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For the record, Loomis, I agree with you that "a lot of Barbelith's value is in reading threads as well as posting to them." I trawl the back pages quite a bit myself, and make ample use of "site:www.barbelith.com" searches on Google, searching for some half-remembered comment or conversation.
Where we disagree, I think, is whether a context- and content-free *bump* adds to the overall ongoing conversation of the board, inspires people to re-read, or indeed does anything but use bandwidth. You think it does: I think it don't.
What does work, I think, is linking to older threads in the context of the current discussion, as I've done here (and, to get all meta for a moment, also done here, in this very post). Myself, I do this all the time
We all of us, in an information-soaked society, suffer from data overload. This is a big board: there's a lot to read. Bumping threads for its own sake does not make for a comfortable entree to our "back catalogue". If anything, it simply adds to the newcomer's confusion. Better by far, I think, to give people links to threads they can use, when they can use them.
Also, I think that cross-linking between current and older threads emphasizes that this board is a community. There's a continuity, and no conversation exists in a vacuum; Indeed, all conversations are, in a way, part of a single large conversation.
Messages reading "*bump*"? Not so much. |
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