Question No Bumps! - Category Specific.

Hey guys, I have a certain category where I do not want users to be able to bump a topic no matter what. I thought I could cheat it and solve it by stickying every topic, but when someone replies to a sticky it to bumps up.

I do not want to do this for the whole site, just a particular category, although, if its too difficult to make it category specific, how about making it to where I can cheat it and stickies can not be bumped.

Thanks for any help!

You could lock the topic or category, but then your users couldn't participate in the discussion either.

"Bumping" a topic (posting messages with no effective content) is just one of those poor practices that can invade message forums. There's no easy way to solve it, either, but the best solution is to educate your users and encourage them not to engage in this practice. Having a site policy that states "Do not bump messages" can work, if you're prepared to police it, warn your users when they break the rules, "sin-bin" or kick them out for repeated infractions. It's up to you to decide how far you're prepared to go.

I've never come across an effective technical solution to this "problem". Even if you could change the posting rules (so that people had to post more than, say, 10 characters), people will find ways around it.

Education and Intervention are the best tools you have.

Oh no this has nothing to do with my users. Its for me actually. I post in a specific forum a new contest everyday, and I wanted to keep them in order. Contest 1 post, Contest 2 post, Contest 3 post, etc. even when a person replys to a contest post. Thats why I specified its only for one particular forum, the rest my users are a fine bunch and respect the forums with the best of em.

Its just right now I have 15 contests going on, and instead of having a nice clean line of "Challenge 1, 2, 3" its more like "Challenge 3, 23, 4, 54, 22, 1, 5". Makes it hard for my users to keep track.

Im rambling now, I was just posting to see if anyone knew how to do it or how to make stickies to where they do not bump when replied to.

And yeah my posts can not be locked, users have to reply.

deathorglory wrote:

... And yeah my posts can not be locked, users have to reply.

Well, tell your users not to bump the thread, and delete any/all attempts to do it. They'll soon get the message.

I dont think you get it.

I want my users to reply.
In order to be in the contest they have to reply.

But when they do I would like it if I could hack a solution to where the posts didnt bump for a certain category. Or as an alternative, if I could find a hack where stickied topics do not get bumped.

*sigh* I do "get it". I do understand. :ohmy:

If you want your users to reply in a particular way then tell them that "bumping" the thread is not acceptable behaviour and that they will be penalised if they abuse the privilege. Like I've tried to suggest (as I try to make this point at least a dozen times every day), this is a problem about how to educate your users. This is not something for which there is a one-size-fits-all technological solution. Do you "get it"?