Automatic closure of threads?

dear forumists,

as nextcloud is getting older our forum grows older as well… which is all nice and such… but on the other hand it happens that users who do search the forum (yay! there are many using the search-function) would post their apparent similar issues under very old threads without taking into consideration that old issues would maybe belong to old nc-versions and might be solved with a newer one, already which would mean: even similar looking error messages wouldn’t have the same origin.
plus i think reopening an old thread isn’t any useful (in most cases)… it would be better to link the old link into a new thread.

so why don’t we just close older threads after a certain time automatically… like after 3 months without any new entry to it? maybe it would help to keep the wildgrowing forum tamed. at least for a bit.

looking forward to your comments, ideas, critique and such…
jimmy

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Probably not bad to find some strategy, we could close all tagged issues for non-supported NC versions that are older than x days. Also solved issues after x days. A few times it was helpful to pick up an old thread but it most cases it isn’t and you can still link to these issue and mention people.

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Yes, I know this is an old thread: For me, continuing to post on an old thread when the version of a piece of software does not matter ‒ be it Apache, MySQL, PHP, or Nextcloud itself. Although some followers of a certain thread may feel somewhat startled by a new post months later, it is a hell of a lot more organized to continue older threads especially when the issue is not technically-related, and it is much more convenient for members of the forum to navigate many related threads on a certain topic this way. To those who may have differing opinions, please feel more reassured: having a more active presence on the forum these days means that I could helpfully re-title older posts and update their tags, within my area of expertise. Besides, whenever anyone feels that a topic should be split, any user could flag a post as “Off-Topic” with a simple login.

Here is some information about my usual conduct on the forum: Whenever I am hesitant on challenging someone on the forum, I give myself at least an hour to consider the implications and reevaluate my approach before flagging as such. Of course, I don’t appeal to Leaders or challenge the status quo itself unless I have found that it is respectfully appropriate or absolutely necessary. Although I have spoken with @JimmyKater about this topic several months ago, the skyrocketing number of posts recently have prompted me to critique the strategy that is currently in place. As far as I know, we have already have an automatic closing off threads for quite some time, and it seems to several users that at least some of the rules need to be refined. Shutting off any thread solely on the basis of it being ‘old’ does not facilitate a meaningful and organized discussion.

Request ‒ Before posting something on the forum, some users may not sufficiently understand the inner workings of the software behind their questions, the unintended consequences of config settings, or have done (enough) diligent research. As such, any contributor on a post with less than six replies should automatically be messaged when a thread is tagged as so_similar, duplicate_of_existing, use_search_box, or the laconic hey_move_this by someone with a Regular badge.

As I had just summarized what @JimmyKater and I had agreed on during my chance encounter, where he clarified that the quoted statement concerning threads is regarding technical issues and he acknowledged that some relatively older threads should be left open for the sake of maintaining a reasonable level of organization.

This is because ‒ aside from those who may be having an emotional breakdown and those under immense time pressure, of course ‒ there are a plenty of users who “don’t have the time” to post crucial information for another user to confer assistance, who don’t adequately troubleshoot their own problems and diligently search for a solution by reviewing the official release notes before posting. (There are in fact some users on this forum who have trouble understanding even the bare basics of cloud computing.) Admittedly, I have, in my experience, seen many instances where an experienced member of a support team could benefit from searching for more obscure keywords related to their issue at hand.

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The problem is that there is no one fits it all strategy. In some cases it makes sense to continue an old thread, in others it just doesn’t. Unfortunately, a large portion is rather unrelated, a post about a white screen, or internal server error? (it would be great in such cases, that we make a howto-article how to debug and differentiate these issues)
A good thing though is, you can open your new issue and relate it to the older, original one. If someone browses this older topic, there is a link as well, e.g. for you post, you created a link:

So there are cross-references and people can follow up.

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