# Necrobumping



## Lostbhoy (Mar 17, 2021)

I've noticed quite a lot of necrobumps lately, most I'd say under 5 year old threads but a good few surpassing 10 years. Most of them are just new accounts trying to up their post count. 

Is it possible or even feasible to lock threads after a certain amount of time has passed? 

I'd say after 10 years for sure nothing of value can be added or taken away from such a thread... Hell even 5 years is a bit much but I'm only throwing the idea out there!


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## Shadow#1 (Mar 17, 2021)

Lostbhoy said:


> I've noticed quite a lot of necrobumps lately, most I'd say under 5 year old threads but a good few surpassing 10 years. Most of them are just new accounts trying to up their post count.
> 
> Is it possible or even feasible to lock threads after a certain amount of time has passed?
> 
> I'd say after 10 years for sure nothing of value can be added or taken away from such a thread... Hell even 5 years is a bit much but I'm only throwing the idea out there!


Is it contributing to said thread?


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## godreborn (Mar 17, 2021)

sometimes you have to wonder how these people find these threads.  they've gotta be deep in the bowels of temp, being that old.


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## Lostbhoy (Mar 17, 2021)

Shadow#1 said:


> Is it contributing to said thread?


Not in any way whatsoever. Even asking a question in said thread is ridiculous after so much time has passed. I just feel that if there has been no activity in a thread for at very most 5 years, said thread should be closed. Whether it's still able to be viewed or not is a different matter but posting in it should really be halted. 

Expect to see an "I concur" post in here in about 10 years....


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## Veho (Mar 17, 2021)

godreborn said:


> sometimes you have to wonder how these people find these threads.  they've gotta be deep in the bowels of temp, being that old.


At the bottom of every thread, there's a "similar threads" list, and some of those threads can be 10+ years old. A new member follows the link and doesn't notice the dates on the last replies.


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## BvanBart (Mar 17, 2021)

Well... I see some good additions, however I think locking a tread also creates new treats...


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## Jayro (Mar 17, 2021)

I'll never understand why "necrobumping" is such a bad thing, if the thread's question is relevant to the topic. I'd rather someone bump an old thread on-topic than start another thread for the same exact thing. But that's just me.




Veho said:


> At the bottom of every thread, there's a "similar threads" list, and some of those threads can be 10+ years old. A new member follows the link and doesn't notice the dates on the last replies.


Nor should the dates even matter. If necrobumping is *such* a problem, then set the threads to auto-lock after a few months to a year if there hasn't been activity. Even I have necro'd a few threads by accident, but I was on-topic, and needing help. The date on the thread is the absolute _LEAST _of my worries.


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## Shadow#1 (Mar 17, 2021)

Yea locking it is not a good idea


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## Jayro (Mar 17, 2021)

Shadow#1 said:


> Yea locking it is not a good idea


But if it's been dead for over a year, it's safe to assume it's not needed anymore. It just gets locked, and archived.


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## Shadow#1 (Mar 17, 2021)

Jayro said:


> But if it's been dead for over a year, it's safe to assume it's not needed anymore. It just gets locked, and archived.


Then another thread gets made and cluters the forum more


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## Lostbhoy (Mar 17, 2021)

If all these new accounts are simply bumping their own post count then actual relevant threads get lost and the site looks a mess. 

Even commenting in a 13 year old thread that the link is dead..... I mean.... Wtf do people expect??
Asking a simple question in a new thread ensures it can be answered and then relevantly dealt with.

I know i sound like a dick here, I don't mean any ill intentions towards the posters but there has to be a line man.... Come on!


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## Issac (Mar 17, 2021)

Lostbhoy said:


> If all these new accounts are simply bumping their own post count then actual relevant threads get lost and the site looks a mess.
> 
> Even commenting in a 13 year old thread that the link is dead..... I mean.... Wtf do people expect??
> Asking a simple question in a new thread ensures it can be answered and then relevantly dealt with.
> ...


But what would the alternative be? Creating a new thread, saying "There was another thread here that had a file, but it's not online anymore, does anyone have it?" In what way would that be better than bumping that old thread? 
He literally wanted the file in the OP and asked if anyone had it.


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## korbinian (Mar 17, 2021)

Lostbhoy said:


> If all these new accounts are simply bumping their own post count then actual relevant threads get lost and the site looks a mess.
> 
> Even commenting in a 13 year old thread that the link is dead..... I mean.... Wtf do people expect??
> Asking a simple question in a new thread ensures it can be answered and then relevantly dealt with.
> ...



you need to relax man, there is 0 need to go off at me like you did in the other thread, simply because i replied to a very old topic.


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## Tom Bombadildo (Mar 17, 2021)

The reason we don't automatically lock threads is because there are cases when necrobumping a thread is totally fine. Generally speaking, mods will look at necrobumps on a case by case basis; if the bump adds something of value to the discussion then it's fine, if it's just some new guy spamming trash because he's new then their post will be deleted and they'll be warned if they continually do it.


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## linuxares (Mar 17, 2021)

I prefer new threads than super old threads with a lot of probably outdate information... but that's me.


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## korbinian (Mar 17, 2021)

Issac said:


> But what would the alternative be? Creating a new thread, saying "There was another thread here that had a file, but it's not online anymore, does anyone have it?" In what way would that be better than bumping that old thread?
> He literally wanted the file in the OP and asked if anyone had it.



btw; new users are not allowed to post any URLs even to other threads. i couldn't have gone that way anyways.


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## Lostbhoy (Mar 17, 2021)

I apologised to the user in the other thread, I'm being a dick.

I still think an auto lock after a certain time could be implemented tho bur that's just my opinion!


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## Veho (Mar 17, 2021)

Didn't the forum have a necrobump warning feature, way back when, once upon a time? It would tell you "you are about to reply to a thread that is over XYZ months/years old, are you sure?" and you had to click that yes, you were sure. Or maybe I'm thinking of some other forum. 

Anyway, such a feature would prevent accidental necrobumping, while still allowing people to bump relevant threads with new info.


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## Jayro (Mar 17, 2021)

Shadow#1 said:


> Then another thread gets made and cluters the forum more


A year is a really long time, and seems pretty reasonable to me. *shrugs*


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## WiiMiiSwitch (Mar 17, 2021)

So what if we necrobump this thread about necrobumping


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## Lostbhoy (Mar 17, 2021)

I've noticed quite a lot of necrobumps lately, most I'd say under 5 year old threads but a good few surpassing 10 years. Most of them are just new accounts trying to up their post count. 

Is it possible or even feasible to lock threads after a certain amount of time has passed? 

I'd say after 10 years for sure nothing of value can be added or taken away from such a thread... Hell even 5 years is a bit much but I'm only throwing the idea out there!


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## korbinian (Mar 17, 2021)

it then becomes a meta-necrobump :-)


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## FAST6191 (Mar 17, 2021)

The trouble would come is that it has to go on a case by case basis as to what gets locked.

ROMs tend to remain ROMs... more or less forever (when disassemblies and decompilations come onto the scene then things might change).

Homebrew is not much better.

Tools to edit either might well be or have to be vintage (see how much fun with various versions of devkitpro there were, even before the devs of it decided to do all they did with old versions) to achieve some goal and that means most of the same problems still get faced.


For the most part necromancy tends to only be bad for post count gatherers just adding a "I agree" or something, and for those actual spammers that find a thread here as the first/high result for a common tech term in search engines -- I made a thread discussing paid essay writing services a while back as a general interest topic and it routinely gets bumped by those wishing to plug their own services (though several of them are quite good and will say something banal and edit in links later), random computer terms tend to be another. Watching people post something inconsequential to see if it unlocks downloads in the release threads is always amusing though.


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## AncientBoi (Mar 17, 2021)

I say delete the fkn things. I got a warning just a little while back, an didn't know I couldn't comment on it. So, fkn delete them! Look at my profile and see the warning I got. So fk it!  And also on the buy and sell threads, why not also delete the ones that are also Dead? Bullchit to this


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## lokomelo (Mar 17, 2021)

Lostbhoy said:


> I apologised to the user in the other thread, I'm being a dick.
> 
> I still think an auto lock after a certain time could be implemented tho bur that's just my opinion!


I understand your point, but I disagree.

On this particular website, there are resources for long dead stuff, many of those are not "hot topic" anymore, and there is some stuff that were born oddball and obscure and the time make it even more hidden. For example, if you have an old flashcard, or you hacked your wii very early on and need help, where else on internet you going to find help?


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## Methanoid (Mar 17, 2021)

I wonder why this is being debated when we have a whole sub forum devoted to pointless and useless posts from people who clearly have zero interest in what GBAtemp was meant to be!!  If people feel a desperate need to change the forum, delete that whole section PLEASE!


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## KokoseiJ (Mar 17, 2021)

Methanoid said:


> I wonder why this is being debated when we have a whole sub forum devoted to pointless and useless posts from people who clearly have zero interest in what GBAtemp was meant to be!!  If people feel a desperate need to change the forum, delete that whole section PLEASE!


Nowadays, In lots of communities, Off-topic categories have its very purpose- making the community more active by not limiting topics. you can't always expect people to stay on-topic and talk about consoles 24/7. they need places to relax and talk about stuffs they want to, or just hang out in peace. Off-topic exists because of that. as a result, we have more active forum which users like to come by time to time.

Not to mention lots of people are still active in other categories at the same time, not spamming off-topic all day long.


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## Alexander1970 (Mar 17, 2021)

Honestly,I have nothing against Necrobumping in general.
It shows us,that the User(s) do that,what we "expect" from them.

SEARCH before POSTING.
(Ok,maybe they have then some Issues with "Date Reading",but,they have searched...)


....I remember on such Teaching "Avalanches" if a User did not do a "Search" before he post....


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## AncientBoi (Mar 17, 2021)

alexander1970 said:


> Honestly,I have nothing against Necrobumping in general.
> It shows us,that the User(s) do that,what we "expect" from them.
> 
> SEARCH before POSTING.
> ...



Thank you. Exactly what I was saying


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## Darth Meteos (Mar 17, 2021)

Maybe necrobumping wouldn't be such an issue if the "similar threads" section wasn't always exclusively 4+ years old threads


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## godreborn (Mar 17, 2021)

@OldBoi , I should've known that was Romulan, being a trek fan.


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## GoldenBullet (Mar 17, 2021)

Worst part is when someone revives an old post, you don't realize it and post on it too 
I'm pretty sure people find old posts through the similar posts tab on the bottom and google search


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## FAST6191 (Mar 17, 2021)

Methanoid said:


> I wonder why this is being debated when we have a whole sub forum devoted to pointless and useless posts from people who clearly have zero interest in what GBAtemp was meant to be!!  If people feel a desperate need to change the forum, delete that whole section PLEASE!


But if we are going to have sections for current consoles then we kind of have to suffer the Switch one.


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## Alexander1970 (Mar 17, 2021)

FAST6191 said:


> But if we are going to have sections for current consoles then we kind of have to suffer the Switch one.



Followed by "PS5 - hacked - when ?"


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## FAST6191 (Mar 17, 2021)

alexander1970 said:


> Followed by "PS5 - hacked - when ?"


When we get there
When it is done
When it is hacked


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## Julie_Pilgrim (Mar 17, 2021)

FAST6191 said:


> But if we are going to have sections for current consoles then we kind of have to suffer the Switch one.


I mean, the switch section is good cause it contains toxic noobs, meaning they won't spread


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## Jayro (Mar 17, 2021)

GoldenBullet said:


> Worst part is when someone revives an old post, you don't realize it and post on it too
> I'm pretty sure people find old posts through the similar posts tab on the bottom and google search


I honestly never pay mind to the dates of threads. It's such a needless first-world problem in the grand scheme of things. And one bumped thread here and there isn't "flooding the forums" with necros.


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## FAST6191 (Mar 17, 2021)

Scott_pilgrim said:


> I mean, the switch section is good cause it contains toxic noobs, meaning they won't spread


Proper forum sectioning has seldom stopped such things entirely for long. We suspect the same flaws that render stickies invisible to them also allow them to bypass the mental blocks everybody else has as far as trying to suitably categorise their post. Sadly research is slow as nobody wants to go near them to study them in depth.


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## Veho (Mar 17, 2021)

Methanoid said:


> I wonder why this is being debated when we have a whole sub forum devoted to pointless and useless posts from people who clearly have zero interest in what GBAtemp was meant to be!!



GBAtemp was _meant _to be a site hosting the latest 10 GBA ROMs as they are released. Hence the name, GBA (ROMs), temporarily. GBAtemp. Everything else came afterwards and, technically, is not what GBAtemp is "meant to be." 



FAST6191 said:


> But if we are going to have sections for current consoles then we kind of have to suffer the Switch one.


p1ng, you forgot to switch accounts before posting that


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## FAST6191 (Mar 17, 2021)

Veho said:


> p1ng, you forgot to switch accounts before posting that


He and I were both early sufferers of the Switch, indeed experiencing it first within minutes of each other (I too was at the ill fated Switch launch press/"influencers" event after all).
While his dislike of it has since gone on to far eclipse mine (I am mostly content to ignore it pending it actually getting some games) I do still harbour something of my own.


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## orangy57 (Mar 17, 2021)

ehh i don't know about locking old threads, I'm fine with necrobumping since it increases the chances of a problem being solved by a tiny bit. People have questions for unsolved threads all the time, and a good portion of the time the necrobump actually lets the thread get a final answer since it's so old and people just want to be done with the topic.

Without the necrobumps the forums would have tons of redundant questions for people to have to scroll through, and it would cause the lazy ones to make yet another thread once they get tired of fruitlessly looking through old locked posts to find an answer.

it's also funny to see a new user ask a question on a 2009 thread as if the creator of the thread has even used their account in the past 10 years


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## Lostbhoy (Mar 17, 2021)

I've noticed quite a lot of necrobumps lately, most I'd say under 5 year old threads but a good few surpassing 10 years. Most of them are just new accounts trying to up their post count. 

Is it possible or even feasible to lock threads after a certain amount of time has passed? 

I'd say after 10 years for sure nothing of value can be added or taken away from such a thread... Hell even 5 years is a bit much but I'm only throwing the idea out there!


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## Julie_Pilgrim (Mar 18, 2021)

FAST6191 said:


> Sadly research is slow as nobody wants to go near them to study them in depth


I'll do it, I didn't have that many braincells to begin with, so it's not like I'll lose much


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## WiiMiiSwitch (Mar 18, 2021)

I actually once mistakingly necro bumped a 10-year-old thread. I thought it was new, it was a thread about rumors. However, I posted without looking at the date. The moderator who I'll leave unnamed let me go easy


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## DinohScene (Mar 18, 2021)

I've said it before and I don't feel like repeating meself tbf so here's a link towards a brief explanation as to why necrobumping is frowned upon.

Idk why you opened up a new thread, we discussed this literally a month ago..

edit: we're not locking threads, actual useful information can be added at any time.


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## korbinian (Mar 18, 2021)

DinohScene said:


> Idk why you opened up a new thread, we discussed this literally a month ago..



because witnessing me accidentially necrobumping while looking for an old file kinda triggered him. thats why 
the news item/thread in question since was deleted, sadly.


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## DinohScene (Mar 18, 2021)

korbinian said:


> because witnessing me accidentially necrobumping while looking for an old file kinda triggered him. thats why
> the news item/thread in question since was deleted, sadly.



I honestly wonder if newcomers actually read the site rules....
Accidental necrobumps happen from time to time, however some members are frequently doing it.
It's not that difficult to quickly look at the last reply dates and figure that one that hasn't been replied to for over a decade will likely never been seen by anyone other then googlers stumbling upon it.

That being said, if anyone finds themselves accidentally necrobumping a thread, feel free to report your own post and ask for post removal.
Staff will remove the post without any repercussions.


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## WiiMiiSwitch (Mar 18, 2021)

DinohScene said:


> I honestly wonder if newcomers actually read the site rules....
> Accidental necrobumps happen from time to time, however some members are frequently doing it.
> It's not that difficult to quickly look at the last reply dates and figure that one that hasn't been replied to for over a decade will likely never been seen by anyone other then googlers stumbling upon it.
> 
> ...


No one actually reads it till they get a warning!


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## korbinian (Mar 18, 2021)

"i have read and agreed to the terms & conditions" probably is the greatest lie of our times, not gonna lie.


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## WiiMiiSwitch (Mar 18, 2021)

korbinian said:


> "i have read and agreed to the terms & conditions" probably is the greatest lie of our times, not gonna lie.


This is the problem with every tos, they need to be quick to read so people actually read them. I actually frequently check the rules but it's painful to.


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## DinohScene (Mar 18, 2021)

WiiMiiSwitch said:


> No one actually reads it till they get a warning!



Some get more then a single warning before they realise that there's certain things like forum decency and general guidelines...



korbinian said:


> "i have read and agreed to the terms & conditions" probably is the greatest lie of our times, not gonna lie.



I'm not going to argue with that haha.
Altho things like general decency should be self explanatory...


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## korbinian (Mar 18, 2021)

i'd actually argue there's likely a technical solution to this - i did a search for the file i was after (and still didnt find sadly) and the thread i posted in after my necrobump didnt even show up... i only ever saw it being 'recommended' or 'related' below the bumpitybamp


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