Hi everyone!
I'm taking this down-time to do some system cleanup and was wondering how you all handle old lists?
Currently, I've been inactivating them, but some are over a year old (either create date or last generated). Is deleting lists a no-no, or does it really depend on if you think a specific list will ever be used again?
Thanks! I know it's different based on each organization, but I'd love to hear your best practices!
Good question: we haven't had this conversion about Lists, but I convened a set of meetings to discuss and plan out a strategy for deleting old Extractions, as those can really clutter up the interface of that old utility. I would recommend going over it with some of your power users and coming up with a strategy, one that perhaps includes a way of flagging Lists that may only be used every other year or so, or which are not run, but used as examples to copy new Lists from, etc.
I ask that people delete their lists once they are done with them as they tend to just be for getting counts of people (we don't use them for mailings very much unless it is a triggered email), so we don't really need to keep them. In practice that doesn't happen, so I will go through them and delete any that haven't been edited or re-generated in about 2 years, which it a total arbitrary number really!
Our Consortium users are welcome to delete their own lists whenever they are ready to, but we also have a utility running monthly that inactivates and deletes older lists. Removing these unused lists keeps that list page manageable, as well as helps when removing or upgrading custom functionality, since we know what data is still being referenced.
I shared this to the Network a while back if you want to take a look: https://www.tessituranetwork.com/Files/Shared-Reports/Manage-Lists-Utility
We use a similar approach for extractions and output sets.
Good luck on your spring cleaning!
I have tried, reasonably unsuccessfully, to show people how to make just 3 or 4 reusable lists (with names like Reusable List 1, 2, etc...) and use them over and over since most lists in List Manager are used just once. It has allowed me to keep my total list creation in 9+ years to under 40. But people have to feel confident in their List Manager skills in order to do that and not want to have to reference them later, so, as I said, I have not been able to bring that many staff around to my way of thinking. Though, those who HAVE adopted it say it really makes sense and keeps things clean. You can always rebuild and recreate lists.
But otherwise, for everything else (i.e. the majority of our lists and extractions), I have likewise adopted an otherwise arbitrary 2 year rule.
Thank you all for your input! I've also tried to show folks how to re-use lists, but to no avail. I'll create some type of internal arbitrary date and use that going forward
I would still consider finding a way to flag lists that should not ever be deleted: probably by using a List Category (or multiple List Categories). For instance, we have sets of lists that we use for data integrity, and others that we use for managing communication preferences.
We have a control group "archive do not delete"
We have an Archive control group, too - based on some recommendations I heard at TLCC one year, I think. I *love* it.
Katie,
Can you share this with me via email? Looks like what you shared is not on the shared reports page as of now.
Ashley Elliott
Database Administrator
St. Louis Symphony Orchestra
314-286-4198
ashleye@slso.org
Sure thing, Ashley. I'll send it to you directly. If anyone else would like it, please email me.
Hi Katie,
Thank you for your willingness to share this information. I sent you a direct message here on the forums, but I wanted to make sure I asked here too. May I please trouble you for a copy of this code? I think it will be helpful to my org.
Thank you