On occasion I have posted in an old thread(6 mos to a year or more) and yet I sometimes see members appologizing for this. Why? I do searches and find old bits that I either like or have a question about so I comment. Is there some forum etiquette I missed the boat on? Does knowledge get stale? It seems perfectly reasonable to bring up an old topic for discussion
I will admit that this forum is a bit different than many others, where a lot of the conversation does become stale. It’s typically just a “we had that discussion a year ago, it’s done” type of thing in a lot of forums. Other times, like what I think sometimes happens here, there is the possibility that the old topic is being referenced when there is a much newer one with more current information. Or, someone will revive an old thread from a year ago to ask the OP (or someone else who posted) a question, not realizing that they aren’t really around anymore (which can be avoided here because it shows the date of their last activity). Sometimes, the discussion has been had a thousand times and Mr. 3-Posts apparently finds the oldest possible to revive.
Usually, thread “necro” is frowned upon in a lot of communities for these reasons and others. If I revive something particularly old, I tend to feel a pang of guilt. I suppose it’s just been beat into me by years of “emotive” responses to doing so.
The typical flowchart for posting, for me, goes something like:
Is the topic in an existing thread?
Is the thread very old?
Is there a solid chance that there is actually something vitally different now (e.g new emitters exist)?
Is there a newer thread discussing the same thing?
Are the people active in the thread still active?
Then I decide which thread to reply to, or in some cases I just start a new one.
I hate it when a very informative piece gets buried away, particularly if the info doesn’t relate to any keywords. A lot of times all the answers to a hot topic were laid down 8 months before, and need to be rehabilitated to the front pages again.
I don´t mind.
If discussion is about the same topic, I try to find existing thread. No matter the age.
It's about the same as having several threads on the same topic. It's going to happen, no way to stop it, so I just ignore it if it's not pertinent to me. Not a big deal really.
I love how some forums you will get “this threads dead, why dig it up?” But then the.same.person will say “that was already discussed over a year ago here in this thread”. Kind of hypocritical.
I personally don’t care unless it’s.spammers bringing up dead threads for handbags or carbon fiber bike rims
It seemed that over on CPF a commonly used phrase was “Did you use the search function?”, whereas here a member is more likely to just post a link which I think is much more helpful. I like to rummage around a bit, sort of like prowling the isles at the hardware store looking for new bits. Occasionally I’ll find a well worn thread or one that fell of the top ten without apparent resolution that I find interesting and while there are many members with more tenure than I that might recognize those old threads, there are also many newer members for whom that thread is new. I’ve little interest in bringing up old arguments or grudges but there is a wealth of knowledge that shouldn’t be taboo.
Geeze, I get it. I’ll stop apologizing every time I revive an old thread.
Seriously, though, I’m glad someone mentioned it because it really is a habit I’ve developed over the years. I’ll break myself of it here.
Yeah I’m scared to revive an old thread over at bladeforum, the mods will seriously ban you if you do it. I remember this one thread where the mod was like “we’ve already told you before, stop reviving old threads or you will be punished”
+1
Sounds pretty reasonable to me.
Sorry Boris. This thread was not intended to denigrate anyone who applogized for doing it but just to ask why they felt the need to do so. Old or new, threads are a forums footprints and it’s interesting to see where it’s been.
No worries. I feel the same way. There is a reason I get a lot of the aforementioned warnings on other forums.
I dug up a ten year old thread on small Maglite mods over at CPF and was told I was macho. Hell, I just wanted to update the thing. I wasn’t looking for an old thread, it just happened to be the kind of list I was looking for. Searches are like that unless you ignore hits with old post dates and that seems silly.
I just revived this thread! It’s been 3 hours since the last post! J)
Well for me, I usually look at recent threads, and how recent the posts are. Usually I consider those that are over 2 years ‘outdated’, and I also prefer reading threads that have more recent dates!
The topic might have been discussed before by old members, but new members continually come in, so to new members those knowledge are new and they might have those questions that we had when we were newbies. Sometimes an old thread pops up and if I were the threadstarter, that’s a little surprise! (It’s like wow, someone in future would actually read your thread!)
I don't see a problem in reviving a old thread if it's relevant to the topic itself.
Complaints about reviving old discussions are just a way to abuse a new posters, but not here.
I tend to ignore threads that go a long time. In most cases the meat of a discussion occurs in the first few posts or possibly pages, after that most posts consist of agree/disagree/thanks/’arguing who’s momma is the ugliest’ and not much new information.
I dont see anything wrong with reviving a post, after all, most of the time its done to ask/share/find out something about topic discussed in revived thread.
I understand if a member starts new topic and make apologies in case such thread has been made and he/she hasnt be able to find answers with the help of search.
So, people, make new, meaningful threads and dont hesitate to revive an old ones if they spark your interest ;)!
It’s a no win situation.
(general forums on the interweb)
Post a new topic - gets close/comments about being done before. Sometimes with a link to an ancient thread.
Wait a week.
Follow link to ancient thread and post on it. Topic gets closed to bringing back a dead thread….
Hand in membership and pretend you are a turnip.