Necroposting prevention: auto-close threads when inactive for X time?

[atani]

Ocasionally there's new activity on very old threads, often with no new relevant information.
Would it be possible to implement a auto-close thread or a warning when posting on threads when they're, say, 2 years from the last post date?

While on the topic and if the possible implementation is shared, this suggestion is similar but applies to resources:

"No support" warning for resources whose creator is not active on the Hub anymore

As people who share resources leave the Hub they will no longer provide support if someone asks for it in the resource's Discussion area. I was thinking there could be some sort of scheduled routine that could check the last activity of a user who has resources on the hub and add a post in the...

hub.virtamate.com

Thank you

 

[hazmhox]

I agree for old posts... i've been chasing the recent digging spree and it drives me nuts haha.

 

[MacGruber]

Please make sure to exclude some things, say Resource discussion threads. Would be sad to not being able to ask questions for a particular resource just because it wasn't updated in X years.

 

[Origin69]

It's understandable some people may post an answer in a current thread and see the 'Similar threads' field below and they paste it there without thinking.

When someone tries to comment on a post over a certain age, maybe a header could appear that says "This thread has not been used in x years" or "This user has been inactive for x", just to let people know.

 

[Dreamweavel]

I find many of the questions I have point to very old posts. Of course, im a very infrequent contributor to a community that often has been hostile to newcomers.

 

[atani]

I find many of the questions I have point to very old posts. Of course, im a very infrequent contributor to a community that often has been hostile to newcomers.

Just so it's clear, even if the old threads are closed or set with a warning before replying, they will continue to be readable in case they answer your questions. If they don't answer the question, then you're free to open a new thread which is probably in using a very different VaM version than the old closed question was.

Hopefully you've also seen that there's guides and a FAQ areas, all community-made by the way, that can answer many questions:

VaM: Guides

An organized collection of VaM Guides available on the Hub

hub.virtamate.com

Please elaborate how the community has been hostile to newcomers.

 

[hazmhox]

It's understandable some people may post an answer in a current thread and see the 'Similar threads' field below and they paste it there without thinking.

When someone tries to comment on a post over a certain age, maybe a header could appear that says "This thread has not been used in x years" or "This user has been inactive for x", just to let people know.

Unless you'd pop it in their faces, highly unlikely it'll be better than the information that already exists.
The thread displays the date, and you can simply rollover a person to check when they were connected last AND the post date.

 

[Origin69]

People should be more diligent, I agree. However people are dumb and lazy too, so creating a culture where people check the simple information may prove more difficult than popping a banner in their face (or a header in the post window when they click to type a reply to a mummified thread.)