Moderation Necroposting

[Shawn Gossman]

How do you feel about members necroposting?

Necroposting is when a member replies to an old topic. These topics typically haven't had a post in over a long period, like a year or more.

Do you allow something like this? If you don't allow it, how do you justify not allowing it? What does it hurt?

 

[Arantor]

I generally don’t mind as long as it’s on topic.

However it kills me when a forum has a rule on necroposting, but then leaves a board full of 10+ year old topics open, and just beats people over the head when they inevitably necropost. Just lock the old topics already!

 

[CTS]

I have no problem with that at all.

 

[Shawn Gossman]

I generally don’t mind as long as it’s on topic.

However it kills me when a forum has a rule on necroposting, but then leaves a board full of 10+ year old topics open, and just beats people over the head when they inevitably necropost. Just lock the old topics already!

That is one of my biggest pet peeves on big forums. I'll usually quit visiting when I see BS like that.

 

[Bryn]

It's a bit of a grey area should I say... it's okay for certain threads, like for a news story and someone provides an update to it. But to post on an ancient thread with nothing better to add or post in a "Merry Christmas" thread in March, then certainly not.

 

[Arantor]

That is one of my biggest pet peeves on big forums. I'll usually quit visiting when I see BS like that.

Worse, it seems to be a feature of sites that tell their users to 'use the search first' - so they do, which is how come they find what they think is their problem in a 10+ year old thread, then necro it.

If y'all don't want necro posts, lock old threads. Heck, in SMF's case I even wrote the very mod for it.

 

[Cedric]

I don't mind it if it's relevant to the topic. Having a rule about it is honestly dumb. As long as it adds value to the topic, it should be encouraged. Doesn't matter if it's 1, 10 or 20 years old. A discussion can always be revived at some point.

 

[Ravenfreak]

As long as it adds to the conversation, I don't mind it at all. Sonic Retro, a Sonic the Hedgehog forum I joined 16 years ago, used to crack down on people who necropost, but they no longer enforce this rule.

 

[Shawn Gossman]

Sonic Retro, a Sonic the Hedgehog forum I joined 16 years ago, used to crack down on people who necropost, but they no longer enforce this rule.

Do you know why? Hopefully, backlash caused an activity drop, and they realized it was a bad idea. That's what needs to happen on forums that do stuff like that, IMO.

 

[Bluezone777]

If there is one reason to read the rules, it is this one as you just won't know whether it is or isn't allowed on a board. I honestly don't care as long as it is done sensibly which I just figure everyone has enough sense to know when to necropost and when not to do so.

One justification people have for the rule is because old threads contain posts from people who may not currently be active but it really doesn't matter who is or isn't active because what was written can still be discussed with who is currently visiting and still provide a fruitful discussion. You may not perfectly get what they meant but without the person in question around, you wouldn't know either way so it don't matter.