Rethinking the "Necro-posting" Rule for Feedback + Suggestions

Or just make a new post about the same issue. Maybe even reference the post in the discussion.

Instead of bringing up and age old post that hasn’t been talked about out. Just start a new threat. I always wonder why people do this.

I do think a more flexible common sense approach should be applied here. Mods are only doing as asked but most of them are knowledgeable enough to know when a topic is still relevant to the game currently. So I do think Rare should give them a little more leeway to make that judgement call. If something is out-dated or an issue no longer in the game, sure, it probably should be locked.

In the Game Announcements & Troubleshooting subforum especially, it seems rather daft that "necro-ing" is even a thing. If a problem is still a problem, there should be scope to discuss it. Especially as a lot of the time it's tech issues and those can be hard to diagnose, so often a solution may be found months or even years later.

I've never been on a forum like this, I've been on a few gaming ones over the years, and I used to moderate for a couple of music tech ones back in mid 00s. Every single one of your points is very accurate, in my opinion.

Big upvote.

I think the biggest problems with the necro rules are...

1). 30 days isn't long enough.

2). If the rules are the rules, why not automatically lock threads that fall into that rule bucket to prevent necro'ing? If you're going to just lock the thread as soon as it's resurrected without acknowledging that the resurrection falls into the context of the first rule of thread bumping, then it should just be automated to begin with.

The first rule of thread bumping reads as:

Bumping threads with content that is not providing additional information to the original post is not permitted.

That literally happens all the time and the thread gets locked anyways simply because it's been greater than 30 days since the last post.

@RealStyli 's notion of "common sense" would go a long way as it pertains to necro'ing threads.

I've never been on a forum like this

Been on hundreds since Xbox came on line and was only means to talk among your friends or discuss.
Necro topics has always been a thing and frowned upon

Even topics that have been solved or have no merit anymore but maybe the old bug appeared. No need to post on a 2 year old post to say “I’ve encounter this bug” again

Or even to simply join a topic that has already moved on from. That is madness…that like visiting an old building the use to host parties back in the 80s and nobody visits. Because the parties have moved on to better or gotten bigger.

Anyways that it. Just don’t do it and always start your original post with links to the old. You can edit your posts (another feature players can’t seem to figure out)

@burnbacon said in Rethinking the "Necro-posting" Rule for Feedback + Suggestions:

I've never been on a forum like this

Been on hundreds since Xbox came on line and was only means to talk among your friends or discuss.

Did you miss the "I" in my sentence you quoted without tagging me because you know that would draw attention and notify me? And did you miss the part where I moderated on some music tech ones?

In any case, we've moved on from that and the OP has made great points about this specific rule and why it's not productive.

Necro topics has always been a thing and frowned upon

I specifically brought up the tech issues threads, because generally on forums they are only locked once a solution is found. If a solution isn't found, they are left open unless other rules are broken.

Even topics that have been solved or have no merit anymore but maybe the old bug appeared. No need to post on a 2 year old post to say “I’ve encounter this bug” again

Going back to the OP, yes, there is a need. It keeps all relevant information in one place, rather than fragmented. You end up with users reposting the same information that had already been discussed.

Or even to simply join a topic that has already moved on from. That is madness…that like visiting an old building the use to host parties back in the 80s and nobody visits. Because the parties have moved on to better or gotten bigger.

If a discussion goes off-topic, there are already other rules that cover that. Mods can give a warning to keep on-topic. If it continues to wander off, then lock it. This is already done in threads that don't keep course.

Anyways that it. Just don’t do it and always start your original post with links to the old. You can edit your posts (another feature players can’t seem to figure out)

You CANNOT link to old posts, that is considered necroing as well. I know this because I got a slap for it before and had a post mod-edited and my links removed. I had to edit and repost the entire text again.

@mopwieldinghedgehog said in Rethinking the "Necro-posting" Rule for Feedback + Suggestions:

Tech issues is being mentioned a few times here. If we're talking troubleshooting and/or bug reports, those are best handled by filing a ticket to support. For two reasons. Firstly, when it comes to troubleshooting, it is very likely support has some proper suggestions and can quickly be alerted to something being a new or different issue. Secondly, tickets are a lot easier to track and thus makes for a better way to assess how widespread an issue/bug is and gather relevant information around it (is it for example only happening for players on a specific platform, players with a specific hardware, clips and timestamps for bugs etc).

Without input from tech support and QA, it's hard to tell if this is true. It seems to me that that crowd resourcing is far more useful to diagnosing an issue. When players can bounce ideas off each other, that leads to problems being found faster. Tickets are useful, but we're not privy to what has already been submitted as a bug.

While support may have suggestions, previous experience has shown that the playerbase often finds workarounds to issues before Rare's Support. And in some instances, Rare's suggestions are out-dated. This is not a knock on Rare, it's difficult to update support articles regularly.

As for feedback and discussions in general - these are gathered from this space and quite honestly, having the 30 day rule makes that job easier on us. The merchant threads mentioned are mentioned as being something negative due to quantity over time - to us that is clearer data than if there was just one single thread. Not just because it helps signal frequency more clearly but also because it tells us that this is relevant to people. Sometimes folks will comment in a thread just because it's there, not because it's really something that is important to them personally. If that makes sense.

I would think that's the purpose of upvotes. But it's hard to measure those when they're spread across multiple threads and the same idea is upvoted multiple times by the same people. Keeping the number of threads lower, and with upvotes limited to one-per-user, is a better indication if an idea is actually popular.

@littlelungzz591

Guy is just following the rulebook as a mod. Until the Rare team changes an ancient text of forum posting rule that's been around for years. Mods are just doing there jobs.,

I've literally never understood what the problem is with "necro-posting" tbh.

I have to wonder.
Why do people hate making new topics on a matter that may have happened years ago but prefer to comment on the age-old topic instead?
I know a lot of us don't really like starting our personal topics for reasons, but still. What's the reason behind that?

Prefer to dig up a dead body from a serial killer, and say, "Yeah, this guy killed those people and then some, and I have proof," So cops show up looking at you. "Umm, yeah, we already know. Why don't you just file a report? and will reopen the investigation."

@burnbacon said in Rethinking the "Necro-posting" Rule for Feedback + Suggestions:

I have to wonder.
Why do people hate making new topics on a matter that may have happened years ago but prefer to comment on the age-old topic instead?
I know a lot of us don't really like starting our personal topics for reasons, but still. What's the reason behind that?

The OP has covered the reasons. The same topics get made over and over. Closing them because of the necro rule leads to the same arguments being made again in each thread. They also posted a non-extensive list of many, many posts on the merchant crates.

It also leads to a situation where apathy on a topic sets in, because we've seen the same thing so many times. And it doesn't matter how much you like an idea, if it's the 100th time it's posted, you're not going to reiterate your feelings again... so those topics fade off faster each time, not because of a lack of support (they may have just as many upvotes as the first time) but because of a lack of interaction (replies).

Prefer to dig up a dead body from a serial killer, and say, "Yeah, this guy killed those people and then some, and I have proof," So cops show up looking at you. "Umm, yeah, we already know. Why don't you just file a report? and will reopen the investigation."

How is this in any way a good analogy? If the case is closed there is nothing more to add, sure, but clearly if people do have new information, they should be able to provide it to the original case regardless of timeframe, not a new one. And yes, cases get reopened when new information is found. Otherwise, you end up with duplicate case files on the same murder....

... or tying it back to reality: multiple posts on the same topic, with the same responses.