From reading a little on the the Discourse forum, I get the impression that topics can be auto-closed after a set time frame. I think that could be a useful feature for this group in general. I also think it might be important to the votes, because having voted on a previous topic that is not yet closed reduces the ability to vote on something new that arises (unless one wants to withdraw the previous vote). It would be easier to decide whether to withdraw a previous vote in order to vote on something new if one could see when the previous topic was going to close. Iām reacting to this message not allowing me to vote on a new topic:
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hmm, that sounds annoying to me, does that mean a suggestion or question canāt be commented on by new people after that? They will probably just create new topics that would be redundant so they can comment. it seems like it should be the other way around - if people have thoughts about an idea that already has been posted about, they should put them there. Also, what if someone wants to vote on something but itās already closed?
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Looking at the Discourse conversations about votes some more, I think the number of votes one can have applied at any given time is determined by the numbers of votes and likes one gets, so I guess the closing of topics one has voted on doesnāt affect voting ability as much as I initially thought.
i guess what i am also thinking about is that new google group users always materialize and request things that have been requested a bunch of times before (the captive cultivated thing, observation linking, etc) and if those requests get locked they will āsinkā and people wonāt be able to comment and i think that will make it more likely for people to recreate them redundantly. And i am not seeing the upside of auto closing feature requests. Closing them when they are either implemented or the admins say they are not going to do them does make sense though.
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This is why we set up the Feature Requests category to require moderator (currently only me) approval before a topic gets posted. So this shouldnāt be a problem (fingers crossed).
@sgene I would like to at least try to not have Feature Requests topics close automatically as it puts the onus on iNat staff to be on top of the Feature Requests category, closing topics as needed (either because theyāre being implemented or will not be implemented) and being in contact with everyone.
As far as I understand it, a user gets a certain number of active votes depending up on their trust level, which is not only determined by likes, but consistency in coming to the forum, writing topics, etc etc. Those votes can be applied to active topics. If you voted for a topic and it gets closed, you get that active vote ābackā but your total number of active votes will not increase until you attain a higher trust level.
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Thanks for explaining, Tony.
Iāve been noticing topics that say they will be closed 2 months after the last reply. Are these chosen on an individual basis? Is there notice to the person who started the thread? Just curious, since this seems like something new.
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I added that to several categories, such as Nature Talk, General, and News/Updates.
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Oh my, 2 months, with an intensive 3 month field season about to beginā¦ 
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Iām not really seeing the benefit to auto-closing threads. If no one wants to reply, thatās fine and the thread can just sit there. But if someone does want to reply, then they have to ask to have it re-opened. Am I missing something obvious for why auto-closing is a good thing?
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I seem to have proposed it due to the voting limitations. As time passed, I stopped voting, and I think the voting changed recently so that there are a lot more votes. So now Iām not advocating either way. But some threads do get out of date because of new features and other changes since the discussion started, so keeping them open could be confusing unless there is some update in them.
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We now have one hundred votes each
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I dislike the fact that topics get closed at all. Often I see one that I would like to reply to, but what I have to say isnāt āimportantā enough that it warrants asking for the topic to be reopened. For example here; this topic has been inactive for more than a year but I still want to reply to it. Iād prefer that auto-closing be turned off completely, so topics only get closed if a moderator decides it is a good idea.
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Just to clarify, since I started this topicāI donāt have any preference either way on auto-closing of topics, now that we have more votes and I no longer run out of votes. The problem I see in adding a comment to old topics is that people may no longer be tracking the topic and wonāt see any new comments on it.
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Itās also tedious to read through a thread that has gotten too long.
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Yeah, but better than having three separate threads for a single topic because the first two were closed. And some threads now have over 300 replies, but thatās because theyāre great topics! I hope the āYou know youāre seriously into iNat whenā¦ā one never closes!
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I see a downside. Some people would just vote for everything, regardless of its perceived merits.
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How about: the number of votes is unlimited, but the ratio of upvotes to downvotes must remain at Ā±1.
(Oh, and add downvotes.)
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