I believe this is the correct place to discuss this. I have a question about the site and I can't seem to locate anything about the question that I have. My question is: What is the reason for topics having the reply option removed after a month with no activity? I am a new member and thought before diving head first into RPGs that perhaps it'll be best to check out the Off-Topic Discussions boards, check out a few Topics here and there, and then perhaps share my input on a few things that I have interest in. To test the waters of the site, so to speak. Sadly, the Topics that I wished too comment within I couldn't. They had their reply options removed. Just wish to know why this is since I do not see the purpose of such a move to be in place due a number of different reasons which can be explain further if need be. Thanks in advance.

Old enough topics are locked from further replies due to necro'ing in the past. After a certain amount of time, they automatically are locked.

I thought as much, but better ask to make sure. Such a shame though, I guess, but oh well. No biggie. This would bring up yet another question I had: Are similar Topics akin to the locked/multi-month old ones allowed then?

I thought as much, but better ask to make sure. Such a shame though, I guess, but oh well. No biggie. This would bring up yet another question I had: Are similar Topics akin to the locked/multi-month old ones allowed then?

I implemented topic auto-locking with 1 month of no activity (only for some off-topic forums, not all forums) after a recent troll decided to bump many topics that were years old. It may seem like a "why bother?" issue, but I consider it disruptive since old topics tell the story of the time. As topics age and fall onto page 10 and beyond, then they have some relevance to the topics that also died on the same page. This only applies to forums like the Spam Forum that have their own subcommunities. Thanks for bringing this issue up to me. I had no idea if this was going to be an issue for anyone or not. I encourage you to pick up the conversation in a fresh topic. You may even want to link back to the topic that inspired you. I will add some text to auto-closed topics to encourage people that stumbled upon it to create a new topic if they wish to respond. Maybe it would even make sense to add a button that creates a topic based on an old topic so that they are linked in the system.

I am well acquainted with trolls and the like, first hand experience when I was a Global Moderator on a small scale, roleplaying site. I completely understand now why topics of certain sub-forums are being locked, and I agree of the outcome now that I now what occured. Thanks for telling me the situation in detail, highly appreciate the response. And no problem and thanks for the suggestions. I see why not having such an option wouldn't be useful for some, and I am more than sure I am not the only who may have had something to add to a locked topic. I guess I am simply the only one to be vocal about it. Again, thanks for the detailed response!

@MafiaM16 How old was the topic you were trying to respond to? Maybe I just need to relax it a few more months. Edit: I'll just change it so that forums have different auto-locking settings. For example, the Off-Topic Forum has topics that have been dead for 2+ months on the second page. I think it's unreasonable that you cannot respond to a topic that's just one "next page" click away. I'll consider this a bug and will fix it.

Sounds good. I'm glad that I decided to speak up on the matter. I hope others, not only myself, will benefit from this change.