De-necro-fier Forum Rules Suggestion

[SilentRuin]

So many necro threads coming back from the dead. With the only forum exception I know of (there may be others) being the Armory forum, I think a simple de-necro-fier forum rule for the admins is that after a year the thread gets locked. It can still be searched on, it can still be read, but if you need to reopen that particular can of worms make them reference that locked thread in a NEW thread. So many seem to hunt and peck in the search and reply to some ancient extinct topic as if it were today's fresh news. At least if they have to reference it you can tell it took enough effort that it must have been relevant.

Instead of say.. "oh who needs to look at the date..." and hit reply.

Effort to reference it means they took effort to figure out if it was relevant to bring up again. Especially as the landscape on some of these threads have changed so much they end up being more misleading than not, coming back from the dead.

[esmdev]

I can see your point but also think that some threads might be relevant to peoples current problems. That they found an ancient thread in the first place means they were looking for something within it, and that they posted means they have some sort of related statement, request or problem. If they couldn't post because it was locked it might dissuade the poster altogether.

[SilentRuin]

If they couldn't post because it was locked it might dissuade the poster altogether.

Where we disagree I suppose is here. This would be a good thing as I stated. To easy leads to spam and misinformation propagating from things that don't even have meaning in the current version of FGU.

[Zacchaeus]

We do move posts where the thread is not relevant. We do ban spammers as soon as we find them or get notified of them. I don't have time to go through threads every day to find ones that are over a year old and I don't suppose the other admins have either. I don't know of any way of filtering old threads by date (there could be but not something I've explored). There are possibly hundreds of threads that are still active after a year.

In other words. No.

[SilentRuin]

There are possibly hundreds of threads that are still active after a year.

And as ones live from 2016 pop up several times a month - I'd say that was a vast underestimation of live threads in the system. I've never heard of a forum application that did not support deactivating all things (sometimes referred to as archive) after a certain amount of time.

[Zacchaeus]

And as ones live from 2016 pop up several times a month - I'd say that was a vast underestimation of live threads in the system. I've never heard of a forum application that did not support deactivating all things (sometimes referred to as archive) after a certain amount of time.

Threads do get archived after a certain amount of time but they are still effectively 'live' as far as I understand. If I search for something it will very often find archived threads and you can still reply or add further posts to them.

[celestian]

The point of forums is to reference previously discussed topics. Old or not some are relevant. If you want a linear view, discord works. I find forums more useful myself and for new people looking at issues they are also experiencing that have happened for years for other new folks.

I would recommend those that find it annoying to self filter much like any other topic.

[SilentRuin]

The point of forums is to reference previously discussed topics. Old or not some are relevant. If you want a linear view, discord works. I find forums more useful myself and for new people looking at issues they are also experiencing that have happened for years for other new folks.

I would recommend those that find it annoying to self filter much like any other topic.

Its the misleading info that gets tacked on as if it was relevant to today's product that I find annoying. But appears it is what it is so I'll let it drop.

[Jiminimonka]

The point of forums is to reference previously discussed topics. Old or not some are relevant. If you want a linear view, discord works. I find forums more useful myself and for new people looking at issues they are also experiencing that have happened for years for other new folks.

I would recommend those that find it annoying to self filter much like any other topic.

They might be relevant but they don't need to be revived, hence locking threads and encouraging users to make a new thread based on their specific experience.

But Zacchaeus said No.

[celestian]

They might be relevant but they don't need to be revived...

One of these things doesn't make sense.

[LordEntrails]

It would be a lot of work for us to find all old threads and lock them. Something as a volunteer I would not be keen to do, and I don't see anyone else wanting to do either. Unfortunately, I don't think the forum software has any tools to help facilitate closing threads by date. But I'll take another look.

Otherwise I'll just renew my efforts that when someone does necro a thread and if it's not relevant try to politely redirect them to starting a new thread. And closing the old at that time if needed.

[Jiminimonka]

One of these things doesn't make sense.

I was.gonna explain but I can't be bothered.

[damned]

The point of forums is to reference previously discussed topics. Old or not some are relevant. If you want a linear view, discord works. I find forums more useful myself and for new people looking at issues they are also experiencing that have happened for years for other new folks.

I would recommend those that find it annoying to self filter much like any other topic.

I agree. I use discord a lot because it is easier to interact with in real time but I cry at all the great content that is more or less lost 2 days later.
The old content has real value.
There is some value in locking old threads but Im not sure that it would be a universally correct action.