Locking Old Suggestion Threads

Daxterbeer

I personally find locking threads that no one posts on to be pointless. I can see someone adding a post with no real purpose to their own thread just to make it visible is a problem and I think that is only reason that locking would make sense. If a thread starts becoming toxic, VFMs should lock it.

If someone else commented on an old thread, I feel this isn't always a bump unless it is just a short post with no opinions or reasons. Some threads do get shared and people read it late and comment on it late.

Sometimes, a VFM's last comment before locking an old thread is to create another thread because the current one is old. At the same time, when we all talk about the issue such as the boss drop nerfs, they get merged. We don't need 15 EMS Reboot threads roaming around. Why not find the old one containing the most people commenting than creating a new one?

I can see this NOT working for General because things repeat such as periods of DC, questions, etc. that occur over and over again. Each suggestion in the suggestion thread should be unique or somewhat (if a VFM consciously remembers a suggestion thread asking the same thing as the new thread, they should direct that user to that pre-existing thread.)

Do you really feel old threads bumped by users other than the original poster should be locked?

AKradian

Ideally, it should be considered on a case-by-case basis.

Generally, "necro-posting" is frowned upon in online communities. Many forums automatically lock threads after some time has passed since the last post in them.
The reason is that many times, while the original suggestion is still relevant to some extent, many of the arguments for or against it have become outdated. We don't want the conversation to become derailed by people who don't realize they're responding to a year-old thread and start arguing about those no-longer-relevant points.

So in such cases, it's better to make a new thread, and rewrite the suggestion with all the insights gained from the old thread and from recent updates to the game. Always include a link to the old thread, to provide a historical perspective and allow people to study what others said before, while being aware that it's an old thread.

However, sometimes, especially in the case of bugs, it may be clearer to bump the old thread ("this is still an issue as of version X" or "this was fixed in version Y but seems to have returned") than to create a new one and let QA dig up all the old details.

Neospector

Bumping threads is generally accepted if you have something relevant to add. What is and isn't considered "relevant" is left to the moderators' discretion, although typically this involves bringing up recent events that have to do with the suggestion or extra examples that haven't already been included.

It's not acceptable to just post "bump" to keep the thread active. Particularly when you post "bump" repeatedly and the thread continues to die; if no one else responds to the post, then the post is dead, no matter how much you want the suggestion.