With sincere apologies to Teddy Roosevelt, "Speak softly and whack 'em with a big stick".
How about giving the original poster, say, 4 days to to continue his/her thread? This would allow time for people who do not have access to university or corporate systems over the weekend. If after 4 days of no response from the originator the thread is closed if it has useful information in it and if not, then delete it. Possibly some deferance could be given towards registered members with star rankings since they tend to be regulars who do not abuse this forum.

Hal