is there a way to lock a thread in the same way a document that is available for a number of people to edit is locked when one person opens it?
ie. a work group is putting together a presentation, and they all have access to the files that are going into the final presentation… however, you don’t want people editing the file at the same time, so a lock is put on the file if someone opens it to edit it, and the lock isn’t taken off until the file is closed, and the changes are saved.
If you could do this with a thread, a sequential thread could run without posts getting out of order… making it easier to read. People can open the thread to read it at any time, but if someone wants to post to it, they have to wait until it is available for posting.
You can split a thread–so if it’s sequential, you split it like 10 posts before the end and then add a mod note to the last post with a link to the new thread which would pick up in sequence. It’s as easy as locking or moving a thread.
I don’t see a way to lock a thread while someone has it out for edit. I just went through the vBulletin admin panel and I couldn’t find anything like that. Maybe others with more vBulletin experience could find a setting that would allow that.
The big problem is that one person could effectively shut down your board by checking out all the threads for write and not check them back in.
It’d also be super-frustrating, especially in lengthy debate threads. It might take me an hour to compose a post for a heavy-duty thread. It would suck if everyone interested in the thread had to wait for me to finish my post before they could contribute, particularly if there’s five people who all want to make really long posts.
It’d also be a trolling problem. Sick of people poking holes in your argument? Start a post to the thread, and don’t submit it. Or conspire with a friend to pass the edit back and forth, so only friendly views get posted, and disagreement is locked out.
I definitrly see the drawbacks, (someone “checks out” an op, then forgets and doesn’t come back to close it, for example. And I would not think it would work in a great debates thread, where long answers are sometimes par for the course. I’m thinking of something sequential and much simpler, like an OP that says “let’s see how long we can keep a word chain together. Use the last letter in my word to make your word.”
Example. OP says “first word in the chain is APPLE.”. The next person to post is the first person to open the thread after it’s been closed by the author of APPLE and then types EGG. When the next person opens it, they are guaranteed to have the chain be current, so they can type GRAPE, and not come in, type GRAPE, and then leave, only to see someone else beat them to the edit and the last word is GUN. So quickly, the thread is out of order… Instead of being APPLE, EGG, GRAPE, EYELID, it would be APPLE, EGG, GRAPE, EGRET, EYELID, and the chain is hosed.
This is obviously a simple example, but it demonstrates the principle.
I have seen this, but I’m not sure if it was on vbulletin, or if it was a feature or an unofficial add-on. But the gist is, you are writing a post, and when you click to post it, you get a popup that says, “three more posts have been added since you began this reply; would you like to read them first or continue?”
Not that exact wording I don’t think, but I think that would serve the purpose.