I was wondering why topics get closed 60 days after the last reply.
On some topics I have read they say it is for admin reasons may I ask what that means.
If it is so the forum does not get to clutter why not delete the topic because you can go to a topic that is already been closed
Thanks
Canyon
Sometimes it’s useful to be able to go to a forum post that is no longer open so that you can read what has already been said about a topic before starting a new one. Closing inactive topics lightens the moderation load.
There’s been a lot of discussion on this topic here: https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/auto-closing-of-topics/195
I don’t really like that topics get auto-closed, but I kind of understand. I have been confused a few times by it though. Once I saw a topic that was already closed, which said “this topic was automatically closed 6 days after the last reply” and had @bouteloua’s profile pic on the closing message. Usually they say “…automatically closed 60 days after…” and the “system” profile picture.
topics can be set to automatically close after X amount of time with no new replies
The Forum seems to have reached that stage where it’s difficult to introduce new topics for discussion that haven’t already been addressed somewhere in earlier discussions. There are a number of parallel discussions that probably should have been (and in some cases were) consolidated under one topic. Seems appropriate to close down new discussions that repeat old ones, and simply re-open the earlier one.
I have mixed feelings on it. It’s a bit much to ask a newbie to spend 20 minutes reading the (summarized!) version of an existing discussion … but it is also wearying for those who have heard it all before.
Or maybe just refer the new discussion/inquirer to the link for the existing thread elsewhere (so they can wade through it) instead of merging it and close the new topic. I think that’s been the approach.
I kinda dont mind it. Its nice to see really old topics that are closed because its like looking at an archive. But then there are weird ones that are open for months and they have like over 100 replies and theres so much to look at.
Those are daunting. If it helps, you can use Ctrl F to hunt for the words that interest you. The really long threads tend to either, repeat the same discussion each time a new person joins in, or split off into more, or less, interesting paths.
But it is better to keep one discussion in one place.
Yeah that is true
like this one of mine-https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/what-animals-have-injured-stung-bitten-you/20901
