What makes you close a thread?

Discussion in 'Member and Staff Management' started by cpvr, Jul 31, 2012.

  1. cpvr

    cpvr Regular Member

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    Usually when I close a thread its because its been overloaded with too much drama and/or its gone off the main discussion, so thus, I tell the users to make a new thread or something, but the off-topic one rarely happens.

    What about you though? What makes you close a thread?
     
  2. Dan Hutter

    Dan Hutter aka Big Dan

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    In my community derailing is pretty much the norm. I look at is as the natural flow of conversation and generally don't close threads for that. We even have a few members that will purposely derail a thread if it's kind to heated which is kind of neat.

    Like @cpvr we usually only close thread are too heated to make heads or tails out of.
     
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  3. cpvr

    cpvr Regular Member

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    I noticed my community members and I do the same. Like we could be talking about food, and we switch the conversation to something else. It's usually not done on purpose though. I don't mind off-topic discussion because I favor freedom of speech.
     
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  4. webaficionado

    webaficionado Regular Member

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    In my forum, we used to get lots of threads with questions, inquiries, etc., and every time it was solved, we closed and moved it to an Archived section.

    Also, every topic that encouraged a non-civil discussion or that eventually turned into a gigantic flame war, was closed too. It's easier to close topics than having to keep them open and having to ban several people.
     
  5. Jessi

    Jessi Regular Member

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    My general rule is that a thread gets locked when nothing more positive/productive/relevant can be added and it needs to be shut down....but it still contains a lot worth reading, so it shouldn't be deleted. Usually this is going to be a debate thread that people have started pushing too far with, but aren't going to back down without being shut off entirely.
     
  6. bauss

    bauss Regular Member

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    I don't close topics, and I always leave them open for discussion. However, if a user wants to bump up a old topic they better have a good reason for doing so, or they'll get a infraction.
     
  7. Jessi

    Jessi Regular Member

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    Do you delete that post as well or leave it?

    Also, I forgot another reason that I sometimes close them. Occasionally there will be a thread that is bumped up from years ago by a spammer. If it continues to attract spam and I can't seem to shut that down, then I will close the thread if it's no longer relevant currently anyway.
     
  8. bauss

    bauss Regular Member

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    I'll delete the posts if they are spammy, but if it's okay quality then I'll keep them. But they'll still receive a infraction without a good reason to bump up the topic. I never had this problem on my forum to be honest, but now I'm thinking closing threads after a certain time frame might be a better idea.
     
  9. boatswife

    boatswife Regular Member

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    We will close threads if they get too heated, or we know that's the only direction it's headed. It depends on what it is if we leave it or hide it.
     

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