WordPress.org

1. jsims281
   Member
   Posted 1 year ago #

   I find tons of posts via Google with people asking the exact same question that I am, but often there is no answer and the topic has been closed.

   Why is this? Surely it leads to
   1) People forced to post questions that have already been asked.
   2) Frustrated users coming from Google to find that a question they are asking has not been (and cannot be) answered.

   I am also involved in the Drupal community and find that often, someone may have a great answer for a question months, or even years after the OP asked the question. This is not possible on the wordpress.org forums and I don't understand why.

   Any thoughts?

   edit: here is the example that lead me to make this post: http://wordpress.org/support/topic/gd-star-ratings-display-static-results-per-article. When I solve this issue I would love to post back so that others can use it in future.

2. ClaytonJames
   Member
   Posted 1 year ago #

   I think age is a primary factor. The one you mention is a year old.

3. jsims281
   Member
   Posted 1 year ago #

   Yep, but it is still relevant. I have now found the answer somewhere else, and would post it on that thread (as it is ranking highly on Google if you type in the relevant question).

   As it is, it is useless. I don't see any benefit of locking down threads in this way...

4. esmi
   Theme Diva & Forum Moderator
   Posted 1 year ago #

   Well, for a start, those threads will be referencing older versions of WordPress.

5. Ipstenu
   Half-Elf Support Rogue & Mod
   Posted 1 year ago #

   It's done automatically, and as esmi pointed out, they've got older versions of WP.

   Also older versions of plugins, PHP, SQL ... the lists go on. Age is a huge factor, but relevancy is why we don't DELETE them. :)

6. jsims281
   Member
   Posted 1 year ago #

   I appreciate all your points.

   A lot of questions will still be relevant between versions of WordPress (I mean, it doesn't get completely re-written on every release) and an answer of
   

   "This isn't much of a problem any more in 3.x, now you just have to do this:"

   is still helpful to the average user who finds the thread by typing a question into Google! :)

   I don't see why you would deliberately stop people from answering old questions. I had guessed it was automated, I was just wondering if there was a real reason for the hard-line closure of threads other than the possibility that it could be regarding old versions.

   A closed question with no answers is slightly worse than useless anyway, so I think it would be better if they did get deleted in that case?

7. Rev. Voodoo
   Volunteer Moderator
   Posted 1 year ago #

   There isn't enough man/woman power for that most liklely.

   There aren't that many mods on here, and they are busy trying to help when they are on here. Plus they spend time policing what they can

8. Ipstenu
   Half-Elf Support Rogue & Mod
   Posted 1 year ago #

   A closed question with no answers is slightly worse than useless anyway, so I think it would be better if they did get deleted in that case?

   We generally only INTENTIONALLY (i.e. manually) close posts that are so out of date or impossible to support or *ahem* unfriendly (if you start cursing at everyone, we will close your post). So the closed UNSOLVED posts are generally ones that ages out. At that point, yeah, we probably could delete them. Some of them have thought processes that are useful in kicking your brain to debug, though.

9. esmi
   Theme Diva & Forum Moderator
   Posted 1 year ago #

   I've found some old, unsolved, topics useful because they've already tried something that I was thinking of doing. Cuts down on wasted time.

10. jsims281
    Member
    Posted 1 year ago #

    I've found some old, unsolved, topics useful because they've already tried something that I was thinking of doing. Cuts down on wasted time.

    My point exactly. How much better would it be if you could post back telling people how you ended up doing it, then it would cut down on wasted time even more, as people would have direct access to the solution.

    I guess it boils down to having too many threads to moderate?

11. esmi
    Theme Diva & Forum Moderator
    Posted 1 year ago #

    How much better would it be if you could post back telling people how you ended up doing it

    But the situation will not be exactly the same. I'll probably be using a different (newer) version of WP, for a start. So my solution may not be applicable to their original problem.

12. aghud
    Member
    Posted 1 year ago #

    archives maybe ???

13. Ipstenu
    Half-Elf Support Rogue & Mod
    Posted 1 year ago #

    Perhaps if you thought of 'Old closed posts' as 'archives' that would help? :)

14. jsims281
    Member
    Posted 1 year ago #

    I'll probably be using a different (newer) version of WP, for a start.

    This is true, and would be fair enough, if we are treating it as a personal one-on-one with the OP.

    my solution may not be applicable to their original problem.

    I'm thinking of this as much for the benefit of other users as for the original posters. It seems to cut down on the potential that these forums have for being an absolute goldmine of WP related knowledge.

    The hundreds/thousands of people who find the thread (which has been killed but still appears at the top of Google) will likely have a newer version too. In any case - as you said - even an example of the process you went through to fix it will often help.

15. Zoinks! Graphics
    Member
    Posted 9 months ago #

    I too have been frustrated when I can't post the answer to a question that at least started me down the right path towards enlightenment, just because the thread is too old. Kind of kills the fuzzy feeling I'd get "paying it forward."

    As for the argument that the original poster would still be using an old version of WP... (A) Isn't it drilled into our mutton-heads that we need to keep up to date with the latest releases? So they would (or should) be using the latest version. (B) I agree that most of WP doesn't get depreciated, so a lot of solutions, even to older questions, still work on newer versions. Even so, a simple version "checkin" would alleviate confusion, which a lot of people do anyway.

    (( Just my $0.02 ))

16. Ipstenu
    Half-Elf Support Rogue & Mod
    Posted 9 months ago #

    Generally I link back to them to say 'Based on <this post> I did foo, but then I read <this other post> and did bar, which lead me to baz!'

    It's frustrating, but it's the way it is, so there it is :) You don't have to like everything that's done here, but you do have to find a way YOU can work with it :) Everyone's gonna be a bit different.

17. Zoinks! Graphics
    Member
    Posted 9 months ago #

    Thanks for the idea, Ipstenu. That would be one way to satisfy my urge to "pay it forward." Obviously, though, the original poster(s) wouldn't be aware of the solution via the original thread subscription. I'd imagine adding the link as you suggest would "connect" the threads in some way for the search engines, making it easier for folks doing new searches on the issue, so there's that.

    Sorry if my comments came across as overly harsh, they weren't meant to be. Sure, I don't agree with everything on here, but yes, it's an awesome resource to share info, even when it's about how the resource is managed! Isn't that how we grow and evolve? :)

    In that vein, here's another suggestion: Maybe blog threads (even closed ones) could include a list of "You may also be interested in..." that would display a few related threads based on title? That would make it easier if someone lands on closed question thread "X" that has a solution in thread "Y". Only thought of this because I've seen a similar functionality in several WP sites!

18. Ipstenu
    Half-Elf Support Rogue & Mod
    Posted 9 months ago #

    Obviously, though, the original poster(s) wouldn't be aware of the solution via the original thread subscription.

    That's presuming we subscribe ;) I rarely do.

    Maybe blog threads (even closed ones) could include a list of "You may also be interested in..."

    The best we can do with that would be to use the tags on the side of the posts, which are ... iffy at best.

    bbPress, the forum here, is NOT using WP, mind you, so it can't use those plugins the same way. AND those plugins use categories and tags to weight thing.

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