Do you close old threads (perhaps you have that plugin that does it automatically)? Do you like/dislike when foums do this?

On WMT, I wrote a plugin that doesn't close a thread but when viewing the thread, there's a red notice in the quick reply and newreply pages that says "This thread is over X days old, you should really consider creating a new thread" or something to that effect. Seems to work quite well :)

I dont really like it, i keep them open myself..

Do you close old threads (perhaps you have that plugin that does it automatically)?I'm in favor of not only closing old threads, but moving only the good ones to an archive section--and deleting the rest.

It means I'll never have a forum with 5 million messages--but I'd rather have only 50k messages, all in worthwhile discussions; than 50k messages in worthwhile discussions, buried among 4,950,000-messages-worth of noise.

Now, how old is old, and what conversations are worthwhile are both judgement calls. That's okay. Its my judgement--that's part of my job as admin to make those judgements.

Yes many admins like to prune old posts. Personally I'm in favor of keeping everything. The threads being there aren't, IMO, hurting anything. Things like the discussions themselves and thread rating etc. is a better indication of a 'good thread' then me or my staffs opinion.

One of the things that annoys me--and this seems to happen most-often in sites with a strong group of long-time memebrs--is that if a new person comes in and starts a topic, some fool responds "We've already discussed that at great length. Why don't you learn to use the &*$^$ search function." If the person does use the search function, and then replies to an old thread, some other fool responds "Why are you digging up this old discussion. Start a new thread, idiot!"

Closing old threads eliminates at least half of that battle.

Personally I'm in favor of keeping everything.To me, off-topic sections seem to overwhelm. I see very little value in keeping tree-year-old "Have a nice christmas" threads. If somebody does a Google search on Christmas, and come to my forum looking for christmas discussions, they're going to be disappointed anyway.

i dont close, i let die :P

I prefer to keep them open. Closing too many often makes my site look like a police state.

We prune. And nobody minds rehashing discussions from pre-prune, if it comes up again :)

That seems like a really nifty and useful plugin. :)


I close threads if they're bumped after a long while. The only time I don't close threads if it's an interesting topic that has many long responses and is well thought out (like a debate, as I have seen a couple of threads span a number of weeks, with posts ranging days apart). Members tend to take a break from long threads, and then all reply back after a while.

So I don't close threads unless bumped, and before I close them, I see if I should allow them to be continued or not. So it's a kind of semi-case-by-case basis.

if i see that some threads are old and tehy aren't "Active" yes, i close them..

I dont really close old threads sometimes its nice for a member to bring up old thread as memories within reason. i would only close it if it was not relivant to the forums.

We should totally install that plugin here on vBFans! :D
I like the idea of informing people what they're reading, rather then having them go 'i wanna post, oh can't . screw it!' ..

Feel free to install it :)