topic bump

[Silberio]

hey, whats the time a tpic should be inactive (did i spell right?) to be bumped?

i mean, does a topic thats been 2 months so it can be bumped by a post.

hope ya understand me guys....

[Gerard]

It depends on the topic.

If it is a small topic that has been answered, then an extra reply a few weeks later isn't going to be useful - especially if it just says the same things that have already been said.

If it is a big long topic that has been going on for ages, but nobody's posted in it in a couple of weeks, it should be okay to revive it.

Here's a rule of thumb: if your reply is going to be useful for people to read, then you can post it.

[Wheelman101]

ok about that^ what if the topic is on the 1st page but its 1/3 weeks old and nobody answered it? because i read somewhere from chris, he said if the topic is on the first page its not bumping, but is that true?

[tilly]

1/3 weeks is only like 2 days.

[Jared]

Try to keep bumping to a minimum in normal topics, pinned topics are excluded obviously. Bumping topics more then a month old is a little over the top, but below that it's usually fine. All depends on the post your making though too.

[Pandora]

Things like the big community thread can be bumped.

Normally, try to stick to the first page. And withing 2 weeks should be fine.

This is NOT the case for help topics in the GTA forum. Cause usually they only get left alone when the problem has been already been solved.

Hope that that made it clear

[Chris]

The point of bumping is too bring a topic back to the front page of a forum and at the top of the list of topics, this makes it more noticeable a more open for additional replies. This fine with topics which are asking for help or are particularly useful, not so if it's for something trivial, like "what is your favourite colour" - the reason why that topic is a few pages back is because nobody cares.

Anything on the first page of a forum is fine really. Especially when it's for older stuff, such as GTA Advance, and GTA Classics, they're so underused that all the topics are on the front page anyway, thus no bumping can take place there as it makes no difference apart from moving it up a few places in the topic list.

If the topic is more than a few weeks old, ask yourself the following questions:

1. Is this topic actually useful to other people?

2. Is my reply contributing to the thread in a positive way (i.e. "thanks 4 da help" is no good, offering an alternative solution to a problem is more useful)

The main problem comes when people start doing this with topics in the lounge and other general discussion forums. Topics there are generally not too important, save a popular few, so we don't like bumping there. We're more lenient in the GTA forums because many of the topics there are helpful to many people. But just think to yourself when posting, is it actually going to be worth it? Also, it would look like you're just posting for the sake of increasing your post count or getting more points etc. if you aren't posting anything useful. A bit of common sense is all that's necessary sometimes.

[Pandora]

I've a little idea. Not about topic bumping though.

What about rating posts (this is only for the help forums). So if a post was really helpfull to someone, the poster will get 50 forum points let's say. Might make people make more good and usefull posts, and help others offcourse

[Gerard]

That idea was discussed when we were designing the new rep system, but we settled on a method where moderators could award rep points, rather than just votes by members.

[Pandora]

Well, more a system where members vote. If a posts reaches an amount of "helpfull votes" if will come in some let's say award section for mods to see. Mods can't see all posts made so can be alerted if numerous people think it's a good worthy post.

Just a idea though..

[Silberio]

so it depends on whats the topic about, and the lenght?

because 2 days for a topic to be bumped sounds like a bit wacko for me...

and then, whats the final answer, 2 days, 2 months?

[Gerard]

Perhaps a better way of looking at it is how far down the page it is.

If its right at the top, feel free to reply

If its past halfway down the page, think whether its going to be useful before you post a reply

If its on another page, don't bother replying unless its going to be a really useful post

This can lead onto when to create a new topic instead of replying - if the subject is exactly the same, use an existing topic.