Thanks for the genuine feedback.
We auto-close topics because they often attract bots, as you’re aware.
But another reason is because when real people do reply, it’s often off-topic When they talk about a “similar issue” they’re facing, the reason they’re replying is because the solution in the thread didn’t work for them, because it’s a different issue than what the topic is about.
Another reason we close old topics is because they are often out-of-date. Caddy is living software that changes over the course of the years, because the Internet changes. When a solution comes in months or years after the question, it can be irrelevant because the question was asked in a different era from the solution.
To add to a closed thread, I recommend creating a new topic – this also increases your trust level faster – with a link to the closed topic (the link on its own line will get an entire box, like this):
and tag the author of the original post just for good measure.
That’s correct – I wouldn’t expect you to fill out the help template when answering a question (it is for asking questions).
In extraordinary circumstances – for example, an old thread that has a LOT of hits from search engines (several thousand) – we may update the old topic to link to the newer answer/discussion if that would be helpful for future searchers.
In general, we follow the pattern of archiving old content for searchability, but prefer and recommend new content by starting new threads. And again, if you’re just answering a question, you can delete the help template since it’s irrelevant.