Pretty much the title. The problem with Lost And Found is that it's getting just a bit too large to navigate, so a lot of entries on it just kind of stagnate. Maybe have a similar system to YKTTW?

If it was possible to delete forum threads, I'd say dump all Lost and Found, Examples seeking a Trope, Do We Have This, etc. into their own section of the forum. And maybe have the forum PM the original poster once a reply has been sent, along with a button to delete the thread once it's purpose has been served.

Or make a Lost And Found thread in Trope Talk, since it seems that most questions of this type end up there.

I recently used Lost And Found to try and determine whether or not a trope existed. These are my observations:

• At the top it says to look in the found section to see if anyone has answered the question. This may have been the original intention but no one seems to be doing that. It is also really aggravating to try and scroll down to find the Found section to see if the question has been answered there.
• Folks don't seem to be cleaning up after themselves there.

Yeah. I drop in every few days and move answered ones to the bottom, and I really want to delete the ones with the question, the answer and then an "Ok, thanks" reply, but I haven't yet, because those are supposed to be deleted by the person who asked. I'm about to start doing it anyway, though.

Yeah, maybe unify the Lost and Found stacks and suggest that everyone timestamp their posts, then say at the top that anyone can delete the chunk a month after resolution. 'Cause if you've posted something in Lost and Found, and haven't gone back after a month, you've probably forgotten about it.

Although it's a little more difficult than timestamping, you can always look at the edit history and go by how long ago it was edited.

I'm bringing this thread back from the dead because Lost And Found is still unwieldy. People are not cleaning up after themselves by deleting the answers they have gotten.

I have noticed that people are posting Lost And Found questions on the forum and getting pretty quick answers, along with a "that question belongs in Lost And Found" comment. It seems posting here guarantees a faster reply.

There has been discussion of moving Lost And Found here, how did that go and what would be the reasons for not moving it?

For me, the major problem with the forum (and most other forums, actually) is the inability to delete threads. If we could delete threads, I see no reason why we can't merge everything into one big stack with various subforums.

Personally, I would prefer moving the Lost And Found to the forums. There have been several occasions where I would've liked to make use of Lost and Found, but decided it would be simpler to find the trope myself. (In other words, my " Sorry, I skipped some posts. " instinct kicked in.) I don't really see how deleting threads would be an issue though, as "closed" threads would naturally just sink to the bottom of the list (and there's the possibility that someone else is looking for the same trope, and having the old thread present would be useful to them.)

edited 5th Oct '09 9:24:46 AM by CentralAvenue

Threads can be deleted. But I think if we just put it all in one thread it would be fine. Possibly keep the Lost And Found around as well for non-forum types.

Oh yeah, one thread or otherwise we'd all lose our freaking minds.

Putting it into one thread would make it worse than it is now. At least now you can use the "find" function to look for a phrase you're looking for. Putting it all in one forum thread would mean that no longer works. And it would rapidly become a huge thread, with dozens, then hundreds of pages. Threads can be deleted. Posts cannot.

And having it in two places defeats the purpose of having one place to go.

edited 5th Oct '09 9:06:53 PM by Madrugada

Not one page. Big No. Big No. Big No.

By all means. One topic, one thread, delete when resolved. If it pops up again, repeat. If it seems to be popping up a lot, a trope rename may be in order.

Just add "Lost and Found/Do We Have This/You Know That One Show" as a category akin to Media and Just For Fun.