Closing your own threads

If you're just a poor simple user and decide to close your threads to stop any rampant discussion from keeping them alive, will a moderator call you on this, reopen such threads and warn you for interfering on the discussion flow?

I didn't know you COULD close your own threads.
If mods didn't want you closing your own threads, you wouldn't be able to close your own threads. Kinda like how you aren't allowed to delete your own posts.

I'm not aware of any clear guidelines on this, but I suggest that it should depend on to what extent it is "your" thread. And, to use a sporting analogy, that would depend on whether it is your ball, or whether it is merely a ball that you have thrown into play, to be kicked around by others.

For instance, if you've asked a very specific question that you need answered for your own purposes, and that question has been answered and your problem is solved, then closing the thread is generally speaking perfectly OK.

But if you have just raised some general issue that is being discussed actively by other people, then the OP suddenly closing it on a whim (or because they don't like the way the thread is going) would not, I feel, be justified. That should be left to the moderators.

If you feel your thread (i.e. one that was "your" thread to start with) has gone seriously off-topic, then you could suggest that a moderator splits the thread. But note that splitting a thread isn't necessarily a simple matter, since the various lines of discussion are often intertwined.

Reopening your own thread when it has been closed by a moderator is obviously a no-no.

I was able to lock my own thread before, twice. Unless there's been a mistake.

Closing your own thread is a loser move and you deserve your drink thrown in your face if you do it. Some of us might want to talk about the subject at hand and there's no reason not to let the thread die when interest dies.

Now if you've subscribed to e-mail updates about the thread you have an excuse unless the forum software has a feature to unsubscribe from the e-mails for the thread.

Cyanosis said:

I was able to lock my own thread before, twice. Unless there's been a mistake.

You dun broke doomworld, boy.

Not my fault this place runs on outdated forum software.

Can super mods see who locked the thread, or do they have to ask each other to be clear it was the OP who did it?

That information is available to us.

I can't imagine why I would ever want to do this.

Technician said:

You dun broke doomworld, boy.

Consequences will never be the same.

close this thread and find out!

Closing your own threads? News to me.

I think it's from preventing butthurt users closing threads and starting an identical thread because one or two users posted stuff that the thread starter did not like.

I say no, it's just a tool for the thin skinned and easily offended to abuse.

PRIMEVAL said:

Closing your own threads? News to me.

This.

Regardless, I have always felt it was the moderator's duty to determine if a thread needed closing/pruning/gelling/etc. At thus point if we have the right to close off a discussion then the threads we start are subject to our own whims. If one starts a thread up and then decides for one reason or another that it should end they will have the ability to do so, regardless of whether it's for a good reason or not. Since we have been left with this ability I am concluding that the mods trust us enough to use common sense in relation to whether we close our own threads or not.

And so far I don't believe it has been abused to any real extent. I.e. The mods have not yet had a reason to stop users from closing their own threads. Moreover, if a thread discussing some controversial(or random) topic was closed by the thread starter and other users felt it deserved further discussion, would they not start a new topic themselves and continue the topic?

printz said:

If you're just a poor simple user and decide to close your threads to stop any rampant discussion from keeping them alive

Why would you want to halt all discussion when you were the one who started the thread to begin with?

DoomUK said:

Why would you want to halt all discussion when you were the one who started the thread to begin with?

Poster: Hey, everyone look at my new thing I did! *Link to thing, which is terrible*
General Consensus: It's not good
Poster: WAAH YOU GUYS ARE MEAN *close*

There are lots of posts on the web from guys who say "ok, I solved my problem. You can close the thread now!" I wish more mods would take people to task for doing that.

Aliotroph? said:

There are lots of posts on the web from guys who say "ok, I solved my problem. You can close the thread now!" I wish more mods would take people to task for doing that.

You mean go find them in RL and throw their drinks in their faces! :D

Wow. I don't know that I can handle this much power.

PRIMEVAL said:

Closing your own threads? News to me.

I wonder if there have been fluctuating keycards from people on the forums lately to test this.

r_init: getpostnumberforname: post not found!

DoomUK said:

Why would you want to halt all discussion when you were the one who started the thread to begin with?

This has happened on multiple occasions. There was at least one thread I can recall where the OP ended up embarrassing themselves and kept trying to close the thread, and an admin/mob kept reopening it for teh lulz.

Danarchy said:

There was at least one thread I can recall where the OP ended up embarrassing themselves and kept trying to close the thread, and an admin/mob kept reopening it for teh lulz.

Sounds amusing. Just curious, who was it, and what was the thread about/how did they embarrass themselves?

He's probably referring to this one.

Grazza said:

He's probably referring to this one.

Ah, good old BloodSku- oops I mean Shadowrunner

Grazza said:

He's probably referring to this one.

Ahaha, yes. How could I forget it was that classic.

Its sad about how short the life expectancy of old webpages are.. otherwise the links in the thread would've worked and fun times would be had.
Also, what was his custom title before he got banned?

I think there were several, but probably the one you're thinking of was "GARGANTUAN RETARDED" in huge red capital letters. Possibly in marquee style too. I imagine that at some point he had the one that pushed his posts off the right-hand side of the page. And maybe a "Banometer in the RED" and things like that.

I remember one user had RETARD is dancing letters scrolling down his custom title.






I believe these were the graphics used.