Moving Your Old Posts From Yahoo...

[Matthew Schenker]

Everyone,
I've received several e-mails from members asking questions about moving our old posts from Yahoo to our new forum.  I'd like to answer a few common questions here for everyone:

Can we just transfer the old files to the new forum?
There is no way to get direct access to the Yahoo database.  To transfer old messages from Yahoo to our new forum, we need to do a copy-and-paste operation.  Even if we could just transfer the old messages, there would be no way to fit them into the correct categories in the new forum.  So, copy-and-paste is actually a better method.

Do you want members to move their own messages, or will the administrator do it?
I prefer to have each member choose the messages they want to move and do it themselves.  That way, the new messages will have your name on them, not mine.  (Yes, and it's also less work for me!)

Do we have to keep our old messages exactly as they were?  Can we edit our old messages when we transfer them to the new forum?
Feel free to edit, update, or improve your old posts in any way you see fit.  Add photos, update your opinions or comments, provide some more information, whatever you want.  The point is not to engrave the old posts in  stone, but to get all those great ideas and discussions into this new venue.

How much time do we have to move the old posts to the new forum?
Although the old Yahoo forum is now closed for posting, it will remain up for viewing indefinitely.  So there's no  deadline for moving your old posts.  Take your time: at your leisure, search for your name, scan your posts on the old forum, pick your favorites, copy and paste...  One day we'll agree, as a group, that everything of value has been transferred from the old site.

Feel free to post any other questions here.

Stay in touch,
Matthew Schenker

 

[Daviddubya]

Matthew - What do you think about creating a seperate category for topics moved from the Yahoo forum?  In a seperate category, the messages would be accessible through the Search function and can be reveiwed by anyone interested in doing so, but would not add "old" topics to the categories typically populated by new threads.  Thanks.

 

[Ned]

What do you think about creating a seperate category for topics moved from the Yahoo forum? ... would not add "old" topics to the categories typically populated by new threads.

The products we're talking about here seem to have a much longer life cycle than some other kinds of goods.  So long as the products are current, I think the threads about them are also current, whether they came from Yahoo or first happened here.  So I'd just put the "moved" posts where they'd be put in this forum if they were brand-new.

I don't think it's practical to move threads from the old to the new.  We don't want to lose the info, though, so I'm inclined to try to "digest" the thread into a single (new forum) post that summarizes what it said.  If that new post doesn't cover the topic or all points of view, it starts a new thread.

 

[Matthew Schenker]

Everyone,
Just a friendly reminder...

I urge everyone to check the archives in the Yahoo forum and copy their discussions into the new space. 

Please post any questions or concerns you have on this.  But let's get more of those old, but valuable discussions into the new forum!

Thanks,
Matthew