There's been a lot of necroposting around here lately, and I haven't said anything really because that would only increase the problem. But it's gotten a bit out of hand. I just want to explain what is taken for general fact here:
CompSci.ca Rules wrote:
Posting in old topics is generally frowned upon, unless the post is really important and relevant. If your post is important (for example, say you made a big improvement to an algorithm the original author was using), you may post in an otherwise dead topic. However, bringing up an old game from [Turing Source Code] to say, "Good job!" is necro posting, and you will be yelled at. Whether a thread is considered dead or not largely depends on the forum. Posts in [Turing Help] have a very short lifespan, so even a useless post in a week-old thread could be necro posting. Realize that, for a lot of old topics, the original author is no longer an active user on the site, in which case (s)he will not get your message. If you had to go trolling through a page of threads or more to find the topic, it's a safe bet that you shouldn't be posting in it.
What is Necroposting
Necro-posting is posting in a topic that is considered "dead" (hence the "necro" part). It refers to old topics, mostly.
From Wikipedia's Bump (Internet) article:
Quote:
Bumping old or inactive ("dead") threads is occasionally called "necroposting" or "thread necromancy", and the bumping posts referred to as "frankenposts".
When it is acceptable
There are a few cases when reviving an old topic may be acceptable:
* You genuinely have something worth while to input into the argument
* You want to "bump" a thread that has not been addressed yet (a question not answered, etc)
In most cases, the best thing to do is to start a new topic and provide a link to the old one.
BAD examples
Time-frames can be anywhere from a few days to months or years. Try not to post the following on older threads:
1) "Nice job man."
2) "yeah lol that's right I think so too hahah"
GOOD examples
There are a cases where you have just read an old thread and have something that you want to say about it. There are good ways of doing so. Take for example:
Quote:
I know this topic is old, but new research has come out that proves (blah blah blah)
It is better yet to make a new topic:
Quote:
"I recently read this old thread: [insert url here].
It got me thinking and...
It's not evil
It's not necessarily evil to necropost, and it can most certainly happen by accident. If it happens, take it maturely and apologize and then leave the thread alone. This will most often occur when searching for a topic. Just try to look at the date of the most recent post.
One more thing. If you see someone necroposting, don't jump in and tell them not to necropost. It defeats the purpose. Certain cases warrant it, or if you have something to say that is relevant.
And, we're all guilty of it 
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