Hey there D-ead7Dog
Thank you for your suggestion! Funny thing is that I had actually suggested in long ago myself ^^
To start off, it’s not a bad idea at all, however there’s a few reasons why it probably wouldn’t work the way intended. If this system was implemented in the way I believe you’re suggesting, it would make it that threads that haven’t been posted in for a set amount of time (be it weeks, months, or years) would automatically lock themselves.
The thing is even threads that haven’t been posted in in a while (be in weeks, months, or years) could still be relevant and interesting enough to bump up in certain circumstances. Example: A great tutorial or map/preset/mod etc thread that people want to recommend or praise the poster for. Another Example: Maybe there’s an interesting old discussion topic that someone would want to bring back without having to create a new thread for. If old threads like these were automatically locked due to lack of recent post activity others may miss out on their content as they continue to fall back among the forum pages.
I actually discussed this a bit in this thread:
https://feral-heart.com/smf/index.php?topic=62227.0Basically the decision of whether to lock an old/inactive thread or not has always been on an individual case scenario, so a system like this would simplify the process in a way that would generalize it down too much. Age/post inactivity alone couldn’t be the sole factors that trigger the locking of old threads, since those reasons alone aren’t enough to lock a thread.
If it was even possible to implement something like this system on the forum maybe it could be refined to certain boards like the Help boards since bumping of old/long inactive threads wouldn’t really make sense there. Maybe threads could automatically be locked after a number of months since help threads usually don’t go past several months without answering. Although I only see this as possibly working in the Help boards bumping is rarely enough of a problem in those boards to even really consider it a problem.
It might not be the best system for our forum. We appreciate your feedback and idea though! <3