Are things changing?

restrictions on replying to old posts, etc

[too much information]

I haven't been around as often as I have in the past but I've noticed a few changes that I thought I'd ask about.

First, the limit on the time to reply to a post seems to be much shorter than it used to be. I found a post that was just under a month old and I could not reply. Is there a reason it would be so short of a time limit?

Next, I am not having as much success in searching for things that I know I have found in the past. Recently, I was looking for a post dealing with mobile browsers. In the past this was pretty easy to find, but now there is a section dedicated to PDAs, etc. and it seems to be just posts asking about gear. Is there some old content that has been moved or removed, and is there a really good way to search WebmasterWorld for old posts?

[Hawkgirl]

Hey TMI! Nice to see you.

I don't believe that anything has changed with regard to replying to old posts; the exception would be when a thread is locked because it has run its course. Sometimes threads start to degenerate at the end (once all of the good info is already in there, people tend to keep talking even though the question has been answered). In those cases, we may remove some of the irrelevant stragglers at the end and then lock the thread to preserve its integrity.

Here's a great tutorial on how to search WebmasterWorld ... [webmasterworld.com...]

[too much information]

Well that makes sense. One of the threads I found had only one reply, didn't really address the question very well and it was locked. I guess if there was just junk after that I can understand.

[Brett_Tabke]

On the other hand, you may have ran into the auto-thread-lock.

> Is there a reason it would be so short of a time limit?

Ya, we shortened the reply time a couple of weeks.

here is what happens:

• Company A is accidently mentioned in a thread. Pro/con - who knows...
  
• Company A see's their name pop up on Google alerts.
  
• Company A quietly engages in the thread without promotion.
  
• Company A does everything it can to keep bumping the thread.
  

Now, repeat the above any replace "company A" with "Joe Users Pet Cause of The moment".

After that, add a new line:

Joe user sees that it worked well for Pet Project A - he comes back and does it with pet cause B...and C.

The only recourse for us, is to shorten the time that a thread remains open.

mods rarely notice this in their forums because they - and admins - are immune from the time restraint.

see also:
Professional Forum Spammers:
[webmasterworld.com...]