Necroposting Limitations

[Lord Glenn]

Due to the increased frequency of which we've been seeing necroposting (for those unaware of the definition, it's posting in topics that are long since dead), we're instituting a very lax limitation to curb this trend.

As such, we will now be "enforcing" topics that are posted in after a 1-2 month gap in activity (with grace periods and other things taken into consideration). Also, as an extension of this, because we don't threads brought back from the dead just to bring them to the front of the page, any posts in dormant threads of this time frame will need to at least add relevant content (something more than just "lol I agree, etc."), or they'll be treated as spam and dealt with as such. It also goes without saying that if there's a newer thread on the same subject, just post in it. And, this need not apply to topic creators that are updating their stories, hack projects, creative works threads, etc. as it is with obvious understanding that you may set down that work for a while and then inevitably come back to it at a much later time.

Any questions?

[Admiral "Bull" Halsey]

Finally, someone put Necroposting out of place.

[Florete]

Well, it's about time. I am very happy for this.

[Admiral "Bull" Halsey]

Also, are you allow to necropost on the FFtF board?

[Lord Glenn]

On FFtF, I wouldn't give free reign, but the limitation might be a bit more lenient (say, possibly 3 months). I don't want to say anything definite, but for right now, the current limitation will apply to FFtF.

[Fia]

What about the General Fire Emblem board? There are also a lot of Necroposting happened in that board.

[Ϲharlie]

The policy applies to the entire forum. The mass amounts of necroposting in the general Fire Emblem board is one of the reasons this came about.

[Admiral "Bull" Halsey]

So I guess these bumped topic on the FE General Board's are going to be closed now hmmm...

[Ϲharlie]

I don't see any reason to go in and lock all the bumped topics since they were revived before the rule came into place. That seems like more work than it's worth.

[Mekkah]

Thank god.

[Balcerzak]

Due to the increased frequency of which we've been seeing necroposting (for those unaware of the definition, it's posting in topics that are long since dead), we're instituting a very lax limitation to curb this trend.

As such, we will now be "enforcing" topics that are posted in after a 1-2 month gap in activity (with grace periods and other things taken into consideration). Also, as an extension of this, because we don't threads brought back from the dead just to bring them to the front of the page, any posts in dormant threads of this time frame will need to at least add relevant content (something more than just "lol I agree, etc."), or they'll be treated as spam and dealt with as such. It also goes without saying that if there's a newer thread on the same subject, just post in it. And, this need not apply to topic creators that are updating their stories, hack projects, creative works threads, etc. as it is with obvious understanding that you may set down that work for a while and then inevitably come back to it at a much later time.

Any questions?

Numerous questions, actually.

What constitutes "enforcement"? Warning the necromancer? Locking the thread?

What happens if others post in the newly active thread without realizing black magic has been performed? Are they to be punished as well?

If a new conversation takes life before the Mods see an lock the thread (if that is part of the procedure), will it still get locked? (This has always been my major gripe with anti-necro rules, in the past. The deed has been done, and while the initial act may have been disagreeable, if it bears good fruit...)

That's all I have at the moment, but I may think of more.

[Steven Tyler]

What are the limitation on the Art and Writing section?

[Wist]

Those working on their own projects are allowed to bump their old threads to add more content.

[Jyosua]

Numerous questions, actually.

What constitutes "enforcement"? Warning the necromancer? Locking the thread?

What happens if others post in the newly active thread without realizing black magic has been performed? Are they to be punished as well?

If a new conversation takes life before the Mods see an lock the thread (if that is part of the procedure), will it still get locked? (This has always been my major gripe with anti-necro rules, in the past. The deed has been done, and while the initial act may have been disagreeable, if it bears good fruit...)

That's all I have at the moment, but I may think of more.

If someone doesn't read the announcement topics, then they are at fault for being oblivious.

[Doom103]

What about an art topic, lets say you made a new thing for it 3 months later and wanna bump it by posting your new work

[Lord Glenn]

Numerous questions, actually.

What constitutes "enforcement"? Warning the necromancer? Locking the thread?

What happens if others post in the newly active thread without realizing black magic has been performed? Are they to be punished as well?

If a new conversation takes life before the Mods see an lock the thread (if that is part of the procedure), will it still get locked? (This has always been my major gripe with anti-necro rules, in the past. The deed has been done, and while the initial act may have been disagreeable, if it bears good fruit...)

That's all I have at the moment, but I may think of more.

1) "Enforcement" basically is what you said, yeah.

2) Likely not, though it generally would be good practice to always look at the posts above one you're going to make to check things like that. Also, it's generally a good thing if people report posts that don't add relevant content during that window or simply post after the window.

3) It depends. If someone bumped some topic from, say, January '08, it'll probably get locked on the spot, since that's a pretty big lack of activity. An exception to this might be if there's no newer topic on the same subject and the post is actually of great quality, in which case, we could probably split the new discussion to a new thread or just keep the thread going. Other than that, it really does depend on the circumstances, since we've kept this slightly lax for a reason.

What about an art topic, lets say you made a new thing for it 3 months later and wanna bump it by posting your new work

And, this need not apply to topic creators that are updating their stories, hack projects, creative works threads, etc. as it is with obvious understanding that you may set down that work for a while and then inevitably come back to it at a much later time.

Edited December 18, 2008 by Lord Glenn

[YokaiKnight]

I actually kind of like this idea and hope it pans out well.

[Eltoshen]

A few rules wouldn't hurt, in any case. Seems like a simple rule to follow, as well.

Edited December 20, 2008 by Eltoshen

[Metal Rabbit]

If you don't want people posting in topics after a certain time, why not just delete/lock them all?

[Jyosua]

Because we want people to be able to post in them with permission without us having to unlock every one people want to post in, and we don't want to delete them because that causes even further problems.

[Lord Cow-Cow]

Because we want people to be able to post in them with permission without us having to unlock every one people want to post in, and we don't want to delete them because that causes even further problems.

but if it's past the time we're allowed to post in a topic, wouldn't it be better just to lock the topics past the deadline.

[Lord Glenn]

but if it's past the time we're allowed to post in a topic, wouldn't it be better just to lock the topics past the deadline.

Because that would require us to either manually lock every single topic that fell out of the range (which is a fairly big range, so it would also have to take other things into consideration as to when to lock it in the first place) or find some mod or package for IPB that would automatically do it (but then that presents more problems due to the way the limitations are set up). And, if we went with the former case, then that would mean we'd have to unlock every topic that would need unlocked for whatever the situation was (updating art threads, etc.). It's far too inefficient of a suggestion to actually work.

[PuffPuff]

Because we want people to be able to post in them with permission without us having to unlock every one people want to post in, and we don't want to delete them because that causes even further problems.

I'm thinking that it will also lower some of the total post count if that action is done. I dunno.

Because that would require us to either manually lock every single topic that fell out of the range (which is a fairly big range, so it would also have to take other things into consideration as to when to lock it in the first place) or find some mod or package for IPB that would automatically do it (but then that presents more problems due to the way the limitations are set up). And, if we went with the former case, then that would mean we'd have to unlock every topic that would need unlocked for whatever the situation was (updating art threads, etc.). It's far too inefficient of a suggestion to actually work.

Yeah, and that it would be a pain to have to use the search feature to find all of those locked topics.

-----

Should'nt this be put in the rules, because I do not see it listed in it?

Finally, about time. I was actually going to PM a staff member about the necroposting rule, since it had no mention of it in the rules. For a moment there..I actually thought that necroposting was allowed, that is why that I didn't ask this, till now.

[Lord Glenn]

The rules will be updated in the near future. They are also lacking the additional things that were added (such as the new warn guidelines, etc.) on top of the necroposting limitations. Right now, it's the holiday season, so free time isn't always available to perform the updates and organize it (etc.).

Furthermore, we expect people to be aware of the Announcements, regardless of whether the rule is physically listed in the Rules page or not. (Since the rule(s) have already been announced, they're fair game for everyone.)

Edited December 25, 2008 by Lord Glenn

[Mr.Shiu and Watch]

Is it okay if you make a new topic about a topic that just died.