There is no reason for topics to be auto-closed by the system. If something is stale, it doesn’t mean it won’t become unstale in the future. Why make users start a new thread for the same discussion rather than continuing off a previous thread. Imagine if stackoverflow was run like that… Then all those Python2 solutions would be useless and there’d be two threads for a Python problem one with Python2 answers and the other with both Python2 and Python3 answers or wait a duplicate post.
Can you provide a few examples from meta.discourse.org of topics that in your opinion shouldn’t have been closed? Theory’s cool, but maybe we can start with some real-world examples.
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You can always flag a topic, then a moderator can open it again.
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On Manjaro, I created a topic about users not being informed why they can’t upload images, when a topic that already existed on it was available. Then they guided me to create topics on discourse itself. So you see my frustration? Why do I can not upload images here? - #2 by linux-aarhus - Forum - Manjaro Linux Forum
Then instead of making another topic on image uploads, I made Why are topics closed? - Forum - Manjaro Linux Forum and then I made the topics posts here. This triple whammy of limitations severs potential discussions and makes me have meta conversations rather than actual conversations.
If you want examples from meta,
Regression: quoting text from a closed topic
Quote button on closed topics still does not behave as expected - #15 by codinghorror
Quoting from closed topic
Quote post from closed topic - #11 by Sander78
It is not possible to quote closed topics [Solved]
Basically, I’m made to jump through so many hoops, I don’t know which restrictions are from Discourse and which ones are added by Manjaro.
It can take a little time to settle in to a new community as they often have different expectations and guidance around what is and isn’t acceptable for their particular site. The best thing to do is to take the time to read through any forum guidelines and welcome topics they might have which should explain more.
Using the Search is also quite widely useful, as a lot of basic questions will have been asked and answered before.
There are some topics on Meta that describe the defaults, though these are generally more useful to admins than end users if you’re not looking specifically for the guidelines for here.
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