Why Not Necropost?

C

Cushing H.

Gold Member
Joined
Jun 3, 2019
Messages
2,714
Been meaning to ask this for a while ... Actually meant as a fairly serious question. I am not saying it should be done... literally asking why the resistance?

<<<flame resistant suit on >>>

why the resistance / prohibition on necroposting? The thread is still there, and so server space is not affected. It can be really instructive to read through the old postings for the information in them, as much of the information is “timeless” (and if not, it is instructive to learn how/why things have changed). Yes, some of the people who posted to that earlier thread are no longer active .. but that does not mean their insights no longer hold ... and if they don’t (see previous sentence) someone current can comment and update the info. If the info in the thread is truly not of current interest, nobody will comment, and the thread will slide down the stack and back into obscurity.

so, just what is the downside?
 
Besides bad forum conduct, it clogs the pages of current conversations so they roll off to page two.

It is almost always done by new members who have no highlighted post-reading on their page, so every post ever made looks the same, especially in a search. This is why reading the entire thread and looking at the dates is so important.

Asking a question or offering advice to a 7 year old problem is useless.

Photos and links are usually not working on older threads

The threads are always there, and anyone can read and learn from them with a simple Custom Search Engine search. No need for someone to bring them back to Page One unless there is new and pertinent information to add or something of interest to all to be noted.

A new thread with the link to the old thread solves all these issues.
 
I have feelings on both sides of the fence. Seams like the necro posts I see are from people answering the question that the OP asked. Which would be pointless to the OP as thy figured it out by now or are no longer with us. But on the flip side you have tons of people searching google and other places and these threads do pop up. So I can see value being added there if the post is offering updated information or something of value.

yeah I’m not sure, it’s a tough one. I can see Stacy’s point as well. I think both views have merit which makes it harder. Information is timeless but I wonder how much fades away into the blackness of time gone by. Kind sad if you think about it really.
 
I can see the part about broken links, and agree that answering a 7 year old question is nonsensical.... but I’m not sure I see the rest.

if a thread is not of interest, it will not be answered, and thus roll down and not clog current conversations. If it is of renewed interest, it will be commented on and become “current” (a blanket prohibition would not allow that possibility).

if a question asked was already answered,then a simple “if you read through the thread this was covered” should suffice ... but then again, there are many “current” threads that rehash info covered in older threads... and I guess I do not see the difference.

That this “is bad forum conduct” to me seems circular. It is bad conduct because the statement is made that this is bad conduct ... the first two “givens” above notwithstanding ... without really saying why ... at least not with enough explanation to explain the ... vehemence ... with which people are instructed not to do it (I have not seen a forum that quite so strongly prohibits this).

this can, of course, simply be enforced as a policy by owners and moderators without explanation... but I guess I so far do not see the reason for the ... strength ... of the prohibition.
 
Part of the problem is that "bad forum conduct" is not a universal.
  • I've been on forums that will chastise someone for creating a new thread if there's a relevant existing thread, no matter how old. "Necroposting" there is expected and welcome.
  • I've also been on forums that don't like necroposting, but instead of having it happen several times a week and chastising the new users, they just enforce it with technology: they implement a rule that locks threads 6 months (or a year or whatever the currently-defined standard is supposed to be) after the last post on that thread.
This particular subforum on BF seems to really dislike necroposting, but the only enforcement is to admonish new users when they come here to ask for help. I spent enough time lurking on BF to know that this was part of the culture before I created an account, but if someone is searching for help, finds this forum, creates an account and asks a question all on the same day, they may not have fully internalized all the quirks of this particular community.

Having read through the entirety of the seven-year-long "What's happening in your shop" thread, I've seen how many people who used to post here have dropped off. This is the natural life-cycle of a forum. To keep it healthy, you need new people showing up all the time. It makes me a little sad when the first reply some new person gets to their knifemaking question is "necroposting is frowned on..."

In general, this is a pretty welcoming and helpful group. I just wish this one facet was a little more polished.

-Tyson
 
Tyson A Wright said:
It makes me a little sad when the first reply some new person gets to their knifemaking question is "necroposting is frowned on...
Click to expand...

It is actually this very point that prompted me to post the question. Agreed .... it just seems to be sad and not encouraging to that potential new member.....
 
Meh...

It seems that most questions are answered when someone necroposts anyway. Being reminded of the rules never hurt anyone.
 
Cause that's the way the management likes it?
I do agree with the locked thread idea, once it's 6 months since the last activity, locking it wouldn't be a bad idea I think...
Who knows though, maybe this particular forum software doesn't have that kind of granularity...
 
Tyson A Wright said:
  • I've also been on forums that don't like necroposting, but instead of having it happen several times a week and chastising the new users, they just enforce it with technology: they implement a rule that locks threads 6 months (or a year or whatever the currently-defined standard is supposed to be) after the last post on that thread.
Click to expand...
That seems like a smart solution. What is worth the warning to new member that it is seven year old topic and necroposting is not allowed if it is already on front page ?
 
Necroposting it hysterical.

A post from years ago gets posted on and you get to sit back and chuckle at all the new responses that have no clue it is a necropost.

I bet many of us have posted on a necropost accidently when a new person brings it back up, and when we realize it is a "They got me" moment.

Necroposting is not a big problem, it is solved simply by the moderator moving their mouse and locking it, or let it get posted on with new discussion on the topic.
 
I know there are different opinions on this subject. However, it has been a policy in Bladeforums from the beginning.
I personally find a necropost more a lack of forum knowledge than bad forum conduct. That would be less of a problem if new members read the forum rules when they joined. They agreed to follow them. If it happened only once in a while it wouldn't be a big deal. When school is out, FIF is good, its summertime and the living is easy, etc., new folks show up in droves and it often becomes a daily event (or several time a day).

When there is some value to the thread, after mentioning that it is an old thread, I leave it to run its new course. If it is a pointless post (advice on a steel or temperature to a long past question) and there is no informative value, I close the thread. That does not make it go away, it just stops new posts on it.

If I come across as chastising a new person, I apologize, but I don't see it.
I usually say something like this:
Dave, welcome to Shop Talk. Filling out your profile will tell us a built about you and help us answer your questions beter.
This is a 7 year old thread and resurrecting old threads is frowned upon. When you pull up a thread in a search, look at the original post date and the last few posts so you know how old it is. If you need information related to an old thread it is best to start a new thread and link the old one.

If the person has a membership and I can email/message/PM them, I do the above off the forum.

I will point out that each current member will read what interests him/her and ignore any thread they have read or are not interested in. Their page will have the new posts highlighted so they can check the new post or ignore it. They don't see the volume that the moderators deal with.We need to check most every thread daily or more often. We have to remove the junk you don't see (viagra ads, Chinese knife sellers, SPAM, etc.). We do this on our own time and for no pay .... nothing ... not even a discounted membership.
Anything that makes Shop Talk run smoother is a help to me.
This is on top of the dozen or so daily messages/emails from new and old members with questions the don't want to ask on the forum. I get a couple phone calls from members a week, too. I take the time to answer every request.
 
There's a great Tops necro thread in GKD today. Most of the picture links are broken, some of the posters are gone now and they've bent the discussion to being about Kizlar knives.

Starting a new thread would have been a smarter call.
 
Stacy E. Apelt - Bladesmith Stacy E. Apelt - Bladesmith - I understand that you have to do a lot of work! I've been a moderator in other places, and it's a bunch of behind the scenes work to make a forum not suck.

So, first: thank you for the work you put in here.

Like I said, with the exception of this one thing, I see this as a pretty welcoming and helpful place. My suggestion about automating a prohibition on necroposting was serious - maybe BF's software doesn't support this, but I think it's reasonably common for forums/blogs/etc. to be able to automatically lock a timed-out post. That would make your life easier, definitely.

-Tyson
 
Spark owns Bladeforums and does all forum changes. I am pretty sure he would not want (or be able to) make such a change.

You could PM him and make the suggestion. Who Knows?
 
Stacy - the load on moderators is really the kind of reasoning I was looking for - makes sense (and I thank you also)

what do you see that I don’t see? I see the threads I have not commented on (including new posts going to the top) as well as the ones I have commented on. What is different/more cluttered on your end?
 
@stacy, please allow me to add my thanks and appreciation to you for all the work you do on this forum. Not an easy job for sure.

Boy, can I see both sides of this thread, but do agree if necroposting is frowned on, the auto locking threads would be the way to go, "IF" it's possible. Old threads with broken links and missing photos are a real pain for sure. I've seen threads become almost useless due to missing photos.

I'm just thankful we have such a great forum for learning and folks who share their knowledge and experience with us.
 
Especially when that was the same advice as the last post 10 years ago.

2010 - Quench at 1475F and temper at 375F
2020 - I do it at 1475 and temper twice at 375, too.
 
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