I suppose there’s more than one reason…My first thought is that otherwise the mods would have far too much to look after.
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There are definitely times when I see that notification and feel a sense of relief.
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They do let topics die a natural death that’s sometimes a bit overdue. If anyone could keep reviving contentious threads forever there’d be some ongoing flame wars that would drag everything down.
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Yeah, I think the idea is that 5 days is enough to say all that needs to be said, at the end if the thread’s still active it’s usually a back and forth argument that needs to stop anyway.
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I think that they should go on and on…
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It’s a bit much, isn’t it?
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Logan’s Thread has Run Its Course.
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That was simply How It Was Done™ when Discourse arrived on the scene in mid-2013, and we adopted that default as well… if you feel the 5 day restriction should be lifted, probably worth creating a meta topic specifically about that to discuss.
Like this one I just, uh, created.
I guess one obvious counter-argument is anyone is free to start up a related discussion topic, which will not auto-close after five days.
I’m gonna let you finish, but first let me ask you a question: how many times have you said to yourself, "Darn! I wish this discussion had gone on longer?"
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At least once.
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Not often, but it does happen - “this set off an interesting talk thread, shame it closed”. Starting a new thread seems too drastic for something that will probably not see that many more posts, though. I guess “close after x days of inactivity” would fix it, but then you’d be back to never-ending bickerfests…
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I regularly see a topic I want to comment on, only to find it was locked a couple of weeks earlier. AAARGH.
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Isnt that what likes are for?
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Given the ability to open a branch thread to continue a discussion with a smaller group of people, is this really an issue? That interesting talk thread can then be created and before the main one is closed a notice can be posted for anyone who wants to keep at it. At the same time, it provides a great opportunity for people to walk away if they would prefer.
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yes
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Likes are for commenting with?
They do tell something, but not much of a story. Little wiggle room for nuance.
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Branch threads on dead threads are mostly dead in the water. When a Boing topic is active in the post list people pay attention to it.
I’ll be the first to admit I seldom look for anything else, and only find new games, dizzy threads, etc. accidentally.
Perhaps I am an alone in this.
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For the most part - it means i can close a tab finally in a browser. Though on a handful of occasions I have a long reply that I had to trash due to the thread locking. Oh wells.
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Make that at least twice. This time by 26 minutes.
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I’ve had it happen to me more than once - enough times for me to bitch about it. 
I’m actually mixed about it in general. I’d personally prefer to see topics die a natural death rather than be forced closed after an arbitrary time. I don’t like that it becomes necessary to fork threads after they reach the time limit. We have a pretty good, self policing community here so I think it could work.
I’m glad to see I’m not alone here!
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