[Charger]

1 year, especially if it replaces private messages.

[Evil]

I don't know if this is possible, but convos that have to do with deals should be pruned once a year, but other convos can be pruned every 30 days. If that makes sense?

[SoulZeh]

IMO they should stay as long as your are willing to keep them. That is one of the benefits of having conversational style messages - you can quickly reference if you've talked to a member in the past the moment you start a convo with them.

I actually second this too, I don't know if this is a thing just yet, but maybe after so long of a user having the convo's maybe give them an alert after so long to maybe "Download" so they will always have if they want/need.

[Omniscient]

I actually second this too, I don't know if this is a thing just yet, but maybe after so long of a user having the convo's maybe give them an alert after so long to maybe "Download" so they will always have if they want/need.

That would be more annoying than useful.

[Spider]

I voted 1 year but 6 months is just as well in my opinion.

[SoulZeh]

That would be more annoying than useful.

Ahh, I suppose it may have it's perks and then also the disadvantages too.

[Meow]

I'd say 3-6 months is the way to go, mainly because of deal disputes and having the actual proof you talked to the person, etc.

Maybe even a year (12 months) if there are enough resources for that.

[Gary Clark Jr.]

How does data storage size of convos compare to private messages? Are convos more resource-intensive? I assume not but that would be something I'd put into account too.

[lurking]

Would you ever consider maybe having an upgraded feature for either longer storage length or the ability to archive up to x-conversations at once that will never delete between you and a user? Say 3 or 5 conversations, maybe that I never want to delete between certain people due to information in them. I think that would be useful... just my opinion tho.

In addition, voted 6-months mainly due to PayPal chargeback range. Having the ability for a user to change the conversation duration to less (similar to telegram, wickr, signal, etc) would be interesting.

[Truth]

I would prefer longer than 1 year but 1 year seems alright for convos.

When doing deals with members, having a reference with PMs/convos is great if I deal with that member again a year later or so, maybe there can be a no prune option for some PMs/convos? and have a limit of 50/100 or so per member. Or maybe just for ub3rs or something.

Are Omni own PMs pruned? as if Omni himself has his own PMs prune and sees backing it up not as an inconvenience then I guess I am just a baby or something lol as I find 1 year pruned PM a little inconvenient but then again I been on HF almost 10 years now and memory is not that great when remembering HF members

also, as far as saving resources/space. Maybe allow users to delete threads? as there is a bunch of junk threads that is just mistakes/waste. Not sure how big of a space those take tho

[Omniscient]

Are Omni own PMs pruned?

Yes, I prune mine 1 year as well. Ub3r, Staff and Admin group are 1 year PM prune.

I probably would be fine with 6 months really.

Maybe allow users to delete threads?

That's an SEO issue actually and deleting them is a problem and why I no longer allow Ub3r Junk.

[+mK]

Can you run some math and see the longest someone has waited to make a dispute since their particular contract has started? That's the length of time that I would reasonably expect conversations to exist for. I think 3 months is fair, but I don't particularly look through my PMs for old messages. Then again, I don't dabble heavily into the Marketplace.

[Deal]

Six months would be suitable.
Now that we’re talking convo I have an issue with accessing convos from my laptop. It just loads forever. This issue does not happen when browsing from my phone. Does anyone else have this issue?

[Eagle 95]

6 months and an option to export. I see you're mentioning it'd be a pdf format. It'd be highly desirable that you can verify what you've exported - each export should have its own unique id to prevent faking of convos if they need to be reused after. I viewed the current PM export feature, it's just a wall of text that can be easily faked.

[Warbiest]

I voted 6 months but I actually regret that decision. I think it would be a good move for a place like HackForums to not waste resources on saving messages, when that's never going to be a main part of the feature anyway.

If people need the history for any reason, an ability to easily export/save their message history would be ideal. Besides that, you could even go for a more "secure" type of vibe by giving messages a very short shelf life.