Give a reason for closing a thread ?

InReality

I'm wondering whats the story with Mods closing threads.

Are they "obliged" at the moment to give a reason for closing a thread ?

I had a thread closed on PI today , and no reason given.

Nevyn

We are not obliged to give a reason in the thread.
I am currently in the middle of modding Pi/Ri, approving posts ect and I closed the thread.
You pmed me for an answer at 17:52 and I gave you one by 18:05.
You didn't give me or any or the other mods a chance to reply before you started a thread here at 18:01.

Is there something else ?

DeVore

They are obliged to give a reason to the admins if asked.

The admins are not obliged to give you a reason.

Either may choose to give you a reason.

You should also let time pass before concluding that they aren't going to choose to share that reason with you.

DeV.

InReality

T - Are you being sarcastic ?

I was not posting here because of the speed of response to my PM , I don't know why both of you assumed that.

I assumed I would get a reply back by PM , which I did.

I'm posting here to get reponse to

1) the current general policy of closing threads.

2) possiblity of starting a debate about that - this is a feedback forum after all.

Beruthiel

InReality wrote: »

1) the current general policy of closing threads.

That depends on the forum.
Threads are closed for many different reasons.
Most of them are pretty obvious if the Charter has been read.

Nevyn

InReality wrote: »

Are you being sarcastic ?

No.

InReality wrote: »

I was not posting here because of the speed of response to my PM , I don't know why both of you assumed that.

You started this thread about the locking of the same thread which you pmed me about, I posted up the time to show that I had already responded to a query from you about this.

InReality wrote: »

I'm posting here to get reponse to

1) the current general policy of closing threads.

2) possiblity of starting a debate about that - this is a feedback forum after all.

Threads get locked for a wide range of reasons, which can vary from forum to forum.

What are you looking for debate on, that general policy or why that specific thread in PI was closed ?

InReality

Beruthiel wrote: »

That depends on the forum.
Threads are closed for many different reasons.
Most of them are pretty obvious if the Charter has been read.

I had a read through the PI charter and don't see the obvious reason for the thread to have been closed.

A possible one was "dragging up old threads is a no-no".
However the post had only been inactive for about 24 hours , before I posted in it.


I asked by PM why and was given the following reason.

the thread had come to a natural end there had been no posts for nearly 24 hours and the op had not come back to the thread.

Based on this i'd suggest the following.

1) As "a natural end" , is a matter of opinion , threads in general should not be locked unless
it breaks another forum rule.

2) If a thread has been inactive for less than 48 hours it should be given the benefit of the doubt, and not be locked.

3) Somehow highlighting the fact that OP being able to PM for a thread to be re-opened.

Beruthiel

I had a read through the PI charter and don't see the obvious reason for the thread to have been closed

Going off topic and turning the issue into a debate.

That thread had turned into a debate pages back.
I asked people who wished to debate the issue to take it to Humanities.
At 10 pages, the issue was well and truly covered for the OP.
There was no need for it to continue.

Nevyn

InReality
while I have no quibble with you publishing publicly that part of a pm from me to you on this matter, there is an etiquette that pms are not published with out the permission of the person who sent them to you.

Thaedydal

Quazzie

Thaedydal do you generally not post a reason for the closing of a thread as a policy yourself? Its perfectly understandable if you don't because of the sheer volume of threads to moderate and the sensitive nature of PI. I'm just curious as I've noticed that the AH mods recently have been making great effort to post a reason for a locked thread, and I know myself personally I find it greatly useful as it tends to let others know how the Mods think on a subject and over time leads to regulars knowing what acceptable and whats not.

Again just to reiterate I don't know the thread mentioned in the OP and just curious as to Thae's personal views on stating reasons for thread closures. Is it a case of being too busy, or more a case of you feel it isn't neccesary?

Terry

Quazzie2002 wrote: »

Thaedydal do you generally not post a reason for the closing of a thread as a policy yourself? Its perfectly understandable if you don't because of the sheer volume of threads to moderate and the sensitive nature of PI. I'm just curious as I've noticed that the AH mods recently have been making great effort to post a reason for a locked thread, and I know myself personally I find it greatly useful as it tends to let others know how the Mods think on a subject and over time leads to regulars knowing what acceptable and whats not.

Again just to reiterate I don't know the thread mentioned in the OP and just curious as to Thae's personal views on stating reasons for thread closures. Is it a case of being too busy, or more a case of you feel it isn't neccesary?

People requested a reason be given for the closure of AH threads.
We obliged.
PI is a different kettle of story (I know what I said).

CuLT

I think this thread title would make for a good After Hours game.

Nevyn

It has never been (as far as I am aware) required, policy or practice to have to give a reason for closing threads in PI.
Very rarely there will be query as to why and an reply will be given but I have never
seen there be enough queries on a regular enough bases to warrant making it common practice or policy.

InReality

I think giving a reason for closing a thread in PI , would be at least as important as in AH , and for the same reasons.
It would also allow a reminder to the OP that they can request the thread to be re-opened.


Let me bring you through my thoughts/actions yesterday, and why I asked this question in the first place...

Read through the relevant posts in the PI thread since my last login

I spend 10/15 minutes composing a response and post it.
Then I decide to edit the ending a bit.
Get an error - thread is locked.
Ok thats a bit surprising - someone must have been a muppet in the last few minutes and posted something inappropriate.
Check the thread - nope nothing apart from my last post.
Ok .. so double check the last few closed threads - ok 2 years old , jokey one about george micheal.

Thaedydal wrote:

It has never been (as far as I am aware) required, policy or practice to have to give a reason for closing threads in PI.

All with a comment from a mod.
Back to the thread again - double check - no comment from mod.

Now if you had been the poster would you find that acceptable ?

Nevyn

AH has a higher ammount of posters which are new to the site arriving on a regular bases and if the mods there find that makes their time modding easier then that is their choice.

The AH forum is not the PI forum there is currently no site policy which requires mods to place a reason in a thread when they have cause to lock.


I have often as a poster ( and I am only a poster in the vast majority of the forums on this site aside from the handful I do mod ) had a thread locked while I was replying and have at times gotten irked at this but such is life, but I always assumed the mods had a good and valid reason for locking the thread, sure why wouldn't they, it's not like threads are locked for kicks or lulz. Mod actions are taken for the good for the forum as per the remit of the forum and the charter of the forum and the site rules.

Otacon

Thaedydal wrote: »

I have often as a poster ( and I am only a poster in the vast majority of the forums on this site aside from the handful I do mod ) had a thread locked while I was replying and have at times gotten irked at this but such is life, but I always assumed the mods had a good and valid reason for locking the thread, sure why wouldn't they, it's not like threads are locked for kicks or lulz. Mod actions are taken for the good for the forum as per the remit of the forum and the charter of the forum and the site rules.

Do you not think that to avoid more threads being locked for a similar reason, the mods could have posted a quick message as to why the thread was locked? You are assuming the mod had a good reason, but without knowing what it was, could you not easily do the same thing again?

Nevyn

Threads get locked for all sorts of reasons, I don't need them explained to me, if it was something I had done which causes it to be locked which was against the charter of the fourm then I would expect to be warned or banned for it, it that doesn't happen then it wasn't something I did.

As for a thread getting locked while I am replying then thats just timing and nowt I can do about that.

If I wanted an explanation I will do as the op has done and ask for one /shrug

samhail

As i said in my PM InReality, This is their forums and we are visitors here. They have made that very clear.

They do what they want and make justifications after.
I live with it

Nevyn

If enough posters think that such a thing should be required I am sure the PI mods will
take that on board and have a discussion on it.

I choose to explain why the thread was locked, an admin has already said I am not obliged to do so,
but as I feel that genuine queries should be answered, I did.

and here come the fight da power mod conspiracy posts, I am done with this thread.

DeVore

InReality: Did you get a reason in the PM response from Thead?


DeV.

Wibbs

Thaedydal wrote: »

If enough posters think that such a thing should be required I am sure the PI mods will
take that on board and have a discussion on it.

I choose to explain why the thread was locked, an admin has already said I am not obliged to do so,
but as I feel that genuine queries should be answered, I did.

+1 In most cases I've seen on PI reasons are given for closing threads.

InReality

I think it would be simple courtesy to say on a PI thread why it was closed .

Isn't that what good communication is ?

Closing a thread is relatively uncommon on PI , so I don't think there would be a large additional time involved to post a short answer.

As wibbs pointed out as most of the time a reason is given
at the moment, so why not make it a clear policy for PI ?

Beruthiel

InReality wrote: »

I think it would be simple courtesy to say on a PI thread why it was closed .

Can you answer this question please:

DeVore wrote: »

InReality: Did you get a reason in the PM response from Thead?


DeV.

InReality

InReality wrote:

I think it would be simple courtesy to say on a PI thread why it was closed

Beruthiel wrote:

Can you answer this question please:

InReality: Did you get a reason in the PM response from Thead?

If you read my point carefully , you will see its about posting the reason for closing the thread , in the thread .

If you read my second post , you will see I acknowledged I got an answer by PM.

Beruthiel

InReality wrote: »

If you read my second post , you will see I acknowledged I got an answer by PM.

Then this issue had been resolved.