PSA: Beware of the Necro Threads

[Penthea]

Sometimes a necro is a perfectly valid thing to do if you genuinely have something to offer to the conversation, and if no more recent threads are available to post in.

But the way we are seeing necro threads happening lately is clearly blatant trolling. Most of the time the trolls don't even try to pretend they're making a genuine contribution. They just say one line that vaguely relates to the subject or a stupid joke.

I feel that this behaviour is very disruptive because:

1: Necroed threads push more recent, and therefore usually more relevant, threads down the list and even on to page 2, where most players never go. Essentially reviving these old threads for no reason other than to troll is spam that interferes with the visibility of newer threads.

2: The majority of these threads necroed by trolls are about very divisive topics that often very successfully result in players arguing with one another in new posts. Obviously the troll's intent is to take joy in watching people clash in a thread they personally revived.

I really wish the forum moderators would do something about this. If we can clearly see they are trolling, then surely they can too.

[Iscah]

I really wish the forum moderators would do something about this. If we can clearly see they are trolling, then surely they can too.

I agree - though unfortunately it seems like there are no active moderators patrolling the forum at large - or if they are, they can only act within strict guidelines. There doesn't seem to be someone with the authority to "see a pattern" and act on it (I suspect they receive reported posts in isolation), which I think is how trolls carry on here so long. It's a slow burn of posts that never individually overstep any boundaries, so they can't be modded and build up to any sort of "X strikes and you're out" state even though the cumulative effect clearly deserves it.

All we can do is report, and hope there's some threshold at which it can get alerted to someone with the ability to join those dots and do something about it.