Regarding Community Content Archiving

[kerry_w_brown]

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

The linked 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.

[BlackBox_]

“History will be kind to me for I intend to [delete everything I don't want and re-]write it.” ~ Autodesk's distortion of Sir Winston Churchill

[norman.yuan]

I can hardly think it is simply out of someone's stupidity. It might be that Autodesk is to move away from the desktop CAD apps gradually and does not want to gather more interests to its desktop AutoCAD as it has been so far. Anyone who spent time to adopt AutoCAD APIs in their AutoCAD use knows how much Autodesk lacks of documentation support, especially with its latest API - .NET API. For most .NET API developer, online peer-to-peer support is almost the only way someone could get really useful/serious help, and I am sure Autodesk is aware of it. So, destroying it because of someone being stupid? No, I do not think so. 

[Alfred.NESWADBA]

Hi,

>> It might be that Autodesk is to move away from the desktop CAD apps gradually

>> and does not want to gather more interests to its desktop AutoCAD

Well, nothing is impossible.

But: if you are right with your thoughts, then they don't just lose forum users, the also lose licenses/buying customers (step 1 started with licensing change and now big step 2, again pushing customers to competitors). If your thoughts are correct, then wow, but I'm hoping that is not true.

- alfred -

[kerry_w_brown]

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@DiningPhilosopher wrote:

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.

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Yes Tony, Ive come across a couple links from elsewhere to threads here that no longer exist.

//  - - - - - 

Perhaps someone from Autodesk will deign to explain this shift to us one day, if we're still around.

[CADbloke]

Just when I thought my disdain for Autodesk had reached capacity. Sigh. They get nothing more from me. I still use it but they will get no more good will from me. 

[kerry_w_brown]

@CADbloke,

Hi Ewan,

I'm not suggesting we engage a witch to cast spells. What's been done is an embuggerance, but not earth shattering.

New coders may suffer a bit ; I s'pose that depends on how the data is "repurposed".
Links to useful posts are dead, but we've seen that before and survived 🙂

I really can't throw stones 'cause I've done some stupid things myself over the years.

Stay well,

[ActivistInvestor]

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@norman.yuan wrote:

I can hardly think it is simply out of someone's stupidity. It might be that Autodesk is to move away from the desktop CAD apps gradually and does not want to gather more interests to its desktop AutoCAD as it has been so far. Anyone who spent time to adopt AutoCAD APIs in their AutoCAD use knows how much Autodesk lacks of documentation support, especially with its latest API - .NET API. For most .NET API developer, online peer-to-peer support is almost the only way someone could get really useful/serious help, and I am sure Autodesk is aware of it. So, destroying it because of someone being stupid? No, I do not think so. 

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As with most unpopular actions taken by Autodesk, there is almost always an underlying, undisclosed purpose.

[ActivistInvestor]

It didn't take very long for an example to surface showing how Autodesk took this action with complete understanding of its implications:

https://forums.autodesk.com/t5/net/synchronize-call-commands-in-autocad-versions-before-2015/td-p/13...

Not supporting older product releases is one thing. Actions that are taken with the understanding that those actions will deny users of those product versions the benefit of peer support is something else entirely.

Unsurprisingly, disappointment is not in short supply. 

PS: Perplexity.AI is proving to be a real Google-killer.

Happy New Year

[soonhui]

Hi @ActivistInvestor , which github forums that you post to, and which github forums have the potential to replace the official forums here.

I also want to migrate for the same reason. 

[ActivistInvestor]

GitHub is not a replacement for a discussion group like this. You can visit theswamp.org, which is an alternative discussion forum

[MegaJerk]

I haven't regularly posted on these forums since around 2016, but still regularly get email notifications from threads I started or helped to solve because somebody in the present saw some value in it and gave a post a like. And while I cannot say with absolute certainty how much those new users were helped with something from so long ago, it's a shame to see such a seemingly valuable resource get thrown into the fire for the sake of a completely opaque corporate decision. Decisions like this one, especially when the reasons seem embarrassingly untrue (at least for a billion dollar company who could, if they wanted, buy a stack of hard drives that would rival the tallest building in height), are not only self-serving but also signal to anyone paying any attention that this place can no longer be trusted with their investment of knowledge and time.

A community space that can't be trusted to retain useful data, or that can't be trusted to not change the URIs to that data (see: Cool URIs don't change) is, in my opinion, not a space worth supporting. I do not know why Autodesk sought to devalue the contributions of its community, but the reasons will never really matter all that much. In my experience (regarding product forums getting destroyed slowly), if it has happened once, it’s likely to happen again.

I hope that your community efforts to start elsewhere succeed and are supported by everyone here who doesn’t like what has happened. The knowledge shared in this place was invaluable to me when I was getting started with Inventor so long ago, and I hope that you all can carry that same energy and know-how to a more stable platform.

PS: Going through my post history it really is crazy just how many detailed posts are now up and missing. Such a waste.

@MegaJerk - this post has been edited due to Community Rules & Etiquette violation.

[ActivistInvestor]

Here's yet another example of what Autodesk has done, all in just a few weeks.

I would also like to encourage anyone who comes across an example like the one cited above to report it in this thread. It's important that the ramifications of Autodesk's actions be plainly obvious. 

[kerry_w_brown]

Tracking down some information today and thankfully 'Through the Interface' [ Kean Walmsley's Blog  @kean_walmsley ] hasn't been attacked yet. 
The info I wanted was in a 2008 post . . . and is as relevant today as when written, as seems generally typical.

I think Keans last post with a code related topic was written about 9 years ago.
I enjoyed and miss his explorations ( warts and all ) and assistance.

stay well,

[bsaidiDG51]

2 days before they made that decision, I looked for the first ever post on this forum out of curiosity and left a comment there just for fun. A day later I noticed that that exact post got deleted, and 1 day after that, to my surprise, I see the post saying that they will be archiving anything older than 10 years. I thought there was no way that this is just a coincidence.

This just shows that their decision is definitely not "thoroughly thought of" as they mention and that they definitely won't be "repurposing or recreating" the content before archiving it.

Had I known I was dealing with a company full of incompetents, I wouldn't have left that comment.

[JeffroH]

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@bsaidiDG51 wrote:

2 days before they made that decision, I looked for the first ever post on this forum out of curiosity and left a comment there just for fun. A day later I noticed that that exact post got deleted, and 1 day after that, to my surprise, I see the post saying that they will be archiving anything older than 10 years. I thought there was no way that this is just a coincidence.

This just shows that their decision is definitely not "thoroughly thought of" as they mention and that they definitely won't be "repurposing or recreating" the content before archiving it.

Had I known I was dealing with a company full of incompetents, I wouldn't have left that comment.

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I bet they were like thinking about it, cause it would make searching easier or whatever, and someone suggested they should archive older post and everyone was like no we can't do that people will eventually stop commenting on old post and it will no longer be problem.

Then the next morning they saw someone posted on the very first post were like f$%k it, take it down.

Just kidding @bsaidiDG51 

[youssefGC]

I was affected by this decision today. During my research, I always save links to useful codes from the interventions made while navigating the forum. Today, while reviewing an old article published here, I found that the content had been removed. I even tried using the Wayback Machine to archive the webpage, but unfortunately, I wasn't able to access the content.

Unfortunately, this is a poorly thought-out decision, and it will raise many questions about whether it was properly considered before being made.

[kerry_w_brown]

From :  https://forums.autodesk.com/t5/community-user-guides/autodesk-community-rules-and-etiquette/td-p/958...

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Termination and Cancelation 

Autodesk reserves the right, at its sole discretion, and without any obligation to do so, to review and remove user-created services and content at will and without notice and delete content and accounts. Autodesk reserves the right, at its sole discretion, to temporarily or permanently ban participants or terminate access to the community if an account has been found to violate the Autodesk Terms.  

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'nuff said.

Stay well,

[Curtis_Waguespack]

@Tarek_K, please read through the messages in this thread.  As I mentioned before, there needs to be some public communication about this issue.

[kerry_w_brown]

@Curtis_Waguespack 

Thanks for the ping Curtis. 

Illumination would be welcome.

Stay well,

[MGO-Norsyn]

You guys have been working with ADSK products for multiple decades and there's still somebody who are surprised by this?

ADSK is the most non-inventive cash cow company I know of, they survive only because there's no real competition.

I've would have left long ago if there was a viable alternative.