Properties of a locked thread

[generalshenx]

Ok, these are just a few things I've been noticing as threads have been going up and then locked shortly after, so anyone who wants to post casually, keep these things in mind.

A thread seems to usually be locked if...

1. Someone is announcing to the board that they are doing something and simply wants reactions, without putting something in the topic that people can have a conversation about.

2. The thread goes extremely off-topic to the point where there is no possible way to return it to its original purpose.

3. The topic is dead (a.k.a. one month of not posting in it), topic lives, topic dies again, topic lives again....(and so on and so forth). I've noticed the forum games fall more victim to this than anything else.

4. Don't create a thread that can and probably will turn into a flame war. Yeah, there's the argument of saying it wasn't supposed to be that kind of topic, but inevitably, someone is going to think it to be fun and deliberately send it in a bad direction. I know there are those kind of people out there.

5. Don't create your own personal introduction thread. This has become a recent trend. Use the public one.

Also, 2, 3, and 4 are technically against the rules of the message board anyway.

In short, I would say if you can't have a conversation with someone fact-to-face on the topic for a good period of time, it might not be worth it to post, and it probably isn't.

Something else, don't post in a thread just because you've not posted in a week or more and you're trying to make up for it. It happens.

Like I said, this is simply an observation I've made over time. Save Netto and the other moderators the trouble of having to lock threads for these reasons among other things that happen.

Edit: #4 added on first edit of post.

Edit: #5 added on second edit of post.

[VileMKII]

your right like makeing a thread about a sertin boos in MM or some other game. just PM someone really!

[maverickzero]

thirded.
I'm completely agreeing with you. It's no fair the mods and the admins have to waste their time to lock every non-sense threads.

[ManiacalReploid]

I agree. Unfortunately, as long as this board ( as well as the internet ) exists, there will always be people who create non-purpose threads. Everyone creates one at some point. Saying that people don't is a straight up lie.

[Miguel]

It's mainly the people who are new to forums in general that make threads the mods have to lock. I remember when I was a forum newb. I used to make threads just to get questions answered. I see myself as... slightly less of a newbie nowadays. And so far I've only made one thread here (that I can remember) that got locked. I remade the stupid questions thread and it got spammed up, folowed by lockage by Raikon. I think he deleted the post he made to say he was locking it.

[Fefnir]

Um, sixthed? Spamming equals bad. And seeing how MR is right, I've got my locked thread out of the way. I know now that it's generally a bad idea to put "random" in a thread topic.

[ManiacalReploid]

This really should be stickied. With ocassional updates of course.

[Netto]

*Stickie'd*

[viruszero]

Another reason I'll lock a topic is if someone in it starts flaming or it borders on a situation where flaming could result. ( Thus I'd rather take preventative measures than see it degenerate into a flame war. )

[ManiacalReploid]

Yeah I agree. On a different note, what's with people ganging up on Fefnir lately? It seems like whenever I come into a topic that he's in, they're bashing him. Why are they doing this?

[Netto]

Most likely due annoyance because of his "excessive" roleplaying.

[Fefnir]

I joined to do that cuz Mantisk stopped. Also VileMKII had been pushing me to. And there are people like me in the real world that you have to deal with. By people like me I mean people with huge egos that talk about themselves a lot. But I digress, it's fun to roleplay, and this is getting off topic.

WAHOO!!

[Miguel]

I'm pretty sure that as long as we're disucssing the reasons mods would have to lock threads, we're staying on topic, and you were explaining why you were provoking bashings (by accident) that turned into bash wars that resulted in locked threads. And generalshenx said that just 1 and 2 were against the rules, but 3 is to. "No reviving dead topics". But I'm pretty sure the rule is overlooked if the reviving post is very,very,very relevent and important to the topic. Like if the ZX Advent thread dies, and then someone has a release date for North America, I'm pretty sure a post like that wouldn't earn lockage for the thread.

[Fefnir]

And in a newb's defense, if the topic is still on the first page, it's easy to overlook the date. Like in the Legends topic-thread-thingy, the latest post is almost a month old.
WAHOO!!

[generalshenx]

megafan said:

I'm pretty sure that as long as we're disucssing the reasons mods would have to lock threads, we're staying on topic, and you were explaining why you were provoking bashings (by accident) that turned into bash wars that resulted in locked threads. And generalshenx said that just 1 and 2 were against the rules, but 3 is to. "No reviving dead topics". But I'm pretty sure the rule is overlooked if the reviving post is very,very,very relevent and important to the topic. Like if the ZX Advent thread dies, and then someone has a release date for North America, I'm pretty sure a post like that wouldn't earn lockage for the thread.

Actually, I said 2 and 3 were against the rules. I made no additional comment for the first one. I think I've just about got a #4 for the list, but I am still thinking about it. I know there are far more than 4 reasons that the threads end up locked.