Proposal: Lock Threads in the Suggestions Forum after One Year

[SeijiSensei]

Just about every week one or more ancient Suggestions threads are brought back from the dead. I propose that we establish a rule to lock these threads after a year has passed unless they have contemporary activity. (Personally I would probably favor a shorter horizon, like six months, but a year is fine.)

These necro'd threads have two problems. First, the person who made the initial solicitation is typically long gone and not paying any attention to the thread after so much time has elapsed. Second, older threads don't have contemporary suggestions, so there's often a burst of replies listing shows that have aired in the interim period. Often these suggestions are redundant with ones made in current threads.

I'm certainly not advocating that the older threads be removed. They certainly can provide a useful archive of suggestions, especially for more obscure genres and more arcane requests. I just don't see much point in extending a years-old thread in this Forum in favor of starting a new one.

[Kotohono]

I agree with this Proposal, while necro'd threads in other areas of the forum can serve some purpose, people doing it in the suggestion area is generally meaningless for the reasons mentioned.

Though we should allow the OP of the thread to request it be unlocked, if they decided to use the thread still that much later for some reason.

[Dist]

While I have no opinion on the matter, I can already see the outcome of this suggestion ; Rejected.

Why? Because it would increase the workload of moderators significantly. There are several suggestion threads created daily, so it would mean a lot of work to moderate and see when threads need closing, and it would be almost a daily routine after an year or so to close year old threads.

[SeijiSensei]

Well I'm not suggesting it has to be done on a daily basis. Once a month would be more than sufficient. I haven't looked at the admin side of vBulletin for a while, but it seems unlikely it would take more than a few minutes to check off a list of threads each month and hit the lock button.

[Kotohono]

Originally Posted by Dist

While I have no opinion on the matter, I can already see the outcome of this suggestion ; Rejected.

Why? Because it would increase the workload of moderators significantly. There are several suggestion threads created daily, so it would mean a lot of work to moderate and see when threads need closing, and it would be almost a daily routine after an year or so to close year old threads.

It couldn't be possible for it to be automated?; I mean it's just asking to lock it after X amount of time since the thread was last active.

I mean you don't have to think about it's just lock all threads with older active date than X date.

[relentlessflame]

I don't have an opinion about this suggestion at the moment -- will need to think about it more, along with the rest of the staff.

But I will say that I assume the theory of the suggestions forum is/was that people would refer to the old threads when looking for a certain type of show, and that people would keep on updating it with new suggestions as time moves on. But in practice, I don't think many people do that. There are so many threads that get created all the time that are basically duplicates of other very similar requests, but with some tiny little variation that the original poster feels is sufficient to warrant a new thread (or they just didn't care that other threads were even there).

There was a suggestion once not too long ago that we create and stick a few generic threads at the top of the forum that would cover the most common requests and could be updated all the time with new suggestions within those pre-defined categories. Then new threads would just be for things that clearly didn't match those criteria. I think that's an interesting idea that could possibly be used in conjunction with this suggestion, to create a sort of blend of "timeless suggestions for common requests" and "time-limited threads for custom requests".

Again, just throwing that out there -- I'm not firmly decided on anything at this time.

[milan kyuubi]

I have a suggestion that might work. Why not create a sub-forum 'Dead Threads' (optional name) within the 'Suggestion Forum'. Then simple set a time limit on those threads in suggestion forum that if after x amount of time (days, month, year etc) nobody have/has posted in that thread, the thread is then automatically moved to 'Dead Threads' forum. I am pretty sure the Admins/Mods have the power to enable this time limit. Also you can then simple lock the 'Dead Threads' forum so no one will create/post new threads/posts in it.
And I am not exactly sure if people can still post in locked forum so if that is possible then you can also create a rule that nobody is allowed to post in those threads within 'Dead Threads' forum.
You can also state that members can contact you (Mods) if they want to have thread/s brought back into the 'Suggestion Forum'. This of course depends on you (Mods) and member/s reasons for wanting said thread/s back.
That way people can still see/read the old threads, and it makes 'Suggestion Forum' much more organized. Also it makes the job much easier for Mods.

[Daniel E.]

For what is worth it, I always made a point to myself to check the suggestions section often and I always try to keep a lookout on any necros that I happen to come across there.

I do agree that it is pointless to suggest something to a member that has not checked the forum in more than half a decade.

[NoemiChan]

Originally Posted by SeijiSensei

Well I'm not suggesting it has to be done on a daily basis. Once a month would be more than sufficient. I haven't looked at the admin side of vBulletin for a while, but it seems unlikely it would take more than a few minutes to check off a list of threads each month and hit the lock button.

That would be easier as using the spare time deleting the old threads. Just read somebody also mentioned deleting by year? Well, I guess threads not opened for a two years or more may not be like be opened again... It may be best to delete it...

[demonix]

Originally Posted by Dist

While I have no opinion on the matter, I can already see the outcome of this suggestion ; Rejected.

Why? Because it would increase the workload of moderators significantly. There are several suggestion threads created daily, so it would mean a lot of work to moderate and see when threads need closing, and it would be almost a daily routine after an year or so to close year old threads.

I believe that there is a option (unless it's an addon or something like that) in vBulletin to auto lock threads after a certain period of time, but I'm not sure if it can be limited to one section or would end up being forum wide (I know this because another forum I frequent uses vBulletin and has a auto lock policy in place for threads that haven't been posted in for a certain amount of time).

[Triple_R]

I've never been a fan of the very pro-necro approach anyway, so for that reason alone, I'm with Seiji Sensei on this suggestion.

However, I also agree with Konakaga on the "allow the OP of the thread to request it be unlocked" suggested provision. If the OP is still around, he or she may prefer to simply work off of his/her older points, rather than start all over from scratch. A good example of this involves me personally, and this thread here.

[ChainLegacy]

Originally Posted by relentlessflame

There was a suggestion once not too long ago that we create and stick a few generic threads at the top of the forum that would cover the most common requests and could be updated all the time with new suggestions within those pre-defined categories. Then new threads would just be for things that clearly didn't match those criteria. I think that's an interesting idea that could possibly be used in conjunction with this suggestion, to create a sort of blend of "timeless suggestions for common requests" and "time-limited threads for custom requests".

Again, just throwing that out there -- I'm not firmly decided on anything at this time.

That sounds like a good idea. You might also want to put some kind of strict limit on how detailed the post must be to post in these threads. That way you'd only have higher-quality posts and they would make good reference threads. Perhaps split them up by popular anime genres.

[SeijiSensei]

ANN takes this approach. Suggestion requests are generally banned from the forums, but there are a few genre-based threads devoted entirely to suggestions. I'd probably prefer a system where these sticky threads are curated by a few trusted members who can accept or reject postings to limit the threads to those "high-quality" postings that ChainLegacy (and I) would like to see.

One method might be to define a list of genres or topics that deserve stickies, then look through the Suggestions forum for good threads on which to base the stickies. I don't think this is a task that should be dumped in the moderators' laps. We'd probably need some small committees to pore over the existing threads and try to cull the best suggestions in each genre. Frankly I see this as a case where an undemocratic solution should be applied, at least to create the initial threads. Then we could have a round where the proposed threads are open to public review and modified in response. This sounds like a lot of work, but as someone who has made hundreds of postings in the Suggestions forum, I'd probably find it less work in the long run to curate a few groups than make the same suggestions over and over again.

[Solace]

The universe has a funny sense of humor.

[SeijiSensei]

I saw that, too. He would have been able to read the thread even if it were locked.
"Dystopian" shows would probably be one of the categories in my list of stickies. There are quite a few of them, and it seems like a popular category. "Psychological" shows are another.

[SeijiSensei]

And here is today's poster child for the point I was making:

http://forums.animesuki.com/showthre...32#post4248742

How about even if we don't adopt the one-year rule, we lock Suggestions threads begun before 2010?

[Daniel E.]

Thread locked and message send to user.

[SeijiSensei]

Originally Posted by Daniel E.

Thread locked and message send to user.

So should we nickname you "Daniel the Hammer"?

[SeijiSensei]

The Hammer comes down again: http://forums.animesuki.com/showthre...08#post4779908

I suppose we could just rely on Daniel to manage necro threads, but wouldn't some form of automatic expiration make more sense? A nightly cron job that runs something like this in MySQL would do the trick:

update threads set lock=1 where forum='Suggestions' and last_posting_date<(today()-365*86400);

[Daniel E.]

I can be a bit forgiving on this sort of cases when the thread starter is still active; even after one year has passed. It all depends on each case, of course.