My rant about thread bumping

[Alolan_Apples]

I try not to complain on my blog about what others are doing unless if they are attacking me, but today, I would like to talk about what I’m getting sick of - bumping of threads that have been inactive for over six months or longer. I’m not going to call out any names or refer to specific threads in this blog. I don’t want to hurt other members’ feelings or make them look like bad people. Also, I don’t believe this an issue that is worth punishing the offender for. Just the offense itself.

I’ve always been bothered by people bumping old threads. But what got me complaining about it is two things:

1. It’s became more common the last few weeks. Not just one thread, but a whole bunch of threads. We already had a few “bumping sprees” before, where a whole bunch of old threads were bumped by the same user. Even one bumping spree is bad, but this happened too many times.
2. Bumping old threads are allowed on this site, but only if they are relevant. But their definition of “relevant” is vague and ambiguous, and they won’t lock the threads that have been bumped. They don’t seem “relevant” in today’s time, at least to me.

Here are some of my opinions on it.

• First of all, bumping old threads is a forum taboo. Most sites don’t allow it, most users don’t like to follow discussions that aren’t currently active, and it may get the reader to go off-topic and talk about thread bumping than what the topic is about. It’s also worth saying that most threads that are created were relevant for their time, not the current time. This is especially true when the thread creator has been absent for a long time. If you want to talk about something, just create a new thread. When a thread becomes inactive and unpopular for a while, it means nobody wants to talk about it anymore.
• Just because something is allowed doesn’t mean you can go crazy over it. Thread bumping is allowed here, but not on most forums. Does that mean you can go ahead and bump ten threads that’s been inactive for six months, one year, two years, or four years in one hour? No. It may be fine if you do it to one thread, but it’s considered abuse if you repeatedly do this within a short period of time. If you really want to discuss those older discussions, just make new threads. I’m okay with creating more than five threads in one day, but not bumping more than five old threads in one day.
• I’m okay with general discussion threads, trading threads, and forum games like seen in the Basement being revived from over six months of inactivity. What I’m not okay with are the other discussions being bumped. Those include VS threads, favorites threads, political discussions, threads about the creator’s personal life or experience over Animal Crossing, help threads and question threads, threads like “what continent you are from”, and threads based on an issue at the time that isn’t relevant anymore. Those are the threads I tend to report. With the exception of the last item said, they don’t lock the threads I report. They are also the threads I commonly seen in bumping sprees. And instead of seeing them get closed, users continue contributing to the discussion after they were bumped when they shouldn’t continue getting new posts after six months of inactivity. The staff say that it’s okay to bump old threads if they are “relevant”. But those threads I’m talking about don’t seem “relevant” to me.
  • General discussion threads refer to those threads you can contribute to everyday or threads based on a special interest. An example of the former is “What did you do last weekend?”. An example of the latter is “General *inserts video game* Thread”.
  • It’s okay to bump old wi-fi threads or old trading threads, but only if you were the thread creator. If the creator is done, or has been inactive for a long time, the thread is no longer relevant.
• I don’t believe in punishing the user who bumps old threads unless if done excessively. However, I do believe that if a thread remains inactive for six months or more (perhaps three or more) and gets revived from the dead, it must be locked to prevent other members contributing to the old discussion. Unless if it’s a general discussion thread, a trading thread, or a forum game. I don’t believe in auto-locking because it would filter out the general discussion threads, not just the other old threads. But I do believe something has to be done.

I’m thinking about compiling a list of general discussion threads if they ever do fix the bumping rule. Again, I don’t want to make others feel bad for doing it, or the staff for not regulating it correctly, but I’m just expressing my opinons on this issue.

 

[Alolan_Apples]

I haven’t forgotten about this entry. I suggest that everyone reads this, especially when bumping sprees continue to happen.

I learned that “relevant” means “timeless” and/or “currently related”. However, thread bumping needs to be regulated. Threads last active from three years ago shouldn’t be bumped at all. If you want to bump threads from six months or more, but less than three years, I suggest that only one can be bumped per week (per user). And (this is my personal opinion, but) it’s just as bad to continue posting in threads that have been bumped from the past. That’s why I prefer locking threads than punishing members.

 

[Ably.Saucey]

Yes! I've noticed this has become as problem recently as well. Bumping old topics is a pet peeve of mine anyway (it even has a rhinestone collar) but lately it's been compounded by many new members (I'm not disparaging new members) but its like, "how did you even find this?!"
And you're being more lenient that I would, I say unless it's: A. Useful Information, B. Quality Content or C. not a repeat of 1 or more current threads; bumping threads over 100 days old should at least get some sort of pop up, which I don't think would be too hard to do but I don't code so I wouldn't know for certain.
"You are about to post in a thread that as been inactive for ____ days.
We like to encourage quality content on the forums, if you're the thread author and feel that the the thread would be helpful and/or relevant to many, press continue. If you are not the thread author, please consider making your own thread if: the topic doesn't exist in a current thread and/or is still relevant / useful. We encourage you to make your own thread rather than bump one this old."
The other day there were 4 threads on the same topic and 2 were from 2014 and 2017, respectively.
I wasn't aware you could report these, however. That's nice to know. I usually don't report at all, a lot of sites have it so if the admins don't find the topic worth a report, you're the one getting the hammer, I'm not sure how it works here.

 

[Alolan_Apples]

It’s not much new members. It’s the same member(s) doing it. Sure that the rules allow bumping if it can still be discussed (basically timeless), but some members are abusing that ability by doing it in excess. Bump a thread last active during the Obama years: Big No-No. Unless if it’s a general gaming discussion or a stickied thread that hasn’t been active for a while.

Here’s when a thread should be locked for simply being bumped:

- 1 month old, issue is no longer relevant (like if the thread creator has his/her problems solved)
- 3 months old, thread is about politics
- 6 to 35 months old, if they are the second or later thread bumped by the same user (minus general discussions)
- 36 months old or older, unless if it’s a general discussion