Why Close Discussions?

In the process of migrating a Ning site to Jamroom. So I'm reading in these support forums a LOT.

But I have a question. Why are all the old discussions automatically closed to comment? I find a thread that addresses EXACTLY what I'm trying to do and yet I can't ask questions there because it is closed. Wouldn't the people in that thread be best equipped to answer when they solved the very same issue?

I know on forums I'm a part of, people that have had the same issue are glad to help. Question on thread about 1972 VW busses? Glad to help!.. (even years later). But if we can't comment in the same discussion thread, the other participants will probably never see the question.

My question is, wouldn't it be more helpful to leave discussion threads open? Or is there some bad thing that happens that I'm not aware of?

Thx!
updated by @clrkprsn: 09/16/16 09:59:31PM

This is an optional setting in the Profile Forum module. We have it set to 90 days here in the Jamroom Support forum so we can be sure our users receive the "latest" advice. A lot can change in a module in 90 days, and often advice that is a year old no longer applies.

For your site this is something you just would not enable, allowing users to add a reply at any time.

Let me know if that helps.


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Brian Johnson
Founder and Lead Developer - Jamroom
https://www.jamroom.net

Thanks Brian. I see what you are saying with tech forums. But I still think I want to comment on older posts and get the responses from people in the trenches without having to retell the whole story.

I like them closed, it makes discussion stay on topic.

Ask question, get question answered, mark solved.

When threads just drag on and on and on and off topic It feels like they are not possible to mark 'solved'.

If a thread is marked as 'solved' then how it got solved is probably outlined in the thread, so if reading it doesn't solve the problem for you, then its probably not exactly the same question, so ask a new one

Pros and cons on both sides. You have the choice. Just setup your Forum module accordingly.


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Paul Asher - JR Developer and System Import Specialist