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Anti-Necrospamming

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fenixproductions:
2ewemoa
It might be just my PC but without modifications it does not work at all.

ewemoa:
One thing I noticed with Opera is that I have to wait what seems like a longer period of time than in FF to see the changes occur.  It seems to be after the fraction in the location bar (typically looks like: Elements: 44/44) is equivalent to 1 that the changes occur -- actually, it may be that it is after this fraction goes away and I see the orange feed icon.  I presume this means that the user script processing does not occur until everything in the page has been loaded (perhaps that's true for FF as well, but it happens that the DC pages in question are loading faster on my machine).

app103:
As an experiment, I put together a Greasemonkey script to change the color of the reply date string if it's been more than 180 days.
-ewemoa (March 29, 2009, 09:09 AM)
--- End quote ---

Don't forget to change the paths of the pages it is activated on, if you are using this script. (took me this long to realize it stopped working after the server move and why.  :-[)

Edvard:
TOTALLY off-the-wall idea, but I'm all for leaving threads indefinitely 'revivable' whether there's a warning or not, so this is just a mental exercise:

Instead of getting all uptight about "Thread Necromancy", make it a special event so those who have the propensity can work it out of their system.
Lock old threads except for a day or a week or two for a semi-annual (or just plain once-in-a-while) "Thread Resurrection Day/Week".
It could be similar to some forum's "Zero Reply Day" (where you pick a post with zero replies and... um... reply) except instead of encouraging everybody to pick a post with no replies, go the very earliest page in your favorite channel and browse posts until you find one that you have relevant information to contribute.
Then everybody will get the entertainment of "OMG - I totally forgot about that thread; thanks for the update!", thread necros get their jollies out and maybe it will inspire others to contribute even more new info/thoughts.

As for spammers, I'm all for a SMF mod that includes a short-barrelled shotgun loaded with rock salt.
Spam is NOT a coding snack...

Deozaan:
Well, considering the original thread and last reply were posted nearly 2 years ago (until yesterday), I think this illustrates very well why something should be done about very old threads that have been inactive for some time.

It's like having a 5 hour conversation with someone over a variety of topics when suddenly the person you're speaking with makes a reply to something you said in the first 15 minutes. Where did that come from? Haven't we moved on by now? What does that have to do with anything we've been talking about for the past 4.75 hours? (Feel free to do your own mathematical conversions of years rather than hours.)

Maybe when I wrote the original topic, I was really mad about something (such as what was then a "recent" necro-spammer trend). But now, two years later, that "trend" isn't much of a trend, so the whole conversation is pointless because it no longer reflects the current reality. Or maybe I've had a change of heart since then. Maybe I'm a completely different person now than I was then.

The point is, when someone resurrects a really old thread, and it's been so long that nobody remembers it or perhaps they are a "new" member (within the past two years since the thread was last discussed) and have never seen it before, people start jumping in like it's a fresh conversation because they don't notice the date, when really it's been dead in the water for years.

To the person doing the resurrecting, it's a bit like coming up with the perfect comeback two weeks later. They really want to say it, but they know it's no longer relevant since so much time has passed, so they don't say it. Unfortunately, because the date is so easy to miss, people often don't have the perspective of time to keep themselves from realizing that though what they have to say is perhaps completely valid and would have added to the conversation at the time, the conversation is dead and not worth bringing back up again, especially in a manner as if it never ended.

In normal conversation, the way to go back to an older topic is to first remind a person that they had it (or somehow transition the person back to that subject) and then make your point. e.g. "Hey, remember when we were talking about such-and-such? Well I've been thinking about it and. . ."

I don't know if locking topics is the correct solution. At the time it seemed like a good idea. But now that I'm two years wiser (that's debatable, I'm sure) it still seems to me there ought to be some notification to people that they're reading a really old thread, or that the new post(s) by someone else were made to a really old thread. And definitely some sort of notification when people are replying to a really old thread (even if a reply has recently been posted, IMO). Kind of like that one that says "Hey, while you were typing, someone else replied to the thread." It's all an effort to help you make sure your point is "up to date" and as relevant as possible. You can still ignore it and post it exactly as you had it, or you can read the reply and make any necessary adjustments to your response.

I guess that's all I have to say about that. For now anyway. :)

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