Deleting posts in FP2000 discussion

[Stan Hilliard]

I have a FP2000 discussion on a windows server with FP2000 extensions.
that gets many posts that are not related to the topics and contain
links to their sights for the obvious purpose of being seen by web
crawlers.

I have been successful in deleting these post by deleting from the
bottom of the thread and recalculating hyperlinks after each deletion.

My question is, does anyone know if I can delete more than one file
between recalculations? I seem to remember a time many years ago when
I hosed the discussion when I deleted many posts at one time.

Advice will be appreciated.
Stan Hilliard

 

[Stefan B Rusynko]

Deleting them will corrupt / has corrupted your DW index
- always edit them as say - "Content removed"

--

_____________________________________________
SBR @ ENJOY (-: [ Microsoft MVP - FrontPage ]
"Warning - Using the F1 Key will not break anything!" (-;
_____________________________________________


|I have a FP2000 discussion on a windows server with FP2000 extensions.
| that gets many posts that are not related to the topics and contain
| links to their sights for the obvious purpose of being seen by web
| crawlers.
|
| I have been successful in deleting these post by deleting from the
| bottom of the thread and recalculating hyperlinks after each deletion.
|
| My question is, does anyone know if I can delete more than one file
| between recalculations? I seem to remember a time many years ago when
| I hosed the discussion when I deleted many posts at one time.
|
| Advice will be appreciated.
| Stan Hilliard

 

[Tom Willett]

Deleting/Editing Posts in Discussion Group
http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/Q196/1/26.ASP
http://office.microsoft.com/assistance/2000/FPDiscmgmt.aspx

 

[Stan Hilliard]

Deleting/Editing Posts in Discussion Group
http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/Q196/1/26.ASP
http://office.microsoft.com/assistance/2000/FPDiscmgmt.aspx

Please help me to understand what seems to me to be contradictions in
the instructions about deleting. The reason that this is important to
me is that I get an overwhelming number of enemy posts. I could have
to spend too much time on it. Also, the volume is so great that to
replace text with "deleted" would still leave the TOC looking
terrible.

I can't reconcile the following:

1) Stefan Rusynko:
"Deleting them will corrupt / has corrupted your DW index - always
edit them as say - "Content removed""

2) http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/Q196/1/26.ASP
"To delete the article, open it and delete all the text in the
article, or replace it with a message like Content Removed by
Moderator.
NOTE: Do not delete the article. Doing so can result in orphaned
discussion articles."
(This seems to support (1))

3) http://office.microsoft.com/assistance/2000/FPDiscmgmt.aspx
"... you may want to remove old, inactive threads to keep your site
fresh and to free up space on your Web server. Information in this
article will help you safely edit or delete files that make up
discussion threads."
<snip>
"For each file that you find, in Folders view, right-click the file,
and then click Delete."
(This specifically says you CAN safely delete FILES.)

4) My experience: I have deleted files for many years. I don't know if
my web is corrupted but it seems to work OK.

I have two questions:

1) Main question: How to reconcile what appears to be conflicting
recommendations?

2) Some issues depend on FP versions, it seems like some issues would
depend on the version of FP that initially created the discussion. But
some issues would depend on the current version of FP that I use to
maintain it. And on the extensions, and on the server type (Windows,
Unix, etc.) The MS literature only refers to the FP version. In my
case, I started with FP97, then for maintenance I upgraded FP to 98,
and 2000 but have the same web that I created initially.
So what version is my discussion web?

 

[Tom Willett]

1) Following any of the recommendations is risky. The Discussion Web
feature is very flaky. It's usually recommended to delete it and start a
new one, or use a third party solution.

2) The discussion web hasn't changed from any previous versions of FP. It's
still the same one from the beginning.


--
===
Tom Willett
Microsoft MVP - FrontPage
---
FrontPage Support:
http://www.frontpagemvps.com/
===
| >| >>I have a FP2000 discussion on a windows server with FP2000 extensions.
| >> that gets many posts that are not related to the topics and contain
| >> links to their sights for the obvious purpose of being seen by web
| >> crawlers.
| >>
| >> I have been successful in deleting these post by deleting from the
| >> bottom of the thread and recalculating hyperlinks after each deletion.
| >>
| >> My question is, does anyone know if I can delete more than one file
| >> between recalculations? I seem to remember a time many years ago when
| >> I hosed the discussion when I deleted many posts at one time.
| >>
| >> Advice will be appreciated.
| >> Stan Hilliard
|
| >Deleting/Editing Posts in Discussion Group
| >http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/Q196/1/26.ASP
| >http://office.microsoft.com/assistance/2000/FPDiscmgmt.aspx
| >--
| >Tom Willett
|
| Please help me to understand what seems to me to be contradictions in
| the instructions about deleting. The reason that this is important to
| me is that I get an overwhelming number of enemy posts. I could have
| to spend too much time on it. Also, the volume is so great that to
| replace text with "deleted" would still leave the TOC looking
| terrible.
|
| I can't reconcile the following:
|
| 1) Stefan Rusynko:
| "Deleting them will corrupt / has corrupted your DW index - always
| edit them as say - "Content removed""
|
| 2) http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/Q196/1/26.ASP
| "To delete the article, open it and delete all the text in the
| article, or replace it with a message like Content Removed by
| Moderator.
| NOTE: Do not delete the article. Doing so can result in orphaned
| discussion articles."
| (This seems to support (1))
|
| 3) http://office.microsoft.com/assistance/2000/FPDiscmgmt.aspx
| "... you may want to remove old, inactive threads to keep your site
| fresh and to free up space on your Web server. Information in this
| article will help you safely edit or delete files that make up
| discussion threads."
| <snip>
| "For each file that you find, in Folders view, right-click the file,
| and then click Delete."
| (This specifically says you CAN safely delete FILES.)
|
| 4) My experience: I have deleted files for many years. I don't know if
| my web is corrupted but it seems to work OK.
|
| I have two questions:
|
| 1) Main question: How to reconcile what appears to be conflicting
| recommendations?
|
| 2) Some issues depend on FP versions, it seems like some issues would
| depend on the version of FP that initially created the discussion. But
| some issues would depend on the current version of FP that I use to
| maintain it. And on the extensions, and on the server type (Windows,
| Unix, etc.) The MS literature only refers to the FP version. In my
| case, I started with FP97, then for maintenance I upgraded FP to 98,
| and 2000 but have the same web that I created initially.
| So what version is my discussion web?

 

[Stan Hilliard]

| >| >>I have a FP2000 discussion on a windows server with FP2000 extensions.
| >> that gets many posts that are not related to the topics and contain
| >> links to their sights for the obvious purpose of being seen by web
| >> crawlers.
| >>
| >> I have been successful in deleting these post by deleting from the
| >> bottom of the thread and recalculating hyperlinks after each deletion.
| >>
| >> My question is, does anyone know if I can delete more than one file
| >> between recalculations? I seem to remember a time many years ago when
| >> I hosed the discussion when I deleted many posts at one time.
| >>
| >> Advice will be appreciated.
| >> Stan Hilliard
|
| >Deleting/Editing Posts in Discussion Group
| >http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/Q196/1/26.ASP
| >http://office.microsoft.com/assistance/2000/FPDiscmgmt.aspx
| >--
| >Tom Willett
|
| Please help me to understand what seems to me to be contradictions in
| the instructions about deleting. The reason that this is important to
| me is that I get an overwhelming number of enemy posts. I could have
| to spend too much time on it. Also, the volume is so great that to
| replace text with "deleted" would still leave the TOC looking
| terrible.
|
| I can't reconcile the following:
|
| 1) Stefan Rusynko:
| "Deleting them will corrupt / has corrupted your DW index - always
| edit them as say - "Content removed""
|
| 2) http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/Q196/1/26.ASP
| "To delete the article, open it and delete all the text in the
| article, or replace it with a message like Content Removed by
| Moderator.
| NOTE: Do not delete the article. Doing so can result in orphaned
| discussion articles."
| (This seems to support (1))
|
| 3) http://office.microsoft.com/assistance/2000/FPDiscmgmt.aspx
| "... you may want to remove old, inactive threads to keep your site
| fresh and to free up space on your Web server. Information in this
| article will help you safely edit or delete files that make up
| discussion threads."
| <snip>
| "For each file that you find, in Folders view, right-click the file,
| and then click Delete."
| (This specifically says you CAN safely delete FILES.)
|
| 4) My experience: I have deleted files for many years. I don't know if
| my web is corrupted but it seems to work OK.
|
| I have two questions:
|
| 1) Main question: How to reconcile what appears to be conflicting
| recommendations?
|
| 2) Some issues depend on FP versions, it seems like some issues would
| depend on the version of FP that initially created the discussion. But
| some issues would depend on the current version of FP that I use to
| maintain it. And on the extensions, and on the server type (Windows,
| Unix, etc.) The MS literature only refers to the FP version. In my
| case, I started with FP97, then for maintenance I upgraded FP to 98,
| and 2000 but have the same web that I created initially.
| So what version is my discussion web?

1) Following any of the recommendations is risky. The Discussion Web
feature is very flaky. It's usually recommended to delete it and start a
new one, or use a third party solution.

The messages on my discussion are of a scientific nature and the old
ones are just as valuable as the newer ones. I would use a third party
solution if any will preserve the existing messages and threads.

I would like to use the open source phpBB forum but it would be a lot
of work to re-enter the current posts manually. I would appreciate any
new ideas.
Stan

2) The discussion web hasn't changed from any previous versions of FP. It's
still the same one from the beginning.
Tom Willett

Thanks