For a couple of months, the system will auto-close a topic when a post in that thread is marked as a solution.
The system will recognise this as the issue being solved and it will close the topic two days after the last reply, to avoid necro bumping in the future.
So, be very selective using this feature and only mark a post if it genuinely is the solution to the issue and not because you liked the answer. There are other features on the forum for such reactions.
The other upside is that other users who are searching on the forum for a similar issue can see the issue has solution.
If there would be an automatic feature in the forum that collects links to the marked solution posts.
It could collect them into one thread (and post) and it would be read-only for users.
Maybe automatic is a lot. But how about a category for solved threads moderators could move them to for very concise searching for folks with issues?
Automatic would be easier, but I’d almost prefer someone look at and agree it’s solved, solved correctly, and then filed appropriately. We don’t have THAT many issues here, and most are kernel it driver issuees.
Edit: I’m also aware that would be more work for moderators. I’d be willing to volunteer time to helping keep solution threads in order.
@Bryanpwo
I was wondering if once the post is marked as a solution it would be nice if you are not able to post anything more to it. Is that possible? Or not a good idea?
Even the moderators probably wouldn’t fully agree about if a solution was truly valid or not. Ultimately, I don’t think we want to start policing that. Then we have to manage through all the people who are upset that their topic was or wasn’t moved.
Ultimately, is this really a big deal?
The amount of topics that get closed that people need further follow-up on is probably extremely rare. In those cases, the individual can flag it or PM a mod who can take care of it quickly. It seems like creating a work-around to avoid auto-closing solved topics would cause more work and frustration than the auto-closing does.
I think that a 48-hour gap before closing is a good amount of time. This keeps some time for an eventual follow-up. Some issues need that, something like, After working a couple of hours the issue really disappeared, or something or Timeshift really does auto back-up now.
I was just referencing a space to put solved threads most importantly. A one stop place where folks could search with any degree of accuracy so we don’t get another barrage of people who don’t know how to, or don’t know that they should try the lts kernel. Anyone who is anything other than brand new should know to try to lts kernel before creating help topics. . . and it’s been a LOT over the last couple of weeks.
The moderators don’t need to fully agree on it being solved. If the topic has been solved and closed, it’s solved and closed in 48 hours anyway. It’s been agreed upon by the forum at that point. Leave it to one or two people to move the topics. And people can grow up if they are upset about their topic not being moved. Catering to children doesn’t help anyone.
Creating a new forum section called “Solved Topics” isn’t going to make people more likely to search before posting. Realistically, it won’t even make them that much easier to search for.
Maybe this also needs to added to the Forum as a topic or the Wiki to show users how to search for existing solutions? As @pebcak has shown. Maybe the users are unaware. Not looking? Don’t know where to look?
