Community Chat

[sugar plum]

I honestly don't understand why this happens.

I'm referring to threads that are 1+ years old.

Why not just start a new thread?

Any ideas? Thanks in advance.

[sunshine45]

6 months old?

i dont consider that an old thread. i dont think the mods consider that an old thread either. if all of the posts on that thread are still relevant, i dont mind at all. 

i do believe that maybe a YEAR of inactivity on a thread i may consider "old."

[GrailSeeker]

This varies between websites.  Early on, when I first frequented a forum, we were instructed to do a search and that if something had previously been discussed, please don't start a new thread.  These forums had limited server capacity and this helped save space (if I understood correctly).

That's probably all changed now, but when a website loads slowly, I always think there is just too much junk on it for the server. 

[sugar plum]

Good point @sunshine45. I edited my OP to reflect that. Thanks.

[Trailrun23]

There are lots of threads that were started many years ago. Not sure why they just don't delete everything but a more recent time frame. 

[dooBdoo]

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@sugar plum wrote:

I honestly don't understand why this happens.

I'm referring to threads that are 1+ years old.

Why not just start a new thread?

Any ideas? Thanks in advance.

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@sugar plum, I think the reason it happens is that they use the search bar for a topic, they see the list of threads, and they choose one to post on without looking to see the dates on it... and they add a post which bumps it up. 

In other cases, they might decide to start a new thread and as they begin typing in the thread title they see the drop-down list of suggestions...  and they choose one of those, don't see the thread date, add a post, and up it bumps.

Some posters aren't aware the standards prohibit thread bumping.

It's a common policy on most (perhaps all) moderated forums to disallow bumping threads as it's considered to be problematic to pull up really old discussions that dropped away from activity.

Some of the moderators have explained that if we bump old threads that are inactive for more than a year or so, they will either be locked or deleted (so those that fall at or under that 1-year limit are probably okay) but some posters aren't aware of this.

I think it's good to mention it now and then for those newer posters who aren't aware, so thanks for this thread!😊

[dooBdoo]

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@GrailSeeker wrote:

This varies between websites.  Early on, when I first frequented a forum, we were instructed to do a search and that if something had previously been discussed, please don't start a new thread.  These forums had limited server capacity and this helped save space (if I understood correctly).

That's probably all changed now, but when a website loads slowly, I always think there is just too much junk on it for the server. 

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This wouldn't be the case with more modern technology, for most large venues today, @GrailSeeker.  I think if you look at the posting policies for sites, most if not all of them now include the admonition against bumping (some call it necroposting).

[Icegoddess]

A lot of times it's trolls. I saw one the other day that was started in 2015 and all of the posts except the last post was in 2015.  The last post had nothing to do with the topic of discussion.

It seems there is a lot of bumping of old threads around the Christmas/New Years break too.  Guess bored people having a little fun although I don't see what fun they would get out of it. 

[dooBdoo]

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@Trailrun23 wrote:

There are lots of threads that were started many years ago. Not sure why they just don't delete everything but a more recent time frame. 

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@Trailrun23,

They keep the old threads for the information we might want to find...  but if we bump them we end up losing that historical info on the threads since they'll be deleted (or might be locked).

For that reason, if we think a very old thread is worth preserving it's better not to bump  it in case that would result in getting it deleted.

It's an easy programming process to loop through old threads and find the ones deemed too old for additional posts and lock them so they wouldn't be bumped -- it's basic programming 101 and would take no time to accomplish -- but the Q purchased a "canned" prepackaged platform for the Community created and managed by another company, it has few "bells and whistles," and they've said before they don't plan to make any changes to it.

[dooBdoo]

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@Icegoddess wrote:

A lot of times it's trolls. I saw one the other day that was started in 2015 and all of the posts except the last post was in 2015.  The last post had nothing to do with the topic of discussion.

It seems there is a lot of bumping of old threads around the Christmas/New Years break too.  Guess bored people having a little fun although I don't see what fun they would get out of it. 

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Good point, @Icegoddess!