Since I was the guy who posted the joke image in response to your necropost, I probably owe you at least something of an explanation. Whether or not necroposting is considered acceptable or not, is not at all consistent from forum to forum. It's entirely dependent upon the philosophy and preferences of the forum management, and to some extent, the members. So any answer you get in this thread is really only going to be applicable to this particular forum.Weetabix wrote:It seems to me that the "purpose" of a forum is for discussion more than as a searchable repository of facts. I come here to visit with a small group of guys whose thought processes and opinions I respect. For me, it's a place to chat and to bounce ideas or to listen in on discussions of interest.
In some places it will get you roundly chastised, and in others (like the Gun Counter) it is somewhat expected and even encouraged. I think a lot of it has to do with the admin's goals and philosophy for the forum. If the admin is mostly running the forum to generate ad revenue, or to a lesser extent, create an echo chamber to stroke his own ego, he's not going to place as much value on the previous discussions. For one, they don't generate as much interest (hits) as newer topics, and necro-posting them forces newer, more active topics out of view more quickly. Having people hash and re-hash the same information time and again ultimately generates more site traffic and hits that allow higher advertising rates. And in some cases necroposts can draw attention to how the admin has contradicted his (which is inevitable over time as minds change, and opinions evolve or are overtaken by events) previous posts. That's undesirable if said admin has a lot of ego invested in portraying an infallible guru persona.
In a place like this? Well, this forum "started" 4 years ago when the previous one was ending, and the current management didn't want to see the community that had grown up, come to an end because of a petty whim of the previous host. So, here we are. Since there are no ads, and the forum is funded primarily out of pocket, maximizing hits or traffic isn't really the priority, beyond wanting to have an active forum that the members find stimulating and enjoyable. Clearly, a lot of value is placed upon meaningful discussion, so a natural consequence is going to be that older, inactive threads will still be highly valued even if nobody is currently posting in them. Therefore, it's to be expected that when a member wants to bring a topic back up that has been previously covered, bringing back the pertinent thread itself will be encouraged. And thanks to the extremely high continuity of membership at TGC, we can usually pick right back up where we left off, even if it's been a couple years or more since the thread was last active.
That's one of the reasons why despite not being a huge, high traffic site like arfcom or THR, this is still one of the best, most useful general interest firearms forums on the net. We get to hang out with people that we (usually) enjoy hanging out with, while knowing that the people running the place value us and what we create, and not because we represent a source of income, or as followers marching in lock-step with them.
