite up and running we’ll be able to punch in the proper co-ordinates.
Oh, and it’s “wished into the cornfields”–let’s keep that terminology straight.
When I was little, and my mom would drag me to department stores, I would notice interesting, camouflaged doors on many of the interior walls. They usually weren’t marked but they were clearly for employees only. They fascinated me as a child… did they lead to secret rooms? What wondrous mysteries did they conceal?
One summer in high school I worked at Stern’s and it turns out this is just where department stores keep their 21423 free porn free Viagra Xanax porno free porn porn movie.
Back when I was a mod, lo these many years ago, the fancier options weren’t available to us. We could close a thread, or delete it, but we didn’t have a cornfield. I thouroughly approve of it now that we have it, though: Who knows when one might need to refer back to a poofed thread?
Oh no. Now we’re going to have the inevitable series of posts on “back when I was a mod we had to walk a thread three miles through the snow to delete it. . . . Yeah, when I was a mod, we were lucky to have snow to walk the thread through. . . . .”