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Proposal: Automatically lock threads more than three months old with no replies

Discussion in 'Meta-forum Discussion' started by Lethn, Mar 31, 2022.

  1. Lethn

    Lethn

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    It really is getting beyond ridiculous now and the posters who do it know they're necro spamming it was one or two users before but now we're getting swamped with necro posting everywhere. It wouldn't be so bad if they were actually human beings but they write utter gibberish and it's very annoying as someone trying to spend my time helping out noobs where I can to keep coming across these weirdos and they don't even have any other posts to their name beyond their necro attempt.

    A straightforward and likely pretty effective solution I think would be to just do a forum wide lockdown of all topics older than three months or so to prevent people from doing this anymore. If people want the threads re-activated that badly they could ask the mods, most of the time though the only reason they post there is to spam and make it look like they're human beings.

    I mean I think I will name and shame because it's getting to the point now where I'm seeing threads from 2010 and it's completely unnecessary. The mods needs to clamp down and stop the forum from being clogged with junk because it's preventing noobs who actually want to learn getting help.

    https://forum.unity.com/threads/sendmessage-after-instantiation.70554/

    Don't get me started on all of the generic "Help me!", "It won't work!" topics that have been spammed lately.
     
  2. neginfinity

    neginfinity

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    I think this is not a good idea. As I received relevant questions and responses from old threads before.
     
  3. spiney199

    spiney199

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    I think there should be a pop-up to remind posters that they're responding to a thread with x number of years since the last post to it.

    And you can never stop noobs posting posts like that. I don't think it's worth the energy.
     
    NotaNaN likes this.
  4. Joe-Censored

    Joe-Censored

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    (Writing note to self to necro this thread in 91 days)
     
  5. Lurking-Ninja

    Lurking-Ninja

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  6. Lethn

    Lethn

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    LOL fair, I hardly ever post on the other sections for this forum so I thought general was appropriate, hadn't even noticed meta.
     
  7. mgear

    mgear

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    voting -1 for that, because:
    - people (well at least me..) have followed those old threads and quite often there is relevant update/fix/comment to the topic that i want to know
    - too short locking period would generate hundreds of similar topics (when they could be in the same thread, to stay relevant on changes and history) and this would further make googling impossible (need to go through similar topics, some locked and no recent info)
    - nightmare for asset store developers, if have to bump threads every x months (to keep them unlocked)
    - and probably more issues..
    - but so something like 5 year limit could work (although personally necro posts in general dont bother me)
     
  8. Antypodish

    Antypodish

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    OP should learn using search tool, as well as how to post on the forum. This is worse than any necro. All been answered already.

    https://forum.unity.com/threads/possible-auto-lock-of-old-threads-stop-necro-posts.423096/

    Not searching forum and being lazy to create new threads, also can be considered as spamming.
    Now mods need spend time moving thread to right forum section.

    I often see thread having useful answers few months to even few years after. Sure some necro happens. But report button can deal with it, with our mods help. Many thread have value, to be kept open, as topic is so universal, that locking it is not suitable.

    For example this thread could be easily response, or reminder to the issue, in the thread I have linked, instead new thread. Such necro exception is valid. However finding existing thread before posting, would prevent need for this thread.
     
    Last edited: Apr 1, 2022
  9. Lethn

    Lethn

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    It was made in 2016, if anything that shows exactly what I've been talking about, the others had more valid points with regards to asset threads and relevant posts.