How old is "old"?

[small package]

Rule #9 - Do not necro old threads.

It doesn't say what old is and is there a way to have a series of increasingly stern warnings before posting depending on when the last post in a thread was? Ranging from "Nobody has posted here for a x weeks, are you sure you want to continue this thread?" to "This thread has been dead for a year, so you better be sure." type of thing.

 

[cyx.]

Are you asking if we can add some sort of pop up window with a warning when a thread hasn't had activity in x amount of days? If so, then no. It's usually up to the user to determine the last date something was posted and make that decision for themselves.

As for what determines an 'old' thread depends on the location. We get more lenient with threads in general discussion, academy, etc., than anywhere else.

 

[small package]

You could add a banner type post to the end of an old thread, instead of a pop up, with a "nobody's been here in a while, you sure you want to disturb the cobwebs" type message. But if "old" is in the eye of the beholder, then why not just bin rule 9 completely?

 

[cyx.]

I didn't say it was "in the eye of the beholder", I said we leave it to the member to determine from the last post date if something is a dead thread or not. So.. if a last post was over a year ago, then that's self explanatory to be an old thread. Obviously not everyone pays attention to dates, so staff nip things in the bud when needed.

Adding banners to old threads seems like an unnecessary step for staff to take on in my opinion. We take care of 'necro' posts when we need to.

 

[Fentanyl]

It does go on to explain that threads in the introductions forum are considered "dead" after 7 days and shouldn't be posted in, the only other sub-forum it specifically targets is the Q&S forum where an exception is if you find a thread that's ancient and the problem you're having hasn't resolved with the answers in it.

You're not really going to see this type of rule break in other parts of the forum because of just the way the forum works. Most everything else is made up of things like forum games, general discussion threads, journals, actual role plays - things we're not going to put a hard time limit on because they understandably vary with traffic and can be picked up/dropped at any time.

Visibility of specific threads/information is going to be one of the most important reasons. The two forums specifically listed in the rule are important to keep clear of clutter and "dead" threads. Someone who is brand new to the site could make an introduction thread and then someone goes on a necroing spree and buries the brand new intro thread onto page 2 before someone from the Welcoming Committee can make sure they get shown around. Similarly, the issues/questions/suggestions that are on the front page are all current and we don't want them to get buried by something already handled.

For the most part, it's not a rule that we see get a lot of breaks and most of the time is just a harmless mistake that we correct.

Adding a banner to all old threads or a pop up is more software limited by xenforo and just isn't really feasible or necessary. It takes a handful of seconds to see the time stamp on the last post and make a judgment decision on whether this is something you should be contributing to or not.

 

[Solo]

I can't speak to current staff but this was always primarily to a) help the Welcoming Committee be able to focus on users who are truly new on the first page of the Intros forum without having to pick through old threads and b) to know when Q&S threads still needed attention rather than having to check if someone has a new question with a new post. We'd constantly get people going "oh, cool" on old Q&S threads and that could make it difficult on staff to see if the original poster still needed help with their issue, or if a new user was running into a similar issue that needed fixed.

Like cyx said, I don't think it's really monitored outside of the forums mentioned within the rule:

Threads posted in the Introductions forums are considered "dead" and should not be posted in after 7 days. The necro exception is that you may post in older Q&S threads if your current issue is already covered in an older thread and that issue is still needing to be addressed.

EDIT: Ope, got ninja'd by people more equipped to answer than me, lol

 

[reverie.]

the necro rule is mostly to prevent old introduction threads from "stealing" attention from new introduction threads, so when it comes to threads in for example the ooc section, it depends on the thread itself and also what you post in that thread.

 

[cyx.]

I saw someone reply to a 15yo thread before and nobody (besides me, I guess?) cared so...

Staff don't see everything - if you see something that seems like a rule break, reporting it is the best way to draw attention to it. We do our best to see everything, but with as many members as we have actively posting, things will slip through cracks.