Take a look at this entire thread - pay attention to the date of each post:
The last entry is a notification that the thread was automatically locked because there has been no activity in 60 minutes! But there was a 5 day period with no reply earlier in the thread!
60 minutes seems to me to be ridiculously short. And I think this was a very recent change - otherwise the thread would have been locked 60 minutes into that 5 day gap!
Hoping one of the forum administrators simply changed a setting by accident - and that it can be reser!
I agree. I am seeing that solved topics are being locked 8 hours after the last reply.
The main issue with this is that topics can be opened, closed and locked whilst I am asleep, and in the morning I am faced with locked topics in the Latest list.
24 hours would be a better interval to let the rest of the world have a chance to weigh in, including past participants who might have retired for the night.
If it stays at 8 hours, I might as well not even participate here at all. I.e., I see no point in advertising closed & locked topics at all.
I agree with Dan that 24 hours is more reasonable - and possibly should go further - like 7 days - because we often see new(er) forum users inappropriately marking a response to their thread beginning post as “solved”!
Perhaps 48 hours after being marked “solved” - or 7 days after the most recent reply - whichever is longer.
I vaguely remember that the moderators can configure auto locking of topics by category.
My vague remembrance came from a topic that I can’t now find - sometime (I’m guessing here) in 2015-2019. What I remember is that’s when I fist saw auto topic locking on this forum when - all of a sudden - ALL topics bore a “will expire in ” - and a few of us were up in arms that was too short. The ensuing discussion revealed - from a forum moderator - that moderators can be category specific.
I could be wrong - my recollection being only a figment of my imagination. I have, after all, had a few “senior moments” over the last few years. Not interested enough to research more myself - either finding that long ago topic, or heading over to the Discourse form to seek an answer there.
(I already pinged one)