This is a thought I had mostly to do with Lemmy but I feel likes it’s relevant elsewhere in Fediverse.

As far as I know Lemmy doesn’t lock posts after a set amount of time like Reddit does and I feel like this is a good thing for smaller niche communities. For example if I created one for a one off video game or cancelled TV show it could be hard to generate new content to post to really help it take off. It would be nice to see people engaging with old posts when they stumble across a community and subscribe to it.

I feel like I haven’t see it a ton yet but I hope it’s a way Lemmy and the Fediverse can be different from sites like Reddit.

  • The Picard Maneuver
    link
    fedilink
    English
    6611 months ago

    I’ve noticed that some people do use other filters than “Hot” or they scroll back in smaller communities, because I’ll occasionally get comment replies to posts I made months ago. It’s cool to see.

  • @[email protected]
    link
    fedilink
    English
    3611 months ago

    Let’s all agree right now that we’re not going to be a community that necro-shames.

    EDIT: JUST TO BE CLEAR I MEAN MAKING PEOPLE FEEL BAD FOR POSTING IN OLD THREADS AND ONLY THAT ONE USAGE OF THE TERM

  • @amanaftermidnight
    link
    English
    2811 months ago

    We don’t know how the fediverse would play out in the long term but I expect a few things:

    • Lemmy devs will implement locking old posts in the future
    • instance owners will decide on their post locking policies
    • Many instances will not survive for as long as Reddit survived till today
    • Third party archivers (perhaps archive.org among others) will need to step in and archive posts. Ofc archived posts is not interactible.
    • CorrodedOP
      link
      fedilink
      English
      611 months ago

      I agree with your points. Especially the third one. I do hope a majority of instances op-out of locking posts but I could see large instances like lemmy.world definitely jumping to do it and focus more on new content and expansion

    • @gibmiser
      link
      English
      4211 months ago

      flashbacks to single word “bump” posts

      • Mac
        link
        fedilink
        English
        711 months ago

        Active is a combination of that and hot but is essentially hard capped at 2 days. Things past that wont show up

        Theres the new comments sort which works like that though

    • @AbouBenAdhem
      link
      English
      2111 months ago

      There’s a “sort [posts] by new comments” option.

      • @webjukebox
        link
        English
        511 months ago

        To me, this option works much better than “Active”, “Hot” and others.

    • @gedaliyah
      link
      English
      211 months ago

      There is also the option to sort by “active,” which is not exactly what you are describing but makes it more likely to see older content. Some apps default to this sorting mode

  • finthechat
    link
    fedilink
    1911 months ago

    This is the way it should be.

    I’ve never understood the people who get upset over ‘necroing’ a thread, whether it is on an old school forum or something formatted like Reddit.

    • CorrodedOP
      link
      fedilink
      English
      4
      edit-2
      11 months ago

      I think it necroing posts on Reddit makes sense. There’s a lot of very specific posts that can vary slightly from each other but I find with forums you can get a general post for a topic that has 30+ pages of responses and it can be a bit of a pain to comb through all of them at times. In my experience I see a lot of people linking to other comments in the forum because something has already been brought up a few times.

      This is basically what @[email protected] said about beating a dead horse but I feel like it’s slightly more tolerable with a Reddit style system where there’s more posts with at least minor differences. It’s a bit easier to follow.

      This could also just be the forums that I have used shaping my opinion

    • @[email protected]
      link
      fedilink
      English
      411 months ago

      Maybe something similar to do with ‘beating a dead horse’

      the problem/issue was (potentially) already discussed, and renewing the issue is tiresome for the regulars who see it repetitively brought up? This is just my guess.

      • @[email protected]
        link
        fedilink
        English
        611 months ago

        If it is about a problem they had and the thread didn’t have an answer, then they should be obliged to necro if they found a solution.

      • finthechat
        link
        fedilink
        611 months ago

        For technical discussion, sure. I’ll be one of the first people to say look at the sticky, look at the pins, look at the megathread, read the FAQ, read the wiki.

        For purely social discussion like casual chat, entertainment discussion, or random musings, I would say it doesn’t make sense.

  • 👍Maximum Derek👍
    link
    fedilink
    English
    1611 months ago

    One thing standing in the way of this is the inability to move identities in Lemmy/Kbin. This is my 3rd time with a “Maximum Derek” user in the Threadiverse; my first was on Kbin back in June when it was really struggling, then I went to a Lemmy instance that just disappeared one day. If you try to engage with any of my posts I made while on those servers, I’ll never know it.

    • @webjukebox
      link
      English
      811 months ago

      I miss the old OpenID way.

      We need a very, very simple ID server that everybody should be able to install, even as an app for smartphones and ActivityPub (and others) able to communicate to.

    • pruwyben
      link
      fedilink
      English
      311 months ago

      I hope this one works better! I signed up at tchncs when I started Lemmy, and it seems like I chose well :)

    • @iopq
      link
      English
      311 months ago

      I guess self hosting is the only sure way

      • 👍Maximum Derek👍
        link
        fedilink
        English
        111 months ago

        I did a rewatch right before the holidays. Probably the 5th time I’ve watched through the series and I’m still catching new stuff. So good.

  • @[email protected]
    link
    fedilink
    English
    1611 months ago

    Oddly enough, just last week I got a reddit notification that someone had replied to a comment I made… 11 years ago.

    • Sabata11792
      link
      fedilink
      511 months ago

      I got gold off a door pun once, 2 years later. Had a hand full of 3-4 year old comments get a reply. BUT 11 DAMN YEARS?

  • @Papanca
    link
    English
    1511 months ago

    I’ve had it happen that i joined a community and commented in some interesting thread and only then noticed that it was 3 or even 6 months old

  • Maxnmy's
    link
    English
    1511 months ago

    Perfectly fine in my opinion. It isn’t like oldschool forums where a reply bumps a thread to page 1.

  • Rentlar
    link
    fedilink
    English
    1411 months ago

    I’ve seen comments and replies on my posts, that came weeks or months after I made them. I’ll respond to them if they are anything more than “Haha yeah that’s cool!”

    There has to be more to add to the conversation, otherwise it will be like posting a 3 year old article to the news community.

    I definitely encourage people not to be shy to post and comment on stale communities that haven’t seen recent activity, that can get the ball rolling to revive it.

  • @[email protected]
    link
    fedilink
    English
    1311 months ago

    Hm I always avoid replying to anything older than, say, 2 days because I assume it’s pointless and/or it annoys people

    • @ripcord
      link
      English
      2611 months ago

      I definitely wouldn’t find it annoying.

    • @Land_Strider
      link
      English
      1611 months ago

      Pointless part I can understand, but annoying? What’s more, it should prove what you make effort to post can still get engagement over time, and not scattered to winds.

    • @[email protected]
      link
      fedilink
      English
      911 months ago

      I work with a product enjoying a 27 year support window.

      That’s WAY more than 2 days.

    • @samus12345
      link
      English
      311 months ago

      Same, old habit from reddit, probably because it’s so huge it was hard to get seen when something was an hour old, much less a day. I probably shouldn’t do that here.

    • @[email protected]
      link
      fedilink
      English
      211 months ago

      Depends on the content and context. Some older post, even years old, might totally okay for discussion. Just like those traditional forums with years of ongoing threads.

  • @MaximilianKohler
    link
    English
    1311 months ago

    It will definitely start to happen more as more forums start to join the fediverse (discourse for Eg).

      • @MaximilianKohler
        link
        English
        111 months ago

        Forms vary with those types of rules. I absolutely hate the ones that are autolocking after a few days/months.

  • originalucifer
    link
    fedilink
    1011 months ago

    ive been runnin kbin for > 6 months… its kind of neat how i get comments from months ago from some new instance that just spun up somewhere, or some newer user commenting on older stuff out there in the ether.

    youre right though, gotta stick with your account once you have it… its like email. very targeted.