So I've noticed a distinct upswing in necroposts in the forums. Lot of morons doing it, and Yoric is doing a great job of telling them not to. My question is this: should we put something somewhere saying specifically not to do it, or just keep up what we're doing already?
I've been thinking about just going through and locking all open threads more than a year old. Good idea? Bad idea?
Generally, if someone necros too hard I lock the thread as a matter of course. The one from two years ago the other morning, for example. I don't think it would be that big a deal to start slapping locks on threads that go X amount of time inactive.
Yeah, I have no idea. Like, there are some old threads I suppose that could be decent (although I'd support locking the old snippets threads before things get ridiculous), but there's a lot of crap floating around too.
Yeh, I already lock snippet and announcement threads when there's a more recent version.
I notice most of these "idiots" you mention are mostly newbies who might not know better. Tell them once and they should stop; explain that they should check dates before they post on something. If they don't listen, they'll probably be a problem user anyway. I don't see why there would be a need to get all irritated past that.
Locking snippet and announcement threads are fine, but past that I want to know examples of exactly who is necroposting enough to warrant being called a moron.
I have a standardized PM I send them:
Mod message (SCP wiki)
Please check the dates on threads before posting in or replying to them from now on. thank you.
Generally, the fact that a mod has PM'd them is enough of a cue that they realize it's bad and don't do it again. I had one guy reply a few times with various forms of "but what if…", but he caught on eventually.
I'm good with this. I'll start doing it if i notice.
Make sure you let me know so they don't get two messages.
I'm sorry, I don't really quite understand what's so wrong with necroposting. A line of thought, particular debate or even a question is all fine to be answered to. Unless it's shit stirring, inadvertent or otherwise, I don't really see what's so wrong with it.
EDIT: I also, didn't realise this was a necropost. Well, makes my point clearer.
XD
I'm on the fence about it myself. Most necroposts have seemed to be some borderline spammy nonsense, but I think lately people have been leaving more constructive comments in general these days so maybe the response to necroposts can be relaxed a bit.
As a general rule, actually contributing to ongoing discussion is always fine. The event this refers to, though, was a group of users who were apparently going through the archives and bumping "LET'S MAKE AN SCP MOVIE/GAME/SEX TOY" threads that had been dead for years.
When I handle necroposts that actually need dealing with, though, I generally just tell the user not to bump old threads at all, because that's easier to grasp than "well, it's okay sometimes… but not all the time… and you have to be able to just tell…"