Necromancing, bumping old threads that should have died a long time ago, is really going crazy on this forum. [edit]This was probably me overexaggerating.[/edit]
I don’t mind a thread being bumped for some useful purpose, but commenting on a work that was done two years ago just confuses those who were already familiar with it, and gets things in the way.
I know I’m not the only one who feels this way. There was some discussion of it in #blenderchat as well, by some rather irritated blenderheads.
And this has been bugging me as well quite a bit lately. After seeing yet another instance of it this morning (albeit, not one of the worse examples, at least the guy was asking a reasonable question, somewhat related to the technical aspects of the six month old thread), I figured it would be best that this be said out in the open.
A beginner is searching for a way to “do-a-certain-thing”,
so the smart beginner (the ones we want!) will search the forum before asking.
And if the poor unfortunate can’t find what he/she’s looking for they’ll
probably just ask in the relevant thread instead of starting a new one.
While that can be quite a bit annoying for us “ol’timers” I’d actually
prefer that to 100 equal and new threads about exactly the same over and over again.
After posting this topic, I began to wonder if this was stupid of me to bring up. After all, it isn’t so difficult for moderators to lock a thread.
I guess what I’m just calling for is a recognition that browsing through the finished works archive is okay, but when you are looking at really old works, what usefulness is there in bumping them? Chances are, the artist has moved onto new things, so your criticism isn’t constructive, and you’re just adding confusion to the mix, and wasting peoples’ time.
Let’s draw a line between these two categories:
adding to a two year old “Everyone post their age!” thread rather than starting a new one, or asking a question on a relevant technical thread, for technical purposes, rather than making a new one. This is okay.
bumping a two year old piece of art because it is the first time you saw it. This is not okay.
Most of the recent ones were by DeathArtist, who has since been banned AFAIK, due to his behaviour.
So, if this does happen again, and one of us mods does not notice it, please PM us and we will lock the thread. I actually had a PM from shadowman99 last week for this very thing, on one of his threads.
As you stated, this is not a cool thing to do unless it does serve a certain purpose. But even then, the person who is going to post should think twice before bumping an old thrad an maybe PM that specific user with either questions or comments regarding the work.
That one was bumped for fun by a kid. I haven’t seen many others like that. Can you give more examples, or give an estimate of how many unuseful bumped posts there really are in a week?
when i came here i didn’t understand the way the forum listing worked. so i replied where i could help. i was trying to be good, and in that was my fault.
i didn’t know that i would be bringing it up to the top, i just searched and saw a place i could help.
SmaTheGreek did this a few times and I called him a necrophiliac. He doesn’t do it now he’s been at the forum for a few weeks.
Yeah I suggested that too but I think even a year is too much. 3 months tops. Then if someone has good reason to bring back a thread, they can PM a mod.
Admittedly, the title of this was a bit extreme, so I changed it. The most amount of necromancing happened about a month ago, I think.
It might be an accumulated irritation within me that makes me complain. I apologize if I brought this up making it sound as if fifty posts were just risen from the dead, which they were not.
However, I still see it as a continuing trend, and I still think that new users
osxrules mentions something fairly reasonable, but then again I still think that the original posters should have the right to re-surface their own works. Furthermore, places like the off-topic area would be far worse off if we had to keep bringing up new threads for every “You know you’re a blenderhead if” idea someone had.
Maybe I was overreacting. Actually, I probably was, and for that I apologize. But I still think it is an issue that should be considered.
As far as I can tell, it is mostly new users who tend to make this mistake. And maybe they do so innocently. Perhaps, after hitting “register” or confirming your registration, you should first be redirected to a page that suggests some guidelines.
Rule #2 about software is “Users don’t read anything”. You’ll notice that at the top of all the forums there are stickies listing some posting guidelines and commonly asked questions.
While I agree it is very annoying, it will always happen. The best way to handle it is to simply reply or PM the poster and say “Please don’t reply to old threads to say ooh aah. It annoys people no end (as it will you someday)” or some other appropriate and kindly worded message.
Arbitrarily restricting the function of the forums is also frustrating. We seem to have a fairly self-controlled crowd of regulars here (notwithstanding the occasional spammer), and I think new users who intend to hang around can accept and abide by elYsiun’s nettiquette.
I think it’s important to make the distinction between:
-Good bumping
and
-Necromancy/gravedigging
Good bumping is when you have a legit question that is in complete context of the thread. Say it’s a couple of months old and you have a question about specific content or replies to the thread, then it’s ok.
Necromancy, the “art” of using a dead body’s spirit is something of the same thing in a forum. Bumping a topic with stuff like:
“thanks!” or “I like the movie too blah blah blah” or you’re trying to ignite and old debate of some kind (even if you make the most cogent points!) etc.
If you’re reply is in anyway redundent or can be expressed in a new thread (so long as the old thread is >=1.5 months) much better then it is entirely unacceptable to reply. Use your discretion when posting.
No matter how often FAQs, rules or stickies will remind people it will still happen, either by forum ragers, AOLers, 12-year-olds, newbies and the like. That’s why God created moderators and administrators.
