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Posts: 2729
Joined: Jan. 30 2007
From: London (the South of it), England
Necroposting
Seems it quite a thing.
Copy paste from scratch, the coding website. Not trying to tell anyone off or cause trouble. I just find this topic interesting. Because like I said. I felt this behavior unnerving for some reason but not really sure why. Ah I did some digging.
First things first: What is a necropost? A necropost is generally referred to as a reply to an old, abandoned thread that has been considered “dead” for a while. Basically, a thread that no longer serves any purpose is bumped back up to the top of the forums by someone posting in it.
How old should a thread be before it is considered “dead”? This depends on the thread and the forum it is in. Some things to consider: -Has the initial question been resolved? -Is the subject no longer relevant? (For example: a thread suggesting an input box. Since Scratch 1.4 added this functionality, this thread has no real purpose.) -Is the thread relatively old? If the original poster was asking for help, they're probably not watching it anymore if it's over a month old.
Is it ever okay to necropost? Yes. If you believe you have something to add to the subject that no one else has mentioned, and the topic is still relevant or unresolved, you can give your input; it may spark new discussion! However, do some searching and make sure the subject hasn't been resolved or continued on somewhere else since then. In addition, some topics, such as Show and Tell threads, are never too old to post in. Since those are there for you to give feedback, rather than hold a discussion, you can always leave a comment for the maker. There's nothing like bringing a great project that has been forgotten back into the limelight.
For more information, see the Scratch Wiki article on bumping/necroposting.
It's like composting, but when the neighbors' cat mysteriously disappears.
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"Anything you do can be fixed. What you cannot fix is the perfection of a blank page. What you cannot fix is that pristine, unsullied whiteness of a screen or a page with nothing on it—because there’s nothing there to fix."
On most fora you'd be banned for it. It's up there with flooding. The only reason you don't get any grief for it here is because of low traffic. If there were more posts, the issue would become immediately clear, as you'd see how everyone's new posts would keep getting pushed down the front page because of some moron who was bumping a bunch of long-dead threads.
It may not make much of a difference on this particular forum right now. It's just that some people follow the rule as basic online etiquette.
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"Anything you do can be fixed. What you cannot fix is the perfection of a blank page. What you cannot fix is that pristine, unsullied whiteness of a screen or a page with nothing on it—because there’s nothing there to fix."
I don't subscribe to following a rule as itself without consideration of relevance (e.g. what if you are providing an answer to a long-posed unanswered question in an old thread because of new findings). Also, I've been on fora since 1992; the 'necroposting' rule was not a thing till up to at least mid- (late?)-2000s if I recall. Perhaps it developed with the times as posters started misbehaving more and more (and with the passage of more significant time naturally resulting in really old threads).
However, in any case, there is an easy compromise, already stated several times by others over the last few months here: the poster, instead of restarting an old thread, starts a new thread and provides a link to the old one for continuity or reference. That's it.
We don’t “need” a new post on nails and strings and Condes every week. New comers should be encouraged to view the archives before posting, simply because almost any topic was likely covered, not including news. Before any relevant postings or questions on an old thread, (before “bumping” it in other words) they should be sure to have 1) read the ENTIRE THREAD, and also 2) should not address any specific person expecting a feedback from them as many members are long gone. Recent bumping of old posts by one individual who has not been respecting those two criteria is the reason for frustration here. This individual is being monitored/censored by Admin so I don’t see it as a big deal…I have also been accused of going along with one or two cases because I realized the old topic is relevant to something new I wanted to add, however I understand that could be viewed as “encouraging” this individual’s behavior. I have made attempts to refrain from commenting when I can help it.
Sure. Stu's post does a good job describing the conditions in which a necropost wouldn't bother anyone. I don't think those conditions are being met here, not for the most part anyway. Not a big deal per se. I'd imagine most people annoyed by it would be a lot less annoyed if the person doing it wasn't such a [/insert juicy qualifier] troll, so ultimately that's probably what the real problem is.
@Escribano Fair point.
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"Anything you do can be fixed. What you cannot fix is the perfection of a blank page. What you cannot fix is that pristine, unsullied whiteness of a screen or a page with nothing on it—because there’s nothing there to fix."