"Anchor" topics as alternative to "Closing" them

[//Nathan]

<rant>What's the point of having a discussion board where topics are closed? If one feels the need to reply to a closed topic, does one create a new topic and risk pissing off the mod who closed the other one?</rant>

I have never liked the idea of closing topics. I believe it takes something away from the concept of a discussion board. Now, I do believe there are uses. For example, to use this board as an example, when someone comes in and wants to know where to download IPB 1.3, obviously that topic is going to be closed. But the other day, a topic got closed for being bumped months later... and I was confused as to why it was closed, just for being old. So I began to further develop an idea I had been pondering.

I suggest that mods be given the ability to "anchor" topics. This means they are not closed; replies can still be made, but the topic will never be bumped. It will continue to sink despite the best efforts of people in the topic replying. I don't know how best this could be accomplished, but I'm thinking either no timestamp, or all timestamps would be +1ms to the last reply before it was anchored. Where closed topics get a lock icon, anchored topics would get an anchor, which would tell members that the topic can be replied to, but it won't raise it on the topics list.

Furthermore, topics could be auto-anchored after X days of no replies. This would solve IPS' woes about people bumping old topics. They could still reply, but the topic would not rise to the top.

Admins could anchor topics which have gone off-topic. Threatening to close or split a topic if it goes off topic is counterproductive; you then limit what people can talk about, and that also goes against what discussion forums are all about. But if you threaten to anchor a topic if it goes off topic, and offer to remove the anchor if people bring it back on topic, you're not really taking anything away, just taking it down from the active topics.

As far as active topics and new topics, I'm not sure how the system handles these. Are they topics with replies posted since the user has been here last, or are they made within X minutes, like the last few days? If the former, anchored topics would still show up on Today's Active Topics, and would indicate their forum has new posts. If the latter, they could well be hidden on those as well.

To close, the reason I think this is such a good suggestion, or a good idea to start, is it's something people could use, that mods/staff members here would actually use. It offers an alternative to closing topics, a compromise of sorts.

I may not have all the ideas right, but that's why I'm posting... maybe we can hammer this out into something better.

[Kman_]

Good idea, I agree with it.

[ZainZ]

100000

[cojo]

Your suggestion here will shift frustration from readers to posters. Those who respond to old topics usually find them through a search. They may or may not notice the date but feel they have something worth contributing. When someone posts, he usually wants others to see it. If old topics are kept buried, you might as well close them because at least the average person would understand what the latter meant with little to no explanation.

The problem w/ currently designed message boards is that information gets quickly buried. Something read say a month or more ago is pretty old to you, but the same info to a brand new person or someone who doesn't visit as frequently may be new.

Also, your suggestion would be an attractive feature to spammers. They could litter old topics on a board w/o admins noticing unless they're subscribed to the topic or forum.

[Dlf]

Just got an idea for that. What about similar to how annoucments and pinned topics are 'shown' same for these type of topics. When a admin or mod [if allowed] does 'anchor' it they would be shown under a similar things as pinned topics, annoument topics, and other 'important' topics. How about that?

[//Nathan]

Your suggestion here will shift frustration from readers to posters. Those who respond to old topics usually find them through a search. They may or may not notice the date but feel they have something worth contributing. When someone posts, he usually wants others to see it. If old topics are kept buried, you might as well close them because at least the average person would understand what the latter meant with little to no explanation.

The problem w/ currently designed message boards is that information gets quickly buried. Something read say a month or more ago is pretty old to you, but the same info to a brand new person or someone who doesn't visit as frequently may be new.

Also, your suggestion would be an attractive feature to spammers. They could litter old topics on a board w/o admins noticing unless they're subscribed to the topic or forum.

So what's the problem? If an admin wants a topic 'anchored' (or even closed) there's a reason for it - it's not to be 'mean'. On this board, they don't like old topics being bumped, period... regardless of whether someone has anything interesting to add or not. I've seen it happen - staff member closing a topic just because it was bumped. Or, as I said, if the topic goes off-topic. And, I guess I didn't spell this out... but if a member posts in an anchored topic, and they want to bring it back on-topic, they could use the Report feature to bring it to the admin's attention that the thread is back on-topic and ask to have the anchor removed. You don't have that option in a closed topic.

Regarding information getting buried, that's why there's a search feature. Or see the suggestion about starred topics. With my suggestion, as I see it, members will still be able to star anchored topics, and if starred topics are kept on top for each member, this would supercede the anchor - for that member only, of course.

And as for spammers, I don't see how. Sure, they could litter in old topics, but who'd see? If I went to a topic I'd made on this board which had sunk, yet I was the last poster, edited my post, and posted obscenities about IPS, even threatened Matt, who would ever know? Nobody, unless someone was down there reading old posts. (Not that I'd ever do that, I'm just saying.)

...

I have a second suggestion regarding anchors. Allow certain groups, by permission, to anchor individual posts. That is, say the topic is down a few pages, and they don't want to bump it to the top, but they want to add something. Going back to the starred topics... let's say a fight breaks out on my board, so I move it to the fighting forum. I check on it a few days later, and see nobody's replied to it in a day or two. I don't want to bump it, but I want to add my 2

[UBERHOST.NET]

Cool. +1

[//Nathan]

Just got an idea for that. What about similar to how annoucments and pinned topics are 'shown' same for these type of topics. When a admin or mod [if allowed] does 'anchor' it they would be shown under a similar things as pinned topics, annoument topics, and other 'important' topics. How about that?

No, my idea is to keep the topic down, not up.

Maybe they ought to have a feature, along your line of reasoning, where a mod could 'buoy' a topic for a limited time, have it stay on top for X hours or days, then sink. That could be neat.