Reviving old threads...Why?

[North Star 4,540]

This site seems to have a quite a bit of reviving of very old threads. Sometimes it makes sense, and sometimes less so  either way it seems to happen more here than almost any other forum, pony or non-pony that I have ever been on. Is there a reason for this? I don't mind, just curious. Sorry if this should be in a different forum.

As an example: this question which was was asked about a user who left over 6 years ago which was revived in the introductions forum (apologies @Andy feelin - your post just illustrated this very well).

[ExplosionMare 18,007]

I think people get bored and start digging for old topics

[North Star 4,540]

@ExplosionMarePetunia Paleo approves of this explanation

Ya dig?

[ExplosionMare 18,007]

7 minutes ago, abrony-mouse said:

@ExplosionMarePetunia Paleo approves of this explanation

Ya dig?

I don’t think Scootaloo approves though 

[Megas 27,064]

Unlike most forums I've been to, MLPF from my time here actually encourages necroposting, which, if I'm being honest, is actually refreshing

Edited June 25, 2021 by Megas

[North Star 4,540]

4 minutes ago, ExplosionMare said:

I don’t think Scootaloo approves though 

Scoot's face is mine when I see the more skellyish necro-posts yes  I go to quote the OP and I have to brush away the metacarpaises and spiders that have accumulated on top of it.

4 minutes ago, Megas said:

Unlike most forums I've been to, MLPF from my time here actually encourages necroposting, which, if I'm being honest, I actually support

recurring posts on fan sites makes a lot of sense. Also people on other forums jumping on necro posts is silly. Only time it doesn't work so well is when you want to respond to the OP and they no longer exist. Generally you can respond to the newer posts without losing the thread though so it is np

[AppleButt 8,669]

Because other forums tend to lock posts that are brought from the dead, while MLPF does not, and I like that.  

When I do it it's when I'm bored and search deep into the pits and see something I wanna answer haha. 

[Narcissus 352]

I don't know why it's ever been considered a bad thing to revive old threads. Reviving old threads keeps interest alive and often brings up some fun topics that have drifted out of the limelight for a while. These old threads become new again and those of us who weren't around for the original posting can now have a chance to comment. It's better to revive an old thread than to keep re-posting the same subjects over and over again just so they can be 'new.' On most forums I see people complaining about necro posting but they're just parroting what other people say without thinking why. Other MLP sites (where reviving old posts is pointlessly discouraged) have uniformly disappeared. It's better to keep old posts going and have an active membership than having few new threads (or none at all). When there isn't enough to talk about, members move on and that's usually the death knell of any forum. I support reviving old threads wholeheartedly. 

Edited February 13, 2021 by Narcissus

[Venomous 18,813]

@abrony-mouse

I am going to retitle this thread. Where it stands, it is better suited as a thread made in Site Questions so in order to change that, I’ll go ahead and use my magical editing powers.

To answer your question though...There is no rule against reviving old threads. Users post on them because they find the topic interesting or they want to reply to someone who has previously posted on it (yes, not all users who posted in the old thread are currently active so anyone quoting them won’t get a response but some people don’t think to check activity before quoting someone). That’s it. The answer isn’t complicated.

[Kyoshi Frost Wolf 40,279]

Reviving old threads has always been something I think is fine and actually, kinda fun. It is liking digging through a long archive of the forum's history. I never understood why that is so looked down upon on most forums. 

[NavelColt 22,876]

Back in MY day we merged your filthy duplicates in favor of keeping super threads for common topics of discussion! Everypony is a necromancer at MLPF. You'll find your complimentary Necronomicon at the door.

[Here No Longer 5,270]

Because necroposting is a victimless crime on other forums. Like the reasons for not allowing it make no sense.

Edited February 13, 2021 by Stolas

[Troblems 5,608]

1 hour ago, NavelColt said:

Back in MY day we merged your filthy duplicates in favor of keeping super threads for common topics of discussion! Everypony is a necromancer at MLPF. You'll find your complimentary Necronomicon at the door.

Merging old threads was... a choice. I remember going through a lot of google searches trying to find all relevant threads. It was time consuming and silly. At the time with the rapidly expanding nature of the forum it made a bit more sense, but to better navigate threads that may be repeatedly made, we created the Megathread tag, which I think better serves the purpose we’re going for, removes clutter, and allows for people who are newer who want to jump into the forum an easy place to start. 

[Odyssey 5,713]

necroposting has already been discussed, but it's worth saying people also revive old threads because it avoids cluttering the forums with the same topics. 

[DixonTheAdversary 1,631]

At most, I only go about 10 pages back if I'm looking for a topic that I haven't posted in yet. I find that recently there aren't as many new topics to talk about, and I guess others feel the same way.

[Pandora 38,004]

I rarely go back to extremely old topics tbh though sometimes it happens i guess when someone has bumped the thread and it's on the main page, i'll be curious and post.

[DubWolf 16,608]

Nahh, I totally just repost in old threads for the lolz  , not because they’re genuinely interesting. Still have to be on-topic though.

 

 

A lot of threads from the old days would be locked now if revived as they’re “blog/status update”-y.

[Clawdeen 12,109]

Keeps things active. I mean it gets boring posting in the same five threads. 

[Props Valroa 26,039]

I am glad this forum doesn't have any rules against it I mean, why would it be bad to post in an old thread? It creates more conversation and activity.

[Sazama Ichida 2,352]

I think the real question is why don't more sites allow this? There's no point in making redundant topics.

[Retro*Derpy 3,081]

I do it a lot lol, It's typically because I don't go much outside of the general discussion side. So I'll get bored and go through pages seeing if there is something I wanna comment on.
There is still good room for discussions in a lot of those threads, even if the OP is gone.

[Twilight Sparkle ✨ 8,520]

6 hours ago, WWolf said:

A lot of threads from the old days would be locked now if revived as they’re “blog/status update”-y.

Can you please share more about this? I know MLP Forums didn't always have blogs and I'm curious what your experience with this encouragement of moving certain topics into them has been like from your perspective. In particular, I wonder if it ever feels like it stifles your or others' efforts at conversation at all.

[Pentium100 2,056]

6 minutes ago, Twilight Sparkle ✨ said:

In particular, I wonder if it ever feels like it stifles your or others' efforts at conversation at all.

I think that fewer people see status updates or blogs. I know I see fewer of them, just because I have to scroll down on the main page and I do not always remember to do so after refreshing it.

[Twilight Sparkle ✨ 8,520]

2 hours ago, Pentium100 said:

I think that fewer people see status updates or blogs. I know I see fewer of them, just because I have to scroll down on the main page and I do not always remember to do so after refreshing it.

Thanks for sharing your perspective. Conversations are the lifeblood of forum communities and, while blogs and statuses are "just" other ways to have conversations, it's good intel to have that as a user, they kinda disappear from your world. This isn't great when you're looking for more conversations to participate in! It is also not-great if you're the one writing up a blog entry in particular and hope to expose it to as many interested people as possible.

I'm still happy to hear other perspectives on this too like @WWolf's and anyone else's. If you ask me, there exists opportunity to revisit how we treat these "status-y/blog-y" topics as forum communities are ostensibly about encouraging good conversations and it sounds like the current approach might actually be discouraging them.

[Stardust 640]

On 2021-02-12 at 11:50 PM, abrony-mouse said:

This site seems to have a quite a bit of reviving of very old threads. Sometimes it makes sense, and sometimes less so  either way it seems to happen more here than almost any other forum, pony or non-pony that I have ever been on. Is there a reason for this? I don't mind, just curious. Sorry if this should be in a different forum.

As an example: this question which was was asked about a user who left over 6 years ago which was revived in the introductions forum (apologies @Andy feelin - your post just illustrated this very well).

I don't think so I seen much more reviving of threads on other forums tbh but i guess i been elsewhere a bit and maybe i havent looked carefully enough lol. I think it depends on the type of forum really. Some forums have a rule not to start new topics if one exists whereas others lock threads quickly and do not allow necro 

One time I revived something on here not that old and some pony got very angry so after that im careful. I even thought the policy here was not to revive topics? Well i did when I first came here but i wasnt sure.

I guess some topics are eternal tho conversation topics.

Edited February 16, 2021 by flurry