Tentative Suggestion: Automatically lock threads if they get no reply for a year.

[Rowan Amore]

25 minutes ago, Solar Legion said:

We can agree on being done and on the nature of a forum in terms of it being "a living, breathing creature".

Beyond that, you're responding to someone who has been using fora since before Facebook, ran one himself for a short time and actually understands that not all of them are run the exact same way.

I'll leave it at this: For the sort of forum you ran? Your method of operation was proper. For something like this or similar? Not so much. Old issues can resurface, rhyming (similar) ones can crop up that might have some mitigating information in an older thread or might warrant a poke.

Meh. Moving on.

ETA: Related/tangential - What rather irritates me here in particular is the apparent inability of many users to use the Search function before posting.

What I've noticed often is a brand new poster who said they googled their problem and the first thing that came up was some old outdated post that really has no relevant info to fix their current issue.  The thread should remain UP but locked.  Then they can ask their question and get answers that might work.  This is only in the answers section.  As I mentioned, new posters also don't know to sort responses by date.  I don't think the voting part of answers is really necessary.

All other sections/threads can stay forever.

[Solar Legion]

1 minute ago, Rowan Amore said:

What I've noticed often is a brand new poster who said they googled their problem and the first thing that came up was some old outdated post that really has no relevant info to fix their current issue.  The thread should remain UP but locked.  Then they can ask their question and get answers that might work.  This is only in the answers section.  As I mentioned, new posters also don't know to sort responses by date.  I don't think the voting part of answers is really necessary.

All other sections/threads can stay forever.

Answers started (and should have remained) as a section wholly separate from the Forum itself. I have that whole section collapsed and pretty much ignore it thanks t the current (lack of) implementation.

[Zidaya Zenovka]

The issue with doing this is what about threads where an issue was brought up and a solution to it found years later? The only time I advocate locking threads is when the topic becomes topic. Otherwise while necroposting can be an issue there are just as many times where posts made later in a threads life add something constructive. It's far better to revive an old thread than have multiple threads on the same issue. All that does is clutter forums up.

[bigmoe Whitfield]

5 hours ago, Zidaya Zenovka said:

The issue with doing this is what about threads where an issue was brought up and a solution to it found years later? The only time I advocate locking threads is when the topic becomes topic. Otherwise while necroposting can be an issue there are just as many times where posts made later in a threads life add something constructive. It's far better to revive an old thread than have multiple threads on the same issue. All that does is clutter forums up.

multiple topics can be merged with moderator tools easily,  better to do that than revive a topic.

[Silent Mistwalker]

On 4/24/2021 at 2:56 AM, bigmoe Whitfield said:

old information never has a need to be brought up in any manner, 

I'm sorry Moe. That's just not true. Even history tells you that isn't true.

Quote

“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it! (George Santayana-1905). In a 1948 speech to the House of Commons, Winston Churchill changed the quote slightly when he said (paraphrased), “those who fail to learn from history are condemned to repeat it.”

 

[Zidaya Zenovka]

On 4/24/2021 at 11:03 PM, bigmoe Whitfield said:

multiple topics can be merged with moderator tools easily,  better to do that than revive a topic.

Depends on the thread. I've seen thread merging that has resulted in massive train wrecks. I've always felt that unless you're getting spammed with tons of threads about the same subject in a short period it's best to let a community self-moderate necro threads via either people pointing out a solution is stickied or via necroposting meme as a subtle (or not so subtle) discouragement. After all-even if someone's bringing up a dead topic at least it means the forum's active.