There seems to be some confusion about thread closing here at the Forge. On several occasions, I've noted Ron saying that once the person who raised the question in the original post is satisfied, the thread should end; but in Hunter Logan's recent rant, he said that the thread was finished as far as he was concerned, and then when someone came back and tried to again address the point Hunter had already said was misstated, Hunter (clearly wanting to avoid again getting caught up in argument that was not really the point of his comments) said the thread was closed. Then Clinton posted for clarification that only moderators could close threads. This has left me uncertain. What force is there in a statement by the originator of a thread that it has answered what he intended? None at all, and he might as well not say this? Significant force, and the statement ought to be respected? Something nebulous between the two?

I just thought the policy should be clearly understood, whatever it is. People often attempt to put a last word on threads they've started; I usually don't, but then I frequently begin threads strictly to spark discussion of an idea and lack that desire to get specific answers for myself, but rather am seeking to broaden my understanding--thus since I'm looking for everyone's thoughts, I would never close a thread.

Thanks for the clarification.

--M. J. Young

Hello,

It's a matter of weighing the thread-initiator's priorities strongly.

1. The moderator has final say over whether the thread should be closed.

2. The initiator of the thread has a great deal of lobbying power to influence that final say.

What this means is that, if you've initiated a thread and now would like it to be closed, send me a private message about it. You can also post that you've done so, and people should respect this request and wait, along with you, for my response.

To date, I have never refused such a request.

Therefore Hunter is not especially far off the mark in stating that the thread he initiated is closed. Notice that Clinton backed up Hunter's judgment and merely posted to confirm the closing.

With any luck, this post will clarify to everyone exactly how it should be done.

Best,
Ron

In other words, as the originator of a thread you can request a thread be closed and the Forge membership should respect this request but the Administators & Moderators reserve the right to deny the request if the request to close is unreasonable. To date this has not happed...yet.

In the incident in question, it was probably less an issue with Hunter closing the thread so much as after another post he posted again stating the thread is closed. This is where the Administators are supposed to step in to uphold the thread closing.

I can dig this. Two forum cops are enough, so to speak.

I actually did PM Clinton right after I made the second post. I've never really liked to bring moderators into a situation, but it seemed prudent to call for an official word. Besides, Ron and Clinton can't be everywhere all the time. Anyway, I'd have to say the system Ron described works the way it's supposed to.