[wp-forums] R: Re: Closing down threads regarding old versions of WP

[James Huff]

I ask at least twice, then just start deleting the replies. Usually like this:

Problem Guy: Help! Me too, though my problem is secretly unrelated to this thread.

Me: Hey there, please open your own thread. link

Problem Guy: I know, but I tried all. the. things!

Me: Ok, please open your own thread, as your issue is very different. link

Problem Guy: Y U NO HELP ME?!

Me: delete ^^

________
James Huff
http://macmanx.com
http://automattic.com

> On Jul 14, 2014, at 10:45 PM, andrew nevins <andrew.nevins.misc at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> How do you moderate this on the forums when you ask people to create a new
> thread and they don't? Say for example if the thread wasn't particularly
> old and you didn't want to close it? Delete comments again? Keep asking
> that people make new threads & have people complain we're overmoderating
> again?
> I do want to moderate this, but I don't want to be in that position again
> when I'm over-moderating.
> 
> 
>> On Tue, Jul 15, 2014 at 2:00 AM, Otto <otto at ottodestruct.com> wrote:
>> 
>> Hi!
>> 
>> You may be unaware of this, but a very large number of people, especially
>> new users posting support topics, use the "Notify me of follow-up posts via
>> email" option. Somebody replying to a topic with an unrelated problem of
>> their own is (totally unintentionally, mind you) sending emails about that
>> fact to almost everybody who has replied to that thread.
>> 
>> It does not make sense for us to be sending assorted random
>> unrelated emails to people who have posted in our forums, no matter
>> how accidentally or totally understandable the occurrence is.
>> The likelihood of some larger percentage of users marking the
>> forum's emails as "spam" and getting thus gmail on our case is simply
>> too great. We already have problems with people who say that our emails
>> go into their spam folders, and though we've fixed it to some degree, it's
>> not like it can't happen again.
>> 
>> As long as the response is nice and to the point (a "please start your own
>> thread" message), then I have to agree with the others here.
>> 
>> See, the driven4excellence person found a thread about the Jetpack widget
>> in a theme named "Customizr", and because they were trying to figure out
>> what the "Customizer" was in WordPress using Twenty Eleven, they posted
>> there. Somehow this person found this thread (google, I expect) and thought
>> it was the appropriate place, for whatever reason.
>> Now, while the mistake may be understandable, the fact that an email could
>> have been sent to at least 8 other people isn't.
>> 
>> Closing down the thread prevents anybody else from posting to that topic
>> and potentially emailing all those people again. If this thread is coming
>> up in a search for unrelated things, and it's potentially confusing, then
>> it needs to be closed in order to stop future problems with the same
>> thread.
>> 
>> Could the message to post-your-own-thread be somewhat nicer? Probably. But
>> the need to close the thread when this sort of thing happens is real. It's
>> not a punishment. It's not abandoning the user. It is preventing us from
>> spamming the crap out of our users.
>> 
>> -Otto
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> On Mon, Jul 14, 2014 at 7:27 PM, electricfeet at libero.it
>> <electricfeet at libero.it> wrote:
>>> 
>>> Education, yes. But it's education on forum usage, rather than education
>> on
>>> WordPress. (Surely we/you want the latter, not only the former.)
>>> 
>>> And what about welcome? Or community-building? Making people feel they
>> can get
>>> help here?
>>> 
>>> I think you guys are perhaps being too logical for your user base. I get
>> it, I
>>> really do. In my career I've been responsible for user support in quite a
>> big
>>> way (many years ago now). Enforcing rules places a nice order on things
>> (as
>>> well as sometimes being fun and empowering at times). But you also have
>> to
>>> consider how people FEEL in order to build a community.
>>> 
>>> If people aren't being disruptive--and no, this case WASN'T spam by any
>>> stretch of the term--then let it be. If someone wants to answer, to help,
>> leave
>>> them the opportunity to do so.
>>> 
>>> And after all what's the downside? They'll write again when they don't
>> get an
>>> answer? So?
>>> 
>>> N.B. I'm not attacking anyone here: I admire you all and your work (read
>> your
>>> archives over several evenings recently Mika;  thanks!). But I'm
>> genuinely
>>> shocked every time I see people given a welcome like this.
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