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Author Topic: Thread Necromancy -Why so bad?  (Read 1857 times)

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Offline volatilegaz

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Thread Necromancy -Why so bad?
« on: February 14, 2014, 02:36:27 AM »
I understand the rules around this have been loosened recently which is great, but I'm still a bit confused as to why it is considered such a bad thing in the first place?

I get that reviving a thread from a previous edition / codex is bad, because it could lead to mis-information
by refering to out of date rules/stats/tactics
But apart from that specific case, what is worse about posting in a 6-month old thread related to the topic you want to discuss vs starting a new thread?
Indeed, isn't it better to do the former, so all the information and opinions from previous posters can be read too, adding additional context and depth to the topic?

I'm thinking particularly of examples such as this:

Wraithblades- Axe or Sword?

No complaint about Iris -(s)he implemented the rules as they stand, and was perfectly courteous in doing so.

But still: poor chap's first ever post and no matter how politely it is mod'd, it's still hardly an incentive to continue; it was on-topic and added something to the discussion; and it was a response to the OP's query, rather than a query of his own so probably not something to start a new thread with anyway.

What does the forum gain though this rule?
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Offline Alienscar

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Re: Thread Necromancy -Why so bad?
« Reply #1 on: February 14, 2014, 09:35:38 AM »
I suppose there's a couple of ways to look at this volatilegaz. In replying Rodge77 not only committed thread necromancy but also posted stats. Whilst loosened the rule for thread necromancy still states that threads that have left the front page of a Board should be left alone. As a new member of a forum breaking 2 rules in one post is not a good way to start so maybe from a moderators point of view it would make sense to moderate the thread to ensure that this Forums stance on rule breaking is made clear.

The other way of looking at this is the way that you, I and people that aren't Moderators look at it. That is, this forum gains nothing through this rule. Personally I hate seeing multiple threads on the same subject and agree with you that some subjects benefit from having all the opinions on that subject in one place.
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Offline Irisado

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Re: Thread Necromancy -Why so bad?
« Reply #2 on: February 17, 2014, 06:34:29 AM »
Just a quick mention on the thread itself, it was languishing on page nine of the Eldar board before being resurrected.  Eldar is still a relatively active board, so sixth month old threads there tend to be well down the list of pages.

Something that may not be commonly known is that, quite often, you get members who join a community, raise some old threads, and then disappear never to return.  I've seen it before.  In the case of the member in that thread, he doesn't know that the thread has been locked, since I moderated after he logged out, and he hasn't logged in since.

As far as forum policy is concerned, thread necromancy rules exist as a courtesy to other members.  New and newer threads posted by active and current members are those which deserve the focus of attention, so raising old thread is discourteous to the community as a whole, unless it's something really profound which has a major impact on what was being discussed.

With respect to multiple threads on the subject, almost every subject gets recycled every few months or so.  Long gargantuan threads like the old wishlisting thread for Eldar serve no purpose, because people stop reading all the replies, and start repeating earlier posts in the same thread, which is much worse.

New players coming into the game have questions which are the same as those in older threads, but often have a different context, and so it makes more sense to raise them again.  Only in the case of the same topic being raised repeatedly in a short time frame is this a problem, and that's why we used to have a separate sticky for frequently raised topics in the Eldar board, but since nothing has been frequently asked for a good few years now, it ceased to be of much use, so it was unstickied.
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