Considerations when migrating posts
First, what is the format of the posts to the existing
e-mail list? If you have
"archived digests," that require a lot of cleaning up before posting,
this can result in increased costs. That's particularly
true if you wish to preserve posts from users who have subsequently
unsubscribed from the lists.
Second, how concerned are you with maintaining the
"reply tree?" WebBoard does support what's known as a
"fully threaded tree." In other words, suppose we have this
sequence:
A posts a new thread
B replies to A
C replies to B
D replies to A
The "tree of replies" will then look something like this (I've
turned the tree "over", so that the "top" is on the left):
A --- B -- C
--- D
WebBoard will display these posts in the sequence:
A, B, D, C
Normally, during mailing list conversions, the policy is to
assume that all posts with the a subject header of "xxxx" or "Re:
xxxx" are in the same thread. The first such post is the
original post in the thread. All other posts are replies to the
first post. If you wish to vary this assumption, that
could raise your costs.
Third, what is the approximate volume of
posts?
(3a): The number of threads to be migrated per
conference. Depending on how long an email list has
been set up, it's often necessary to use a criterion for
selecting the threads that will be migrated. For
example: "The 25 threads with the most recent
posts." Another approach is to build a thread
selection tool. This is more expensive, but the advantage is
that inessessential or irrelevant threads can be ignored during
the migration process.
(3b): How many posts are to be moved per
thread? Two different "cut off" criteria are often
used here: one is volume--i.e., there is a set maximum of
posts/thread, and any thread with more posts will only include
(for example) the 25 most recent posts. Alternatively,
one may use temporal criteria (e.g.: only posts done within the
last 6 months will be considered.) These criteria may
also be combined.
