To quote someone a while ago on the WoW forum...

[Ithirahad]

FROM: World of Warcraft forum, a few years ago.

It seems a bit ironic for how often Ive seen "use the forum search feature" that people who do actually use it see a thread that they can add a helpful bit of information to, and the thread then gets locked for "necro bumping"

Sure, [it makes sense] if they were bumping a thread about [a really old bug that was fixed ages ago], or "hey this was a good thread"

But like the last one some guy wanted to know how [a certain species is supposed to get somewhere (?)] now, and nobody knew aside from running. Then some guy sees it and hes like,"Hey, there's a teleporter in Grom'gol now" and someone else adds "don't run there, it's guarded by level 85 elites"

If I was searching for how to get to Gnomer as Horde now, Id actually be informed instead of spending 2 hours running there and getting [ROFL-stomped] by guards and thinking,"wow, blizzard is retarded why are there 85 guards here " as someone else apparently already did.

So I suppose Im curious, why is that such a horrible crime? Whats the difference between bumping that post or starting a new one? It seems like 100 threads on the same subject would just make it harder to find the information you need using the search feature.

(Ironically, someone necro'd that post with a legitimate comment. The thread was locked soon afterwards.)

When a thread has gotten out of hand and been abandoned due to ragequits or whatever, I understand why you wouldn't want that kind of thing to be rekindled... But sometimes a good, if old, thread gets buried under newer discussions, but then comes back around due to someone searching or just having too much time on their hands and going back out to Page 4 or whatever... Why should that be locked? Just because it wasn't popular enough at the time? Why should someone newer appearing with new ideas warrant (or demand) a duplicate post when there's a perfectly good thread waiting to be continued?

Note: This is more or less a random thought and has no relevance to any specific instances. If there's no rule against 'necrobumps' here on these forums, move this to off-topic.

 

[der_scheme]

I've always wondered the same thing. I am however not under the impression that the moderators here are handling it that way.

 

[1338typo]

>makes thread to ask question
>"hurr use search function"

>posts question on related pre-existing thread
>"durr dont necro"
>or "durr, just google it"
>first google result is that thread

 

[NeonSturm]

There should be a forum called "Quick questions" to avoid too much clutter in suggestions and general discussion.

Nobody cries if you necro a shipyard post.


I have resigned keeping myself informed in most part of this section because it takes so long to load for a post just saying "nice" or "I like that".

If something posts that, I would like to not have it in alerts until 5 posts collected.
Also I'm tired of losing overview there...​

 

[ToyotaSupra]

>makes thread to ask question
>"hurr use search function"

>posts question on related pre-existing thread
>"durr dont necro"
>or "durr, just google it"
>first google result is that thread

NVMD FIXED IT LOL

Hate this when it happens. People also take forums waaay too seriously. Including this one, recently...

 

[jayman38]

... But sometimes a good, if old, thread gets buried under newer discussions, but then comes back around due to someone searching or just having too much time on their hands and going back out to Page 4 or whatever... Why should that be locked? Just because it wasn't popular enough at the time? Why should someone newer appearing with new ideas warrant (or demand) a duplicate post when there's a perfectly good thread waiting to be continued?

I have seen the forum moderators suggest that you quote the important elements of the old conversation and create a new topic with the quotes.

As for why? Old topics will have old information and old details that might no longer work, so bringing back that outdated information can bring some in-game harm to those who don't know the game mechanics enough to know better. Therefore, it's better to cherry-pick the important points that you want to discuss and move them into a new topic. Naturally, there's going to be other reasons, but this is the one that stands out to me.

 

[Firestorm29]

Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but I think the necropost problem comes from a technical standpoint, also.

I recall hearing that when a post gets X age, some forum software will put it into some sort of archive mode instead of it being active. Necroposting will turn that thread from that archive read-mode into an active mode again. Too much of this can bog down forums. I think that's how it works anyways.

Also, post limits can be a thing.

 

[MrFURB]

I don't know much about the technical aspects as I'm more of a social moderator but I do know that this community isn't nearly as bad as others... Especially when it comes to social graces where outliers stand out like a sore thumb. Necro posting hasn't been a major issue thus far. A little preventative care does go a long way but I wouldn't want to diagnose the problem prematurely and end up inconveniencing users with additional rules and limitations meant for communities that are a bit less tame. For now we've got enough dedicated manpower to handle things on a case-by-case basis.