Moderation Question: "gravedigging"

[mali]

Some info in advance:
I had two reports for gravedigging. One was more or less cross-posting a question, so an easy decision. With the other one I had a lengthy conversation via PM, because he was unsure about the reasons his message got deleted and was moved when he tried again.
Since then I moved two more posts that fit in the gravedigging category, without reports. One of them was moved into a more recent thread about the same topic and the other one into a similar thread.
I wanted to let the second one slide at first, but got some Captain Obvious replies, so risking a useless debate.

My opinion:
I never cared much about gravedigging and often would have prefered to continue an old discussion instead of starting a new one, when the topic is more or less still valid. Now I'm a moderator and have to deal with questions like this and I don't want to act preemptively regarding a problem I don't fully understand.
Some people take gravedigging very seriously and so I'd like to know what the majority of our community thinks and base my decision on the results in the future.

Please vote in the poll and post your opinion, thanks for your help

 

[Fishbong]

As long as the topic is still valid, i believe it is better to continue using it than to open a new one.

 

[Esn]

As long as the topic is still valid, i believe it is better to continue using it than to open a new one.

Agreed.

Also, note that the "LIST OF THINGS YOU DON'T DO" says "posting in threads over three months old (unless you have a good reason)". So it's not forbidden, and I think that continuing a relevant discussion is a good reason.

 

[paulguy]

Yeah I say if it's still topical and makes sense that it should work. I think people originally got worked up about thread necromancy because you'd get some person who is new to forums digging through pages or doing aearches and posting retarded questions in old threads. Sometimes people kinda forget the original reason for old rules, whether they make sense or not.

 

[gruso]

I don't have a problem with gravedigging, as long as it's a valid continuation of the topic. But it's annoying when people bump a year old thread thread just to say "cool!" or "any progress?"

The worst thing about gravedigging in this place is that all the threads from "the meltdown era" are now ugly and unreadable. Just like in real life, you should only gravedig the good looking ones. Thanks.

 

[Esn]

I don't have a problem with gravedigging, as long as it's a valid continuation of the topic. But it's annoying when people bump a year old thread thread just to say "cool!" or "any progress?"

The worst thing about gravedigging in this place is that all the threads from "the meltdown era" are now ugly and unreadable. Just like in real life, you should only gravedig the good looking ones. Thanks.

I like your sense of humour.

Yes; if you want to ask about progress, it's often better to directly PM the person working on the project. Then they can revive the thread if they feel like it.

P.S. I'm a member of some communities who feel the opposite way about gravedigging; starting a new topic is an offense if a 2-year-old thread could have been revived instead. So it's all kinda relative to the situation...

 

[typs lik dis]

on my forums i always require that people make sure they're topics are not repeats of old ones. in the search bumpus bos they can tell whether the is.

 

[typs lik dis]

BTW ncie off topic-post miss. moderator

 

[quote]

I don't have a problem with gravedigging, as long as it's a valid continuation of the topic. But it's annoying when people bump a year old thread thread just to say "cool!" or "any progress?"

I agree. Some bumps are good, some are useless. If they're useless you could close the thread.

And why is this in the Pandora section? This conversation applies to the whole forum, surely?

 

[mali]

^ I don't moderate the other sections anyway, so I only need the attention of the Pandora folks

 

[metalhammer]

Resuming and old post, granted

1) the post is still valid (as almost everyone agreed so far!) and
2) there's something new to add/ask

doesn't sound bad

In my opinion having many different topics, about the same argument, will just make more confusion scattering contents in a fairly user 'unfriendly' way

 

[Loon]

Resuming and old post, granted

1) the post is still valid (as almost everyone agreed so far!) and
2) there's something new to add/ask

doesn't sound bad

In my opinion having many different topics, about the same argument, will just make more confusion scattering contents in a fairly user 'unfriendly' way

+1

 

[Prometheus]

I don't have a problem with gravedigging, as long as it's a valid continuation of the topic. But it's annoying when people bump a year old thread thread just to say "cool!" or "any progress?"

I agree with this.

I have to admit, this is the only forum I've ever come across where necroposting seems to be so incredibly frowned upon. Whilst I can understand people disliking it when the only reason for a bump is to add something irrelevant or non-useful, it's sometimes seemed to me that some folks here would rather information be scattered across multiple topics, than kept in one place.

 

[mosschops]

for my two pennies worth...

i'd rather gravedig than have 10 topics on the same thing that i have to trawl through to find whatever i am after.

If it's old and somebody is asking for an update, why not bump or whatever if there is no new news? If I PM'ed the author and got an answer that wasnt in the thread i'd want to post it. so post it in the old thread or create a new one and make searching for the answer that much more difficult?

if i had power i'd be up for one topic/post/thread per subject and keep it open to add too until it has reason to be closed. It just makes (our infamously poor) searching easier.

 

[Esn]

If I PM'ed the author and got an answer that wasnt in the thread i'd want to post it

I think that would count as a legitimate reason.

Anyway, I think the way things are now is pretty good.

It is also good sometimes to start new discussions rather than keeping everything in one topic. Forcing everything into one topic can also have the effect of smothering discussion. For example, those official "best games" lists in the "other consoles" section; most are over 5 years old and nobody posts in them. But we got some interesting and lively discussion a while ago on the Pandora forums when the topic came up again and the mods (thankfully) didn't close the threads.

 

[quartercast]

I hate it when I open up a thread with an exciting "new" title, only to find some newbie has relied to a post made 2 years ago. I do wonder how they actually dug up those threads in the first place.

 

[Prometheus]

I do wonder how they actually dug up those threads in the first place.

Probably because they were being courteous and searching.

 

[Dunny]

Mali - Bear in mind that people will be receiving their Pandoras over a very long time-scale, and currently only the "elite" get to talk about their experiences and provide feedback to port authors. It's not inconceivable that threads 8 months old will be resurrected when the next job lot starts shipping, and that may become even more apparent as the second batch starts shipping next year.

D.

 

[Caine]

Though, I don't really mind it all that much, bumping an old thread has the negative side-effect that the discussion is no longer active. That is, many participants will have forgotten what the discussion was all about and what arguments were raised and will have to reread the thread.

For short threads rereading is not a problem, but this practice can lead to lengthy threads of hundreds of pages.
The better way is to start a new thread, link to the old one, summarize the conclusion of that thread (or whatever part of that thread you want to continue upon) and finally post your contribution to a new discussion.

Naturally, this rule is not absolute. If a thread is really short and the addition is a direct continuation of where it stalled, then gravedigging should be fine. A developer posting random updates about his game is fine as well.

 

[peca]

As long as the topic is still valid, i believe it is better to continue using it than to open a new one.

+1
Especially if continuing or referring problem. On the other side I don't have problem to make reply or quote and instead of post it in buried topic do copy and past into new topic (to complain with rules). Anyway, I think that is better and simpler just continue in old topic.

Only problem that I have with it is, that icon for "go to new posts" is too small a hard to hit :-7