Forum topics locked too quickly

[Cerulean]

I just tried to reply to a thread in the Feature Ideas forum and get the message:

This topic is 1 month and 1 week old. The forum administrator has chosen for old topics to be locked when a reply is attempted. Please begin a new topic or use the search feature to find a similar but newer topic.

I can understand locking really old threads but one month?! Can't we relax on these types of restrictions?

[paulbaker]

I agree Cerulean. I don't think re-opening old topics is a particularly big problem on this forum. We will end up with lots of small threads that discuss only part of the problem, with links to other threads....which is less user friendly to read and understand and will make searching harder.

[Cerulean]

Tried to contribute something to another topic that was about 7 weeks old - locked again.

Mods: can the period that topics are open please be extended?

When I'm looking for a solution to a problem I search the forum, and I'm sure many people do the same. So the forum serves the CMSMS community as a repository of information and solutions.

I think it's legitimate to contribute something to a discussion that dates from last month or even last year - people find new solutions to old problems, and it makes sense to allow these to be added to older topics so that information on a topic is kept together. Don't you agree?

[paulbaker]

We will end up with lots of small threads that discuss only part of the problem, with links to other threads....

It's already started:
http://forum.cmsmadesimple.org/viewtopi ... =8&t=71941

[Jo Morg]

I don't want to open a new topic about it.

To what?

---

This may have been just an attempt to spam the forum, but I'm going to use it to make a point: these forums are, for the most part, support forums, that is to say that each well documented topic has a chance to be answered, potentially by someone from the Dev Team. Each case is a case, and reopening old topics usually do more harm than good. What solves someone's issue doesn't necessarily solves all issues with similar characteristics. More often than not there are a few differences that can be responsible for why some solution works for some and doesn't work for someone else, and mixed threads add to the confusion for both people searching for a solution for a specific problem as well as for the developer who tries to make sense of what the problem originally was to begin with. An old topic may have been solved by a new release, but shouldn't be reopened for a recent problem. References to other topics should be used if needed but the developers may be able to see if those referenced are pertinent to the current topic or not.
Thanks.

[Cerulean]

Sure, lots of topics fit the format of "___ is broken in my site, help me". Maybe these topics have a specific solution that's unique to that user's situation, and maybe when that specific issue is solved the topic should be locked. My objection is that under the new regime it seems all topics are getting automatically locked and the period that topics are open is too brief.

There are numerous sub-forums here that are for discussions and suggestions of all kinds besides "something's broken".
For example:
*General Discussion
*Accessability and Usability
*Translations
*CMS Show Off
*Media and presentations about CMSMS
*Tips and Tricks
*Modules/Add-Ons
*Feature ideas
*The Lounge

I don't see why topics in the above forums need to be automatically locked. It's the sort of thing that does more harm than good, because when people have their topic reply blocked the likely outcome is that they abandon the attempt to contribute. We need to make discussion easier, not harder.

My own experience...

*Attempted to add support for a feature idea. Blocked. Gave up.
*Found a long and unresolved discussion about randomising ListIt2 items and found an elegant solution in another post with a misleading title. Attempted to contribute a link to the solution. Blocked. Gave up.

[paulbaker]

Again, agree with Cerulean here.

Just because a post is "1 month and 1 week old" doesn't always make it inappropriate to continue the conversation. Take a look at some of the great sites in CMS Show Off for example. So we should not talk about them any more or ask a question about how it was done after 5 weeks? Makes no sense to me.

We need to make discussion easier, not harder.

Quite.

[psy]

Again, agree with Cerulean here.

1 month and 1 week? Kidding me right? Whose decision was that?