why no 'bumping?'

[jackson94]

What is the reason for not Bumping? If you find a thread that hasn't been posted in for a couple months, but you find it interesing, why shouldn't you be allowed to post in it?

[ImCoolBeans]

If you were allowed to bump any thread you wanted the front end of the boards would become filled with old, answered questions and the newer ones would get lost in the mix. I think two months is a pretty fair bump limit, it's even 3 months for Questions for Both Boys and Girls and there is no limit at all for the Arcade.

[Rayquaza]

Yeah, and a lot of users would just post 'bump', just to raise their post count. This isn't 4chan. Because VirtualTeen is a help site, the most recent questions are to be shown for people that need help fast, rather than as Mike said, 'get[ting] lost in the mix'

[TheMatrix]

Let's put this into terms anyone can understand.
So let's say that you are in a teen support group. You ask them a question, and they answer it promptly. But years later, someone comes up to you and says "Hey, remember that question you asked 4 years ago? Yeah, I have an answer for it."
A little awkward, no?

Now let's put that situation back into forum terms:
You ask a question on a support forum(like VirtualTeen). It gets answered promptly, and you're happy. But 4 years later, someone comes to that thread and posts the same answer you got then. And soon enough, you have lots of people who start answering the thread again, either repeating answers already said before or just posting irrelevant things.
Plus, the asker may not be interested anymore or even on the site, thereby making it an absolutely useless thread.

[Aves]

I think two months is a pretty fair bump limit, it's even 3 months for Questions for Both Boys and Girls and there is no limit at all for the Arcade.

While I agree, sometimes I feel this shouldn't be something that's set in stone. Each subforum is different. In particular Music & TV/Cinema.

[ImCoolBeans]

While I agree, sometimes I feel this shouldn't be something that's set in stone. Each subforum is different. In particular Music & TV/Cinema.

I guess that could be said about the less active subforums, while the more active ones it certainly should be put into play even more. Sections like P101, H&A, TWPR, ROTW, etc...

The only problem I see with that is that people may get the mentality like "if it's okay to do it there then why not here?". A lot of people, in fact most, don't read the rules and if they do they forget or disregard them immediately, so I could totally see letting bumping get lenient in some sections turn into users trying to bring it into others.

I could see that getting out of control pretty quickly as well; members being told that bumping is okay in a certain section so they go and post in whatever thread they want. Look at the Arcade for example, it's basically just a list of ancient threads, which may not happen in another section because of the type of content in it, but If 15 threads from '07 get pushed up to the front page of the section wouldn't that be kind of annoying? Topics that have no relevance anymore just sitting there because one person thought they would put their two cents in 5 years later?

[jackson94]

Good points, I just think a bit of discretion should be used by moderators when shutting down threads that have supposedly been "bumped" but are now active conversations that are actually interesting & informative.

[ImCoolBeans]

Good points, I just think a bit of discretion should be used by moderators when shutting down threads that have supposedly been "bumped" but are now active conversations that are actually interesting & informative.

There are no "supposed" bumps. If the last post is older than two months in any section besides Questions for Both Boys and Girls (which is 3 months) and the Arcade (no limit) then it is a bump, no questions asked. I just think it's better to follow that specific rule as it is written rather than 12 possibly different opinions. Discretion is something to be used elsewhere, for example with VMs, discretion comes into play there; a VM that is questionable but not really bad may be left to the moderators discretion. A bumped thread is pretty set in stone and there is no question about it when it's been bumped, so it is locked.

[DerBear]

Would it be possible to up the bump limit a little for the ROTW area. To stop the same debate going on all the time?

[jackson94]

For example, http://www.virtualteen.org/forums/showthread.php?t=125134 I think is a good example of a thread that died out soon, got revived a a few months later, and was once again interesting and informative. Also, the answer was yet to be 'revealed', and yet. boom, locked. gone.

There are no "supposed" bumps.

I think that is where you go wrong. Sure, given the rules, ANYTHING over a certain amount of time is a 'bump', and yet really they're not. Bumps are "to post a reply to it purely in order to raise the thread's profile" - Wikipedia (lol). I don't think that every single comment past 3 months is purely to raise it's profile.
Anyway, I guess I just disagree, which I hope I am allowed to do. Thought I'd share.

Please don't double post, just hit the edit button ~ ImCoolBeans

[StoppingTime]

Then just re-ask the question if you really want to.
Sometimes, the member will be inactive, so answering his question would be pointless.


And of course you can disagree with mods!

[ImCoolBeans]

For example, http://www.virtualteen.org/forums/showthread.php?t=125134 I think is a good example of a thread that died out soon, got revived a a few months later, and was once again interesting and informative. Also, the answer was yet to be 'revealed', and yet. boom, locked. gone.



I think that is where you go wrong. Sure, given the rules, ANYTHING over a certain amount of time is a 'bump', and yet really they're not. Bumps are "to post a reply to it purely in order to raise the thread's profile" - Wikipedia (lol). I don't think that every single comment past 3 months is purely to raise it's profile.
Anyway, I guess I just disagree, which I hope I am allowed to do. Thought I'd share.

Please don't double post, just hit the edit button ~ ImCoolBeans

The term 'bump' is used in the sense in which it is used here on many forums, which I have seen. If bumped posts were to be left up to moderator discretion, don't you think people would begin to argue/disagree over which posts should or should not be locked, or rather which should be left open? Discretion is something that will not exactly work for this rule, and that's what we stick to it as it is written.