Hi everyone! I would like some reasons for why threads are closed, just so that in the future, when I make a discussion, I don’t have to worry about making any discussion mistakes. Thank you!
When a discussion is over it’s closed. When a discussion is bumped it’s closed. If the forum goes off-topic it gets closed. When a discussion goes out of hand it closes.
A lot of threads get closed when the problem discussed gets resolved. That just means that there’s nothing more to talk about, and that’s okay.
OoT2D
4
Also, when its a thread like “Hi”, or “Visit example.com
now”.
@OoT2D
Nonsense threads and obvious spam threads will likely be deleted instead of closed. Duplicate and cross-posted threads (threads posted in multiple categories) will also likely be deleted. Another category of thread that will likely be closed and that I have seen more and more of are the threads for random chatter. All random, general chit-chat should be done on the wikiTwitter thread to avoid cluttering the General Chat section with vanity threads. http://forums.wikihow.com/discussion/1987/your-personal-twitter-thread-wikitwitter/
May we deleted a few closed threads here and there that obviously been closed for a while?
Why would we delete old closed threads when they may be useful for referencing later? And even if the thread isn’t useful for referencing later, why not keep it? What’s it hurting?
Makes me annoyed to see a thread that’s been closed 228 weeks ago is all, and it may hinder the ability to load another forum page. I simply could not see an obvious purpose with keeping something that old, but I understand your point
There are plenty of reasons to keep old threads. Here is an important one: Lots of times users raise issues that have already been dealt with previously. Instead of having the same discussions over and over, it is much easier and efficient to direct them to the old thread where it was discussed so they can see the original discussion. Old threads are our archive of what we’ve talked about, discussed, and agreed on as a community. Just like we don’t delete old revisions of articles, we don’t delete old discussions.
Thank you everyone for helping me understand the way forums go!
Marina
12
@WikihowSaver
In the forums, we actually let threads sink by themselves! So instead of bumping a thread to say it needs to be closed like you just did, we simply let the thread sink to the bottom of a thread. Not all threads need to be closed.But since you just bumped this one, I’ll go ahead and close it!
system
13
+1 @Confusionist
Admins are always checking the threads to see if any should be closed. If they need to be closed, we close them. If not, we let them sink. Thanks.
