Can we get Automatic Necro Warnings?

I just typed up a nice response to a thread, then, just as I was about to hit Post - I took a close look at the last post and noticed it was two months old. SB and SV both have an automated warning that shows up beneath the reply box on any thread that's over two weeks inactive, even though SV doesn't even have an anti-necro rule. Can we get that here?

 

It's a reasonable suggestion, since there is a one month anti-necro rule on this forum. I wouldn't be opposed to seeing that same auto-warning here.

 

Question, do we even need the anti-necro rule still? If I remember right when it was put in place we didn't have OP alerts that let us know when the OP specifically was posting an update, so the reasoning was it got people's hopes up that the thread was being updated. Now we do though, so if people see some random person posted in the thread without an OP alert then there is no reason for them to think it is important.

Also while I don't know how doable this is, being able to select to ONLY receive OP alerts when you go to watch a thread would be nice- sometimes people want to read the updates, but not get notified every time someone posts in the thread. Just bringing it up here since I'm thinking of it, but don't feel it is distinct enough to deserve it's own thread.

 

That's available as a site-wide setting (under "alert preferences"); but I don't believe it's currently available as a per-thread option, which is what I think you're asking for. Which would definitely be worthy of its own thread, but I would check for an existing one before starting one.

 

I read most of the comments in thread because sometimes they are generally insightful and add context to parts of a story I didn't understand. And on that note, not everyone can remember when a thread was last posted in. A thread can gain momentum back if people start up a conversation again, which can bring an author back to the story. But it's hard to tell between that and just someone posting "When is this being updated?"

So yes, having a Necro alert would be handy.

 

Just install this

https://xenforo.com/community/resources/tpu-show-warning-when-bumping-old-threads.3913/

 

No one needs this unless they're stupid. Check your alerts. Was it the OP that necro'd? If no, then it's not an update.

If you don't have the thread on watch, then you're just asking for extra features because of laziness on a story you didn't even hour on your alerts.

 

Again, not everyone keeps track of how old a thread is. On top of that, my alerts are spotty at the best of times, Sometimes I miss several whole pages of discussion and there's only one alert in my inbox, sometimes it doesn't even track the OP's posts reliably, missing several if they post in quick succession.

But more on topic, this would help people who can't see very well (yo) more quickly realize that a thread is dormant. I know I've had to erase a few posts myself because I mistook 2017 for 2018. It's really easy to lose individual numbers when you're hard of vision and your preferred style is blackened (etc) color. The light grey on slightly darker grey isn't exactly easy to differentiate and it's easy to lose track of the date during post. Having a nice, bold, friendly reminder that a thread is dormant would probably cut down on the number of people that necro threads as well, which means less time mods have to spend checking these and warning necromancers.

 

There is a functional difference: the warning show above the reply box on every page, whereas the date of the last post is only visible on the last page. So it prevents you from starting to type a reply while you;re catching up only to arrive at the end and discover that the thread is dead.

What are you talking about? The purpose of the warning box is to tell you when you are about to necro a thread. It has nothing to do with alerts or the OP.

 

Yeah. I got confused and mixed the issue with a different complaint.

My bad.