Groups - so many old, out of date groups. What to do?

I realize I am probably going to open a group can o' worms but when I look at the groups, I noticed so many are very old - not touched in over a year. So I want to put this out there to all of you. I would love to have Groups be a more meaningful space that helps people connect, plan, or do what they need by using Groups.

So to do this, should I delete old groups? Any criteria I should consider? Should I keep them out there and just close them, marking each closed group with an "Archive"?

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Permalink Reply by Anne Alt on February 15, 2015 at 9:37am

I like having groups - having the option of open or closed groups, and having topics specific to those groups organized under the groups.

Tony Adams 4 mi said:

Yeah. I wonder if the purpose of the groups could be replaced by functionality of the site redesign.

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Permalink Reply by Mike Schwab on February 15, 2015 at 3:57pm

How about applying the same rule to the forum? 24 months would reduce the page count from 1100 to under 400.

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Permalink Reply by Yasmeen on February 15, 2015 at 4:32pm

Sorry, deleted my last comment after I misread your post. I'll take a look at old forum pages. Some of the content is helpful and useful so I'm ok with it staying up. Mostly, I am looking at groups because people accidentally think a group is alive and well when it is not. I think it's a great time to bring some back to life and retire others.

Mike Schwab said:

How about applying the same rule to the forum? 24 months would reduce the page count from 1100 to under 400.

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Permalink Reply by V W on February 16, 2015 at 4:14am

Joe Guzzardo said:

We may participate in the forums, but your average bicyclist is not a groupie. We're independent minded. Kind of like trying to herd cats, I guess. As long as the entries are still there and searchable, what's the harm?

Great point! This deserves it's own thread! People are always telling me to join a biking group since i like biking so much. They dont realize how antithetical it is to what i like about biking. The more people and vans and sponsors and the more complicated you make it, the less of an adventure it becomes.

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Permalink Reply by Sarah D. on February 16, 2015 at 9:29am

I agree with Howard, and most of the posts, but I wonder if it's current site design that is the issue? Because it's hard to see immediately how long forum threads OR groups have been dormant. I was super excited to find a folder group a year or so ago when a friend got a new folding bike, but she checked and it was dead. What a bummer for a newbie!

At the same time, sometimes there are great discussions with good information in groups and forum threads that wouldn't necessarily be findable by titles, so I'd hate to lose good content. I wish there was some better storage/archiving solution! Anyway, you go, Yasmeen - good on you for taking this all on.

- Hoarder Sarah D.

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Permalink Reply by Anne Alt on February 16, 2015 at 10:33am

I think that old forum topics often contain relevant information even if they're not active. Material in some open groups may remain relevant, or maybe not, depending on the subject. If a closed group has been dormant for a few years, perhaps it's outlived its purpose.

On a side note, I was a bit puzzled by VW's comment. Joining a group doesn't automatically mean lots of complication and baggage. More often it's just about finding like-minded people to do fun stuff with.

Just my $0.02. Your mileage may vary.