'Old Forum' Rule?

funyarinpa • 26 August 2015 at 5:09 PM

Can someone please explain the rule about replying to old forums to me?

What I don't understand is how old is 'too old'? Is it a month or two months or what? I've never really known and have avoided posting on topics older than a month just in case, but a lot of the time I am only out of the month by a day or so...

So can someone please clarify the time and how strict this is (In terms of responding a day or two beyond the cut off point)? 😊

iceiceice • 26 August 2015 at 5:20 PM

@funyarinpa
I was told 4-5 months is the "rule of thumb" (exception is creature suggestion)

lykhaos117 • 26 August 2015 at 5:22 PM

@funyarinpa

I'm not sure how much this helps, but I think it might vary according to what type of forum it is. For example, for a forum game, I don't think it's against the rules for someone to post after a month or two after no one's posted for a while, but for a topic like free feeding, it might be old after a week depending on the forum creater's activity on the forum.

I hope this makes sense...

funyarinpa • 27 August 2015 at 2:39 PM

@iceiceice @lykhaos117

Thanks, both of you!

I guess it is a mix of both of your answers, then. It would be nice if an estimate was displayed under each type of forum or this was in the rules, but oh well.

So would it be best only post in forums less than 4 months old in the 'chit chat' and 'entertainment and multimedia' forums? (I use these the most) Also, to just leave other forum types older than a month or so?

(Had to rewrite this because lag crashed my browser and it didn't copy -.-)

lykhaos117 • 27 August 2015 at 2:43 PM

@funyarinpa

I guess so (except for also Forum Games; I think that can be <4 months too). You probably won't be in trouble for something that's not specifically stated in the rules. 😊 I think the worst that could happen would be for you to get pinged not to bump and for the topic to get locked.

Also, sorry about your browser crashing.

funyarinpa • 27 August 2015 at 2:50 PM

@lykhaos117

It's happened before to me (pinged about bumping and topic being locked) but I don't like getting in trouble for doing things I wasn't told was against the rules in the first place so I'm just taking precautions 😋

I've also been told off for going off topic even though I wasn't but that's another story XD

Lately my laptop has been crashing all the time, I think it may be old age 😋 Whoops, don't want to be off-topic again...

Orderedchaos • 27 August 2015 at 10:57 PM

The age for what makes a topic "too old" is evaluated on a case by case basis. For the most part just using some common sense can tell if you if a topic is dead or not.

Is it a trade topic where the last post is more than a couple weeks ago? Most likely dead and should not be posted in.

Last post is more than a year ago in almost any topic? Way to dead to post in. (only exception is creature suggestions)

Games topic that has been dead for more than half a year? Dead.

"What is X creature/item/ect worth?" topic that hasn't been posted in couple weeks? Too old.

Random discussion/chit-chat topic where the last post was 3-4 or more months ago? Probably too dead to post in.

These are just a couple examples of using common sense about necroing topics and are NOT hard guidelines to follow. Again, we evaluate this on a case by case basis. You will not be banned for bumping old topics. You probably won't even get a verbal warn, just a locked topic and a reminder.

raccoon • 27 August 2015 at 11:27 PM

@Orderedchaos

Thank you for clearing that up! I'd been wondering this for a long time myself! ^.^

funyarinpa • 28 August 2015 at 7:40 AM

@Orderedchaos

Thank you! I was mostly wondering about the more ambiguous cases with 'chit chat' and 'E & M' when they are 2+ months old- such as when X topic is dead and needs a new one. I also didn't know we could bump creature suggestions from a while back 😊

And I know I wouldn't be banned and it's not like strikes against my account but I like to avoid things like this anyway, I'm honestly super sensitive and get really guilty and upset from any scolding- especially when it was an accident. It's the way I am, I guess :/