oldfart
Older than dirt
I've bumped one old thread to bring it back to the top again. There are a few comments I'll make about the process and then I'd like to ask for your opinions on the process.
1. In the normal course of time most threads peter out. The most common reason is that two or three posters get into a flame war and everyone else bails, killing the thread. So most of the threads worthy of bringing back have really messy endings, and reading them from start to finish is tedious and depressing. You find there was a good reason the thread died.
For this reason, I recommend when reading a bumped thread that when you reach the point the thread goes downhill fast, you jump to the end. There is no way to "cut out" the boring food fight in the middle, but watching the dates it should be pretty easy to determine a cutoff, skip the food fight, and resume the discussion with new posts.
Is there any good way to warn other posters that this is happening? I see no way of putting an explanation at the top of a thread, so maybe the best thing is to encourage people to read the OP and the last two or three posts first. Any thoughts?
2. The reason for bumping some of the better old threads is two-fold. First it avoids a lot of duplication that would occur with a brand new thread. Second, we seem to be creating good new threads at a reduced pace, and to keep a forum viable we need vibrant discussions and new material. I think bumping can provide that. If a bumped thread fizzles, I don't see much harm. Old threads never die anyway.
Now some forums, like current events or politics, don't seem to me to conducive to good results from bumping. But the economy or education seem to me to be different. There are topics and themes that should recur. And seeing how our predictions and arguments faired in light of subsequent events can be both enlightening and embarrassing.
So what say you? Anyone else have some old threads worth resurrecting?
1. In the normal course of time most threads peter out. The most common reason is that two or three posters get into a flame war and everyone else bails, killing the thread. So most of the threads worthy of bringing back have really messy endings, and reading them from start to finish is tedious and depressing. You find there was a good reason the thread died.
For this reason, I recommend when reading a bumped thread that when you reach the point the thread goes downhill fast, you jump to the end. There is no way to "cut out" the boring food fight in the middle, but watching the dates it should be pretty easy to determine a cutoff, skip the food fight, and resume the discussion with new posts.
Is there any good way to warn other posters that this is happening? I see no way of putting an explanation at the top of a thread, so maybe the best thing is to encourage people to read the OP and the last two or three posts first. Any thoughts?
2. The reason for bumping some of the better old threads is two-fold. First it avoids a lot of duplication that would occur with a brand new thread. Second, we seem to be creating good new threads at a reduced pace, and to keep a forum viable we need vibrant discussions and new material. I think bumping can provide that. If a bumped thread fizzles, I don't see much harm. Old threads never die anyway.
Now some forums, like current events or politics, don't seem to me to conducive to good results from bumping. But the economy or education seem to me to be different. There are topics and themes that should recur. And seeing how our predictions and arguments faired in light of subsequent events can be both enlightening and embarrassing.
So what say you? Anyone else have some old threads worth resurrecting?
