Actually, I have no problem with your suggestion. Just pointing out that they are in many ways comparable.

What would be really nice would be for members, as part of their profile, to set up filters for how posts and threads are displayed, primarily by background shading, perhaps. For instance, if you've put someone on your Ignore list, then any post by them has a soft red background. If you've put a thread on your Do Not Respond list, then all posts in that thread show up with a soft brown background (and you could pick the color, I'm just throwing out an example). Posts that are older than some user-defined limit would have a yellow background. Similar rules could be set up for the list of threads at the forum level, too. Posts by people you follow might have a soft green background. You could order the criteria to dictate which one wins if, for instance, someone you follow posts a response in an old thread that you don't want to respond to. Or you could set multiple criteria to use yet another shading option. The rule descriptions are simple enough (most spreadsheets support something similar), take up virtually no room in the profile database, and execute efficiently as part of the database query process.

 

Back to the necroposting issue, the current safeguards only look at the date of the last post. While we wouldn't want to put up warnings of an old thread if it's been running consistently for a long period of time, I think the date of the first post should be factored in to the algorithm. If there was a break in the thread of a year, for example, then I would have a warning pop up for every new post telling the poster that the thread is old, and that someone may have necroposted.

 

What would be really nice would be for members, as part of their profile, to set up filters for how posts and threads are displayed, primarily by background shading, perhaps.

Now you're talking!
But that's all we're doing is talking. I have seen countless brilliant suggestions over the years, but they fell on deaf ears; actually, I don't think most of them fell on any ears, other than those who participated in the threads where they were suggested.
I'm a bit jaded on suggestions for improvement.

It's understandable for this forum, especially pre-orange, I know there was not a staff behind it with the time and resources to make the dreams into reality. But what really twists my nipples is Amazon's search engine. It's so dumbed down and based on predictive what-not. I cannot create custom searches. I cannot filter based on consumer reviews unless I drill down to a specific "category" which limits my results. I cannot filter by quantity of customer reviews, I cannot type exclusions, I cannot even filter out unavailable products (that Amazon knows are unavailable, because it says "currently unavailable, we don't know when this item will be in stock"). They used to have an API where you could write your own search method but they've suspended it.

What I'm describing is like an "expert mode" search for Amazon. What you're describing (and I love the idea BTW) is like an "expert mode" for forum thread display. More and more these "expert modes" are removed from all over the place, all the time. Everything is being tailored for the ever more common imbecile, who would be baffled by the kind of settings that you describe, and undoubtedly leave piles of incoherent complaints laying around on the forum.

 

Back to the necroposting issue, the current safeguards only look at the date of the last post. While we wouldn't want to put up warnings of an old thread if it's been running consistently for a long period of time, I think the date of the first post should be factored in to the algorithm. If there was a break in the thread of a year, for example, then I would have a warning pop up for every new post telling the poster that the thread is old, and that someone may have necroposted.

You say "a warning pop up for every new post," I say shade the backgrounds of old posts.
I say this because, going by your method, a prospective poster viewing a necro-thread (if they are as unobservant of time stamps as I am) would not realize they were in a necro-thread until they got to the end and were ready to type their reply.
My method alerts the prospective poster at the first glance that this is a necro-thread, and gives them a chance not waste 15min of their life on it.

 

On the topic of necroposting, i never have, and still don't understand why so many people have a problem with it. What's the big deal? Can anyone explain WHY a post over 1yr old should be locked? The forum is an eternal public record; who knows, I might come across this very thread 30yrs from now. When people google a topic and one of the results is a thread on this forum, AFAIK google doesn't search for the most current result on the forum, but the most "relevant" thread, which might be 10+y/o. Shouldn't we strive to keep our portion of the eternal record of the internet as complete and accurate as possible? If we have wrong or incomplete info that has been sitting on a shelf for 5 years left uncorrected, and someone joins the forum just to contribute to that deficiency, shouldn't we welcome it? You might argue that "the TS/OP was a one-hit wonder; he came here with one question and then never posted again. It's highky unlikely that he saw the reply and his issue is likely sorted out already, 5 years later." True, but as this is (excuse the repetition) an eternal record, it's possible that the OP/TS is not the only person to benefit from the thread in the past 5 yrs or the next 5, or 50 years. Its possible that several people have, or will, come across that thread in search of their own answers (that's likely how the necroposter came across it in the first place) and walk away with the answers which were given 5 years ago without signing up and reposting the same question, and the answers they walk away with might be totally wrong, or half-ass.

My sentiments exactly! -- I feel 'amendment of the record' should be strongly encouraged! - The concept of 'TS ownership' of threads is all well and good as regards fidelity to topic -- Beyond that, is not creation/maintenance of an accurate resource for 'posterity' the rationale of public fora? -- There is little more annoying than locating a relevant discussion only to find it 'dead ended' because the TS was (prematurely) satisfied, lost interest or otherwise 'ducked out' --- Public fora catering solely to the TS are wasted and, frankly, make no sense! My $.02

Best regards
HP

 

There are many times that I tell myself that I am not going to participate in a particular thread -- either from the first time I see it or perhaps after participating for a while. But then I see a post that I would normally respond to and I may not even realize that it is in a thread that I told myself (and perhaps even made a post in the thread to the effect) that I was not going to participate any longer. Unsubscribing from the thread might help, but I might still come across it. Plus, I might want to continue watching the thread, just not participate.

What would be nice would be if there was button where we could self-lock a thread, meaning merely that if WE try to reply to it we get a dialog telling us that we have self-locked it and requiring that we click a button to continue. Since the database already has to maintain individual lists of threads we are subscribed to, this feature would impose very little additional database overhead.

Perhaps that is something that could be recommended to XenForo.

--Emphasis added--
@WBahn

While I must confess to initially doubting the utility of such a feature -- I now, following submission of a couple of embarrassingly misplaced posts, see that it has merit! -- Especially as the 'unsubscribe' feature is sporadic at best... So... If it's a show of hands - I'm in!

Best regards
HP

 

Noob necroposting is a matter of ignorance. I did that the first day on this site...because I was a noob!

 

And I suspect that anyone with more than a few hundred posts has done it accidentally more than once. What amazes me is how many people do it despite the pop-up that now comes up (I think it still does) asking them if they are really sure they want to post to an old-old thread. Though that pop-up does seem to really cut down on the problem.