Best way to delete old news stories?

hefalumps · 04-28-2008, 01:49 PM

My game takes a long time to load the "messages" when I open it up. At first, I thought it was referring to the messages I receive as a GM (trade offers, scouting reports, etc.) so I went through and whittled all that down so that I only have messages from the current year I'm playing. But it was still taking just as long to load.

Then I went to the "League News" and found over 1800 messages in there since the league's inception three years ago. Unfortunately, I don't see a quick and easy way to delete them in-game.

Am I missing something? Is there a good way in-game to cleanup these old "League News" messages, or am I better off deleting the files directly off the computer. I found an old thread that said you should delete everything in the "messages" folder and then delete messages.dat, but I don't want to delete ALL the news stories - just the ones from previous years. Has anyone tackled this problem and come up with an ideal solution?

Thanks!

PSUColonel · 04-28-2008, 02:54 PM

http://www.ootpdevelopments.com/boar...gue-files.html

1998 Yankees · 04-28-2008, 02:56 PM

Messages <> League News. This thread may be helpful:

http://www.ootpdevelopments.com/boar...gue-files.html

Oh. I bow to the Colonel.

hefalumps · 04-28-2008, 06:58 PM

Thanks 98 Yankees and PSU Colonel - I actually found that thread before but was hoping someone who had been a bit more selective in what they deleted (instead of just deleating everything) might be able to share exactly what they did here.

For example, my league started in 1970 and I'm now in June 1973. I'd like to delete all the news messages from 1970 through 1972, but not 1973. It looks like I could just find the first 1973 story and delete any files in the "messages" folder with a timestamp earlier than that first 1973 file, but then I'm confused what to do with the "messages.dat" file. If I delete the files and delete "messages.dat", will OOTP be smart enough to create a new messages.dat with only my remaining 1973 stories in it?

Those were the kind of details I was curious if anyone had worked through yet. If not, I'll test some stuff out at the All-Star Break when I do my next full league backup.

hefalumps · 05-07-2008, 10:14 AM

Just an FYI...

I just backed up my league and tried deleting any stories from the "messages" folder that were from 1970 through 1972 (my league is currently in 1973), leaving only those messages from 1973.

I was *hoping* that by doing that, and deleting the messages.dat file, OOTP would re-create a new messages.dat file when I opened it with only the 1973 stories still left in the "messages" folder. But alas, it didn't. OOTP had no messages at all listed in-game, and it instead created only an empty messages.dat file.

So apparently there's no way to selectively delete old news stories in the "messages" folder without understanding the format of the messages.dat file and re-configuring it to forget about the old news stories I deleted. It looks like it's either all or nothing. I like to at least keep the last few months of news around, so I guess I'll have to stick with all and just wait two minutes for my league file to open and save.

Has anyone found any way to *selectively* delete news stories from the "messages" folder, not just all of them? I'm really surprised there's not a good way to do this in-game. Maybe for OOTP9.

hefalumps · 05-07-2008, 10:47 AM

Oh... and before anyone suggests it... I know that in the game you can go to the League News, select "Write/Edit news" and then delete every story one-by-one that way.

Of course, when you do that, you have to scroll to a news story you want to delete, click on it, click "Delete Article" click OK on a "Are you sure?" confirmation, and then scroll back to the next news story you want to delete because it automatically scrolls you back to the top. With three years worth of stories that I want to delete, it should only take me a couple of hours.

I'm still hoping there is a better way.

Although if anyone is interested, if you delete the old stories you don't want out of the "messages" folder and DON'T delete the messages.dat file, the game loading and saving time is much, much quicker - you just have a bunch of empty stories at the bottom from all the "messages" files you deleted. So if your goal is to keep the last few months of news around but improve league load/save times, and you don't mind having a bunch of empty "placeholders" for the stories you deleted, than this method might work for you.

04-28-2008, 01:49 PM	#1
hefalumps All Star Starter Join Date: Mar 2003 Posts: 1,392	Best way to delete old news stories? My game takes a long time to load the "messages" when I open it up. At first, I thought it was referring to the messages I receive as a GM (trade offers, scouting reports, etc.) so I went through and whittled all that down so that I only have messages from the current year I'm playing. But it was still taking just as long to load. Then I went to the "League News" and found over 1800 messages in there since the league's inception three years ago. Unfortunately, I don't see a quick and easy way to delete them in-game. Am I missing something? Is there a good way in-game to cleanup these old "League News" messages, or am I better off deleting the files directly off the computer. I found an old thread that said you should delete everything in the "messages" folder and then delete messages.dat, but I don't want to delete ALL the news stories - just the ones from previous years. Has anyone tackled this problem and come up with an ideal solution? Thanks!

04-28-2008, 02:54 PM	#2
PSUColonel Hall Of Famer Join Date: Feb 2002 Posts: 13,143	http://www.ootpdevelopments.com/boar...gue-files.html

04-28-2008, 02:56 PM	#3
1998 Yankees Hall Of Famer Join Date: Aug 2006 Location: Yankee Stadium, back in 1998. Posts: 8,645	Messages <> League News. This thread may be helpful: http://www.ootpdevelopments.com/boar...gue-files.html Oh. I bow to the Colonel.

04-28-2008, 06:58 PM	#4
hefalumps All Star Starter Join Date: Mar 2003 Posts: 1,392	Thanks 98 Yankees and PSU Colonel - I actually found that thread before but was hoping someone who had been a bit more selective in what they deleted (instead of just deleating everything) might be able to share exactly what they did here. For example, my league started in 1970 and I'm now in June 1973. I'd like to delete all the news messages from 1970 through 1972, but not 1973. It looks like I could just find the first 1973 story and delete any files in the "messages" folder with a timestamp earlier than that first 1973 file, but then I'm confused what to do with the "messages.dat" file. If I delete the files and delete "messages.dat", will OOTP be smart enough to create a new messages.dat with only my remaining 1973 stories in it? Those were the kind of details I was curious if anyone had worked through yet. If not, I'll test some stuff out at the All-Star Break when I do my next full league backup.

05-07-2008, 10:14 AM	#5
hefalumps All Star Starter Join Date: Mar 2003 Posts: 1,392	Just an FYI... I just backed up my league and tried deleting any stories from the "messages" folder that were from 1970 through 1972 (my league is currently in 1973), leaving only those messages from 1973. I was hoping that by doing that, and deleting the messages.dat file, OOTP would re-create a new messages.dat file when I opened it with only the 1973 stories still left in the "messages" folder. But alas, it didn't. OOTP had no messages at all listed in-game, and it instead created only an empty messages.dat file. So apparently there's no way to selectively delete old news stories in the "messages" folder without understanding the format of the messages.dat file and re-configuring it to forget about the old news stories I deleted. It looks like it's either all or nothing. I like to at least keep the last few months of news around, so I guess I'll have to stick with all and just wait two minutes for my league file to open and save. Has anyone found any way to *selectively* delete news stories from the "messages" folder, not just all of them? I'm really surprised there's not a good way to do this in-game. Maybe for OOTP9.

05-07-2008, 10:47 AM	#6
hefalumps All Star Starter Join Date: Mar 2003 Posts: 1,392	Oh... and before anyone suggests it... I know that in the game you can go to the League News, select "Write/Edit news" and then delete every story one-by-one that way. Of course, when you do that, you have to scroll to a news story you want to delete, click on it, click "Delete Article" click OK on a "Are you sure?" confirmation, and then scroll back to the next news story you want to delete because it automatically scrolls you back to the top. With three years worth of stories that I want to delete, it should only take me a couple of hours. I'm still hoping there is a better way. Although if anyone is interested, if you delete the old stories you don't want out of the "messages" folder and DON'T delete the messages.dat file, the game loading and saving time is much, much quicker - you just have a bunch of empty stories at the bottom from all the "messages" files you deleted. So if your goal is to keep the last few months of news around but improve league load/save times, and you don't mind having a bunch of empty "placeholders" for the stories you deleted, than this method might work for you.