Thread revivals, do you want us to report them?

There seem to be a greater than average number of thread revivals recently (though maybe I just didn't spot them as much before!). I was wondering whether the mods would like them reported? Just had a new post on a 2008 thread, first post, relevant comment, but still 2008. Clicked the report link then was unsure about whether it fitted into any of the reporting categories.


Side note, any way to stop this happening? Some places lock old threads to everyone, but you'd probably want to just lock them to new users as there maybe a legitimate reason for a thread revival. It doesn't sound straight forward...

Sometimes new posts in old threads are relevant, so we don't want to close them.

I guess we could write a plugin to warn people if they're replying to an old thread, but I doubt we have any time for that in the short term.

On balance, IMHO, probably not.

As both of you have said, some revivals are legitimate. And many more aren't much of a problem if they do get revived. And someone usually drops in a "holy thread revival Batman" type comment, which effectively does the job.


My suggestion, therefore, would be :-

1) Don't report just because it's a revival
2) Feel free to point out in an appropriate manner that it is an old thread
3) Of course, report it if there's something about a specific revival that justifies reporting, like a spammer
4) We often pick up and deal with spammers anyway, but reports are, as always, useful and appreciated.

Thanks guys, I'll keep an eye out for when it's actually just spam and report those ones. Keep up the good work :)

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Originally Posted by jimbouk

.... Keep up the good work :)

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u 2.

+1 on that, spamming necros are a nono :)

Thanks for the offer.

Not that old yarn again!!

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Originally Posted by jimbouk

Thanks guys, I'll keep an eye out for when it's actually just spam and report those ones. Keep up the good work :)

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I see what you did thar...

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Originally Posted by Steve

Sometimes new posts in old threads are relevant, so we don't want to close them.

I guess we could write a plugin to warn people if they're replying to an old thread, but I doubt we have any time for that in the short term.

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i'm sure theres a community one on vb's mod site.

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Originally Posted by Splash

I see what you did thar...

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Splash, I've warned you before about necro-ing threads...

:D

One point that might be worth cosidering, we have all used sites where a newbie asks a question and the first reply is often "use the search engine" so if a newbie has a question that is partially answered in an old thread would you rather a complete new thread or a thread revival?

I will say I have NO idea what the answer is and would be interested in reading both sides of the argument for my own reasons; but reporting a thread just because it is an old thread seems a little like overkill.

It is quite possible there may be valid reasons why Hexus make whatever decision are currently in place and good reasons for the details behind the decisions to be kept private.

Well I wouldn't say reporting is overkill - that just flags it to the mods who can make a judgement on the case, often with more details that we have (eg the rather common scenario of a thread being necrod by a spammer whose posts are then zapped, but not before a genuine poster fails to spot the revival and continues posting).

Personally I look at the context before reporting, especially the post that is doing the necroing - some topics are timeless, others are quite clearly a request for advice in the near term. Sometimes the answer has already been given in the thread. Sometimes the original poster has already replied in a way that renders the original question moot. Sometimes the necro post isn't actually adding anything constructive or is a fairly clear attempt to just bump post count without really taking the time to read the topic they're replying to. But in the above cases it's easiest to just pop a quick report in and let the mods do their magic - if you're wrong they'll be able to see that and won't take any action, so no harm is done apart from wasting a bit of mod time.

To my mind, Kalniel has hit the nail on the head.

Sometimes necro posts are also flawed in other ways - often they're very "spammy" in nature. So if a post sets off alarm bells, and it's also a necro, then by all means go for it.

But certainly a thread revival alone, as Rebel said, is by no means a problem on its own. If someone has something valuable to add to a debate, then there's no reason why they ought to start a new thread just because of the old one's age.