Holy rusted metal Batman … a CM does exist on these forums!
Secondly …
It’s really annoying when you see a thread pop up with a “8 months later” tag on it, with some … person … responds as though it were current.
As others have said, if it’s relevant … make a new thread and reference the old one with the </> symbols above (if you don’t have TL3.)
It’s happened to me a couple times where I get notifications from a thread I responded to months ago … it’s over and not even remotely on my mind.
Admittedly … (as much as I like to think otherwise) the world doesn’t revolve around me; however, my two pennies on the pile are it’s an obnoxious thing some people do on these forums.
If it was outdated information, I wouldn’t want to reply to it in the first place.
That doesn’t change the fact that some things are still relevant for a long time (even indefinitely) and being able to participate in said thread is much more effective than creating a brand new one.
That’s why “necroing” threads should be case-by-case rather than blanket rules.
how are people meant to determine whether or not information is outdated?
the forum search function is awful, and a lot of people end up finding threads via google.
they don’t check dates before posting, and as previously pointed out, a thread can be “outdated” within a week or two.
how does that work?
do you expect someone to manually lock each thread once it’s determined to be no longer relevant?
If I find something on google that is still relevant to me, then it is not outdated. Just because some things can be doesn’t mean all things are outdated past that point. That is the entire point of my post. It is stupid to have a blanket rule that only applies to a subset of threads.
All new thread replies are already checked by a forum moderator to check for content. Locking a thread that is deemed an irrelevant necro (rather than a relevant one) is not some incomprehensible feat. That is actually how most forums work.
And a blanket ban would be the most efficient route.
You might be a wizard at finding old threads that are still relevant, but most people are just stumbling around necroing threads that are up to a year old and haven’t been relevant since the week they were made.
Most threads that get necroed are either irrelevant or are just being bumped by trolls. The blanket ban would therefore be advantageous to both Blizzard and the player base.
If you want to reference an existing thread it would be incredibly easy to just link to it in a new thread. That way you gain all of the advantages of the old thread while starting with a clean slate for discussion.
Advantageous to Blizzard, not to the community. A community benefits from a moderated forum that keeps relevant information all in a singular place rather than having to search through multiple threads for the same information.
You do not gain all the advantages. Not even close.
This only applies to huge megathreads. If I reply to a thread that only has a normal amount of replies (the vast majority of threads), this doesn’t apply.
Still wrong.
Firstly, if I post a new thread for this discussion for instance, suddenly the conversation dies since you’d have to click on the new thread and start replying. If you find it.
If in 4 days I come back here and reply, the discussion would continue as if nothing happened.
Secondly, if I’m googling for an issue and I find it but the answer isn’t there - I now have to keep searching for another thread for an answer. This happens on stackoverflow all. the. time.
Keeping the information in a single place is better in every single case (assuming it’s still relevant).