What is with all the topic locking?

[SmilesAustin]

I'm a little bit confused on this "issue." I understand that I'm new... but then again I thought I stumbled onto a good Dallas Cowboys forum where there were a lot of people who wanted to discuss things pertaining to the team.

It looks to me like there's 2,300+ members here, so I guess I'm confused as to why topics are getting locked simply because something has been discussed before, when there's new people and new information everyday. Usually, if you don't want to discuss something or see it being discussed then you just don't read the topic. New people join everyday and they aught to have the right to talk about whatever they want.

I know nobody will listen to me since I'm a "new" member here, but I came here to talk Cowboys...and looks to me like topics are getting locked because "we've already talked about that" so looks to me like you're going to run out of things to say.

I'd hate to be that a**hole new member who comes in and thinks he knows everything. But when you've got a republican here whining about freedom of speech then you know you're doing something wrong :)

[mcaje]

Welcome to the boards Zac.

I'm not sure what forums you're talking about as I personally haven't closed any down or for that matter even seen any for quite some time now. When we do close them down, it's usually because two people can't agree to disagree on a particular subject so we just put an end to it.

You do make some very good points though about new members joining up every day and let me assure you, regardless of how long you've been a member, your opinions will always be treated with the same respect as anyone else's. After all, you've already displayed a level of intelligence vastly superior to that of the fans of 31 other teams.

This is a very friendly board.

Once again, Welcome. B)

[DonCanabis]

No man there's nothing wrong with what you're saying but usually a topic gets locked for 3 reason it has gone totally off topic, 2 members started attacking each other and 3 another topic has made about the same topic recently an it hasn't add any new information.

I know you say well I'm new I didn't know about the other, that's why the moderators let it roll for a while to see how it holds, how members respond to the repeated topic and if they notice that nothing new has been added and the subject has reached a dead end once again they lock it to prevent fight between members.

in the Fitzgerald case it was a topic that was discussed for 2 weeks and didn't found a middle ground and it started to heat up, when you start the same topic a week later with no new information it's when it becomes repetitive and can create problems with members.

They want to keep the board fresh we all want to talk cowboys btut we don't want to talk about the same think for 17 weeks or else we would be stuck with the JJ vs Barber subject still (even if we go back to it from time to time).

As you said the trade deadline is over so fitz can't be traded and won't get released, so from today until February nothing is going to change in that subject so what's the point to discuss a subject that won't be even remotely close to a reality in the next 4 months? now if in January you start the thread again I believe there will be a lot of people that would like to talk about it.

[SmilesAustin]

MCAJE: I think Don probably answered your question about what it was that happened. But yeah I had started a topic about where Julius Jones might end up next year. Threw out a few good ideas, and good points. I'm a little clueless as to this whole "Marion Barber vs Julius Jones debate" mainly because if I was going to argue about anything it'd be that Julius Jones and Marion Barber BOTH are better than say.... Ryan Grant or Brandon Jacobs , etc. Didn't know there was a call for a Julius Jones ousting.

I guess my whole point is that if people are contributing to a topic and it's not a problem, why not just let it go? It ain't hurting anyone. I say if you don't want to see it and don't want to talk about it, that's why there's a lot of other topics out there to look at and discuss.

That said, I understand what you're saying, Don. On my forums (car-related) I get people coming in all the time asking questions that have previously been answered. Some of the moderators want to make a stink about "using the search function" but I usually tell them that if they've got a problem with it... then THEY can go find the topic and post up the link so the member can find the topic and read/post in the original one if they prefer. But I was thinking when you're dealing with dynamic content like football news that always changes, people have new opinions of, etc...just figured that was different.

Ah well. I'm through complaining. I'm just bitter that I just got here last night and have already had 2 topics locked that I was enjoying. I'll get over it :)

Zac

[DonCanabis]

hahaha I agree and maybe that's a good idea to bring back old threads when a repeated subject reemerges it's something to think about..... the thing with the JJ subject is that every week after a game the same subject reemerges with nothing new sometimes there's new addition like last week soem members comment that the coaches should go back to using barber in third downs and fourth Qtr because that seem to work early instead of the 1 series each and the coaches did that this week so it was pretty cool that some members predict it.

That's the kind of subjects that last the ones that bring something new a different approach to a related topic, when it's more of the same it's frustrating like with your own forum you don't want to explain the same question 100 times if nothing has changed.

but keep it up we all have got our threads locked it's better to get it locked that not looked at at all

[CowboyzAdam]

OK I am not going to re post what Don explained. Don you explained the reasons why we lock threads perfectly.

I am the one that Closed the Larry thread and the Julius thread. It is Joe and myself and our MODS job to maintain an uncluttered board without constant repeated threads. Plain and simple.

It has worked for this board for over 4 years now and we have a very close and great group of members here. It runs smoothly the way we are running it and we do not plan on making any changes. When I start to get members pming me to tell me that they are getting annoyed with the repeat threads I do something about it.

I look into the threads in question and if I think or one of the MODS think that it is repetitious then it gets closed. It is not personal and never has been. Our members like it this way and we don't get to many complaints about the way we run the site either. We are always open to suggestions and I encourage them because it only makes our site above the rest when we listen to our members.

I invite you Zac to read the board rules to get a better feel as to how we do things in here. I know you are new and I don't expect you to know everything. I will say usually when a thread gets closed it gets closed. The MODS won't argue with you and they are not going to re-open it either. They are closed for good reasons and not open for debate.

I have taken this time to explain to you becuase you are new and I want you to know the closing were not personal towards you. I want you to enjoy your time here and you are always welcome here.

BTW...Thanks Don for helping out with the explanation before I could get to it.

[SmilesAustin]

Like I said, I'm through complaining about it because it's not worth it. I came here to talk Cowboys...and so if I ultimately find out that I can't do that here then I'll do it elsewhere. I'm not picky...I'm just looking for a good place to talk Cowboys. Ya'll have got 2,300 members, so you ain't gotta worry about me complaining.

But for the record... to anyone who thinks it is worth it to argue about who's better between Julius Jones and Marion Barber, that's about the dumbest thing I've ever heard about to argue about. They're both Cowboys, and they are a great 2-back system. That's really all that matters, isn't it?

Zac

PS: As I said, I'm a forum owner myself and an avid forum-goer as well. I know all the standard forum rules. Trust me, this "rule" that basically prevents any new member from creating a topic about anything would be the only one I'd be liable to break. I don't expect you to change the way you run things because of me. I've got a hundred reasons and not enough time. To keep things simple, I'll just let other people create the topics from now on and I'll just post in them and if they get locked then they get locked I guess.

[catts]

I'm a little bit confused on this "issue." I understand that I'm new... but then again I thought I stumbled onto a good Dallas Cowboys forum where there were a lot of people who wanted to discuss things pertaining to the team.

It looks to me like there's 2,300+ members here, so I guess I'm confused as to why topics are getting locked simply because something has been discussed before, when there's new people and new information everyday. Usually, if you don't want to discuss something or see it being discussed then you just don't read the topic. New people join everyday and they aught to have the right to talk about whatever they want.

I know nobody will listen to me since I'm a "new" member here, but I came here to talk Cowboys...and looks to me like topics are getting locked because "we've already talked about that" so looks to me like you're going to run out of things to say.

I'd hate to be that a**hole new member who comes in and thinks he knows everything. But when you've got a republican here whining about freedom of speech then you know you're doing something wrong :)[/b]
I'm new here too and I think it's my fault they shut down two threads. I was the last poster on both threads.
The same thing happens to me on the Packers' BB but it's usually due to the fact I am talking too much about the Cowboys....so this is dissapointing to me [catts] too.

[catts]

I apologize,
I thought this and the two other threads, w/me as the last poster, were locked ...but they are not.
I guess it will take me time to get used to the small icons to the left of each topic.
When I saw the one [w/a pad lock] on it I realized my mistake.

[CowboyzAdam]

Thank you for your feed back. We will continue to remain open to any members Ideas and feed back whether negative and positive as long as it is done in a constructive manner.