Hard Light Productions Forums
Site Management => Site Support / Feedback => Topic started by: headdie on July 18, 2012, 05:12:44 am
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given the recent increase in replies on threads like this (http://www.hard-light.net/forums/index.php?topic=49027.0;topicseen) which have been dead for years, is there a option in the forum code to auto lock threads over a year old or something similar?
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You'd think the big red warning stating it hasn't been posted in for more than 30 days would be enough... :rolleyes:
Actually, the warning isn't THAT big. Is is possible to make it bigger and meaner ?
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I was just about to ask about it myself.
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The warning is pretty big already, and it requires the poster to signal their posting intent twice instead of once. I think that's more than enough notice. We don't want to be obnoxious.
Necrothreading isn't really that big of a problem, and there are legitimate (albeit infrequent) reasons to necro a thread. The best way to deal with those who needlessly bump threads is by publicly shaming them. :p
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and it requires the poster to signal their posting intent twice instead of once.
What do you mean ?
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You get a pop up box asking if you really want to post because old topic.
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Wut, since when.
Granted I don't often necro, but I don't remember getting that, ever. Is it a recent addition ?
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Well... the only way to undo the "damage" caused by a completely pointless necro is to simply delete the post.
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Not sure that would put the thread back in its previous place, ie not at the top of the board...
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Threads are ordered by default by date of last post. If the last post is no longer there, it makes sense it would work.
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We don't delete posts unless we absolutely have to, as a general rule.
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indeed the current policy of locking pointless necros is better than deletion of posts
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Only the chosen can Necro a truly useless (i.e. Locked) topic anyway :)
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I confirm that there is no kind of pop up box whatsoever happening when posting in a 30+days old thread. Just did it in a private board and the only warning I got was the small red warning on top of the quick reply text area.
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http://www.hard-light.net/forums/index.php?topic=39132.msg1623487#msg1623487
please sir may i have another
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Its there any real reason to dissallow "necroing" ?
I have a very personal view about that where forbidding "necroing" doesnt make sense. I am a mod in a very big forum about wireless networks and usually the very same questions keeps appearing in endless new threads. If i forbid "necroing" it would get worse.
It makes no sense. I prefer to have all possible answers in a single thread, no matter how old.
I feel that this is one more kind of "monkeys in a cage" thing : 10 monkeys are placed in a cage, everytime a monkey gets a banana all monkeys receive a jet of cold water, quickly they learn to beat any monkey that tries to get to a banana before it can. Half the monkeys are removed from the cage and replaced by newcomers. The monkeys now beat the new monkeys when they try to get to the bananas. No water jet is used any more. After some time all the other half of monkeys is replaced by new monkeys, so now there is not a single monkey originally hit by a water jet, yet, all monkeys learned to hit anyone who tries to reach the bananas.... Or something like that the history says.
If the problem is related to thread placement, is that really all that important ? There arent more problems in the world ?
Sometimes i think its good to live in a poor country - like i do - where people have real problems to worry about. And yes, i am losing time caring about weapons used in a space sim, but at least i am not caring about curtailing unecessarely the freedoms of someone else. I think the human life is already too much limited to need "needless" curtailing by those who learned to pick any opportunity to feel better by throwing rocks whenever the opportunnity arises.
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I don't see how recurring questions relate to what we have at HLP. Usually, when a thread is necroed here, people just state their opinions without adding anything more to the thread apart from adding yet another opinion. Worse, there are general, no-content posts like "can't wait to see it in game", like the one we had at FotG this time. These are invalid reasons to bring back a several-year-old thread.
Valid reasons include posting campaign/model updates to a thread or asking a question in a FAQ thread.
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Usually, when a thread is necroed here, people just state their opinions without adding anything more to the thread apart from adding yet another opinion.
Considering your current signature, complaining about people adding their opinions has a special value of amusement.
I'd also argue allowing people to state their opinion is valuable in itself.
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Thread necromancy is permissible under some circumstances. Like, for example, in the case of a work in progress thread where the original creator wishes to post an update.
However, most instances of this that we've seen here involve people resurrecting threads for no good reason at all; be it to request an update on a thread, or to post a simple " me too" message. It is this kind of completely unnecessary bumping that we object to and that this thread is about.
Now, it's all well and good that you do not have this problem in your forum, but please consider that this isn't your forum, and that we have our reasons for acting like we do. It is very definitely not a case of monkeys being afraid of water.
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And you lost a good opportunity to explain the reason behind the rule instead of say that i am not the owner of this forum (as if being the owner means imposing your oppinion, while at the same time probably not being the owner either). I believe i am not delusional (So supposedly its not hard for me to know that i am not the owner of this forum ? but thanks to tell me what i already know).
Your answer unfortunatelly can be summarized as :
There a good reason not to.
I wont say the reason.
Get off my lawn.
I must add that in the example i gave (whose forum i am not the owner) was to show that necroing can have a value (lessening the ammount of needless threads about the same subject).
Unfortunately you failed to give another view showing another good reason to now allow necroing.
So the argument about monkeys, bananas and water jets seems to be still standing...
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So the argument about monkeys, bananas and water jets seems to be still standing...
Perhaps if you're not reading his post, this would be true. However he's offered one; necros are normally contentless, and this is frowned upon. Non-contentless necros are not.
Or you're interpreting a blanket rule where there is not one, but that seems also to be reading-related problems.
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Necroing this thread in a couple of years is going to be awesome. :lol:
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uh how did you manage to get a reply on july 20 if its july 19? O,o
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In my "necroing" post i added substance, yet it was locked. So the rule doesnt seem to be followed...
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Your answer unfortunatelly can be summarized as :
There a good reason not to.
I wont say the reason.
Get off my lawn.
And maybe you should follow this advice, for one.
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In my "necroing" post i added substance, yet it was locked. So the rule doesnt seem to be followed...
Yes, however, you were ressurecting a discussion that was 4 years old by the time you made that post. In those cases, we prefer people to make new threads, because it saves everyone involved the hassle of having to read the old thread in order to properly evaluate your statements.
Just as we dislike contentless necros, necros that were made to bump a topic everyone has already forgotten about are also disliked.
There are reasons to bring back old threads. Continuing discussions that everyone involved has (presumably) forgotten and moved past is not among them. In fact the only reason to bump threads that old is to post an update for a release.
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so whats the hard limit on the ammount of time from the last post ?
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so whats the hard limit on the ammount of time from the last post ?
A warning will pop up, before you reply to any post more than thirty days old. That's probably a safe guideline.
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Alright, so you want reasons not to, well, I can't speak for everyone on the board, or the administration's reasons, but these reasons are why I don't particularily like it.
If there's a dumb necro like "can't wait to see it in game" which adds absolutely nothing to the thread whatsoever and just dredges up something that might be entirely irrelevant to the current state of affairs up again, it's better off just not saying it.
Even if you have something to add to the discussion, if it's a discussion that's been dead for four years, chances are everyone has said what they wanted to say. Dredging it up again just because you happened to miss the discussion while it was taking place just makes it seem like some sort of attention whoring thing - they stopped talking about it four years ago, but WHAT I HAVE TO SAY IS SO BRILLIANT everyone will suddenly care again. At least, that's partially the impression it gives. Chances are if it's that old, the discussion has concluded - everyone has forgotten about it, or moved on. If there's really something new worth discussing then you could make a new thread for it. I think having multiple threads on the same thing isn't a bad thing per-se, as long as the others are dead. It's certainly less awkward than opening up a thread to see a post you made four years ago being replied to...which is like a "wut" moment. Half the time the discussion isn't even pertinent to the title anymore.
Even if it is a Q/A thread, I'd still just open a new thread and make reference to any previous ones that may be related. Keep issues separate, as they might not be as similar as one might initially believe...
I don't see anything wrong with wanting to participate but, "there's a time and place for everything", sometimes that time is past. If you feel there's a new development that warrants renewed discussion, then make a new thread. If there isn't really and you're just responding to something because it's there, then I think timing as a lot to do with it.
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Or maybe the person wasnt looking at the last post date ?
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That's why (as stated a good dozen times in this thread) there is a red warning telling you it's been more than 30 days since last post.