There is an influx of new members and thats a good thing. What is not good is the sudden increase number of necroposts that reply to threads years old. Can we have a rule or a general warning displayed to remain within threads less than three months old if they went inactive? The replies a useless as most of the original posters are long gone, the reply to rephrases what's been said, and I waste dozens of minutes reading answers and replis that no longer matter.
Well... I hear what you're saying, and I know in many forums necroposting is a heavy no-no, but sometimes necroposting does give rise to new discussion on the matter. The fact that the OP is long gone really doesn't matter if the discussion finds new purchase amongst current members. If it doesn't find purchase, it rolls back to the grave quickly enough.
Is this the result of that "related threads" menu we sometimes see at the bottom of the page? That can have some real oldies in it.
It might be. I never really pay attention to it, but I have been for the last hour or so, and yeah, it kinda' serves as a thread archeologist.
Meh. We've all done it, replied before noticing it was a revived thread. I don't see a problem worth worrying about. It's kind of interesting when someone critiques a post that the member wrote years ago, an action unique to a writers' forum.
At least this forum give you the date the thread was posted when you float over it. Other forums don't do that and it's very aggravating.
I'm not at all bothered. As @Wreybies said, if the thread's topic still has life, the discussion can easily be re-invigorated. If not, it will die. I remember being a newbie on this forum and one other (which I've dropped.) I spent several days trawling through the threads, looking for interesting ones, and felt compelled to make a comment on a few of them. Well, stone me, I was jumped on from a great height by an older member for daring to comment on an old thread. (This jumping was done by the same person on both forums, it turns out! Obviously a bee in the bonnet.) However, it was a very unwelcoming and off-putting reaction to me, who was feeling my way as a new member. The thread's topics were interesting, still topical, and I didn't see the harm. I certainly didn't deserve chastisement or embarrassment. There was no rule against doing what I did. Still isn't. Isn't that the principle our Workshops are based on? Nobody's Workshop OP postings are ever removed, because people have commented on them in the past, and the discussion might be useful to other members in the future? It's a rule that encourages people to read old threads, doesn't it? Of course those of us who have been around a while recognise an 'old' thread, and can elect not to participate. The newbies haven't had a chance to do the thread yet, however, so let them have a go. They'll have a newbie discussion and flex their newbie wings. It's either that, or they end up starting another thread with the same old topic—something else which can be irritating to older forum members. As a newbie, you're damned if you do, damned if you don't. However, I wouldn't object to @A.M.P. 's suggestion that a 'warning' sticker appear prominently in the thread's title, warning people that it's an old thread, started more than 3 months ago, or whatever the cutoff date becomes. That way, the newbie won't be so likely to be embarrassed. Can't see any harm. But of course that WILL mean more new threads started with the same old topics. Either way, you get a rehash of arguments. I guess you choose your poison.
Three months doesn't seem that long ago to me. Plenty of the people who were posting on threads three months ago are still around. Some of the quieter forum sections have threads on the front page that haven't been posted on for three months. I remember from when I was a newbie that writing prompts is suggested as a good place for newbies to go. I certainly did some of my 20 required posts for the workshop there. Most of the threads in that forum were created over three months ago. Quite a lot of the front page threads there haven't been posted on in three months. I tend to agree that nothing needs to be done about necro threads, but I tend to think that we're talking threads that have been dead for a year before it feels a bit odd when someone replies.
I'm actually even less concerned over necroposting in the Workshop than I am in the rest of the forum, where even there my concern is negligible. I know it's like selling Esperanto to people, but giving critique is where the money's at for the members, not getting it, *shrug*, so it doesn't matter if the OP never comes back. It serves as material to work on for new members.
I've done it, too. Nothing wrong with it if it inspires new discussion. I found this website because I had done a google search on a topic and something on this site came up. So I joined and replied to that topic, which it turned out was several years old. Also, when you're new, you tend to review more of the threads, and when you see one that looks interesting, it's easy to reply to it, not realizing that it's very old.
I think it's a newbie rite of passage. It's like stumbling into a party at a mansion - you're bound to bring up subjects everyone's hashed out already - hey, anyone wanna talk prologues? Grrrrr. Or you try to make friends with the long lost avatars of members past. How do you do, love your story! While some slick oldie tries to steer you in the right direction' um, that's just an avatar now. The person who asked that question is long gone.' Oh. Well. Newbie whistles and mosies on and tries to look inconspicuous. Or we could always post a tumbleweed at the bottom of the thread - this place is a ghosttown- move on.
My very first post in this forum ever was me posting my story for critique in the Art of Critique subforum at the top end of the forum. Banzai was the one who PM'd me about why it was deleted. I think that's probably why that particular boo-boo evinces such an emotional response from me. Latent beginner's shame.
On another site I brought up prologues first post and the members circled me with torches and tar and feathers yelling troll!troll!troll! I was such a newbie to forums I had to Google troll as I was thinking mistaken identity or some net abbreviation. On here I tried to post my story first day, luckily it wasn't working( or it would've been locked ) then I read the rules. Yes, first things first.
Some resurrected threads can be potentially very interesting on re-examination. They CAN be, but they very rarely are.
