Dear Devs: Please lock threads that are 3-6 months old without new responses.

[Iscah]

It's that I don't think this will do anything besides tie up people who didn't need it and do nothing to those that people were trying to tie up.

This. If threads are locked after three months, he'll bump three-month-old threads. And start them. And bump them with his next account. It's part of what he's already doing.

Selective locking of the threads he bumps (and where the previous post was made by his previous account) would be a start. Nobody wants to discuss it but he just keeps kicking it along.

[Deceptus]

This. If threads are locked after three months, he'll bump three-month-old threads. And start them. And bump them with his next account. It's part of what he's already doing.

Selective locking of the threads he bumps (and where the previous post was made by his previous account) would be a start. Nobody wants to discuss it but he just keeps kicking it along.

Completely understood but there needs to be some sort of baseline to curb this type of behavior, currently there isn't. As is shown by the 5 year old threads that have been bumped.

[Iscah]

Completely understood but there needs to be some sort of baseline to curb this type of behavior, currently there isn't. As is shown by the 5 year old threads that have been bumped.

Again, the "something" should be down to more involved moderation of the forums. If he's kicking up threads that are past their use-by date, lock those specific threads so his next incarnation can't do it again.

One thing that I observe:

People are complaining about trolls reviving old threads and/or creating new ones usually featuring a controversial topic of conversation, but judging by the amount of activities and conversations it generated sometimes I wonder, maybe it's actually those trolls that keep the forum alive and breathing after all.

Now imagine if they used their powers for good instead of evil, raised threads because they have interesting content, and actually stuck around for an intelligent conversation.

Right now it's stifling discussion - or making the discussion revolve around the wrong things, i.e. the troll and how to deal with him, rather than the game we're allegedly here to discuss.

(I can only speculate that somewhere in the business hierarchy of SE, someone is taking a similar view that the forum is doing well because there are lots of posts and lots of activity, and all that matters to them is numbers on a spreadsheet showing high engagement with no consideration for the quality of it.)