# automatically lock old threads?



## pushing50 (Aug 5, 2010)

There seems to be (to my eyes) a flurry of posts to zombie threads, some many years deceased. Is there a way (and desire from mods) to automatically lock threads after some extended period of inactivity? If there isn't any comment for 18-24 months, surely it's dead, Jim.

Old content is definitely valuable, but reanimated just gums up the works.


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## DayOne (Sep 19, 2014)

This!


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## Hope1964 (Sep 26, 2011)

I always report them when they get bumped by someone other than the OP. That's the fastest way. Once in a while someone comes back after many years and updates, that's always nice to see, and nice if they bump their old thread.


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## Young at Heart (Jan 6, 2015)

I think that the moderators should carefully read any new comments to an old zombie thread.

The reason is I have seen a few cases where someone really put there heart out there to say they had the same problem as the OP. I felt sad that they had put their heart out there and become vulnerable and then had no one respond because the thread was locked.

In such cases, it might be better to move the new comment to its own "new thread" include a note explaining forum policy and a link to the thread that the person commented on. That way they might get the help they are looking for.

I have seen other comments where they are just commenting on old news.


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## Rubix Cubed (Feb 21, 2016)

Young at Heart said:


> I think that the moderators should carefully read any new comments to an old zombie thread.
> 
> The reason is I have seen a few cases where someone really put there heart out there to say they had the same problem as the OP. I felt sad that they had put their heart out there and become vulnerable and then had no one respond because the thread was locked.
> 
> ...



I agree with this 100%. A person is hurting and does a google (or whatever ) search and comes up with an old thread that matches their situation. They create an account to reply while never looking at the posting date ( we all have done it) and then the thread gets locked and they just think TAM sucks, and likely going somewhere else, and depending on where, may get absolute garbage for advice.
Give them a heads up and move their thread to an appropriate place.


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## happy as a clam (Jan 5, 2014)

Rubix Cubed said:


> I agree with this 100%. A person is hurting and does a google (or whatever ) search and comes up with an old thread that matches their decision. They create an account to reply while never looking at the posting date ( we all have done it) and *then the thread gets locked and they just think TAM sucks,* and likely going somewhere else, and depending on where, may get absolute garbage for advice.
> Give them a heads up and move their thread to an appropriate place.


Completely agree. Probably lose many good posters this way. It takes a bit for newbies to figure out that people here have “their own” threads...


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## EleGirl (Dec 3, 2011)

Young at Heart said:


> *I think that the moderators should carefully read any new comments to an old zombie thread.*
> 
> The reason is I have seen a few cases where someone really put there heart out there to say they had the same problem as the OP. I felt sad that they had put their heart out there and become vulnerable and then had no one respond because the thread was locked.
> 
> ...


I cannot speak for the other mods, but I try to do this as often as I can. When I see a post from a new user that should really be the start of a new thread, I move that post and create a new thread for that user. If anyone has replied to that post, I move those posts to the new thread as well.

I also lock all zombie threads that are reported or that I notice.

One of the issues is that we mods do not read every post. We rely on TAM users to report problems/issues using the report button on the bottom left of each post.

There are some reasons that we don't automatically lock old threads. Here are some that I can think of....

1) The is no way to automatically lock old threads. So mods would have to do it manually. There are tens of thousands of old threads. We mods are not paid enough to spend out time doing this. We are all volunteers.

2) There are threads that have a long life. Sometimes they will go silent for a week or two. But then the OP returns with a new issue, an update, etc. So we don't know when a thread is truly done.

3) Some threads are not personal in nature but meant to be kept here for information purposes and there is no need to lock them. An example of the "Sex Starved Wife" thread. If this thread was automatically locked, it would be impossible to keep bumping it up to the top to keep it where people who need it can find it.

Those are a few of the issues.

If Zombie thread bother you, please report them using the 'report' button. TAM relies heavily on our members and we mods and administrators greatly appreciate it when you all take your time to do this.


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## EleGirl (Dec 3, 2011)

Rubix Cubed said:


> I agree with this 100%. A person is hurting and does a google (or whatever ) search and comes up with an old thread that matches their decision. They create an account to reply while never looking at the posting date ( we all have done it) and then the thread gets locked and they just think TAM sucks, and likely going somewhere else, and depending on where, may get absolute garbage for advice.
> Give them a heads up and move their thread to an appropriate place.


So when you see this, report it. You can put in the report that this user should have their own thread.


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## DustyDog (Jul 12, 2016)

pushing50 said:


> There seems to be (to my eyes) a flurry of posts to zombie threads, some many years deceased. Is there a way (and desire from mods) to automatically lock threads after some extended period of inactivity? If there isn't any comment for 18-24 months, surely it's dead, Jim.
> 
> Old content is definitely valuable, but reanimated just gums up the works.


I would vote for this.

I have occasionally posted to threads for which the last posting was years ago...by accident. Why did I find the thread to begin with? The TAM website presented a list of popular threads...it would not naturally occur to me that "popular" could include those with no contributions in over two years. I doubt if that software flaw can be fixed, but I'm pretty sure threads can be auto-locked after a period of inactivity.


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