I was just curious if this was going to be in the update as this feature primarily results in necrobumps. Is there a way to turn it off on the current version, although I guess that isn't a particularly high priority considering the update soon? It happens pretty frequently and people don't notice and keep bumping them, even though they may be from as far back as 2007.
"necrobumps"... I love it! You raise an interesting point. On the one hand, it's likely that a user may find info that s/he is asking about has already been addressed in an older thread, so it may cut down on duplication of questions (though, clearly, we still get plenty of that.) On the other hand, the bumping of neanderthal-era threads can get annoying and at worst confusing. The staff has talked about this issue and possible resolutions to it but so far we haven't come up with anything that seems like an ideal solution. We will probably consider it more as we work on the coming upgrade.
^ The difficulty with this is that the 'problem' doesn't actually surface until someone actually bumps a thread which may be 2, 3 or more years old...and then their motives for doing so have to be assessed...
I think Fairybread is suggesting an automatic system that locks threads a certain period of time after the last post (say 3-6 months). There are vBulletin addons to do that which might be worth considering as part of the update.
I believe in vB 4.x one can set the parameters from which the software searches and displays said "similar threads" One of which should be within a certain time period, number of replies, exclude stickies etc... Its been a while since the last time I used vB so Im unaware of what is in the most recent updates or what people have released for addons. However, there has to something to accomplish all this. Is EC going to a full 4.x upgrade or just a newer 3.8x?
It will be 4.x. We have considered auto-locking older threads but there are some arguments against that (in some cases it's better to continue discussion on an old thread rather than to start a new one) but, to be honest, it's not been a topic that's been extensively discussed.
YAY!!! Get ready for some fancy stuff... Now to refrain myself from posting a bunch of cool addons...
If you want to PM Martin or I with your suggestions for add-ons, we'll take a look and combine that with other options the staff has been or will be considering. It's a little complicated because EC's current vBulletin is already pretty highly customized because of our security features, so some plugins aren't compatible, but Martin has been looking at various plugins and features.
Could we have a notice at the top or something reminding people not to bump threads without good reason, and only where relevant. People don't seem to like the notices though, so that might not work so well. Is there a way to not necessarily lock a thread but tag it as "old" and have a notice come up if someone wants to post something new? I know I like the similar threads box, though; as has been said. it helps answer questions and get new perspectives.