confused by gravedigging

seant

This is not a development question/thought, but the recent appearance of the 'space opera' thread got me thinking: why the hostility to people posting to old threads? I first experienced this when I posted to a thread I started 3 years ago. The issue had not been resolved and I was hoping that by using an old thread I could show that it was, in fact, an old issue vs new whinging.

Some individuals seem to dislike posting to old threads, even if the topic is relevant/interesting. Personally, I like to see that people are using the search feature on the board vs asking the same questions over and over again. Given, I would be annoyed if someone added a new post to a four year old topic with 100+ replies in it, but as it is, I think gravedigging is valid.

I guess I'm hoping for the detractors to help me understand their starting premiss.

-STH

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"Create enigmas, not explanations." -Robert Smithson

Jules

I've got to agree with you on this one as long as the comment is adding to the nature of the discussion. Its ridiculous the fuss some people make about it.

I do say something if someone digs up an ancient dead topic for some stupid comment that doesn't add anything useful. I guess this is where most people's hate of digging comes from. When NOVA came out it was pretty rampant so I guess people just got pissed off with it and now snap at anyone who does dig anything up.

ewan

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'It's only when you look at an ant through a magnifying glass on a sunny day that you realise how often they burst into flames'
- Harry Hill

Martin Turner

It may be better to start a new topic with an html reference to the original topic.

Many people change their minds over a period of a couple of years, and might not want to be associated any more with their old points of view.

At the same time, a lot of people don't look carefully at the dates of post and may imagine that an old post is a current one and associate that opinion with the original poster.

Just a thought

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mrxak

If it's a legitimate post, I generally leave it alone. What I don't appreciate (and most other moderators agree) is when people start posting random crap, or (which is in many ways worse) respond to gravedigging with "Don't gravedig you worthless pile of digitalized poo-poo!". If the original post is worthless, it will usually be deleted. If somebody responds with something equally worthless, that makes more work for us.

And somewhat related, we also generally don't like being told what to do.

Neon Soldier

Gravedigging gets to be a problem when the people who originally posted in the topic have left the board, or the gravedigger adds nothing relevant to the discussion, or the discussion is so old that relevancy to anything current is impossible.

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Mazca

Personally I prefer that people take Martin's route - start a new topic, with a link to the old one for reference. If a topic is meaningfully gravedug, though, I generally don't have a problem with it at all.

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SpacePirate

Quote

Originally posted by Mazca:
**Personally I prefer that people take Martin's route - start a new topic, with a link to the old one for reference. If a topic is meaningfully gravedug, though, I generally don't have a problem with it at all.

**

Exactly my thoughts, I believe many members of the boards, myself included, have been doing such much more often. A much more economical solution, as it removes any confusion as to what posts are current, and also makes it clear that it is an old topic, and people's opinions have changed.

The only problem, of course, is how to tell "n00bs" how to do this... It's certainly easy to say "Use the search feature!" , or post a decreasingly witty picture of an arrow pointing to the search link. Thoughts?

~ SP

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astro

there is (url="http://"http://www.ambrosiasw.com/webboard/Forum9/HTML/001110.html#")absolutely(/url) (url="http://"http://www.ambrosiasw.com/webboard/Forum9/HTML/001181.html#")nothing(/url) (url="http://"http://www.ambrosiasw.com/webboard/Forum9/HTML/000919.html#")wrong(/url) with reviving old but valuable topics.

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blackhole

Gravedigging confuses people. Old posts often have references to things that have changed, so someone corrects it.

If you're adding something really valuable, then I will permit it. If you're adding something that's common knowledge now, I'll delete.

IMO, the best way is to link back, it shows people that it's an old topic, so unneeded corrections are avoided, but still retains the ability to view the information.

Of course, the worst people are those who add posts to gravedug posts saying "Don't gravedig!" - it just creates more work.

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--sitharus
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confused by gravedigging