I’ve gathered that it is frowned upon to bump very old threads.
However, I was wondering if anyone thinks it is okay in these two situations.
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I once posed an ID this band question and never got a reply. It was a fairly busy time on the board, so it sank away fairly quickly. A good few people who might have known the answer could have missed the thread altogether. Not to mention people on holidays and new members. Would it be bad to bump it, as long as I don’t keep doing it over and over again?
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Television threads. Europe tends to get the most American shows much later than the States. I tend to dig out the old Soprano threads jus to read, but they are about a month old by the time we get to see the program here. I’d kind of like to join in and comment sometimes, but am not sure anyone would like to see old threads resurface. Would it be better to start a catch up thread with links to good remarks in the old one?
My understanding (IANAM etc.) is that in situation 1 you can bump it once, after it has left the first page of threads.
As for number 2, I would guess that the preffered tack is to start a new thread with links…
Grim
Right, if you’ve posted a question that has not had any replies, you can bump it once to try again.
On the question of reviving old threads, it sort of depends on the forum and the question. Officially, we dislike people reviving an old thread. Better is to start a new thread and provide a link (“This was discussed earlier at…”).
The reason we dislike the practice is:
(a) If you’re replying to something someone said in that that thread, that person may no longer be around to defend themselves or to rebut. It’s not fair.
(b) Everyone’s forgot about it, and re-reading old sh-- er, old stuff is a pain, especially if you’re new comment is really not very insightful. Sometimes, the dead should stay buried.
However, there are some exceptions:
- Comments on Cecil’s Columns and Comments on Staff Reports, it’s reasonably OK to post to an old thread. What’s “reasonably” mean? Well, for instance, if you’re commenting on Cecil’s Column (rather than on what a prior poster said about Cecil’s column), that would be reasonable.
- The Cafe Society situation that you described – an old TV show or movie that’s been re-run – I suspect that the Cafe Society Moderators would allow it. Again, it might depend on whether you’re commenting on the TV show or movie, or arguing with something someone else said about it. Is that sort of clear?
It’s not a hard-and-fast rule, it’s much more an issue in MPSIMS, IMHO, and the PIT, where raking up old issues can be painful and annoying. (Part of the definition of “being a jerk” is when one’s posts are too annoying.)