So a moderator criticised me “for as he said necroing a post that was months old" yet there seem to be no posting rules pinned anywhere. If there are rules that I broke than I can understand why the post was locked, but I couldn't find posting rules anywhere.

Harshly pinning down on someone “for breaking rules” if that person cannot be reasonably expected to have known the rules to begin with is absurd.

Wallby said:
Harshly pinning down on someone “for breaking rules” if that person cannot be reasonably expected to have known the rules to begin with is absurd.

Harshly? He just stated what you did in a matter-of-fact way. How do you expect moderators to react? Ponder around the issue and write a two-paragraph introduction/apology to make sure your feelings don't get hurt by getting told that what you did is not allowed?

@Tom Sloper “well known" to you apparently, not to me.

@Juliean You are free to disagree. I find the phrasing “not only did you .., you also ..” harsh. Your logic “that there is no inbetween between stacking one accusation on top of the other in an intensifying judgemental manner and being apologetic as if I am fragile" is nonsense. Matter of fact might have been “I think your post is off tangent and reviving a months old topic is not allowed on this forum”.

fleabay said:
Let's address the real problem. The forum should close threads automatically some time after the last post. (I recommend 3 or 4 months, maybe some extra time for the OP) I'm holding my breath.

+1 to this. IMO this forum has gone downhill tremendously in the last 5-6 years (i.e. since the redesign). The site code is obviously garbage, give me PHP BB any day over this. I literally have to resize my window to a weird size to even be able to see the “Post” button, since it gets hidden by the sidebar when window is less than around 1500px wide. There are tons of other issues. Without adblock, using this site is pure torture (i.e. ads inserted in the middle of posts). Mods generally come off as aggressive and tone deaf, and not willing to give anyone benefit of doubt. This toxicity drives away new people. Honestly the only reason I'm still here is to rarely ask a question that I can't answer myself. This place used to be a wonderful place to learn. I wouldn't be the engineer I am without it.

Forbidding post necromancy isn't a universal rule of the internet, it's a specific, arbitrary rule of this forum. There are message boards where you will be censured for “top-level spamming” if you start a new thread instead of responding to an old thread that has lain dormant for months!

And yes, the correct way to enforce this rule is to simply lock all old dormant threads automatically instead of getting on people's case for not following it.

The ugly is now at a gental simmer.

Season to taste.