Why topics must be closed when they are solved?

[stramin]

I always try following the rules, but sometimes I don't understand why they are there

I see some topics solved that were never closed, and nothing bad happened, they simply stopped posting there (or sometimes they even give more useful information after it was solved).

Why is necroposting bad? I think it's useful to continue a thread and not explain everything again in a double topic, it will make people taking longer to find an answer searching in different similar topics.

I think something like: "I also have this problem but the solution posted here didn't work for me because..." it is useful, for the people asking and also for people responding.

Many times I find a topic never solved and I have the answer! but it was posted 1 year ago then I can not post, and I think many people find this topic and don't get the answer because we can't solve it because there is a rule that prevents us from doing it.

Thank you for reading!

This reminds me to the TAG rules, tags are not really useful, we simply do it because it is a rule (https://forums.rpgmakerweb.com/index.php?threads/how-to-search-in-a-forum-by-tag.132891/).

 

[Shaz]

It's mainly to keep things organised.

Some people don't report their threads to be closed, and that's okay. But what sometimes happens is that people resurrect it after a long time, to ask questions that aren't related to the original question, and it ends up being totally different to what the thread title was originally about.

Sometimes what was the correct answer at the time is not the correct answer later, as engines are updated and some stuff changes. This may be why trying a solution that worked for the person who asked does not work for you, or perhaps the cause of your problem is not quite the same as theirs. Once you have many people discussing a problem that has morphed over time and with new posters, everything just becomes confusing.

As for old questions that never got answered ... if the person who asked still needs help, they should be bumping their topic. If they stop, we assume they either got the answer somewhere else, or they don't need an answer anymore because they've changed the way they're doing something.

We also often get new people joining the forum and bringing up those old topics while adding no useful information (eg "thanks for this", "this is interesting"). I can only assume they are trying to up their post count to get access to the hidden areas of the forum, and think going for the really old threads won't get them "caught".

If you have an issue that was mentioned in another thread but the solution doesn't work for you, just create your own thread, describe your issue in enough detail (sometimes your issue isn't quite the same as the original) and say you tried the solution suggested in the other thread, with a link to that thread, and what your results were.

TL;DR - nothing "bad" happens when people necropost, but it doesn't take long for the thread, and the forum, to become very confusing. Hence the rule.

 

[Oddball]

Thanks for this. This is interesting

It's mainly to keep things organised.

Some people don't report their threads to be closed, and that's okay. But what sometimes happens is that people resurrect it after a long time, to ask questions that aren't related to the original question, and it ends up being totally different to what the thread title was originally about.

Sometimes what was the correct answer at the time is not the correct answer later, as engines are updated and some stuff changes. This may be why trying a solution that worked for the person who asked does not work for you, or perhaps the cause of your problem is not quite the same as theirs. Once you have many people discussing a problem that has morphed over time and with new posters, everything just becomes confusing.

As for old questions that never got answered ... if the person who asked still needs help, they should be bumping their topic. If they stop, we assume they either got the answer somewhere else, or they don't need an answer anymore because they've changed the way they're doing something.

We also often get new people joining the forum and bringing up those old topics while adding no useful information (eg "thanks for this", "this is interesting"). I can only assume they are trying to up their post count to get access to the hidden areas of the forum, and think going for the really old threads won't get them "caught".

If you have an issue that was mentioned in another thread but the solution doesn't work for you, just create your own thread, describe your issue in enough detail (sometimes your issue isn't quite the same as the original) and say you tried the solution suggested in the other thread, with a link to that thread, and what your results were.

TL;DR - nothing "bad" happens when people necropost, but it doesn't take long for the thread, and the forum, to become very confusing. Hence the rule.

 

[ATT_Turan]

Most importantly is the part about outdated information. If someone necroposts in a two-year old thread asking about a plugin or a bug in the software, it's likely that plugin or the RPG Maker has been updated since then, so the causes of their problem and any fixes would very possibly be different from what was previously discussed in that thread.

Heck, you can find that in some live threads advertising plugins that have gone to several pages long - I've seen someone read the first page, see a bug described, and make a new post asking if it's been fixed, when it was addressed in an update on page 4.

 

[Shaz]

Just to clarify, necroposting is okay in the plugin release threads and the tutorial threads, as long as your question is on topic. The reason for this is that plugin creators will often update their plugin when a new version of the core scripts is available, rather than creating a new thread. Plugin and tutorial topics are "evergreen".

The necroposting rule applies to the support thread and the request threads, where someone wants help with something "right now", for an issue or need they are currently experiencing.

But yes, it's a good example - if a plugin thread that goes for a few pages gets people asking the same questions because they haven't read it all, you can see how support threads will do the same. The support areas are also a lot more active (people come up with new questions a lot more often than people release new scripts/plugins).

 

[ATT_Turan]

Yes, I didn't mean to imply one shouldn't post in the plugin/resource threads, just holding it up as an example of how information can become inaccurate over time.