# Why is Twickster locking week-old TV threads? **URL:** \ **Category:** About This Message Board\ **Created:** [October 4, 2011, 6:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-twickster-locking-week-old-tv-threads/598587 "2011-10-04T18:35:36Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Justin\_Bailey](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/justin_bailey/32/8792_2.png) [@Justin\_Bailey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Justin_Bailey)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2011, 6:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-twickster-locking-week-old-tv-threads/598587/1 "2011-10-04T18:35:36Z")
Why is Twickster locking week-old episode threads for a few TV shows: Amazing Race season premiere > **[Amazing Race Season Debut - Delays?](https://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=625575)** > > CBS does not have the football doubleheader today but if your CBS affiliate is covering the Rams or the Ravens, you might get delayed because it is the late game. Paging Zut! We need a pre-race assessment! I saw a promo that some former Survivor... Terra Nova (9/26) > **[Terra Nova premiere 9/26](https://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=625700)** > > Are you going to watch this new show? Tune in tonight. Is this a new policy? And if it is, why just these two shows when other shows don’t get their weekly threads locked? ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2011, 6:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-twickster-locking-week-old-tv-threads/598587/2 "2011-10-04T18:42:54Z")
No, it’s not a new policy or a new occurrence. This happens when there’s a new thread every week about a TV series. Rather than have the same conversation go on in two threads - where about the fans are going to miss about half of each discussion - the older one gets locked. ---
**Author:** ![Justin\_Bailey](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/justin_bailey/32/8792_2.png) [@Justin\_Bailey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Justin_Bailey)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2011, 6:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-twickster-locking-week-old-tv-threads/598587/3 "2011-10-04T18:50:41Z")
> [@Marley23](#): > > No, it’s not a new policy or a new occurrence. This happens when there’s a new thread every week about a TV series. Rather than have the same conversation go on in two threads - where about the fans are going to miss about half of each discussion - the older one gets locked. So you’re telling me its always been like this? Really? Come on Marley, you’re better than this. But if you insist, do a search on “Amazing Race” in Cafe Society. Not a single weekly thread is locked after a new one is opened. The search also brings up multiple threads for The Office and Survivor too. None of those are locked either. ---
**Author:** ![Silver\_Tyger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/fbc32d/32.png) [@Silver\_Tyger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Silver_Tyger)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2011, 6:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-twickster-locking-week-old-tv-threads/598587/4 "2011-10-04T18:55:47Z")
I hate to be that guy\*, but why does it matter? Were you planning on responding to an old thread no one will look at? - okay, no I don’t. ---
**Author:** ![Justin\_Bailey](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/justin_bailey/32/8792_2.png) [@Justin\_Bailey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Justin_Bailey)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2011, 7:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-twickster-locking-week-old-tv-threads/598587/5 "2011-10-04T19:00:20Z")
> [@Silver Tyger Girl](#): > > I hate to be that guy\*, but why does it matter? Were you planning on responding to an old thread no one will look at? > > - okay, no I don’t. It’s not an old thread, it’s the thread on last week’s show. It’s never been prohibited to reply to those threads before and it seems like a weird time to start now. Especially so unevenly like this. If it’s a systematic new rule, make it a rule. Hit every week-old show and lock them. Be consistent. And don’t lie and say “It’s always been this way” when a three-second search proves that’s untrue. That’s all I really want, for the rules to be the same for everybody. But lately, it’s obvious they’re not and it irritates me. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2011, 7:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-twickster-locking-week-old-tv-threads/598587/6 "2011-10-04T19:07:24Z")
> [@Justin\_Bailey](#): > > So you’re telling me its always been like this? Really? Come on Marley, you’re better than this. > > But if you insist, do a search on “Amazing Race” in Cafe Society. Not a single weekly thread is locked after a new one is opened. The search also brings up multiple threads for The Office and Survivor too. None of those are locked either. I did not say threads on old episodes are always locked after a new one is opened. They are not. I said that what you’re seeing isn’t a new policy, and that the closing isn’t unique. If discussions of two episodes of a show are active at the same time and there is overlap, we’ll close the old thread and direct the discussion of the newer episode to the new thread. It keeps the discussion of the new episode in one place so it’s easier to find. > [@Justin\_Bailey](#): > > It’s never been prohibited to reply to those threads before It’s not a prohibition. ---
**Author:** ![Oakminster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/77aa72/32.png) [@Oakminster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oakminster)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2011, 7:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-twickster-locking-week-old-tv-threads/598587/7 "2011-10-04T19:09:00Z")
> [@Marley23](#): > > No, it’s not a new policy or a new occurrence. This happens when there’s a new thread every week about a TV series. Rather than have the same conversation go on in two threads - where about the fans are going to miss about half of each discussion - the older one gets locked. **Marley** , this is not correct, or at least not consistently applied. I just searched for all threads in Cafe Society with “Battlestar Galactica” in the title. The only weekly threads that got locked were when someone accidentally started a duplicate thread about the then current episode. The regular threads, with the episode number in the title, most started by **Cervaise** , are not locked to this very day. I strongly suspect the same is true for other shows that get weekly threads. ---
**Author:** ![KneadToKnow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kneadtoknow/32/3999_2.png) [@KneadToKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KneadToKnow)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2011, 7:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-twickster-locking-week-old-tv-threads/598587/8 "2011-10-04T19:13:25Z")
Hell, I’m reasonably sure all the old weekly _24_ threads are still fully functional. FWIW. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2011, 7:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-twickster-locking-week-old-tv-threads/598587/9 "2011-10-04T19:14:08Z")
> [@Oakminster](#): > > The regular threads, with the episode number in the title, most started by **Cervaise** , are not locked to this very day. I strongly suspect the same is true for other shows that get weekly threads. Why would we go around locking every thread one a new episode aired? That would be pointless and annoying. Maybe it’s better to just use one of the examples from the OP: [**vivalostwages** started a thread last week about the premiere episode of Terra Nova.](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=625700) Posters used that thread to discuss the episode. Yesterday the discussion turned to this week’s episode. [That was split into a new thread.](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=626629) But posters were discussing the new episode in both threads. This was redundant, so the posts about the new episode were moved and the thread about the old episode was locked. ---
**Author:** ![Justin\_Bailey](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/justin_bailey/32/8792_2.png) [@Justin\_Bailey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Justin_Bailey)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2011, 7:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-twickster-locking-week-old-tv-threads/598587/10 "2011-10-04T19:17:27Z")
> [@Marley23](#): > > Why would we go around locking every thread one a new episode aired? That would be pointless and annoying. Maybe it’s better to just use one of the examples from the OP: [**vivalostwages** started a thread last week about the premiere episode of Terra Nova.](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=625700) Posters used that thread to discuss the episode. Yesterday the discussion turned to this week’s episode. [That was split into a new thread.](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=626629) But posters were discussing the new episode in both threads. This was redundant, so the posts about the new episode were moved and the thread about the old episode was locked. OK fine, but there was still conversation about those episodes occurring at the time of the lock. Just seems a little weird is all. But please don’t pretend that your original reply wasn’t a variation of “It’s always been this way.” ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2011, 7:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-twickster-locking-week-old-tv-threads/598587/11 "2011-10-04T19:20:51Z")
> [@Justin\_Bailey](#): > > But please don’t pretend that your original reply wasn’t a variation of “It’s always been this way.” I didn’t say “it’s always been this way.” I said it’s not a new occurrence because it isn’t, and I said there isn’t a new policy about old episode threads because there is no new policy about those threads. In other words, this is a situation that has come up before (though it doesn’t happen every week) and we’re not changing the rules. I’d love to bolster that by posting an example of a thread I’ve locked in similar circumstances, but so far I haven’t managed to find one. ---
**Author:** ![MsWhatsit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/eb8c5e/32.png) [@MsWhatsit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MsWhatsit)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2011, 7:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-twickster-locking-week-old-tv-threads/598587/12 "2011-10-04T19:23:29Z")
I don’t watch either of the shows in question so I’m not that invested in this, but if a show is going to have separate threads for separate episodes, I don’t understand why an episode thread has to be locked simply because a new episode has aired. The first episode thread is for discussing the first episode. Discussion of that episode might continue well past the airing of the second episode. And yet if you bring the discussion of the first episode into the second episode thread, it’s going to muddy things up and be confusing. I think this is a bad policy. ---
**Author:** ![Silver\_Tyger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/fbc32d/32.png) [@Silver\_Tyger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Silver_Tyger)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2011, 7:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-twickster-locking-week-old-tv-threads/598587/13 "2011-10-04T19:24:54Z")
> [@Justin\_Bailey](#): > > It’s not an old thread, it’s the thread on last week’s show. It’s never been prohibited to reply to those threads before and it seems like a weird time to start now. Especially so unevenly like this. It’s old in that there’s a newer thread. Why would you post to a thread when there’s a newer one? ---
**Author:** ![Justin\_Bailey](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/justin_bailey/32/8792_2.png) [@Justin\_Bailey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Justin_Bailey)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2011, 7:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-twickster-locking-week-old-tv-threads/598587/14 "2011-10-04T19:25:58Z")
> [@Marley23](#): > > I didn’t say “it’s always been this way.” I said it’s not a new occurrence because it isn’t, and I said there isn’t a new policy about old episode threads because there is no new policy about those threads. In other words, this is a situation that has come up before (though it doesn’t happen every week) and we’re not changing the rules. Do a search like I asked. This has NEVER come up before.\* - OK, I can’t prove NEVER, but this is extremely rare. Happening twice in two days is more than this has happened in years. > [@Silver Tyger Girl](#): > > It’s old in that there’s a newer thread. Why would you post to a thread when there’s a newer one? To continue discussing the first episode. It only aired 8 days ago. Like others have said, there are 24 threads from 2001 still open. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2011, 7:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-twickster-locking-week-old-tv-threads/598587/15 "2011-10-04T19:39:18Z")
> [@Justin\_Bailey](#): > > It only aired 8 days ago. Like others have said, there are 24 threads from 2001 still open. But they’re not active - in most cases nobody has posted to them in years. The issue here is that the latest episode of the show was being discussed in two threads at once. We try to keep discussions centralized so everybody can see the whole conversation. It’s the same reason we lock duplicate threads. If the Terra Nova pilot is being discussed in two threads, then you have to read two threads or else you’re missing part of the conversation - potentially including someone else posting about something that interests you or answering a question you were thinking about asking. It’s an inconvenience. In most cases there’s no need to close a thread about an older episode of a show because when the new episode airs or a new thread starts, the discussion naturally migrates to that thread. In these cases it didn’t, so part of the discussion was in the last-week thread and part was in the new thread. So the older thread got locked. ---
**Author:** ![Justin\_Bailey](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/justin_bailey/32/8792_2.png) [@Justin\_Bailey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Justin_Bailey)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2011, 7:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-twickster-locking-week-old-tv-threads/598587/16 "2011-10-04T19:44:11Z")
> [@Marley23](#): > > In most cases there’s no need to close a thread about an older episode of a show because when the new episode airs or a new thread starts, the discussion naturally migrates to that thread. In these cases it didn’t, so part of the discussion was in the last-week thread and part was in the new thread. So the older thread got locked. You’re still missing the point. There was new discussion about the premiere episodes of Terra Nova posted an hour before Twickster closed it. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2011, 7:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-twickster-locking-week-old-tv-threads/598587/17 "2011-10-04T19:49:34Z")
I’m not sure why that matters. That stuff can continue in the new thread. ---
**Author:** ![Justin\_Bailey](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/justin_bailey/32/8792_2.png) [@Justin\_Bailey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Justin_Bailey)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2011, 7:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-twickster-locking-week-old-tv-threads/598587/18 "2011-10-04T19:50:10Z")
> [@Marley23](#): > > I’m not sure why that matters. That stuff can continue in the new thread. Then what’s the point of individual episode threads? ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2011, 7:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-twickster-locking-week-old-tv-threads/598587/19 "2011-10-04T19:53:25Z")
> [@Justin\_Bailey](#): > > Then what’s the point of individual episode threads? Reminding people a new episode is coming, discussing what’s happened up to this point in the series, talking about the new episode as it happens, then speculating what’ll happen in the next one. The cycle repeats whenever there’s a new episode. It would be weird if you couldn’t talk about last week’s episode in the new thread - the goal of the closure of the 9/26 Terra Nova thread, for example, was getting all the discussion of the 10/3 episode in one place so everybody could see it. ---
**Author:** ![Irishman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/b487fb/32.png) [@Irishman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Irishman)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2011, 7:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-twickster-locking-week-old-tv-threads/598587/20 "2011-10-04T19:54:12Z")
I have recorded but not yet watched the premiere episode of Terra Nova. I may watch it tonight. What do I do if I wish to then read and reply to the Premiere episode thread with comments about the premiere episode, before I watch the second episode? You’ve closed the discussion thread for that. If people are trying to do single episode threads for a show, then post a note at the bottom of the first thread that it is for discussing the premiere episode and that the second episode is in another thread, with a link. But closing it prevents discussion. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-twickster-locking-week-old-tv-threads/598587.md?page=2)