Why is thread necromancy even possible?

[Catullus64]

There's probably something I'm missing. It seems like thread necromancy is an extremely common reason for threads to get locked. Is there any reason not to just automatically lock threads that are over the 45-day limit, so that people don't commit necromancy out of error (which I assume happens a lot, given that I think I've done it at least once)?

Is it simply impractical for the mods to do so, or for the site do do so as an automated process? Is there a legitimate exception to the necromancy rule that I've missed somewhere in the Forum Rules? Curious to know.

[JNAProductions]

Homebrew threads can be restarted by the author of the thread, without it counting as necromancy.

[OracleofWuffing]

It's from a while back, but Roland St. Jude (https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?370683-Suggestion-auto-lock-old-threads) had a previous response to automatically locking threads, mostly that if it was automatic, then there would be a concern of all of the exceptions for which needed to be accounted. Mark Hall had a similar, more recent response in another suggestion (https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?599675-Preventing-thread-necromancy).

So, it'd come down to manually locking threads after 45 days, and... I'm not aware of a specific previous response to that idea, but I would guess that still results in more work for a minor issue in the big picture: it's just locking every thread, instead of just the ones in which a violation requires a lock.

[Grey_Wolf_c]

Locking a thread makes it significantly harder to quote from it, which makes starting new one that references it harder, so I for one I'm glad they do not automatically shutter every one that goes past the necromancy limit.

GW

[Chronos]

Another exception would be some of the long-running threads in the forum about the comic, which get flurries of activity whenever the comic updates, and then go dormant. There have been a couple of times the comic went on hiatus, and when it restarted, those threads came back too. Some of them don't even get updated every comic (for instance, the perennial thread about what the Monster in the Dark is, usually only gets updated when there's some new information about him, and the comic can sometimes go quite a long time without that).

Also, I don't think there's even a standard built-in option in vBulletin to automatically lock old threads, so if they were to do it automatically, it'd have to be with some third-party add-on.

[LibraryOgre]

The Mod Ogre: The threads above are good, but I'll add: Thread Necromancy is a "Please Don't". You pretty much have to make a career of it in order to accumulate any points. You'll get a PM and a note on your record, just so we can keep track, but unless you've decided that necromancer is your new goal, don't sweat the occasional mistake.

[Peelee]

The Mod on the Silver Mountain: Also, the boards conveniently hide all threads older than 45 days by default, so the only way to even find dead threads is by actively searching.

[Roland St. Jude]

Sheriff: Also also, the mod team here is great, our posters are great, I support their answers above, and will now close this thread.