Alolan_Apples
“Assorted” Collector
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.
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.
