12 replies to this topic

[Wild Bill]

In the last couple of days, two topics in General Discussion received replies after being idle for several months. Do not reply to threads that have not been replied to in the past 30 days. There are several reasons why...

1. It's confusing to see a topic pop up out of nowhere and have dozens of replies.
2. Old topics may be considered historical, so they don't need to be modified.
3. Many topics are screwed up due to bugs with the phpBB2 -> IPB converter. It would be nice if none of these topics were active.

Thank you.

[Matt]

Perhaps any topics older than 30 days should be automatically removed from the forum then? What is the purpose of them being there if replies are not allowed? At least change the default display for the General Discussion forum to "30 days" instead of "the beginning" as it is now.

[Wild Bill]

Well, they're there for historical purposes, as said. You can enjoy reading them all you want, just don't reply.

And, I could change the default view, but everybody would just switch it to whatever they want.

[Magi_Hero]

It would make it a whole lot easier if they were to become closed, correct?

[Wild Bill]

That's true, but I really don't want to go constantly closing all old topics. I will be looking into a board feature that makes it so that you cannot reply to old threads.

[Exate]

That would be a good idea. I've been seeing many revived topics as well. But if you're planning something that has to do with removing them within 30 days, exclude the ones that are currently hot topics that everyone replies constantly for more than 30 days (ex. A testing topic for a quest which usually get a lot of replies frequently). They seem to be important, oh here's a better idea. Maybe the topics should be removed if no replies have been made to the topic within 15 days. That's just a suggestion, you said you'd keep all the old topics, but incase you change your mind this might be a good idea.

[IaN]

I think WB meant that if nobody has replied to the thread in 30 days, you shouldn't post in them, not if it's been 30 days since it was made.

[Breadguy]

I think it would be a good idea like WB said, find that topic thing he was talking about, so you can't post in the old topics, unless it is a hot topic.

[phil]

Could you set something up to automatically lock them after thirty days?

[LinktheMaster]

He is doing that!

I will be looking into a board feature that makes it so that you cannot reply to old threads.

It sure is fun to read what people have posted.
Oh, and nice. You put that into the rules list. It wasn't there for a long time. I kept on meaning to tell you, but, I forgot to.

[Kite]

I will be looking into a board feature that makes it so that you cannot reply to old threads.

One area I think this shouldn't apply to is hosted quest forums.

Most of those forums have topics that are old and near the top of the forum.

There might be other inactive forums... but hosted quest forums are the biggest area I can think of right now.

[Wild Bill]

One area I think this shouldn't apply to is hosted quest forums.

Most of those forums have topics that are old and near the top of the forum.

There might be other inactive forums... but hosted quest forums are the biggest area I can think of right now.

That's a concern. Hopefully the feature would be per-forum configurable. Perhaps I should suggest it to IPS.

And the topics wouldn't LITERALLY be locked. They would appear to be open, but the board would not allow you to reply to them.

[phil]

Oops, sorry about that.