[TechGuy]

We've had a problem with new users replying to very old threads (sometimes from years ago). Often they're having a similar problem, but sometimes they're not. In either case, it adds confusion to post a "me too" to a thread that died a long time ago. As a result, I've just written a program that will basically close any thread that hasn't received a reply for 45 days.

It works like this: If a particular thread hasn't received any replies in 45 days, it will be "closed" and will not accept any new replies. We've made an exception for all Community forums (like Random and Civilized Debate) so that threads in those forums will not automatically be closed. If there's some reason you want to re-open a thread that's been closed, you will be given a link to ask a Moderator to re-open it for you.

We hope that this new policy will help reduce some work for our very busy Moderators and also help prevent confusion from misplaced replies. Feel free to reply back or contact me directly if you have any questions. Thanks!

[ekim68]

Thanks Mike, that's a good thing, should save some space.....Nice avatar, BTW...

[CrazyComputerMan]

That's a good idea, I hope my job thread isnt closed!

[hewee]

Sounds like a good thing to do. I know I had a number of post this pass week in old and some very old threads.

I like your new TechGuy's Avatar.

[twinofangelize56]

Originally Posted by TechGuy

We've made an exception for all Community forums (like Random and Civilized Debate) so that threads in those forums will not automatically be closed.

Phew! That's good! Thanks, Mike!

[poochee]

Good idea!

[JohnWill]

I love it. I think it should really help.

[wordsmith]

Its a great idea.
Like your avatar, Mike.

[SIR****TMG]

Great

[pyritechips]

Mike, how about pinning this thread so it doesn't get lost?

[CrazyComputerMan]

Good idea!

[TechGuy]

Consider it done.

[Drabdr]

So then to understand, from a new guy:

Community forum- Would you prefer bumping old threads, or start new ones? Say I wanted to talk about a question or subject of interest, how far back does the group think people should look before starting new ones? Also, I happen to recall V-bulletin's search feature isn't the greatest. Are there additional tools here?

Other than community forum-obviously most of these will be help-type questions, and you don't want those threads resurrected. If a user has a similar issue to another thread, does that help to post the link? Or does the community here find it overall better just to start a new?

NOTE: Thank you very much for having oversight to put such information in community threads, where everyone can understand how things work.

[TechGuy]

For tech forums, I'd write enough about your problem so that it can stand by itself. After that, I'm fine with linking to a past thread if you feel it's relevant.

For community forums, I think bringing topics "back from the dead" will vary on a case-by-case basis. For example, if it's a generic thread on a presidential candidate, just start a new thread. On the other hand, if it's a very specific topic and there's relevant information in the old thread, feel free to bring it back. Just my two cents.

As for searching, we've done some modification to the vBulletin code to make our search a little more useful, but it's far from perfect. If you click on the Search link at the top-right of any page (just under the Log Out option), you'll find that there's also a choice to search using Google. Google's algorithms are far beyond anything we could offer, but has the disadvantage of only searching those pages that Google has indexed. This means that recent posts may not be included in Google's search.

Hope that helps, and thanks for joining us!

[Ent]

It might be worth mentioning this in the welcome guide, where you've said to "try searching our site to see if someone has already asked the same question." Just to avoid confusion and all.