Can we take the old forum threads from like maybe a year old and older and make them like read only
to keep the forum current
I dont think bringing up old threads does anybody any good and solus has changed and will change alot
Thats what the search function is for.
Input and thoughts welcome
Just thinking.

    Axios Thats what the search function is for.

    Exactly. The only reason to bring old posts back to life is for researching longstanding issues, and read-only access is fine for that purpose. It would save moderators from needing to jump in from time to time to ask users not to necro these old threads.

        WetGeek I dont have a problem with people starting a new thread and referencing an
        old thread about something they are having problems with.
        Which is prob a more effecient less clutter way of doing things.
        Not sure they could do that but I think something should be done.
        And I agree there time is better spent elsewhere.
        Just thinking
        Note think it would help us users to that like to help out on the simple things to sometimes I spend alot
        of time weeding out the bull. So I dont confuse the matter.

          that's the crappy thing about going back in time.
          does a SOLVED thread have any less value than an unsolved thread? can they both put someone in a position to troubleshoot so they can help themselves (point of this all.)
          many times I heard from users "I was able to fix this and got the idea from ......."

          and how many years/months constitutes "outdated info"?

          read-only is a good idea. a labor-intensive idea would be to prune all the pointless ones. the ones where mods/users a list of things to try and the user abandons thread/distro and thread dies on the vine. In other words, getting rid of all un-necessary and unhelpful stuff ("getting rid of the bull")---but that puts someone in position to make the call on what is bull and no two people will agree.

          read-only and thread pruning seem to go together. thought-provoking idea, @Axios

            brent Well I would think if a distro is actively being developed if something
            isnt done in a year (but thats something the developers could answer better than me)
            but this 3-4 year stuff its only going get worse as solus grows older.
            Thing about read-only the info is always there for someone.

            Kinda double edge sword person has solus for awhile gets a printer it wont work?
            then you got somebody that just did an update that went wrong?
            1st the printer if it was me I would do a search and see if anything came up.
            2nd on the update would look at current postings if nothing would post.

            I dont think any of the info is pointless as long as a person can search for it
            (heck even google pulls up solus forum posts)

            Just kinda struck a cord with me this morning and wanted to see how people felt.
            (To comment on a 3-4 year old post is pointless)

              The Solus Team has recently been discussing the problem of resurrecting old threads. We're testing out a plugin that will warn people if they try to replying to a post that's older than a certain time (that can be configured). We weren't terribly happy with replies to old posts either (some of which really needed new threads, because the issues were unrelated).

              Our main focus right now is getting the 4.5 ISO ready for everyone. This will be something we discuss more after that is released. We certainly don't want to do more moderation than we have to, it takes time away from answering questions, providing updates and maintaining the distro itself.

              We have no plans to prune old support posts, even if they are abandoned by the OP. That would be a ton of work that would add to our moderation burden. Also, there are times threads like that can be useful, if they give someone else some things to try that might help them troubleshoot a similar issue. There would be not a lot of value for a lot of work.

              Right now the plugin to warn people about posting to an old thread will likely be our first line of defense. We are also considering auto-locking older threads, but haven't started those discussions in earnest yet. Whatever we decide, we'll let the community know.

              I personally would like to see that threads with a last reply older than a certain threshold, say a year, be locked automatically. And then plugin that warns users if they try to resurrect a thread could be configured to give that warning only if it's older than 60 days or something like that. That way there's still a little wiggle room on "maybe this thread a few months old is still relevant", but really old stuff just gets a new thread altogether.

                ReillyBrogan I never thought of it that way from your view of having to help
                people and take care of problems.
                I like that idea and think it would be a big help on your end in many ways.
                I can see your reasoning.

                  The main issue is that people search for their issue, find some years old thread with various workarounds, and then post there saying they still have the same issue. Almost always the issue just looks the same, but the cause is probably completely different.