Many forum software packages have a "sticky" feature, which allows posts to be tagged so that they will stick at the top of the list. This is typically used for technical support forums, and will typically be used for posts explaining how to download the latest software/firmware update, FAQs, etc.

I have been running a moderately large forum and faced the same problem few years ago. I use the following to preserve and highlight my evergreen content (some of them require human intervention though)

1. Labeling posts (not by users), started two years ago - most satisfactory results.

2. A complex rating system (based on an algo including variables like user weightage, post views to reply ratio, bookmarking statistics and post rating) - modestly successful

3. Sticky topics - worst results. Tends to add clutter in the space where users are likely to look for fresh content. Requires maintenance in removing old and progressively irrelevant topics.

4. An algo to calculate the hot topic threshold for each forum dependent on user participation and several other factors and to list hot topics on seperate page. - good results

5. Another algo to calculate the contagion factor of the topic (more temporal weightage) and to promote such topics in high traffic areas. - started recently, very good results.

6. A library like WebmasterWorld - reasonable results

As I introduced all these in a very disorganised manner over the last 3 years, I am currently exploring the possibility to create a more efficient, unified and more automated system. I might throw in some of the psychometrically defined data and rating scales to see what works well.

Hope that helps a bit.

Those are some great ideas, Stardoc. I agree about stickies.

One approach I've used with moderate success is featuring good topics on both the home pages and forum pages. It's manual, and not unlike sticky threads, but I can set the number to display and the rest scroll off into a "library". Manual intervention is the biggest problem with this, though being able to edit the title and description is handy.

Another algo to calculate the contagion factor of the topic (more temporal weightage) and to promote such topics in high traffic areas. - started recently, very good results.

That's exactly the kind of thing I'm talking about.

The key here is where to get the "contagion factor". Inbound external links? Internal references/links? Thread reads? Combinations of the above?

One approach I've used with moderate success is featuring good topics on both the home pages and forum pages. It's manual, and not unlike sticky threads

A bit like WebmasterWorld you mean, a homepage "featured thread", or do you mean you somehow repeat the story in a different section?

In the former case, this is exactly what Digg automates. It's clearly not without it's problems. But this kind of amalgam of ideas (date + something rather than just date) is my current line of thinking.

The comments on stickies are agreed. I always try and avoid using them to avoid clutter and I don't really think of them as a useful solution to the problem.

TJ

TJ, the feature I implemented was like the WebmasterWorld front page features, except that I can also feature the thread at the top of an individual forum. (The thread can appear either the home page or forum page, or both.) I can set the number of threads to appear in each place with a variable. To minimize the "sticky clutter" effect, I usually set it at just two for the individual forums, but a larger number on the home page.

That's not a bad idea Roger, and I guess you could have it there for a pre-determined period - eg the two most recent "homepaged" threads get stickied for one week.

I might give that a try. Thanks.

I think the stickies DO work. But I probably don't get around much, and probably haven't seen the worst of them. I primarily see them on manufacturer's hardware and software support boards. There typically aren't more than 2 or 3 of them.

A good example would be the Nvidia board supporting their Linux drivers. (Oops, I see even they are up to 9 stickies... looks like they REALLY need a Linux Graphics Software Engineer, LOL!)

They have stickies on the latest releases, installation notes, etc.

OTOH, perhaps this kind of stuff is better handled outside of a forum. There are no reponses allowed on these. They could just be static pages with links on the forum page. If you are using a CMS, it would be a slam-dunk to just put a block at the top of forum page with short descriptions and links to full "articles".

But sometimes you DO have user-generated posts that you want easy to find, because they are particularly well-written and address a topic that is particularly popular.

I like the idea of scrolling these in a small window if there are a lot of them, in any case.

I DO think a forum page is the place - or at least A place (back to the static page or CMS block) for this kind of content. You want it readily available staring people in the face before they post yet another question on exactly the same topic. It may also belong in some other place on the site.

Of course, this is one-way communication, and won't apply in a lot of situations. But it's a common need in this scenario. (i.e. manufacturer's support boards).

I like the idea of the user being able to choose different ways to sort or selectively display posts. A plug-in architecture, allowing a webmaster to develop and plug-in modules for sorting and filtering posts would be great! (Any forum software have this?)

I see a problem that people need features that go beyond those available in most forum packages, and, at the same time, the forum features built-in to most CMSs are weak. You'd really like to be able to pull out any forum posting (heading only with a link, heading and summary with a link, or full posting) and embed it anywhere in your UI. forum software needs to increasingly provide the "hooks" to permit this to be done so that posts can be "lifted" from the discussion and placed elsewhere and blend in in a visually-pleasing way.

Hope somebody finds my random thoughts useful. I really DON'T get around much (forum-wise) and plead ignorance as to the currently-available software packages. Other than here, I just use them when some piece of hardware or software breaks. But I've sure "been around", as I was registered on the original Ward & Randy's, helped run a discussion system BEFORE Ward & Randy's (for a Detroit computer club - run on an HP minicomputer at a local school district - and, yes, I recall either Ward, Randy, or both, were members before they wrote CBBS...), ran a FidoNET node, was on Confer, m-net, netmeg, wrote some software for EIES, etc. I'm probably the only person here whose forum experience goes back further than netmeg's... ;)

Anyway, there's something that strikes me when I look at the vast majority of forum software in use today: so little has changed in 25 years. Not sure if it's software developers, webmasters, or users, but there seems to be a huge reluctance to step out of the linear-sequence structure.

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As far as WebmasterWorld goes, I would love to see them add per-forum highlighted posts, as well as add - well, let's call it "classics" to both the homepage and to each forum. Perhaps an additional "howtos" category, though perhaps this is the same as "classics".

I guess the "library" is supposed to serve this purpose, but it's burried at the bottom of the homepage, and has way too many posts in it.

The problem I see here that this would address is the constant asking of exactly the same question, which is typically ultimately answered (if it a question with a complicated answer that has been answered with a well-researched post) by some helpful soul (often a moderator) posting a link to said well-researched post. Of course, the reponse with the link then prompty becomes burried...

Now, where IS that post on the best way to do 301 redirects for alias domains using mod_rewrite? ;)

I like the idea of scrolling these in a small window if there are a lot of them, in any case.

Good idea. I like that.

You'd really like to be able to pull out any forum posting (heading only with a link, heading and summary with a link, or full posting) and embed it anywhere in your UI.

Now that's a really interesting idea. Let's develop that a little further. Let's say every member has a repository "box" where they can drop threads and other content from the CMS into. I suspose in essence a collection of their bookmarks. But each members own bookmarks are visible by other members. So I can look through your bookmarks, you can look through mine.

Something like that might function quite well, because, as in this example - you and I are engaging in discussion about the functionality of forums, chances are we'd share other common threads of interest?

A central "common" repository would then contain a selection of content "ranked" according to the number of times that bit of content has been bookmarked (much like the Digg philosophy).

A nice "community" touch to that might be to somehow flag members up to other members where they are bookmarking the same content. EG "hey, Bob's bookmark repository is almost identical to yours - you two should hook up". Or, as a more, "user-content" generating centric idea (to promote thread development) - "hey, Bob's bookmark repository is almost identical to yours, and he's posting in this thread over here that you haven't looked at yet...."

WebmasterWorld like most forums with member profile pages has a system whereby your most recent posts are visible to me, but again, that solely comes down to "date" and that's the aspect I want to move away from and towards more "evergreen" content as being the content of value.

I'm not necessarily interested in your 10 most recent posts - I'm interested in your 10 best posts.

TJ