I think there should be some incentive for that, like make those kinds of comments a spotlight or something. Maybe make a community called “late replies” that showcases the best such replies, or have a rule saying they grant free karma (in Reddit’s case).
I think the term would be “necrobump”, and Im not sure why you want to encourage it? If a thread is active for 5 months sure, but otherwise everyone has moved on…
That’s from old school forums where posting to a thread bumped it back to the top of the feed and thus thrust old info prominently into everyone’s view again. You won’t get that same bump effect with most sorts on Lemmy. (“New comments” sort might work like that though? I’m not sure exactly how that’s handled.)
It’s pretty rare to get much of a response even after just 24 hours or so – not just in terms of comments, but even for upvotes. I think after that point, posts are usually so far down people’s feeds that almost no one sees it any more. That probably also discourages most people from replying since basically no one will see it. (Maybe the poster of the thread or comment you’re replying to will see it, but probably almost no one else will if it’s more than a day or so old.)
Some people do dig through community archives and/or user profiles – particularly after a new thread is posted – and they’ll occasionally upvote old posts, but they very rarely comment.
Its not a global bump, but it does bump it back into conciousness for the person being replied to. Ive had it happen a few times on lemmy, and its always so confusing because i had completely forgotten what i had originally said.
I’m not against necrobumping in certain contexts. If I have a tech support question, I can promise you I’m still clueless after 5 months. Also a niche creative project can take over 5 months to find it’s audience, and creators are usually happy to hear feedback.
Answering an unanswered question is definitely valid. Feedback for a niche creative project may be better served by a new post, but a late comment is fine as well.
I dont have a problem with necrobumping, but i dont think it deserves to be promoted or incentivesed in a “bestof5monthslater” showcase.
Anything that can be gamed for imaginary internet points will be abused, and it wont be long before there is a flood of “Upvote if your still reading in 2025 🥳🤠🤯” comments.
Oh, that’s true. I’ve spent so much time on Lemmy I lived in a world where “who else is still listening to this wildly popular song in 2024??” didn’t exist
Oh man, that brings back memories of necroposting on old IPB forums
I still get necrobumps from reddit on year-old comments despite having left reddit. It’s weird.
What a horrible name for “people responding to a thread that is older than a mayfly”.
Suggesting something a few months old is “dead” is especially churn-y; like “Ahmahagawd, that thread is, like, SO last-heartbeaaat”. Ensure the voice dissolves into an indolent vocal fry for best effects.
Its a fairly established internet term and/or culture. This isnt a “zoomers have no attention span thing”, its been a thing since the dawn of the internet.
Life moves on.
People only posting on new things makes a place seem less like a community and more like people are just being trendy.
Side note, necrobump sounds like a great name for a heavy metal band.