Why do people engage in necroposting?

[Howers]

I only necropost. Ooops. I mistakenly posted here. Now I feel aweful.

To be honest, I think this thread is dead.

 

[lisab]

That's how I got involved with PF in the first place. It was a mistake, but one that has proved incredibly beneficial to me.

Yes, me too, Danger. I don't remember what I was looking for at the time...probably didn't find what I wanted, but I certainly found what I needed. Been here ever since.

Ain't if funny how life works sometimes... !

 

[Math Is Hard]

...probably didn't find what I wanted, but I certainly found what I needed.

I think there's a song about that.

 

[Danger]

Ain't if funny how life works sometimes... !

I wouldn't say so much 'funny' as that the odds fell in your favour. There are thousands of useless sites out there, but you ended up in this one. It was your own mentality that caused you to remain here, which is where the 'luck' factor falls apart. You are still here because you have found a community that respects your intellect and your personality. I, for one, am glad that you're here.

 

[jtbell]

We do tell people not to open new threads if there is already a thread on the subject. Then we tell them not to post to old threads.

Yeah, that does sound like a weird set of rules when you put it that way.

I wonder how many necroposters know that they are reviving an old thread, and are taking that into account in their response, and how many think they're joining a currently-active conversation, not realizing that many or all of the other posters may be long gone?

My impression is that we have many of the second kind of situation. I remember someone posting to a four- or five-year-old "which college should I go to?" thread in Academic Guidance, addressing his response to the person who started the thread, obviously unaware that that person had probably graduated from college by then!

 

[wildman]

I thought it was the Similar Threads for links at the bottom of many threads and users who don't notice or examine the post dates.

I think it is almost always users who don't notice the date. After all if one doesn't know enough to look at the date (myself often times), then that mistake is easy. Maybe threads should be automatically locked after a period of inactivity. That would prevent mistakes of this sort.

 

[Danger]

Maybe threads should be automatically locked after a period of inactivity.

That might be counter-productive as far as the site goes. There have been some very valuable necro-posts, with someone bringing a new perspective to an issue. Maybe some sort of special label could be applied, though, to make people aware that the thread has been dormant.

 

[Borek]

Locking old threads is not a good idea - there are threads (like good ... sites) that are intended to be open forever. Perhaps better idea is to display message "you are going to post in a thread where nobody posted for the last six months, are you sure you know what you are doing?".

 

[jtbell]

Perhaps better idea is to display message "you are going to post in a thread where nobody posted for the last six months, are you sure you know what you are doing?".

Right, for a general "new reply" to the thread. For a direct response to a particular post (via "quote"), I'd display the message "the post you are replying to was made on <date>. The person who posted it may no longer even be here, or may have forgotten all about this discussion. Are you sure you want to continue?"

 

[BobG]

Right, for a general "new reply" to the thread. For a direct response to a particular post (via "quote"), I'd display the message "the post you are replying to was made on <date>. The person who posted it may no longer even be here, or may have forgotten all about this discussion. Are you sure you want to continue?"

So what if the person is no longer here? If the reply was meant solely for the person who posted, then the reply could have been made via PM. And what's wrong with taking six years to make a really well thought out one-line reply to a post?

 

[Evo]

I have locked old threads in GD & P&WA because most no longer meet our guidelines. If someone has something important enough to discuss, they can start a new thread following current posting guidelines, no need to dredge up a bunch of bad posts.

 

[TheStatutoryApe]

Funny enough I just found a message for me on Myspace from someone asking about an old thread I posted here on PF.

 

[buffordboy23]

How many necroposts do you get? I see one every now and then. It doesn't seem like a lot. Maybe placing an idle lock (different from the crackpot/nonscientific lock) would be a solution. The user can post but the moderator of that part of the forum must approve the response to remove the idle lock and to reopen the thread for posting from all users.

 

[Redbelly98]

I think it's mostly people linking from search engines like Google. They link directly into a thread and don't notice the dates.

That's how I got involved with PF in the first place.

Yes, me too, Danger.

Same here. My 1-year PF anniversary is less than a week away