Posted BySimon Old Timer Watson on December 03, 2001 at 15:32:26:
Perhaps the web design committee, in its sub-infinite but still extensive wisdom, should consider archiving the bull board messages again? I only mention this because the last archive contained about a thousand posts, and the current board has at least that many...
Of course, this new-fangled Message Board is a lot easier to deal with than it was in the old days...I was actually the first Message Board manager, back in '37 (or was it '38?) The Message Board was actually a system of what you today call index cards, filed in a number of boxes, based on number, poster, and subject (but never all three simultaneously.) Every month or so, we'd collect the new submissions (sent by horseback via the failed RPS Mail Delivery Service) and print up a broadsheet (by hand! ETAOIN SHRDLU and all that...) to mail to the members.
Sometimes people would request a quote from a previous message, and let me tell you, that was quite a hassle. Especially since the messages used the rather arcane filing system mentioned above. Many times, members would actually die during a heated debate, while waiting for a response to their previous message. The extreme delays prompted many members to write and send rebuttals to posts that hadn't even been written yet. When compounded with the previous issue, we kept receiving posts from folks what had died already. The dead should have no business with the living.
Speaking of which, now that Rosh has died, a 1000 message limit per archive should probably hold us through late next year. Just a thought.