Why does timeless, relevant threads get locked?

Hey,

The general intent we have when locking old threads is that we instead aim to encourage new threads to keep the timeline of discussion appropriately focused. You're right that certain topics of discussion are timeless, but that still doesn't mean that the scope of discussion is something that can work over a long period of time. It is useless, for example, to reply to a point that somebody made in 2007 presenting a different perspective to that discussion. They're not going to see it, so it's not a free-flowing conversation and instead becomes restricted by the scope of time that you just happen to be part of a conversation. If somebody is going to challenge you on a point you make, then you arguably want to be there to actually have a conversation, rather than leaving them talking to an empty account (or vice versa as the case may be).

When a thread is locked just because it's old, that's not a way of saying don't talk about this anymore. It's saying that the people we're attempting to engage with aren't likely present to actually have a discussion, so you may as well start afresh so that you're actually going to be heard on what you say. It's something that is particularly annoying if you are replying to somebody in length without even realising their post is x years old and they haven't signed in for so long, so you've sorta done it in vain and there's no guarantee any people in the here and now are actually going to jump to your recent post rather than replying to an equally as old post. Many people tend to completely skip long threads and instead just reply based on the opening post, which the topic will likely have shifted away from over the course of the years of continual open (and semi-structured) discussion.

So yeah, I would honestly find it irritating to reply to a post that is x amount of time old when I know it's unlikely that person will ever actually read it and reply. At least if a discussion is started in the here and now, even if repetitive, then I'm here to read them, reply, contribute further etc. That's an actual discussion, and you'll get relevant replies with an appropriate focus on your specific points, rather than being lost in a vast array of archived discussion that lacks any particular flow or structure.

Martin.