Lock old threads

[cbutcher]

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@aputman wrote:

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@RavensFan wrote:

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 And the Thank you is more meaningful than a Kudo you might never see.

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When you have 6581...82...83 kudos, they might not be as meaningful. 

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Beat me to it.

That aside, with regards to the suggested change:

- "Soft lock" a topic once it has been solved. Users will be encouraged to start a new topic instead, but replies will still be allowed.

- Lock a topic after 6 months from the last reply. The topic will no longer allow new replies, but kudos and solutions are still allowed.

Is there (or will there be) a delay after the "solved" marker is added? People often mark a solution, then post to say thank you or similar. It would be unfortunate if a measure designed to reduce forum confusion lead to (perhaps especially new) users creating a new thread to thank someone for an old thread.

Probably even a delay of an hour would be enough here (I don't know what the planned mechanism is to guess whether or not that's feasible...)

I'm also not sure about the locking, particularly for 6 months, but I suppose that after 6 months, something is fairly inactive. However, probably most of the contributors are still active and could respond (if they allow subscription to posts they make). After 6 years, the original contributors may not be still using the forum etc, in which case perhaps someone has a reduced chance of getting a (new) answer.

[Kevin_Price]

Some more opinions:

Soft Lock:

     Even this should wait a little bit after the first marked solution.  A number of threads (especially some related to benchmarking and efficiency) inspire a certain competitive zeal with lots of contributions and multiple valid solutions after the first one.  Often, the later ones are *better* than the first, but might have been discouraged by a too-soon soft lock.

    Maybe soft lock after a marked solution and ~1 week of inactivity?

Hard Lock:

    Please no.  I gave some reasons and an example earlier.  Further thoughts now: The forum isn't just for real-time help, it's also a storehouse of info.  In a very general way, search functionality will always keep providing easy entry points into old, inactive threads.  Some of those threads contain wrong, misleading, or obsolete information.  I think it's pretty important to preserve the ability to add correction, clarification or enhancement to low-quality info that can easily be stumbled across.

   Legit dormant thread revivals are probably pretty rare, but they *can* be important.  I could be persuaded that such revivals wouldn't have to be *automatically* allowed in all cases, but don't have a particular approval process in mind.

-Kevin P

If I voice my same opinion enough times, will I sound like a majority?

[RTSLVU]

The examples continue with this 12 year old resurrection

[cbutcher]

I was previously loathe to post here after the thread seemed to have become inactive (by a relative measure) but here's an interesting counter-example:

Shrinking a block diagram area (nearly 12 years inactive) 

The OP posted in 2008, and was told not possible.

Today, someone points out it is now possible, and then altenbach adds a reference.

OP returns to say thanks - guess they didn't know it had been added?

[RavensFan]

I thoroughly agree with Christian.

Honestly, an old thread being unnecessarily resurrected seems to happen but just a few times per year.

I think a far more pressing problem is how many foreign language speakers post into the English forum rather than the Regional Forums, and I believe that is because the foreign language threads are so buried, no new user can find them!  It happens perhaps 10 times per day.  (But this would be a subject for a different thread.)

[Kevin_Price]

We have a new zombie thread revival leader in the clubhouse!

The new record is 17 years, 2 months 4 days.   Interestingly, it got a fair amount of follow-up with some good, useful, clarifying info.

-Kevin P

[Frozen]

Is posting on resurrected post still necro posting?

[cbutcher]

Although I'm now resurrecting a 3 month cold thread, this was just too good (15 years, 8 months, entire message):

How can we do it when we are coding in python?

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[RavensFan]

Here is an excellent example of why old threads should NOT be locked.

https://forums.ni.com/t5/LabVIEW/change-in-PC-hardware-results-in-Error-200018/m-p/4018223

[cbutcher]

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@RavensFan wrote:

Here is an excellent example of why old threads should NOT be locked.

https://forums.ni.com/t5/LabVIEW/change-in-PC-hardware-results-in-Error-200018/m-p/4018223

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That one (and others) are pretty nice (and describe why I'm also against locking threads).

But in the same day, and to which you also responded: https://forums.ni.com/t5/LabVIEW/How-do-I-create-a-log-file/m-p/4018245/highlight/true#M1149766