What's up with the expiration date on thread police?

I'm going to repeatedly bump this thread for the next 2 years. Bump!

Bump an old thread: Get accused of forum necromancy.

Start a new thread: Get told to use the search function.

Totally!

I've been involved in forums in one way or another for almost 20 years now, starting back with dialup BBS systems and it's always like this. Many people tend to think that if they have already discussed a topic and formed their own opinion about it, or determined what is factual, then nobody else is allowed to think it's 'new' anymore. Sorry but "new" is not universal.

The reality is that when people are new to a hobby or pastime, which is what most forums are about whether it's breeding snakes, sailing, gardening, fitness, or laser pointers, they often have the same or similar thoughts, questions, and ideas, which are new to them, and which are "old" to veterans of the activity.

This happens on all forums regardless of topic. (expressed as Pritzel's Law: all internet forums have essentially the same people discussing the same things and having the same arguments.) For example when people are new to snakes they ask about cohabitating, and it is pretty much the same exact discussion as asking about eating 1200 calories a day. Threads about whether to feed snakes on substrate are constant, and are interchangeable with the 'what counts as water threads' here.

And then the old timers get sick of it and start making stickies and FAQs and get mad again when new people want to discuss it instead of just reading a FAQ. But the whole point of a discussion forum is to, you know, talk both ways. If people just want to read without having their own comments, they'd go to a blog or wiki or whatever else instead of a forum.

Bump an old thread: Get accused of forum necromancy.

Start a new thread: Get told to use the search function.

Solution: Ignore wankers.

*approved*

(But I'll still point out post necromancy when it happens...)

Especially when the person that bumps the thread doesn't contribute anything new to it.

Or worse, says, "Why are you still complaining about this?" on a six month dead post.

That was rather legendary. I was disappointed that the person hurling that accusation never explained herself.

We should all just go bump a bunch of old posts, so we can piss people off!

Funnily enough 1 was bumped that was 18 months old not so long back, and the guy who started the thread had deactivated his account about 1 month after posting it. He got more replies after the thread was bumped than he got when he first posted his question lol!

Well what about when mods dig up 3-month old threads, just to lock and delete them. Would anyone like to explain away THAT phenomenon?

I may go find the oldest thread I can and bump it, just for fun.

Oldest one I could find - 11/03/05
http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/26-what-makes-the-light-switch-go-off

Nice!

I may go find the oldest thread I can and bump it, just for fun.

Oldest one I could find - 11/03/05
http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/26-what-makes-the-light-switch-go-off

I feel like I should bake you a cake now...

I would like that

This thread is ugly.

Who wants to bump uglies? :smokin:

If it was that big of a deal, wouldn't MFP just delete old threads?

Or get rid of the search function. In either case, whether a thread is resurrected or created new, shouldn't be an issue.

I like this thread.

so is there some report happy poster you're trying to axe here jof?

Nope...at least not consciously.