Should users be able to lock their own topics...

[HeroLinik]

...in Help and Support? (the topic title was too long, so I had to do it like this)

So, in the aforementioned forum, as we all know, users are able to create their help topics, and another user comes in and assists them, and then that's it. The user has had their topic answered, so what is the point of the topic? Of course, you could just let it die, but still, what's the point of the topic if the user has had their question answered? It can't just lie there gathering dust, can it? If the topic creator locked their own topic, then this is a sign that they have had their question answered in some form or another. As well as this, there's a possibility that the topic could get bumped by some random user asking for assistance on the same topic, not knowing that the question has been addressed and answered already.
Of course, this feature could be abused, but this is the same case with other features. The reason why I'm bringing up abuse of the feature is because a potential downside of this is that they can just lock their topics left and right to stop people from bashing on them for not knowing a feature, to "get back" at them. If it were implemented, then I would also suggest a rule in that you can't lock topics to get back at people, otherwise your lock privileges are disabled for a period of time.

So, what do you think? Should users be able to lock their own topics in Help and Support?

[aero]

Your reasoning doesn't make sense. If people lock their own topics, it's guaranteed to "collect dust." Also the amount of topics locked on this board needs to be reduced, not enabled or encouraged.

Nobody reads locked topics anyway, and I don't know why having a question answered warrants a lock to begin with.

[HeroLinik]

Your reasoning doesn't make sense. If people lock their own topics, it's guaranteed to "collect dust." Also the amount of topics locked on this board needs to be reduced, not enabled or encouraged.

Nobody reads locked topics anyway, and I don't know why having a question answered warrants a lock to begin with.

I knew what I was getting at, but I didn't know how to explain it.

[h2643]

No.

This would create a lot of shitty drama stuff which I don't think we want. Example: as you said, people will abuse this feature if they won't like something (constructive criticism, etc. (yes, I'm serious)). Also locking topics isn't necessary at all, imo. If someone will have a similar question to the one that has been answered before (and its topic was locked), (s)he will most likely create a new topic for that. But look what happens, people will yell at him (her) that (s)he created a new topic and didn't actually searched for answer in that one topic before asking the question.

...I don't know if that was a good example, but I hope you get my point.

[Fuyu]

I too see no reason for users being able to lock their own threads, the staff can already do that and doing so could indeed cause side-effects. Also, why the Help & Support of all the others? You point out people could lock their own threads about something they have trouble with after being answered but that logic could also be applied to other forums. Also, what's the need for that? It actually would prove counter-effective seeing as some people, if not the same user, could encounter said problem again and the proposed solution doesn't work anymore. That thread could actually prove useful once more if left open. And if another user brings a solution for an already solved problem the staff can handle that on their own. So overall there's no real reason for such feature to be implemented.

I don't get what you mean by "collecting dust" too, old threads are bound to collect dust, locked or open.

[Shadow Yoshi]

I don't know why having a question answered warrants a lock to begin with.

Pretty much this.

Over the years of this community, the users have been taught that questions being answered is a valid reason to lock a topic. I may have even supported this myself during the early days of these forums specifically in the SuperMarioBrosX.org forum. However, the only reason a topic should be locked is if the topic itself violates the rules or if the staff deems it inappropriate for discussion to continue. This can mean missing screenshots, topics formed on or comprised completely of bad discussion or useless posts, forum games, "I'm leaving" threads, and other stuff.

It can't just lie there gathering dust, can it?

Sure it can! There's nothing wrong with having old topics. This is why I've always been against the "let's archive old topics" (because all that does it move them to another place and make them harder to find) and "let's archive locked topics" (because that messes things up chronologically) proposals. Having pages of old topics is natural and what's supposed to happen on internet forums as discussion accumulates.

[Imaynotbehere4long]

This may be off topic, but I just wanted to say that not everyone avoids locked topics. I always check out locked topics because I'm curious to see why they were locked. Plus, something memorable might originate from a locked topic, like the time Axiom changed his avatar to "ok."

[Fuyu]

Perhaps there could be archives per section (video games, sandbox, etc.) for locked topics because let's face it; nobody likes seeing locked topics. However, moving them all to the archives forum would be messy. Having an individual archive per section might actually be helpful...

That actually sounds more messy than having all the archives on a single section. Because then you have a bunch of locked topics in one place that you don't even know if people are actually going to mind them and check them. Besides, I don't think the problem resides on "where" but rather "will". As I see it people would just go and post a request or a help request without even checking because it's too much work, apparently. And by this I mean that if it were so troublesome to check for a certain thread with a certain topic and can't find it you could always use the Advanced Search and try to find it. Sure it doesn't guarantee that you find it, but it'd surely filter many of the repetitive threads we get from time to time.

This may be off topic, but I just wanted to say that not everyone avoids locked topics. I always check out locked topics because I'm curious to see why they were locked. Plus, something memorable might originate from a locked topic, like the time Axiom changed his avatar to "ok."

Nobody is implying that no one checks locked topics, but we all know it's a fact that it's rather discouraging to check a thread that has been locked. Maybe you and some other people don't mind it at all, which is totally possible, but I dare to say that you guys would be a minority. No offense.