Regarding Community Content Archiving

[kerry_w_brown]

Re: https://forums.autodesk.com/t5/community-announcements/community-content-archiving-announcement-and-...

This thread is closed for comment, so I'm posting here.
The title says archiving but the posts indicate >>> Unfortunately, we cannot keep the content  , which in my book  is DELETING.

I'm only interested in code groups but these comments also apply to the regular customising and operational Forums,

Deleting everything that was originated prior to 10 years ago will destroy a wealth of information that is still viable. This information has not been transferred to the "Help" files and will no longer be searchable, the bookmarked links (published and personal) will no longer be available and the peers who provided this information probably won't be available ( or not inclined ) to reproduce the information when it is required.

These groups are peer to peer and the answers to peoples questions and solutions to problems is typically provided by users of the products, not by the builders of the products.  I consider this action to be an insult to the efforts of the people who have, at their own expense, graciously helped other users over the years.
If those individuals are still around, I thank you for your efforts and generosity.

I sure hope AutoDesk are not relying on AI to provide the information currently being destroyed.

The expression "Going to hell in a handbasket" comes to mind.

[norman.yuan · Accepted solution]

Not sure what will happen, but if the discussions in this forum started older than 10 years were to be no longer available, it would be really bad. If that really happens, I'd suggest those who post/learn frequently in this forum move to other alternatives, such as https://www.theswamp.org/  and stop responding questions here, knowing your efforts will be gone/thrown away!

They should have something equivalent or better available and is embraced by users before cutting existing useful stuff off.  

[kerry_w_brown]

@Tiana_Y wrote:

The team has thoroughly reviewed the data and established criteria for content that is still helpful to our customers. We will repurpose or recreate that content before it is archived. 

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Yeah, the 10 years of content that are being deleted do hold some excellent content for the 'help' files.

There is enough content there from Albert and Tony alone to fill a book.

[daniel_cadext · Accepted solution]

It’s insanity! At least from a developer perspective. There are still code samples from 2005 that are still very relevant today. Especially in the ARX forums, back in the early days Autodesk used to participate in the forums and there’s quit a lot of gems.

Going forward, I will not be posting code samples here, only links to TheSwamp, or GitHub.

[ActivistInvestor · Accepted solution]

I've already switched to posting code on GitHub instead of/in addition to posting it here, for that and other reasons I'd rather not discuss here.

The thing that has me scratching my head, is the criteria that any thread started 10+ years ago is to be archived deleted, regardless of how recently it was updated or how relevant its contents are.

The suggestion that 'the team' is going to go through that much old content and identify what's worth keeping is pure fiction, as if we couldn't figure out how much work by qualified people would be needed to do that.

It would seem to appear that legacy products (namedly AutoCAD) is what's being targeted, as there's not very much 10-year-old content for products/services being pushed/promoted today.

The problem is that much of what Autodesk would like you to replace its legacy products with, is already on the verge of becoming obsolete itself.

It's not just Autodesk whose very existence is threatened by the rise of AI and AGI. Most vendors of 'traditional' software applications are being regarded as endangered species. For Autodesk and its competitors, the emergence of things like DeepMind's Genie2 and WorldLabs' Spatial Intelligence initiative (both of which are being positioned as foundations for end-to-end solutions for all types of design, as well as other things like gaming), will make application software and services as we know them today, totally obsolete.

[kerry_w_brown]

The next 5-10 years will be really interesting times.
AI , AGI and recent releases of NPU's will shift parts of the workload.

The reference to DeepMind ( and AlphaGo ) reminds me of the ripples in the GO community 10 years ago when a 'computer' had wins over professional players. It improved since then and it's successors are better.

>>> 

Since June 21st, 2017, til March 16th, 2018, DeepZenGo has played 3407 games against pros from the Nihon Kiin.

In those games, it managed to win 3228 games and lose 119 games, for a 96.5% winrate.

Anyone who has the fortune enough to have the time to play Go/Weiqi/Baduk will appreciate how special this is.

[Anton_Huizinga · Accepted solution]

If it is about shortage of disc space, I think there is much more to be gained if the installation files are cleaned up instead of deleting valuable forum posts.

[kerry_w_brown]

If space is a problem I'm sure we could find a dozen ssd's laying around.  😁
Putting each group on it's own ssd would probably speed the site up too.

[ActivistInvestor]

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@Anton_Huizinga wrote:

If it is about shortage of disc space, I think there is much more to be gained if the installation files are cleaned up instead of deleting valuable forum posts.

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Let me assure you that this is not about a shortage of disk space.  Autodesk has plenty of disk space.

There may be legitimate issues relating to the performance of searches and what have you that might be alleviated by reducing the amount of content that needs to be searched, but that could be addressed in other ways beside purging 'old' content.

[daniel_cadext]

“Let me assure you that this is not about a shortage of disk space”

Did the terms of service change ten years ago?  Is it about to change? Or is there a Statute of limitations? Or Andrew just doesn’t like us?

Autodesk could at least iterate the old posts in the “AutoCAD Customization Forum” and look for code tags, save those.

[kerry_w_brown · Accepted solution]

Bummer:

I have been going through the older posts to see what's worth saving . . . 

The first one  I "archived" was from Albert on ‎2005-05-28

Today the oldest post available for viewing is dated   ‎2014-12-12 09:45 AM 

So much for giving us a chance to save some of the info personally. 

I'm going out to my veggie garden to archive some bugs.

[daniel_cadext]

disaster, now most of the google search results are invalid. I’ve seen some bonehead cooperate moves, this is a doozy lol

[kerry_w_brown]

[tongue-in-cheek]
    we're just like little mushrooms,

    kept in the dark and fed compost.

[/tongue-in-cheek]

💔

[ActivistInvestor · Accepted solution]

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@daniel_cadext wrote:

disaster, now most of the google search results are invalid. I’ve seen some bonehead cooperate moves, this is a doozy lol

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In this reply in the announcement thread that has been locked, I posted a link to a thread that served as an example of a thread that was started > 10 years ago, that had significant updates (by @norman.yuan) that he contributed within the past month.

That thread has been deleted.  

Can you imagine that?  @norman.yuan put a significant effort into that contribution less than a month ago, and Autodesk just deleted it.

I also just confirmed that vast amounts of similar contributions made recently in threads that were started > 10 years ago, and which is without a doubt, immensely helpful to customers and still highly-relevant today, has been wiped out.

When a business displays such blatant disrespect and utter disregard for those who consistently go above and beyond to support their customers, it leaves little room for doubt about their true priorities.

[kerry_w_brown]

Thanks for the moral support guys !

It's comforting to know I'm not the only one astounded by this debacle.

[Anton_Huizinga]

You have my vote if you want to start a petition!

[kerry_w_brown]

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@Anton_Huizinga wrote:

You have my vote if you want to start a petition!

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Thanks for the offer Anton, but I think it would be a waste of energy, just as this thread has been a waste of bandwidth. The primary benefit, seemingly, has just been to relieve a little emotional pressure.

@Mrs Google: Emotional pressure, also known as emotional stress, is a negative response to intense emotions like fear, anger, sadness, or frustration. It can become unhealthy when it interferes with your ability to do what you need to do or want.

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Regards,

[_gile · Accepted solution]

Same astoundness in the French General Dicussions forum.

[DiningPhilosopher]

Just so everyone knows (and doesn't bother wasting their time trying to find them), all of the posts that I made under this account have been deleted. Most of those posts are as relevant today as they were the day they were posted.

[daniel_cadext · Accepted solution]

I have to congratulate the person at Autodesk who came up with this idea. This is without a doubt, the most monumental act of stupidity ever in the company as you have single-handedly crippled the developer community. In no universe could this ever be considered a good idea. Imagine a civilization deleting their history. What you have done is virtually equivalent to this. I cannot imagine how you possibly came up with any benefit this could have for anyone. I cannot even fathom that you would conjure this idea in your mind and, after thorough contemplation, that others would agree to doing this.