Opinions #2 - Unnecessary Forum Bumps [The Return] · 5:46pm Apr 11th, 2016
Opinions #2 - Unnecessary Forum Bumps
My stance on this is basically explained in the title. Forum bumps in general seem unnecessary. I think the only time they've been actually necessary was with the Shameless Self-Promotion Bureau's dealings with the (SFW) Foalcon group. Let's not go there and say we did. But I digress, let's talk about the reasons as to why bumps are mostly unnecessary:
1. It is considered spam.
That's right. Let's bother people into leaving the group you're shamelessly bumping in by spamming "bump" because we're still stuck in the past. That was totally as fun as it was back then as it is now.
2. It does not add to the discussion.
Bumping your post does not add anything to your discussion. If the thread is not getting any hits, then that means the topic simply...
A. Isn't worth discussing. If you're going to talk about Donald Trump's favorite type of turnip, chances are people are going to either tilt their heads in confusion or pass it off as a mistake.
B. No one understands it. Let's take Trump's favorite turnip and add three cats fighting over a can of tuna. No one understands the correlation and therefore makes whatever this thing we're discussing more pointless than a married couple fighting in a grocery store isle about what brand of soup they should buy.
C. The post has already been answered better than any of the other future posters could. If someone gives a giant post in response to a three word question, chances are no one is going to respond because they felt outplayed by the poster who wrote an essay about the subject.
D. All of the above. If you somehow get all three of these in one post, chances are you made a giant mistake that will smell for all eternity.
As a result of the unnecessary bumps, the thread turns into a land full of despair, upset stomachs, and unfortunate mishaps. So please, for the sake of all forum browsers, don't post unnecessary bumps. If anything, just let the thread take its course. If you're that desperate for attention, chances are that the forum post is not attractive, worthy of discussion, or simply unapproachable due to someone responding to the post better than anyone else can. Oh, and if you're posting the unnecessary bump to celebrate an achievement, don't blame anyone else for the downvotes on the thread. Achievements go in blogs or twitter posts; not in a forum thread that people will view and go, "Why should I care?"
Inb4 someone says, "Just use the hide feature, Soaring," which, in my response, doesn't work all too well. I'm stuck with a feature that doesn't filter all the threads.
So, let's hear everyone's thoughts on this not-so-big topic. Bump or dump?
That sounded so much better in my head.
-Soaring
Oh, and for people who have fan groups, showing off accomplishments should be okay. Just don't go promoting said accomplishments in forums that will glare at you for trying to flaunt said accomplishment.
Besides, fan clubs are fun. Right?
...
Right?
Yeah, bumping threads pointlessly sucks, especially when it's necroing a long dead thread. I've seen a thread that was dead for over 170 weeks and then got necroed. It's like... why?
3863431
This happens a lot in groups like Human in Equestria, The Writer's Group, and Shipping, but it's usually well-controlled (except in Shipping) so when someone taps into a 173w old thread, chances are it gets locked or at least the person is warned not to necro again.
3863597 it's like beating a dead horse. What's the point? the horse is already dead, deal with it and move on to something else.
Also, are you feeling lonely? i mean, you are pointing out an topic that many choose to simply ignore instead of bothering with it, even though it's very annoying when people act like that.
3863609
Nah, I'm not lonely. And yeah, most people don't bat an eye to it because they weren't an admin of a huge group for so long.
3863617 so, you're talking about this topic because as an admin of specific group, you have to deal with this bs?
3863649
Had*. I am still in a few groups though for admining, but they are not as intensive as TWG was. This is kind of like an advice thing for admins who hope for their groups to be big that there usually is a lot of policing involved. And this is one of the many problems they have to deal with.
3863690 then just have then lock up the topics after certain weeks of inactivity. 20 - 50 weeks of inactivity within the topic should be more than enough to lock it up.
3863723
Thus, the reason for the post comes to light; admins need to focus more on locking topics instead of letting them stay with the possibility of mass feed spam.
3863723
3863431
3863774
What's funny is that this spamming business not only happens with old threads being necro'd to oblivion.
Let's take the case study of:
i.gyazo.com/7c9c7e436cf2b05c4fe8ac55b1e84569.png
This is an even more problematic case, where the person has spammed every day a new post for the purpose of recognizing their group as number one on the groups list. I think this is deliberate spamming to gain promotion on the group, and it is very well abusing the forum he or she is in. (Identity is marked out.)
So yeah, current bumpers are desperate for attention.
3863789 self-promotion is a sign of weakness and insecurity.
3863796
Self-promotion isn't bad, that is, until it is abused. There's a certain limit to self-promotion.
Thankfully, I don't self-promote in groups anymore. I just toss stories in them.
3863800 I never did self-promotion when i was writing, i let my readers promote the stories. A shame all of them are back at the writing board, but i'll most likely return them back when i feel like they're fully written, so that i don't have to write more chapters each week.
Returning to the subject at hand, these 'insecure self-promoters and attention seekers' are a general nuisance, no matter what place you look. You can certainly find them everywhere, throwing their opinions and favorite things around and shamelessly throwing them around for more publicity, even if they go heavily against what others believe and are disliked because of these behaviors.
A simplest action is simply to.. remove, these offenders, from their respective groups and delete the self-promotion blogs made within them by these offenders. The cleaner the group, the prouder the members.
3863796
3863800
There's nothing wrong with a little shameless self-promotion every once in a while. Just make sure you're somewhere that is fine with it, like the group I run, and that it's kept within reasonable limits...
--Sweetie Belle
3864771
Just letting you know that the case study image is from your group. >_<
3864785
I thought I remembered seeing that...
--Sweetie Belle
3864798
Here's the thread.
Also, ironically, it's by the same user that was just permanently banned in TWG.
3864799
He is one of the ones I always have to watch threads from, 'cause they get locked a lot. I doubt I'll have to worry about Foalcon threads there nearly as much any more, though: Flutterpony's gotten a site ban...
--Sweetie Belle
3864804
Was Flutterpony permanently banned?
3864807
Well, he was banned almost three weeks ago and they don't normally do bans beyond a week that aren't permabans. I heard he was talking with the site admins, but I don't know if he'll get anywhere with that.
--Sweetie Belle
3863789
Wow! What an easily abusable system!
No seriously, wow.
3864845
That example thread's now locked...
--Sweetie Belle
3864856
Just saying if that can happen to one thread, then it can happen to other threads. The faster they're locked, the better off groups will be. It's repeatable, which makes it abusable.
mad rhymes
3864881 like i said, cleaner the group, prouder the members.