Question about attachement count & pruning

[rcane]

Good morning,

First what is a good time period to keep attachments?  Pruning, as the manual reads, would clear it from the message entirely; there are things I might need longer.


Attachment count:

Can I increase the attachment count based on memberGroup?  My moderators have some must-read things for members, but I don't want members going off the rails.

[Steve]

Have you looked at the manual? https://wiki.simplemachines.org/smf/Main_Page

A lot of the answers to the questions you ask are in there.

[Doug Heffernan]

First what is a good time period to keep attachments?  Pruning, as the manual reads, would clear it from the message entirely; there are things I might need longer.

The time period in this case is relative imo. You should set it to what you think is best for you.

[rcane]

Have you looked at the manual? https://wiki.simplemachines.org/smf/Main_Page

A lot of the answers to the questions you ask are in there.

I did, thanks.  I try to scour that before posting too.

It answers a lot except configurability of attachment limits based on memberGroup--lest I had the wrong page.

https://wiki.simplemachines.org/smf/SMF2.0:Attachments_and_Avatars


It's not really that big a deal. I can moderate those who are attaching excessively. 

[Kindred]

no, the count of attachments is not configurable by group.

[Sir Osis of Liver]

Depending on the nature of your forum, attachment pruning isn't usually a good idea, it will leave holes in your content.  You can't prune or limit attachments by membergroup.  If disk space is a problem you can limit attachment size in settings and use an image resizer to reduce file size, there are a couple of mods that work well.  Or you can upgrade your host package.  I've worked on several forums that had gigabytes of attachments, tens of thousands of files, it's not a problem as long as you use multiple attachment directories to facilitate file management and backups.

[shawnb61]

Correct.  Loss of history, & loss of context for discussions in threads are concerns.

The forums I've worked with have tried to keep all the historical attachments.

[rcane]

All good considerations.

In theory, most attachments (the important ones) are reference documents posted by moderators. 

An attachment directory based on group would be nice.

[shawnb61]

Another way to differentiate may be to use the Downloads System mod.  Restrict uploads there & they won't be affected by attachment pruning.  Might help, depending on the nature of what is being shared.

https://custom.simplemachines.org/index.php?mod=992

[Steve]

@ rcane ... I  meant no offense and wasn't suggesting you shouldn't ask questions. I hope you didn't take it that way.

[rcane]

@ rcane ... I  meant no offense and wasn't suggesting you shouldn't ask questions. I hope you didn't take it that way.

HA!  I know the first response is to see if folks check the documentation.   No worries at all. 

And I appreciate ya taking the time to say that too.