Posting in old threads

[nobody33]

Is there a specific time frame besides "several weeks" on how long there is to post in an older thread that has no responses yet? The thread about Newport beach PD was closed when someone responded only 9 days after it was posted. The thread had no responses and I was curious as to what the person had to say, and I'm just looking for a clarifaction to the rules so I don't break them. Thanks

[krellum]

There is no specific time frame. There used to be (I think it was 3 weeks or a month) but many topics are obviously dead/not worth dredging up long before getting to that point, so we changed it.

The rules currently reflect that the thread is considered "old" when one of three things (or a combination thereof) has occurred:

1) an obviously-significant amount of time has passed - it doesn't take a rocket scientist to know that a thread that goes two-weeks with no responses is pretty stale;

2) if advice has been solicted and received in a sufficient enough amount that further advice is no longer needed - if someone asks how using LSD is going to affect thier "hiring chances" with X agency and nine people chime in with the that agency's drug use policy, there's no earthly reason why, 3 days later, someone else needs to come late to the party and add the same 2 cents and echo everyone else's previous advice; and

3) if it's apparent that the topic is "dead." In the case of the thread you're referring to, 9 days is quite a long time for such a specific question (about who has taken a specific test for a certain agency) and is pushing the time limit as it is. Because that person mentioned an oral board a few days later, I think some of us assumed that he posted partly because he was looking for insight in that direction/somone in a similar situation, and today is definitely long past whatever "wednedsay" he was refrring to in his post.

There is absolutely nothing wrong with opening up a new thread to ask a question (as long as the exact same question isn't already being actively discussed, of course). People seem to shy away from that, for some reason. We prefer, if you have a new question, ask it and let it stand on it's own merits/as its own topic instead of piggybacking onto another thread, especially one that's 9 days old and elicted no responses to its specific query to begin with. It gets really confusing that way.

Sorry the rules aren't as crystal clear as they seemingly could be on this, but about the only way to make them clearer would be to have a definite time frame or hard-and-fast rule on when to close a thread. After discussion among the moderators, it was decided that we'd rather have the ability to not have to automatically close something after X number of days, so we changed the rules to reflect that. If you visit the board regularly, you start to see the frequency with which questions are asked and answered and advice is asked for and given. It starts to seem less confusing about which threads are still open and which ones should be left alone and a new one started, instead.

k