I’d like to have one thread where this age old debate about the discipline concerning bumping topics can be settled once and for all. I’ve never seen it as an overly complicated issue, but upon doing a few searches it’s evident that a lot of you don’t get it.
Okay, verbatim from the rules: If you break these rules, you'll earn an instant ban, regardless of which moderator sees the post(s). ~ Bumping any old topic without a good reason and new information.
This holds. But what, pray tell, does it mean?
Seems pretty self explanatory, doesn’t it?
I think the main problem is people aren’t sure what constitutes a super-long bump or what constitutes a basic overnight bump. I shall attempt to define them and give examples of good and bad ones. These opinions are my own, so if any of the mod team wants to add to or dispute them, go ahead, although I’m fairly confident that the feelings are mutual since the concepts are pretty obvious. Anyway, this is part where you confused users pay rapt attention:
The two different kinds of bumps
Self promotional bumps: This is where you bump your own thread after X amount of time in order to have more people see it. Generally your X should be at least a few hours after the last post AND after the topic has dropped off the first page of the forum. If you keep your bump message unspammy and coherent, the likelihood of a ban is practically nil. I’d say if after three tries and your thread is not faring well, it’s time to give up or risk catching a mod’s eye for constant bumping.
> Bumping your own topic with bump messages every ten minutes or so will likely warrant a ban.
> Posting legit responses to your own thread is not really considered blatant bumping. Obviously, the normal rules still apply.
> Constant promotion of a successful thread can get very annoying. If you have a lot of pages allow the topic’s momentum to keep it alive. Otherwise, let it die. Stick with responding or adding new information if you’d like to see the topic moved up again. Beware though: it’s not too hard to detect someone who’s “responding” just to bump the topic.
The ‘Old Thread’ Bump: This is where you post in a topic where the last post was… a while ago. And this is where most of our confusion and complains arise from. I usually consider a thread to be stale if it’s past its lockability duration; namely, seven days. A month is getting fairly old, a year is very dusty and anything more than that is ancient.
But none of that matters at all.
When I ban people for bring back a topic from ’02, it’s because they posted something like “o yea me too”. Or they quoted the Original Poster (OP) and said “pwned!” or “well sure you think that now but wait til youre older.”
It all comes back to the simple statement from the Rules.
If what you post adds to the topic, there’s no reason to get banned for it.
HOWEVER, you have to be aware that it’s often hard to actually add anything to topics that are old, simply because the topic has moved on. The best kind of topics to bump without worrying about this issue are simple ones. Here’s an example of a two month revival that I was responsible for: http://newgrounds.co../topic.php?id=234064
IF you are unsure, include a DISCLAIMER. It’s not too hard. Say something like, “hey, I’m not sure if I should be bumping this but I think that this topic should be revived because ________”
If one of us are trying to find the punk who bumped the three-year-old-all-caps-title thread, and we come across a post that shows you acknowledge the age and that you’re aware of what you’re doing and why and such, EVEN if the bump wasn’t warranted we’re a lot less likely to clock you with the ban stick. Because a post with a disclaimer as such shows responsibility and maturity. People make mistakes, yo.
There’s always the issue where you’d like to have a topic discussed without the majority of people seeing the old first post. If that’s your reasoning, in the new topic you should include a link to the old one(s) and stick one of those handy disclaimers in your post which acknowledges the existence of the old threads and states your reasons as to why you felt a new topic was needed. Unless you’re obviously being a jerk about it, there’s no way that that would land you a ban.
Another point: if a mod locks a topic with a link to the proper thread, or a link to the proper thread is present in a locked topic, chances are it is safe to bump said linked topic. To completely avoid misunderstandings, upon bumping said linked topic say something like “Zerok linked this topic, so I’ll just post what I said in the other one here:” That way the ownership is on the mod.
I think that’s about it.
Recap:
SAFE TO BUMP WHEN
> It is your own topic and it’s been over an hour or so AND the topic has fallen off the front page.
> The thread was linked by a mod.
> You are adding something new to conversation (include DISCLAIMER to ensure maximum safety).
> Remember, the age of the thread is for the most part irrelevant. Use common sense.
Pretty much anything else is AT YOUR OWN RISK.
The best advice I can give those who are serious befuddled by the whole thing is to include those DISCLAIMERS. Same goes for any rule you’re unsure of.