I regularly get notified about topics that I wrote in like six years ago, which have been dormant for six years and all of a sudden get resurrected when someone writes in them again. With the option to include an old topic to start a new one, would it be a good idea to close a topic after, say, one or two years of inactivity? I see other Discourse-based boards doing this too.
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I think that would be a good idea.
Instead of replying to an old thread, it could be linked for reference
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i donāt like the idea personally, i come across a lot of old posts that are still relevant. especially in the scripting/programming side of things.
you can turn off the notifications for them, the tools are there to control the annoyance. you can sort searched by date as well.
they really arenāt hurting anything by staying up. just my pennies.
Topics that are closed are still visible/searchable, just you canāt post to them anymore.
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ahh, ok, yeah, shut em down then! lol
i agree. 
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We discussed this internally a few weeks ago and didnāt come to any decent conclusion on any change of action to take.
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Maybe a timeout for notifications after letās say one year could solve the problem without closing the topic?
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if that could be activated as an option to check or uncheck if wanted, that would probably make everybody happy.
Case in point
Case in point
No. 
If the topic describes a problem that has been solved, the topic will fade away without any censorship. Some topics describe technological progress - there is no reason to close them.
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They are still searchable and can function as reference. Iām just fed up with people resurrecting topics from years ago, sometimes with inane comments. I donāt want the onus to be on me to have to change my tracking on these topics.
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I hear ya; this seems to be happening a lot lately
I would vote against closing old topics automatically. I find them helpful to comment on for bugs and issues that have been reported for a long time and still not addressed/resolved.
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I agree with Jarek here.
I think there are two kinds fo olds threads:
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The ones thatās really discussing things that have been fixed/changed/solved, to the point that those discussions are not relevant anymore. Those threads should be closed. And if thereās a resolution to the old request in that post, it should be listed at the end.
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The ones that despite being many years old, they are still relevant today, and in many cases showing how long these issues have been unresolved. Those should stay open.
I hope this helps.
Best,
G
I personally donāt mind getting notified about old topics or answers being revived/replied to by someone, who has taken an interest. I feel like users still being able to participate in these, prevents the recreation ad absurdum of similar threads about the same topic.
Users first searching, instead of blindly posting, get kinda rewarded for their exemplary behaviour, because they can revive a discussion, in case they havenāt found a specific answer (and donāt have to recreate the thread). Otherwise, why search in the first place, when you have to create a new discussion eitherway?
How many notifications do you guys even get (except staff)? I mean Iāve answered probably hundreds of questions in the last few years, and only get notifications about old threads from time to time. Itās not really that dramatic, and most people are only liking or writing kind words, because they already found what they were looking for.
I agree, that there should be an option for users, who donāt want to be notified about legacy threads, to turn them off. As for closing the threads, I donāt see any benefit and strongly disagree!
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Case in point
If the issue described reoccurs, isnāt it helpful to revive an old thread?
Only if it actually is the same issue, and not a somewhat similar issue.