Does necromancing threads....

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^ Agreed.

It concerns forum procedure more than Autism - and having been started in GAD, moving it to WrongPlanet.net discussion won't affect its visibility in GAD: it can now be accessed from both.

Thanks Cornflake.

It's interesting how different forums have a very different "culture" around this. Some forums are very strict about not resurrecting old threads and mods will lock them when it happens. Other forums like to have "mega-threads" of 10s or even 100s of pages on a particular topic and if you ever have anything to say about that topic, you'd better post it in that thread - even if the last post was 2 years ago! WP is not strict either way and I like it that way.

I think it can sometimes make sense to bump an old thread if it has a fairly narrow focus and the existing discussion is relevant to what you want to say, especially if you're asking a question - it shows that you've bothered to search first. If it's a general, broad discussion topic then it's probably better to start a new thread.

Bumping an old thread about a personal problem someone had half a year ago in order to post a general philosophical comment seems rude to the OP. Bumping a philosophical thread to ask a question about a personal problem that relates to the topic seems sensible, provided that the thread didn't already answer the question.

Sometimes it makes sense to start a new thread on a thoroughly debated topic ONLY after a long time has passed.

It depends on the thread. Like I don't mind the ''you might be an Aspie if...'' thread coming to the top of the list, in fact I wish it would become a sticky one.

But I hate it when I see a discussion thread, forget to look at the date it was created, then post a reply, only to find out I have already replied a similar answer on that same thread about 3 years ago.

Is it just me, or are there more and more threads being erected recently? I keep seeing threads from 2008 or 2009 brought back and there seems to be more of them.

In my opinion, it's very much dependent on what the thread is. Like Ezra and jrjones said, bumping personal threads from long ago isn't at all helpful, and it's extremely rude when it is done to ask some philosophical question.

However, it can be good to resurrect helpful threads from long ago - GAD is often filled with topics which have been covered several times in the past, which gets annoying when you've been here since July 2012.

I do object to people being hostile to new people who necro-post. People who come here may be new to the concept of forums, as I was when I first signed up under my old account almost two years ago. It is somewhat frustrating, but is it really so difficult to give a friendly explanation?