Enforce the necro policy please!!

[Argel he/him]

I haven't visited here in a while and regret that I did now because of the bazillion threads a new member necro'd. I think every thread I looked at in Cosmere Theories was necro'd by the same user. I saw one or two comments about necro'ing, but no clear warnings and lots of responses. The only acceptable response to a necro'd thread should be a warning explaining not to do it. Note: I don't care about necro'ing say a 6 month old post -- but a year plus, to several years -- this needs to be enforced better somehow. Maybe not allow new accounts to reply to posts more than a year old? Do-able? 

The occasional necro doesn't bother me, but every single thread I look at (5+) in a forum?! That's a problem. 

[Chaos he/him]

This is the topic necroing policy. It is not the same as other forums you might frequent.

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On that same note, don't bring back topics that have been dead forever. This is called thread necromancy (or simply "necroing"). If after a long time you post something new in a topic--one whose discussion has long since ended--that would be thread necroing. We're going to be more lenient about this on the Brandon Sanderson forums, because if you have something to add in the "Mistborn Movie Casting" topic and there hasn't been a post there in a great while, why shouldn't you? You're adding something to the discussion, that's fantastic! A lot of the Books forums will have theory threads, and if you have something to add to them which just perfectly fits the topic, better to revive a dead thread, right?

Thread necroing is only bad in a case like this: let's say Mi'chelle and Josh post in General Discussion saying "We're married!" in a few months. Members will congratulate them, but what you don't want to do is post three months later a congratulation. The sentiment's nice, but at the same time, the news is outdated. Your post is itself outdated, which means it didn't really need to be said. It was superfluous and there was no need for you to post it. Does that make sense? That's why most forums hate thread necromancy, because it's superfluous posting. Essentially, spamming.

As such, there is nothing inherently wrong with topic necromancy. You might feel differently. You might feel that people should make a new topic instead. Generally though for book discussion I tend to feel that if it relates to the topic and adds to it, I don't really mind. 

In some cases, heavy moderation can be good. In some cases, heavy moderation is bad. On this, I'm pretty relaxed. But let's be real here: this is not really a big problem. 

I do see the person doing this and I will probably talk to them. However, philosophically, I feel there really isn't anything wrong with people adding to older discussions. They should be adding and contributing positively, for sure, and not just say things that are already pretty clear. But inherently, there is not anything wrong with this.

In the future, you can Report it! It helps us identify these things and we can take it from there. 

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The occasional necro doesn't bother me, but every single thread I look at (5+) in a forum?! That's a problem. 

Let's be real: this is an exaggeration in Cosmere Theories. Most are posted this year, some are posted from 2016 and generally seem pretty relevant to people's interest in Stormlight, and there's one from 2013 that I would say is a pretty bad necro. You're vastly overstating matters.

Additionally, there's always a lull in Cosmere Theories between big books. Obviously. 

Should you like to sort by new topics, you can sort any forum by using the "Sort By" feature on the upper right of the forum list to find results you will find more interesting to you. There are a wide variety of filters you can do. You can sort by recently posted topics if you wish, and do custom filters as well. It is possible that you have different preferences on what to read than others.

It is important that we are welcoming to individuals coming back due to Oathbringer hype who might be contributing to some older topics. If it's relevant, I think that's fine. If it isn't a relevant addition, that's not fine and members can report that. 

But as you can see by the first paragraph in our topic necroing policy, we are applying it exactly as it says. If you're contributing, you can go revive a dead book discussion topic. 

[Kaymyth she/her]

My two cents:

I vastly prefer a good, relevant thread necro to the forums getting cluttered up by a zillion people asking the same question every eleven-and-a-half weeks on the dot like clockwork...

[Darkness Ascendant he/him]

I'm just here for them necropheels

[KidWayne he/him]

Yeah, I often wonder about whether to add new thoughts on a hot topic (e.g. the identity/nature of Trell) to an old thread on the topic or whether to start a new one. On one hand, I don't want to lose the previous conversation on the topic, but on the other I want to restart the conversation with new thoughts or new information (in which case making a new thread seems more desirable).

What would you recommend @Chaos?