UESP Forums

Why?

Also I note on the Redguard forum there aren't a lot of posts - not even one page. The current Necro-posting rule is killing forums that don't attract many posts.

Wouldn't it be more reasonable to define Necro-posting as over a certain period of time AND if they're no longer on the front page. By definition if it's on the front page then the posts aren't being created enough to warrent limiting them. Also, how many people usually scroll beyond the first page anyway?

New users join all the time. Say they join to read the Redguard forum (unlikely but to make a point) then post a reply only to get a nasty necro warning. That's just uneccessarily negative. C'mon - give a little breathing space so the forums can flourish. Not asking for the earth here - just the right to reply to front page posts without worrying about the date!

Mostly it's because people who were interested in the discussion either aren't, or have moved on from the forums. If they are contributing significantly to a discussion that died only a while ago, they're free to Necro Post. That rule is mostly in place to stop people answering questions someone asked two years ago. (Though amazingly, in one case, someone did come back after two years, and a necro-post helped them... )

(also, this really ought to be in UESP Forum section)

I'm sure that's how it's always dealt with; Moderators never assess the situation, they just enforce the rules blindly and give nasty warnings to new members who aren't familiar with the forums. Newbies are always banned immediately when they necro-post, you see.

The necro-posting rule isn't enforced with an iron-fist, if you've noticed; mainly because it's normally done by newbies who're a bit nervous, or unsure of the rules.

Yeah, that pretty much sums it up.

Joking aside, the necro-posting rule is barely enforced at all in the forum sections dedicated to the older games. Though some members like to give "unofficial" warnings, you shouldn't mind them as they don't mean anything. If someone does something that require moderator attention, that user will recieve a PM from one of the mods. Not necessarily a warning; in most cases just an explanation of how things work. So if you aren't contacted by a moderator, you haven't done anything wrong.

So can i ask. Say if a frequent from the forum posted something, it doesnt get answered, but after six months i find an answer. If that person was still frequenting the forum, would i still post in that thread (helping out other members who might have a similar problem) or PM the user?

I would've thought that if what you describe happened, and the thread didn't provide an answer to said question, the user would have found the answer, and probably forgotten about the thread. So I would have PM'd the user and asked if he/she still had the problem. But why would you go back that far to see if a user who still frequents the boards have asked something that has yet to be answered?

I can understand that you're not allowed to necro-post in topics where a question has already been solved, or never been solved but the topic is over 3 months old.

But what about topics like "Post your character" with over 20 pages? Or other topics where you simply need to give your opinion/post your stats/whatever. A topic like that has no end.

http://forums.uesp.net/viewtopic.php?t=9130

Glad it's not so serious as I made it sound

However, one final point and I'm done. Most the posts I read are not a problem I have posted but one already covered or in the process of being discussed. I like reading conversations that result in a solution, with some humour, even the odd tangent is all part of the fun. I don't care when the posts are made as long as the conversation flows.

What is annoying is when a good conversation is interrupted by an unneccessary and annoying necro warning that has absolutely nothing to do with the subject of that conversation.

Since I'm new to these forums I've been reading up quite a lot on back posts and it's a shame when this happens. It spoils the good feeling of the thread and sometimes sidetracks it into negative resonses. I haven't yet seen one example where a late post directly caused the same reaction.

So anyway, rant over. Got it off my chest. Hope I never see another necro warning again.

It's not a good conversation if it ended 6 months ago.

To me a good conversation is one that takes you to interesting places in your mind and expresses how you and others feel, or solves a practical problem or makes you laugh, learn something new or be reminded of some truth. If it manages to do that then what does time have to do with it? And why limit it just to the people who happened upon it recently?

Forum conversations aren't like spoken conversations. The internet lives on. I believe forums should reflect the nature of the internet and the way it effects us socially. Otherwise they create unneccessary limitation which hampers, instead of encourages, good communication and therefore good conversation.

This is the internet - the conversation never ends...