I noticed this on the International O5, when a topic is finished (relatively) or a vote has been held, it gets moved to an archive section to keep the actual discussion forums clear.
Note: None of these threads are locked, deleted, closed, whatever. Just moved so they always know what's been dealt with, and what's floating around "open" on the docket.
I'd like to hear thoughts on if this is a good idea for our own O5 process.
As an example, right now we have Discussion and Voting categories for discussion/voting threads (duh.)
We'd add the following under a new top-level heading of Archive
Archive - Discussion
Archive - Voting
After discussion has ended, or a vote occurs, you'd move the relevant vote+discussion threads to the appropriate categories.
Q. Magnus, when does discussion "end"?
A. After a vote occurs, regardless of passing or failing, I'd say discussion is "over", unless people want to reopen it. As for when discussion doesn't lead to a vote, I have literally no answer! I'd say, once a month (or when we remember), we post in each discussion thread which hasn't been voted on, calling for final discussion. If people have more to say, it keeps going. Otherwise, archive it. (Also, "I have nothing to add" doesn't count as extending the discussion). I'd personally say people have 24-48 hours to be like "I have more to say!" since they've had a month.
If we're doing this in an ongoing fashion, that'd be like…maybe 1-10 threads per month we'd have to do this for. The first month/pass through of threads will definitely be a chore though.
Q. What if I have something else to say about a topic that's been archived?
A. Move the discussion back from archive to active (or ask an admin/mod to do it). I wouldn't want to lose the discussion from before. If no one's around to do it, comment in the thread, and we'll move it as soon as we remember/have someone to do it.
Q. What if there's like…a new discussion, like I want to re-phrase, and start over?
A. Archive the old one, link to it in your new thread, and do the thing.
This could also be argued for other forum categories, but I'm not really making that argument here. This only deals with discussion and voting threads.
And, to stress, nothing in this idea suggests removing, locking, or stopping discussion. It's just a sanity/organization change.