Closing threads

On several occasions I think your threads are closed early before the “best” answer has been provided. This might create bounce effect for unregistered user since they did not find desired result.

Example thread:

I understand that date can play significant part, but level of closing should be brought down a bit.

Threads are not closed without good reason. In the case of the one you mentioned, it was closed after five months because (a) the OP had never returned to it and (b) it was attracting a good many spam/fluff replies. The latter is not obvious, because we do our best to delete such posts and keep the forums clean.

You are doing great job and I understand that weeding out the spam can be painstaking job. Thank you for speedy reply.

I agree with you that closing threads when a real solution has not been found may not be the ideal (not only for lurkers in general but also for active members that may have the same question)

But as @TechnoBear; said, many times they do need to be closed because spammers and fluffers seem to be attracted to those threads a post a lot of nonesense that help no one. Those spammers leave us with little choice :slight_smile:

Now if you feel that you can give a good answer to it or if you had a similar question that you feel that hasn’t been answered, do open a new thread

[font=verdana]As TechnoBear said, we don’t arbitrarily close threads – there’s no “autoclose” feature that automagically closes threads when they reach a certain age, or after a set period of inactivity – any closure is done manually by a moderator, and is usually prompted by a volume of spam or fluff posts.

If a thread is still active and generating useful and positive responses then it’s very unusual for it to be closed. If a thread has been inactive for some time and the OP hasn’t asked any follow-up questions, it’s unlikely that we’ll get anyone come back with a good answer. On those occasions when you find an old closed thread that you think should be resurrected, feel free to either click on the red flag and ask us to re-open it (and say why), or post a new thread and then red-flag it and ask us to merge the two threads.[/font]

Stevie that is good point with flagging posts/threads.

I have another question if you don’t mind. I would like to offer free software license to one Sitepoint member. Is there a place where we could offer such free stuff?

This again could create spam threads, but it could be limited to certain number of posts. Meaning users with x number of posts could do more stuff on the forum or even have forums where only 500+ users can open threads. Just a thought.

Why not send him a PM and ask him if he wants it?

The point is to promote our product with free offer.

Ah, I see.

Promotional posts are against forum policy. http://www.sitepoint.com/forums/faq.php?faq=selfpromo#faq_affiliate

Affiliate links, coupons, and offers

Affiliate links, coupons, offers are not welcome. DO NOT:

[list][]Post coupon codes, discounts, offers
[
]Ask for coupons, codes, discounts, invitations to services, etc.
[*]Post affiliate links. Links to Outwar and similar types of schemes are acceptable, as these are links to games. However, it should be obvious from the outset where the links lead to.[/list]

This is a serious offence that will often earn you an infraction or banning.

You could try the Marketplace

Or you could put the offer on your website and perhaps link to it in your Signature (as long as it meets http://www.sitepoint.com/forums/faq.php?faq=youraccount#faq_signatures )

Thanks. I might do something like that. Thread closed :slight_smile: