Replying to questions = Bump?

[ByzantineFalcon]

I see a lot of threads where the OP replies to someone, often a question that is being asked. They are then locked for bumping. This has happened to me several times in the past, though the reason for the lock was not posted then (it was about a year ago).

I get bumping with "random updates" and such, but when someone asks a question, are we just supposed to leave it unanswered? Seems like there could be some kind of middle ground, though I am open to suggestions on what the proper response is. Just update the question in the original post? Seems like the folks asking might miss that.

[Sekai]

I think the idea is that they want people communicating via PM, rather than posting on their threads to answer questions. Never really understood the rules against the Bumping thing, since this isn't the kind of forum that sends posts to the top when they receive a post on it, but it's the rules and I obey.

[ByzantineFalcon]

I think the idea is that they want people communicating via PM, rather than posting on their threads to answer questions. Never really understood the rules against the Bumping thing, since this isn't the kind of forum that sends posts to the top when they receive a post on it, but it's the rules and I obey.

I get that, and I can only imagine they must have had a big problem with it at one point. I just got frustrated because I was asked something and got locked as soon as I responded. Did not really see that as a bump, but I guess they saw a reply from the same person that posted so that was that. If one person has that question, others might as well.

Just figured it was worth asking.

[3eland]

If someone asks a question pertaining to the trade and you reply it is not considered a bump. It is only considered a bump if they comment on a trade ad (like "nice army", "PM'd you", etc) and you replied with your own comment like "thanks", "PM received", "sent a PM back!", etc.

Sometimes if a member of staff is doing a lot of moderating (there is a lot we do behind the scenes too), they might miss the question and only see the Original Poster replying without an update to the list. If this is the case, members are encouraged to contact a staff member to see why it was locked. We aren't perfect either so we may miss things! Then, if we find that the staff member did miss something, we can unlock your post for you - don't think any action made by a member of staff is permanent no questions asked, we try to be very fair to the community. I have unlocked many posts in the past when the member reached out.

If you have seen a post that the person replied to a question on and had it locked, let us know! You, and anyone reading this, can freely contact me at anytime with any questions or concerns.

I think the idea is that they want people communicating via PM, rather than posting on their threads to answer questions. Never really understood the rules against the Bumping thing, since this isn't the kind of forum that sends posts to the top when they receive a post on it, but it's the rules and I obey.

Although we do like when members contact ads via PM, there are times where questions posted publicly is needed. Especially if the question is something that a lot of members will most likely be PMing about.

There is a way to modify how posts are shown to you. It opens up the advanced forum options where I can select "View New Posts". This option allows me to see every post that has been made since I last logged in/viewed. When someone bumps their posts, it jumps to the top of this list. So anyone who has these options changed on their account (and although it is not something our average member has, we have many many who do) are seeing the bumping.

Some people also have it set to notify them by email when someone posts a new post/update (a lot of the time to get the jump on a good deal). You can do this by "subscribing" to the forum or post. So imagine if someone is subscribed to the 40k forum and a poster, every hour, is posting "BUMP" in one of their ads. Every time the subscriber will get an email with a notification that the ad was updated. They log in and it's just another BUMP. That can be very frustrating to the member.

We understand that an ad may not go the full 7 days without an update or clarification being needed so we encourage our members to take advantage of updating their ads. Just remember that a reply with what was updated needs to be posted. Simply posting "updated" is not allowed since anyone can do that without actually updating anything.

If you have any other questions or concerns about this topic or anything else let me know!

Ryan

[ByzantineFalcon]

Thank you for the detailed reply Ryan, that explains it fairly well. It had been confusing when I had been locked out (and saw others locked out) for answering questions vs the 'replied' posts. If that happens in the future, I will be sure to contact someone.