Community Chat

[dooBdoo]

            I have some general comments, and they're not directed at any specific person.  I have experience in helping moderate a couple of large forums, and at times I wish everyone could experience it from that side of the aisle to have a better understanding of the reasons for the guidelines and also of the complexity involved in enforcing them.

            Thread bumping is a no-no clearly stated in the QVC Community Standards for Participation.    It's also pretty much universally prohibited on discussion boards (if you're interested, look at all the hits with an internet search of "necroposting").  Many sites give warnings and then permanently ban those who persist in bumping.

            Every chat forum eventually has to establish at least some basic rules of engagement, if only to try and remind users of common courtesy and to maintain some modicum of structure (such as having sub-forum categories sorted by subject matter rather than allowing all topics to be posted everywhere).

            Why people do it?   They use the site without ever reading the terms of service, so they don't know it's not allowed, or they don’t notice the date, or they don't care what the policies are.   Not agreeing with the policies isn't really a good excuse -- it's not our website, and by using it we've already agreed to abide by the policies accepted for using someone else's resources.    We often see discussions (here and elsewhere in life) decrying the perceived "new" lack of consideration for others and also the "sense of entitlement."   Yet some of those same people exhibit a sense of entitlement and/or lack of basic courtesy when they don't review the guidelines or when they simply ignore the policies ("since I don't like them or agree with them, the rules don't apply to me") and do what they wish.

            I think it's helpful to be consistently and persistently mindful of "common courtesy" in all our daily activities, and posting here on the Q is no exception.   (Of course, the shield of anonymity is used by some as permission to be unkind, disruptive, etc. -- yet the way that we represent ourselves even with anonymous postings is a reflection of our personal integrity and ethics.)

            I'll never understand the attempt to demean posters for asking about the way we use the forums -- thread bumping or other issues.   Asking the questions or even venting a wee bit isn't a sign that we elevate questions or forum etiquette annoyances above other personal or world problems or even that it's a major concern.   Fortunately, as human beings, we are able to care about a wide variety of things, on all levels.   Nothing wrong with asking "why" or talking about various things we find that annoy us, personally.   I do wish we could have some voice in making changes and improvements here, but as we can see by this thread not everyone agrees on what works best.    Even so, it would be great to see another formal survey and some sort of indication that QVC is interested in improving their Community.

[dooBdoo]

            On a technical note, a well-managed website (well-managed by IT support -- I'm not talking about the moderators) has the ability to use a basic, simple programming trick to loop through all threads and close the older ones to comments.    That allows the old conversations to remain, preserving the older threads for reference, and also stops the problem of bumping.    

            I understand why some people find old threads and want to respond to them...  but all too often that results in the thread being completely removed if the moderators happen to see it.   Then, it's gone forever.    So -- and this is just my personal recommendation -- probably best to resist the urge to bump a really old discussion unless we do so knowing and accepting that in doing so we might cause the thread to be deleted.

[Cakers3]

It isn't so much the threads that are a few months old;  it's the issue of bringing up threads that are YEARS old.

Who in the world has time to scour the forum looking for something so old that often the topic is obsolete. 

Not to mention the post that pushed up a years old thread just repeats what has already been said. Over and over.

[goldensrbest]

Posting of old threads ,does bother me also.

[Veridoc]

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@Snicks1 wrote:
Complaining or bashing a new poster for pulling up an older thread is not really a friendly way to welcome a new poster to the boards. But, it is typical on the QVC boards. Sad, but typical.

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So true. That is why when I first signed on I stuck to the Pet Lovers thread. After having read some of the others I couldn't understand the thought process of whoever has a gazillion posts gets to dictate what is said. I knew the pet lovers would except my first post without judgement.

[Cakers3]

I understand somebody may be looking for a recipe but one doesn't have to bump up the whole thread.  Just copy the recipe.  lol

I don't think most posters are looking for old threads to be removed but it would be nice if mods would lock threads after a certain time frame.  I realize this forum doesn't have all the bells and whistles but it isn't too hard to get old threads locked.  Still able to read but not post.

[jubilant]

It really doesn't bother me as long as it isn't intended to cause trouble.  I haven't done it but I have found some of them interesting to go back to.

[faeriemoon]

I think the newbies, in their intent to post something meaningful, may scour through old threads to find one that they like.  They most likely don't know that the practice is frowned upon here.

Sometimes I'll land on one of those threads and notice people have responded not realizing it's an old thread.  I will usually post that the thread is old just to let people know what they are responding to.

[Shanus]

If the most recent post has a fairly current date, I sometimes just forget to go to the 10th page of the thread to see the date it originated. 

In the settings, I think my posts go to the “front of the line” as other posters do also. There can be many posts before I realize the thread is 3 years old.

[wilma]

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@Shanus wrote:

If the most recent post has a fairly current date, I sometimes just forget to go to the 10th page of the thread to see the date it originated. 

In the settings, I think my posts go to the “front of the line” as other posters do also. There can be many posts before I realize the thread is 3 years old.

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@Shanus

I have “accidentally” responded and posted on an old thread a few times. I usually do not look at the dates when I respond. I know one time another poster posted after me “This thread is from (insert past year here).” I wasn’t offended by that post, but I still don’t pay attention to original thread dates or dates of last post. Sorry if that causes others frustration.