As internet forums die off, finding community can be harder than ever

Re:As internet forums die off, finding community can be hard... by lopmotr on Thursday November 19, 2020 @03:47PM (#25154152)

I run a small forum and occasionally somebody will post a new question on an old thread that's about the same topic. My two theories are that either they searched, ended up on that thread, then just replied because it was in front of them, or that they hope the original participants are going to be notified of their reply so it'll get more attention than a new thread. Unfortunately, on some forums that's actually true and encourages this mess-making behavior.

I don't see the problem with "omg me too!" on an old thread as long as "omg me too!" is acceptable on a new one.

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Re:As internet forums die off, finding community can be hard... by throwaway0a5e on Thursday November 19, 2020 @05:11PM (#25154980)

>or that they hope the original participants are going to be notified of their reply so it'll get more attention than a new thread. Unfortunately, on some forums that's actually true and encourages this mess-making behavior.

Just last week someone posted a question on a thread from over a decade ago asking what the end result of building something was.

I and several other people party to the original discussion explained the result, the performance of the system over the past decade and that options were different now

Let's see Reddit do that.

Bumping threads from a long time ago is a feature. Not a bug.

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Re:As internet forums die off, finding community can be hard... by lopmotr on Friday November 20, 2020 @01:55AM (#25157915)

Oh sure. I think it's important too. Just that people misuse it which is probably why they get locked.

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Re:As internet forums die off, finding community can be hard... by loopz on Thursday November 19, 2020 @05:07PM (#25154932)

Overzealous admins do see big problems with that.

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