Review topics

[The Chairman Of The Board]

I have gotten some topics locked over my 2 and a half years and I'm sure that other people have too, so I think to avoid having a bunch of locked topics on the site the mods should review the topics before letting them be posted to the site. Basically you would write out your topic and click on submit topic and it would go to a page on the site where only the mods could go (maybe need like a password or something to open the page) and the mods could review the topics and decide if they should be posted on the site. For example a topic like "The Express your emotions" topic would be posted on the site, a topic like "Let's talk bad about people" wouldn't be posted. Also I posted this here because I thought this was the proper place to post it.

[Mando-Whirl-Wind]

Eh, usually a topic is locked when it's redundant(a topic that covers it already exists), or it doesn't fall within the guidelines, which are simple rules of thumb. Forcing topics to go through a review system would grind things to a halt and just put extra stress on mods, when the current reporting and monitoring system is quite effective, and takes advantage of the site having a friendly and loyal user-base.

[Badnik Mechanic]

46 minutes ago, The Chairman Of The Board said:

Basically you would write out your topic and click on submit topic and it would go to a page on the site where only the mods could go 

Sounds like a great way to kill a forum.

Fun Fact.  SSMB used to have something like this in place before. Now it's only used if a member is constantly posting terrible content.

[The Chairman Of The Board]

1 minute ago, Detective Hogfather said:

Sounds like a great way to kill a forum.

I don't think so. I think it would be a pretty good way to eliminate topics that would get locked so there won't be a bunch of locked topics on the site.

[Rey Skywalker-Ren]

or you could read this topic here to see if your topic is good. that along with using the search function.

[Sean]

Just sounds like a lot of unnecessary work to me.

It's not like people get in trouble when we close their topics. It's a lot easier on us to lock topics at our discretion than have to filter out every single one.

[LATER BUDDY]

I think some topics wind up surprising people sometimes as well, like having more discussion value than at first glance. The said can be said about the other side of the coin that some topics are totally perfect at first and can go off the rails or turn into something new entirely/bring up the problem later on a few pages in. Most spammy or unnecessary topics that come up one after another don't happen too often, and usually when they do it's a good indicator that it's a new person learning the ropes, or an easy way to scope out trolls/etc.

I've never had a problem with the way it is currently anyway

[Tara]

I have to be honest.  That sounds like a pretty terrible idea.

Everyone else already gave some very good reasons, but I feel it undermines the basic autonomy of the members here.  Most forums that have this kind of moderation are boards for children or notorious for flaming.  We have our scuffles, sure, but I feel our members are more mature than that.  There are plenty of bad topics that are locked on a semi-regular basis, but the majority of them aren't.  That and I can say from experience that those kinds of boards really aren't that fun.  It's difficult to be timely and topical when you're waiting for a review period.

As I mention in the topic that MIkyeong linked to, there's no shame in a topic being locked.  I try to make that abundantly clear every single time I lock a topic.

[Monkey Destruction Switch]

5 hours ago, The Chairman Of The Board said:

I have gotten some topics locked over my 2 and a half years and I'm sure that other people have too, so I think to avoid having a bunch of locked topics on the site the mods should review the topics before letting them be posted to the site.

If you're worried about locked topics creating clutter or something, moderators can always delete topics instead of locking them if need be. Locked topics aren't nearly common enough for this to be necessary at present, though. Having a few locked topics here and there doesn't really do any harm, either to the forum or to the people who posted the topics, so this suggestion is a solution to a problem that doesn't really exist.

[Zaysho]

5 hours ago, The Chairman Of The Board said:

I don't think so. I think it would be a pretty good way to eliminate topics that would get locked so there won't be a bunch of locked topics on the site.

I feel like unless someone is really looking for a particular topic that may be old and has something to add, most users are probably going to focus on the most active/regularly updated topics on a sub-forum's first couple pages or so (though I'm speaking from my own posting habits so it's entirely possible I have no clue what I'm talking about), so locked topics kind of just fall to the wayside and get buried under newer content anyway. If the topic is a real waste of space (typically troll topics or topics that went so far off the rails they had to be shut down), it just gets trashed so no one has to look at it.

[MetalSkulkBane]

Like everyone said, it's probably unneeded. How many topics get locked, anyway? 5%? Less? Mods look at them regardless, it doesn't change anything, only slows the process.

[Badnik Mechanic]

Here is the simple reason why this idea doesn't work.

"Oh wow Sega announced a new Sonic game."

"Hey guys! I just found some evidence for a new Sonic game and/or something else awesome which nobody knows about yet!"

 

...

...

...

... 

Well I hope a staff member comes online soon so we can talk about it!

[Haalyle]

As someone with experience on multiple forum sites, this is a terrible idea. From my experience and from hearing other people's thoughts, the only reason you'd have your post under moderation is if you were a somewhat blacklisted member, which makes total sense.

Let's think about if the system did happen. There wouldn't be a lot of active topics because you'd have to wait for a mod to come by and allow the topic to open up. You know, mods have lives too. Secondly, if it takes a really, really long time, it'll wear that persons' patience thin and they'll probably find a different forum to post on.

I know a few people who don't like the whole 'sending an application to become a member' thing either.