[GUIDE] Lock Thread(s) After Receiving Enough Replies.

[nc50lc]

Topic Starters, please read: Close Your Started Thread if You already got the Answer(s) to your querries.
When you see a Mega-Spam Thread, who is the first person to blame? The Topic Starter himself!
Some newbies doesn't really know what they are doing, some members are just stupid enough to bump a 30-page thread with their "constructive" opinions bringing back the topic on top of the list, so on and so forth, leading to a spam fest.
Closing a thread isn't that hard to do, it will only take less than 10 seconds to click the button.
But I think most of them didn't know how, it's either that the button is too small or first time forum users didn't know that threads can be locked.

TL;DR, Here's very a simple tutorial for Topic Starters:

• After opening the thread you wanted to close, find the "lock topic" button on the Lower-Left part of the page
• If the button is unnoticeable, look at this:
  
  

After the thread was locked, the owner can always unlock it whenever he feel that the topic needs a bump or additional posts.
To avoid duplicates or new threads/topics with previously answered questions, edit and add "[SOLVED]" to the title before hitting the lock button as LoyceV suggested:

For technical questions, it's very helpful to add [SOLVED] to the topic title before locking it.

And here's the best thing: if you have a problem, and you're looking for a solution, add "solved" to your search question in Google. It will help you find what you're looking for.

I hope in the near future, there will be no more MegaSpamFest threads. But memes in the Speculation thread are still welcome.If you want to add this message to your replies, you can use this:

Code:

[url=https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=2841800.0]Lock Thread(s) After Getting Enough Replies.[/url]

Example: <snip>... remember to Lock Thread(s) After Getting Enough Replies.  

[TheQuin]

It's a nice idea but the problem is that most of the spam mega threads were created by account farmers. They just post a thread with some vague topic that is easy to make bland replies with all their alts. When the moderators lock or trash them they just make another one.
We'll have to wait and see how much difference the merit system makes. My initial feeling is that there are enough higher ranking accounts already in the hands of shitposters but eventually they'll get tagged or blacklisted from sig campaigns. It'll take a long time for this to fully change things.

[Jet Cash]

Threads such as " will bitcoin replace banks" are trivial kindergarten stuff, and should be either deleted or archived. They are the equivalent of asking if cars will replace houses because a couple of people are living in their cars. Constantly bumping them to keep them on the first page diminishes the image of Bitcoin Talk, and probably contributes to the emigration of some of the better posters who were here when I first joined.

Bitcoin talk has become the crypto bounty discussion and promotion forum rather than the Bitcoin Talk forum. I've more or less decided that it is better to join the herd rather than try to fight the flood. At least as a herd member you get to share the best grass.

[taiwww]

To be honest people here should be that much sensible to lock the threads when they are satisfied with the answers. But it looks like that they are hard to get satisfied and more mean than Oscar winner celebrity. 

I believe this is just about getting more posts added to the account and shitting on the same thread when someone replies. As far as I imagine it does look like attempt to increase the activity because they can't think of different questions and are lazy enough to answer them or research about it.

Hopefully this will change as everyone will actually start reading through every threads and know that answer to their question already exists.

[bob3772]

It's a great solution and I also think we can help in this way by informing newer guys about it. We can easily say at the end of any responses we have given, something along the lines of 'if you feel like this answers your question completely please lock your thread by going to the bottom corner, this is to prevent spam in the forum'.

The problem is, most topics that get a lot of spam are open questions, stuff like 'why do you like bitcoin?' for these questions everyone's answer is different and so the OP won't ever lock them.

[hilariousetc]

Aside from the spammy threads likely being created for the purpose of farming which would make locking threads counterproductive to their goal, I think the bottom line is people are too lazy to do this. I think it should be encouraged though, but you only ever see very few threads actually being locked once they've got the reply they needed. I usually lock threads once that has blatantly happened or the op hasn't even been online in ages, but most people aren't going to voluntarily do this because why would they?

[r1s2g3]

Thanks for sharing the information I never noticed that button.

@Moderators , Instead of creating this button on lower left corner, we can create on upper left corner for more visibility.

[LTU_btc]

Thanks for sharing the information I never noticed that button.

@Moderators , Instead of creating this button on lower left corner, we can create on upper left corner for more visibility.

Mods can't do that. You should ask to forum admin theymos.
I think that for better visibility "lock" button should be in same place alongside with "reply" "(un)watch" "notify" and other buttons. Once when I wanted to lock topic, I literally had to search for "lock" button.
But I highly doubt that after making such changes more users would start locking their old threads.

[LoyceV]

Close Your Started Thread if You already got the Answer

For technical questions, it's very helpful to add [SOLVED] to the topic title before locking it.

And here's the best thing: if you have a problem, and you're looking for a solution, add "solved" to your search question in Google. It will help you find what you're looking for.

[loscemodelvillaggio]

I totally agree on the need of thread locking. But as you all point out, many OPs are lazy, or not sensible, or just forget (some) threads they opened.

In my opinion, threads should be "auto-closing", meaning that at thread-starting time the OP should choose a maximum number of replies, after which the thread stops accepting replies, automatically. Might 500 be a feasible number? Or even 100, or 300? It also depends on the topic, so should be left up to the OP, but let's put a limit!

For example, I found theymos' interesting and useful "Enhanced newbie restrictions & requirements" thread (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5030366.msg45810047#msg45810047).
Problem is, around 880 replies in less than a month!!!
Even if it isn't a "question to be solved", and it's right a good amount of discussion, but are we really sure that so many replies can be all of medium-to-high quality? I don't think so...
Moreover, how much time does it take reading all of them? It's clear that many people decide to post a reply having read just a page or two (maybe!)

Another issue I faced is when the subject of the thread is a scam. Of course the OP isn't going to lock it! If the moderators can't check everything, an automated thread blocking (if not deleting) system would be more than welcome.........