The same goes for every other rule that some of the “forum helpers” like to enforce without explaining to the person who broke the rule. For example, if a new scratcher necroposts and someone literally just says

unhelpful_user wrote:

don't necropost. reposting to be closed

Then the rule-breaker doesn't know what they did wrong, resulting in the possibility that they might break the rule again. This example isn't even exaggerating, I've seen many cases like that. So my suggestion is when you guys report a topic to closed, link to a topic that explains it or just explain it yourself.

hmm…
good point, i'll try to remember that.

Just gotta say, people have told someone to not necropost, when they didn't necropost. this might clear that up.

DarthVader4Life wrote:

just gotta say, people have told someone to not necropost, when they didn't necropost. this might clear that up.

True. While they're explaining they might realize the post isn't actually a necro

I always explain what necroposting is when someone does it.

Starstriker3000 wrote:

Hi, welcome to the forums! Please don't post on old topics, as doing so is called necroposting and isn't allowed.

Reporting this topic to be closed to prevent future necroposts.

Starstriker3000 wrote:

I always explain what necroposting is when someone does it.

Starstriker3000 wrote:

Hi, welcome to the forums! Please don't post on old topics, as doing so is called necroposting and isn't allowed.

Reporting this topic to be closed to prevent future necroposts.

It's true that smarter people like do it but some don't'

Many times I close a topic with “Closed to prevent future necroposts.” I usually say something in addition to that — but do you think it would be worth changing what I say when I close these topics?

I'm kinda curious on what could be done to prevent it. I know members of the Forum helpers tend to be as descriptive as possible, but I'm not sure how we can convince all forum users to be more descriptive. Still, it would be nice if it could be described instead of flat out telling someone not to necropost.

These explanations should be done on the necroposter's profile with a link to their necropost, not within the topic, because otherwise it may derail the topic. For example, if someone says not to necropost on the suggestions forums, this at times leads to an off-topic discussion over whether the post is a necropost.

This should be the case for other forum convention notices too (eg when someone doesn't support with a reason). Doing it this way means you don't have to force yourself to contribute to the discussion, which usually leads to more unconstructive posts.

Bump

This is technically covered with the “Be Constructive” Community Guideline. If someone just says “Don't necropost” they are being un-constructive, so I would say this is good to bring to the forum community's attention.
I don't have a standard thing I say to a necroposter, but I usually do my best to make it informative, friendly, and most importantly, not looking like i'm talking down to them. I never want a user to feel stupid because i'm telling them to check the date.

And it also depends on the type of necropost; if it is spam, I just report it. If it's hijacking the thread, I let them know to create their own topic. If they are trying to be helpful, I tend to give more grace and say that although it's good they are trying to help, it's best not to post on topics more then a month old.

I may be late, but to my knowledge, (every time I've seen it) Za-Chary doesn't like people saying “Don't necropost” in general.