Lock your own topics

[Sethamundo]

The title pretty much says it all.

I think it's a great idea and it would be useful for the topic's starter rather than requesting a lock by a moderator.  Another reason is that if a topic is going off topic or getting out of hand then they can lock it their self.  I know that's a moderator's job, but the moderators still have their normal powers, but this way a topic won't have to be locked by request or if it gets questionable or just plain breaks the rules.

Input on this?

[The Red Guy]

I agree. Sometimes you just want a problem solved, then lock.

[Krillious]

What if the topic is 'why does opera suck?' then some guy posts why and the original author of the topic thinks that the discussion is over and locks the thread. Now someone else could have posted and pointed out the good things about opera, etcetcetc

[Toumaz]

As good as this idea may seem, I think that it would be abused by immature people as Krillious stated above.

[Sethamundo]

What if the topic is 'why does opera suck?' then some guy posts why and the original author of the topic thinks that the discussion is over and locks the thread. Now someone else could have posted and pointed out the good things about opera, etcetcetc

That's really where good judgement comes into play.  In discussion topics of course you want to leave those open for a bit, but what if it's already eight pages long and people aren't discussion why opera sucks and they're flaming each other with fanboyism about who's avatar is better?

EDIT: Toumaz, like I said, this is where good judgement comes into play.  Let the admins take away self-lock privileges of certain people, or make a post count, or maybe even a karma count of 0+ requirement.  It's merely a thought, but it would be a very nice feature if we could find a way to prevent the abusal of it by immature people.

[Toumaz]

Being given those arguments Sethamundo this idea gets my full support. Post count and the self-locking privilege sounds good enough for me, though Karma should not be used as an indicator of good judgement since other users who may lack judgement themselves can affect it.

[Sethamundo]

Karma should not be used as an indicator of good judgement since other users who may lack judgement themselves can affect it.

Very true.  I was just throwing ideas out there.

[Fluffy]

Pretty bad ideas, man. Though I support the original one.

[Valorman]

100% supported.

[FliesLikeABrick]

This was enabled for a while when the new forums first started up and it didn't go over so well.

It is bad to have a ton of locked topics lying around (everyone tends to lock their topics after they get their questions answered ) because if someone gets here via google or comes here and searches and finds their thread... they can't post to get further questions about the exact same topic answered.  Instead, they're forced to create a new thread entirely.

[bja888]

I can't find it, but I started a topic then locked it so on one could post. It has the potential to be a problem.

[Graham]

Why doesn't everyone just become a mod?

Anyway, its a good idea, I lock my own topic sometimes. I say its worth another try but bricks is the final word here.

[FliesLikeABrick]

I just really don't want to see people create unnecessary threads because someone locked theirs due to one spammish/unhelpful post or fear of being spammed.

If you ever want your own thread locked, click the "Report to moderator" link and just say "please lock this thread" and include a reason if you want.  If we feel that it really does need to be locked, we'll take care of it nice and fast for you.

Is there any reason that this doesn't work for people?

[Sethamundo]

It works, it's just quicker to lock it yourself.  I understand fully what you're saying about the problems this can cause, but I think that with enough restrictions on it and things to keep abusal to a minimum that in theory it could be great.  Maybe a moderator can flag a topics they choose to be "un-self-lockable".  And say maybe that self locked threads would be by default deleted after oh I don't know, a week?

I don't mean to push the limits with this idea, but I think with the right limitations and whatnot that it could be useful and handy.

[FliesLikeABrick]

Your alternate solutions create some other concerns:
1) having moderators have to flag all of the important threads would create a much larger burden on them when they could just be looking for spam and potential problems in the first place
2) Deleting self-locked threads would defeat the purpose and value of having a comprehensive and searchable forum.  The repository of knowledge would then have its purpose deleted because the threads most likely to be self locked are the ones with simple questions that everyone has.
3) What kind of restrictions do you think could be enforced?  Just about nothing could be automated and I really don't want to burden the moderators when they could just be doing everything that they do now that works (in my opinion) fine.

Overall, I just really don't see what is wrong with how we do it now and why we should risk encountering problems for what I see as unnecessary change.

I'm not trying to tear this idea to threads and I'm not trying to be harsh, but I view it as unnecessary to the functionality of the forum at little or no gain.

[Sethamundo]

Oh, don't get me wrong there is nothing wrong with the way things are going now, I'm just brainstorming restrictions to keep the idea useful, helpful, but not able to be abused heavily.  As you've said though, the automatic deletion of topics would defeat the purpose of self deleted topics.  Don't worry about being critical either, it definately points out some major flaws in the system suggested.

Just a thought, but throw out locked topic autmatic deletion and maybe make topics that get lots of hits (views) unable to be self deleted.  That could keep the useful threads open in theory.

[SadistAtHeart]

Gamefaqs has an option to lock your own threads- but you have to wait 20 minutes after somebody posts. So I couldn't just lock my "hey browser fanboys argue here" thread after somebody conflicted my opinion, I'd have to wait until 20 minutes of inactivity.

Hell, I think it's worth a shot. Plus, with the 20-minute restriction, it would still be up to the moderators to lock topics that get out of hand.

[Sethamundo]

Gamefaqs has an option to lock your own threads- but you have to wait 20 minutes after somebody posts. So I couldn't just lock my "hey browser fanboys argue here" thread after somebody conflicted my opinion, I'd have to wait until 20 minutes of inactivity.

Hell, I think it's worth a shot. Plus, with the 20-minute restriction, it would still be up to the moderators to lock topics that get out of hand.

Maybe add a 24 hour restriction.  Twenty minutes seems a bit short in my opinion.

[FliesLikeABrick]

This brings me to another point: is it really worth our time to code a system which enforces those kinds of restrictions?  I vote no

[Sethamundo]

This brings me to another point: is it really worth our time to code a system which enforces those kinds of restrictions?  I vote no

Good point.  If I knew PHP I'd code it myself and let you give it an inspection but I unfortuneately don't know any coding languages.