What's wrong with necroposting?

That happens. And, it's very unfortunate when anyone, paid poster or not joins a forum and then contributes so very little other than 'Yep!' and 'uh-huh', as if that does anything to stimulate discussion.

And, there are some very unprofessional people out there on forums. Not all, but enough to make you wonder if they shouldn't just find a better hobby than posting on forums.

As for bumping old threads, why not allow it, especially if it's relevant. If the person bumping the thread has something relevant to add to the conversation, then let it be. The forum owner wins.

The forum owners who forbid bumping old threads should not mind it when a new user starts the EXACT same discussion again. You can't have it both ways. Bump threads or repost.

The advantage of leaving the old threads open for discussion is that it's better for search engine rankings. When Google sees that page is being constantly updated with new comments, they are likely to give it a higher page ranking for relevance sake.

 

Excellent reply, and its so true. As a forum owner, you should try to bump and reply to old topics - because new members may not be able to see them, and if you bump them, there's more chances of replies.

 

I have to say that necro-posting itself doesn't bother me. When people necro-post with a simple response such as "nice article bro" or something however, that can get annoying - especially if it happens often. It means that old threads are brought to the top of the heap and newer articles with equally interesting contents are often overlooked.

 

I don't have a problem with it really, it's fine by me and I'll let me users do it. The only time I don't like it is when people reply to really old deals with things like: is this still available when it's like 6 months later and the site the deals for doesn't even exist any more.

 

I can see what you are saying and it is very interesting as the old content gets on top of the new content.

 

That's annoying in itself, but if users are adding quality content to the old thread, then there shouldn't be any problem because as an online community, content is the key to success - especially with your members. I'm always bumping old topics on my community because I want to give the new users a chance to come across them, and possibly reply to them. Some threads go a hit or miss though, and I don't mind that.

 

I've never seen a problem with it and in the setup I've been using on my other forum, it's one way to continue a great conversation that may of been lost with an import.

 

Would they bump it just to get on a higher ranking page?
I could see how a car site would need to do that with like news of the latest cars and year specific threads.

 

Ah I see how that would be annoying, hadn't thought about that.

 

Ya, that would be an issue especially if the users weren't actually providing new quality content to those threads. Other than that, I always keep threads open unless drama-breaks out.

 

The only logical reason anyone would restrict users from necroposting at all is to force them to inflate the topic count with topics. We don't need more then one thread on an issue. However, it is assumed all around *insert any forum name here* knows not to say happy birthday in the birthday thread celebrating the birthday you celebrated five years ago. Unfortunately, all the people who rage at necroposting made many too afraid to do it anywhere even on a place where no one would care if it done when not involving time sensitive topics(birthdays, anniversaries, etc.)

I swear some people just go out of their way to find things they can turn into a problem when there isn't one.

 

I've deleted several off topic post from this thread.
Please stop the bickering, we all have opinions and ideas on how sites can be run, please respect each other.

Thanks.

 

I love necro posting and tend to do it a lot because there are always topics I see that I want to reply to. I might actually put it in my site rules that it is encouraged

 

That's the point, if it's on topic it's alright. Most of the time (Digital Point for example), some people just run up their post counts by posting in old topics with senseless replies like "nice post" or by using short replies.

 

If the post is on topic and actually bringing something new to the discussion I see no harm in necroing a thread. I'd actually prefer that to someone creating basically the same thread.

If the post is just fluff like someone mentioned above: "great post", "thanks" ect ect, that's what I object to.

If a forum is popular posts like that are going to knock new threads off the top spot and potentially hamper new discussions.

 

If someone makes a new thread and we already have a thread about it - we usually just merge them together, thus, making the old one even more relevant.

 

I agree with all your points. Unless it's a member specifically hitting dead threads just in an attempt to artificially increase their post count, I would say let them go to town.