# some what odd thread necromancy by single digit posters



## TerraDave (Apr 8, 2014)

This has now happened in a few threads. 

Don't know what to think about it...but there  is some sort of pattern.


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## Morrus (Apr 8, 2014)

Yeah, I've noticed it too. I haven't figured out why yet.


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## Umbran (Apr 8, 2014)

You could ask them!  

Note that the "related threads" list that appears at the bottom of most pages may be leading them to old threads, and they probably aren't bothering to check the age of the thread.


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## frogimus (Apr 9, 2014)

#1 - [MENTION=177]Umbran[/MENTION] hit on part of it

#2 - low post counts may be the RPGers in their 40's or 50's that don't post on any forum and aren't aware of the insane fear of necroposts that grips some forumites.

#3 - most current threads have degraded into a 10-page argument about something that barely resembles the original topic.


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## SkidAce (Apr 9, 2014)

I have no problem with anyone necro'ing threads.

If they are not relevant, they will die again.  If they are not interesting, I won't read them.

No worries.


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## TerraDave (Apr 9, 2014)

yeah...it was not just one or two threads with one or two single digit posters, its a few more threads, a few more single digit posters...and one thread with a wave of single digits.

Could just be a coincidence.


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## darjr (Apr 9, 2014)

links?


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## TerraDave (Apr 14, 2014)

All seemed to happen within a few days, though many answers seem like serious ones (by single digit posters) 

Most conspicuous is this one

http://www.enworld.org/forum/showthread.php?98283-Favorite-D-amp-D-books/page6

But also

http://www.enworld.org/forum/showthread.php?208908-Favorite-2e-modules/page5
http://www.enworld.org/forum/showthread.php?201669-Elusive-Target-Feat-Questions/page2
http://www.enworld.org/forum/showthread.php?241828-1001-Mysteries/page6
http://www.enworld.org/forum/showth...ut-what-Kinkos-did-to-My-1e-AD-amp-D-UA/page2

This may just be spam

http://www.enworld.org/forum/showth...o-4th-edition-like-Desert-of-Desolation/page2


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## darjr (Apr 14, 2014)

looks like some of them are from the invincible overlord folks, probably dropped by to announce the kickstarter and then stuck around for old threads. bledsaw being one of the kids of the founder, I think.

The others seem to be stumble upons. I wonder if some change in google is kicking up older enworld threads.

Very weird.


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## darjr (Apr 15, 2014)

I talked to one of the other posters and they were just perusing thread titles.


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## TerraDave (Apr 16, 2014)

again, I don't know.

The low, low post count is what sticks out.

Here is another one:

http://www.enworld.org/forum/showthread.php?5810-Hercules-in-Deities-and-Demigods/page20


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## darjr (Apr 16, 2014)

Could it be some one or group trying to punk ENWorld? Is there a trend in the type of threads, other than their age?


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## Umbran (Apr 16, 2014)

There doesn't seem to be much punk to it.  The couple of such threads I looked at had perfectly reasonable posts.  It just looks like they posted to a thread not realizing how old the thread was.


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## Alzrius (Apr 16, 2014)

frogimus said:


> aren't aware of the insane fear of necroposts that grips some forumites.




I've seen that before, and I've never understood it. All the more odd is that it's often exhibited by the same people who are quick to say "we're already had a thread on this" when someone starts a new thread on a topic that's been discussed before.

It's almost like they think that a particular topic, once it peters out, is "supposed" to be closed forever; a new thread on a previously-discussed should be ignored in favor of referencing the older one, but said older one should only be reviewed rather than revived.

That's patently absurd, of course, since new posters who hadn't joined before or missed the thread the first time around might just notice the topic now and want to discuss it. For that matter, some of the older posters might want to offer a new thought or insight. That's to say nothing of the fact that a policy of discouraging discussion tends to be anathema to the whole point of having a forum in the first place.


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## Morrus (Apr 16, 2014)

darjr said:


> Could it be some one or group trying to punk ENWorld? Is there a trend in the type of threads, other than their age?




Pretty weak sauce if so!  There's no harm to it, I guess.


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## Morrus (Apr 16, 2014)

Alzrius said:


> I've seen that before, and I've never understood it. All the more odd is that it's often exhibited by the same people who are quick to say "we're already had a thread on this" when someone starts a new thread on a topic that's been discussed before.
> 
> It's almost like they think that a particular topic, once it peters out, is "supposed" to be closed forever; a new thread on a previously-discussed should be ignored in favor of referencing the older one, but said older one should only be reviewed rather than revived.
> 
> That's patently absurd, of course, since new posters who hadn't joined before or missed the thread the first time around might just notice the topic now and want to discuss it. For that matter, some of the older posters might want to offer a new thought or insight. That's to say nothing of the fact that a policy of discouraging discussion tends to be anathema to the whole point of having a forum in the first place.




The logic is that threads where everyone has long since moved on will not be active. And lots of dead threads make people go away. It is more productive to start a new thread.


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## Alzrius (Apr 16, 2014)

Morrus said:


> The logic is that threads where everyone has long since moved on will not be active. And lots of dead threads make people go away. It is more productive to start a new thread.




I can understand that, but as I mentioned, I've also seen a lot of people - sometimes the same ones who complain about thread necros - rolling their eyes when the same topic is the subject of multiple threads, muttering some variant of "we've talked about this before."

EDIT: That's leaving aside the fact that most of the necromancy'd threads that I've seen tend to have, at the very least, a brief spike in activity, rather than languishing after one or two new posts. After a few years, most of the eyes that fall on a reactivated old thread are new, and treat the topic like any other.


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## Morrus (Apr 16, 2014)

Alzrius said:


> I can understand that, but as I mentioned, I've also seen a lot of people - sometimes the same ones who complain about thread necros - rolling their eyes when the same topic is the subject of multiple threads, muttering some variant of "we've talked about this before."




Yeah, that's a different thing and it's just rude. Nobody gets to declare that because they had a conversation about something, nobody else is allowed to.


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## darjr (Apr 16, 2014)

I kinda like the old threads that generate new traffic.


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## Deset Gled (Apr 17, 2014)

Alzrius said:


> I've seen that before, and I've never understood it.




I actually think thread necromancy is worse for D+D boards than many other scenarios, mainly when it comes to rules discussions.  The problem is that the rules change over time.  Its very easy to pull up a thread from a wrong edition, or from before an errata was issued, or before the appropriate splat book was published.  I've seen threads that were originally about 3.0 (when it was only 3e) necroed by someone thinking it was 3.5.  The problem can be even worse with the large amount of errata in 4e.

For information reference, a dead thread is kind of like a 15 year old encyclopedia; still full of info and interesting to read for historical purposes, but not something that should be actively used.

That being said, thread necromancy can actually be really neat when everyone posting in it is aware of the necro status.  The problem is that a lot of necro threads are unearthed by people that have no idea they're doing it.  I think it might help if there was a way to identify threads that were started a certain time ago (like, a year or more), but I don't think there's an easy way to do this in the board software.


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## lehcym (Apr 22, 2014)

(single digit poster here)

Maybe because when you are new on a forum you read  a lot of threads, you turn pages and you might reply on something you find interesting without checking the date.


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## Morrus (Apr 22, 2014)

lehcym said:


> (single digit poster here)
> 
> Maybe because when you are new on a forum you read  a lot of threads, you turn pages and you might reply on something you find interesting without checking the date.




The question is why a spate *now*; the forum's been here for 14 years, but this hasn't been a continual phenomenon. If all it were was as you suggest, it would have been happening constantly for 14 years.


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## Lwaxy (Apr 24, 2014)

Weird enough, this is not the only forum this currently happens in, at least 2 of my German forums and aother English one have the same issue. So I googled some monster names, edition information and such and at least in the German attempt and for some English stuff I got a few old EN World threads. Specifically for prestige classes, stat adaptions to 5e or PF and kickstarters.


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## Dannyalcatraz (Apr 25, 2014)

You wants weird necros, go visit a guitar site!

Someone will post a thread about what guitar to buy or what amp settings to try out, whether they should do a particular gear trade, etc., and they'll get some answers...

And 7 years later, someone will give them another suggestion.


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## freyar (Apr 27, 2014)

Dannyalcatraz said:


> You wants weird necros, go visit a guitar site!
> 
> Someone will post a thread about what guitar to buy or what amp settings to try out, whether they should do a particular gear trade, etc., and they'll get some answers...
> 
> And 7 years later, someone will give them another suggestion.




The same thing is happening here in the Creature Catalog Homebrews forum.  Someone will offer advice on a monster that no one's looked at in, in some cases, a dozen years.  Or ask a question about it!


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## Lwaxy (Apr 27, 2014)

Doesn't beat my German forums. Today, someone posted in Happy New Year threads from 1012, 2007 and 2004...


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## darjr (Apr 27, 2014)

1012!!! those are some old threads!


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## TerraDave (May 1, 2014)

another one here:

http://www.enworld.org/forum/showth...Bestairy-of-the-Sometime-Lords-of-Chaos/page7

Some of this could be through google? Is the profile of enworld some how increased?

I know in other contexts, I will search some random thing on the interwebs, and find site posting years old that are the only thing that address it (or among the few that do).


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## Morrus (May 1, 2014)

TerraDave said:


> another one here:
> 
> http://www.enworld.org/forum/showth...Bestairy-of-the-Sometime-Lords-of-Chaos/page7
> 
> ...




That's my guess - a change in Google's algorithm. It's quite scary just how much power Google has over the web!


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## Rabulias (May 3, 2014)

TerraDave said:


> another one here:
> 
> http://www.enworld.org/forum/showth...Bestairy-of-the-Sometime-Lords-of-Chaos/page7




Celebrim has a link to that thread in his signature; that's how I found it.


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## Mishihari Lord (May 14, 2014)

I don't care for necros, and I wish that they could be marked as such automatically.  My issue is that when I post to a thread I'm usually responding to someone else's idea and I have an expectation that it might turn into a conversation.  If I didn't notice that the post I'm replying to was five years old then there's not much chance of that.


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## TerraDave (Jun 6, 2014)

Happen to notice another one:

http://www.enworld.org/forum/showthread.php?78236-Call-of-Cthulhu/page4


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## Scott DeWar (Jun 13, 2014)

darjr said:


> 1012!!! those are some old threads!



 Wow, I didn't realize the internet was that old!


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## diaglo (Jun 18, 2014)

Scott DeWar said:


> Wow, I didn't realize the internet was that old!




we used social media means of communication like talking or yelling back then.
town criers were the first news only site owners.


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## Scott DeWar (Jun 18, 2014)

diaglo said:


> we used social media means of communication like talking or yelling back then.
> town criers were the first news only site owners.




Oh yea oh yea oh yea! king punpernick to be declarin war agin te kingdom of oafish!


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