Bumping your own thread

Hi,

I wasn't sure where to post this and this forum seemed the most non-threatening for a fairly new user to make a comment. My comment is on bumping your own thread hoping to get more attention.

It's not uncommon to see forum members, usually new members, reply to their own thread to bump it up the list. This happens mostly when their question is about to float away into forum history without a single reply. They get scolded and their reputation goes into the red creating a bad start at Dev Shed. I searched the Dev Shed forums to see if anyone has gone into depth as to why this is wrong but I didn't find much information.

I think if they knew why it's stupid to bump their own thread they might not do it.

I thought about my very short time at Dev Shed and how I usually look at questions posted by people searching for help. The three reasons I don't reply to a thread with 0 replies are the following:
1. I don't know how to do whatever it is they are asking.
2. I don't understand their question or sloppy code.
3. They copy/pasted their entire project and I don't have time to peruse hundreds of lines of irrelevant code.

I think those reasons are universal so their post gets 0 replies and starts floating down the list. The new user then thinks their question might get some more attention if they reply to it with something like…Now the thread is at the top of the list again but the situation is the same: either no one knows how to help; no one understand their sloppy question; or their post is just a copy/paste scenario in which the user didn't even try to troubleshoot it themselves.

Note: Rules on how to make a question are all too common. I'm focusing on why they should not bump their poorly made question.

Notice the reasons are the same because the post is the same, except for the little "Please help…" reply. If their question gets absolutely no replies, I suggest the poster to review their question and code to make it more specific. They can even try again a day later or something with a new and improved question.

Another reason not to reply to your own thread is because many people, myself included, look for posts with 0 replies. If it has at least one reply I usually assume someone is already helping them. Only after I look for threads with 0 replies do I look for threads that interest me. This reason is not included in the aforementioned list because it's something I do before opening the thread.

Just thought I should post this out there…



Edit: I added the red text and changed two "his" to "their". Gotta be politically correct.

I vote for adding this post to rules threads around the forum.

I also appreciate your thought. In some forums it isn't a problem to bump threads. So when people start new here from other forums they usually aren't aware of such things. The primary reason being that they don't read the directions.

I'd almost like to see a brief listing of forum rules added to the registration process. Like quick big bullet points. Completing the registration process means you've read and understood these rules and breaking them means that instead of getting your rep knocked down into the red you get those nice 1 point warnings. That's got to be more effective than taking away reputation points that are a toy anyhow and they get an official warning from the mods/admins explaining what they did wrong.

Oh while we're at it. Is there an official warning for failing to make the attempt to use correct English?

We generally PM people, or "alert" them in that case ( an "alert" is like a warning, it's just not flagged on the user's public profile ).

It works pretty well by itself - if people post in text speak, they're generally told off by someone ( usually not a mod ), or they realise that other people post properly and stop doing it all by themselves.

Same thing for thread bumping - if it's obnoxious, then report it to a mod and we'll deal with it appropriately. IMO the best thing, as tumana mentioned, is that the thread usually gets ignored. Note that it's perfectly okay to bump a thread by adding more information.

& if the user can't be arsed reading the forum rules, or looking at seeing how other people post, then they're not going to bother following the rules anyway.

--Simon

Awesome! That's what I was hoping for. I understand it wouldn't completely stop the problem of bumping your own threads but there would be a reason for not doing it. Plus, it's now in writing.

Thanks for the agrees. Very much appreciated and needed at this low of a level.