This post is what happens when one drinks one too many Coors Original (the gold can), discovers an OS writer that one had previously overlooked, and reads a New Yorker bio/review of James Baldwin.

 In most internet forums, threadmancy (n. origin: necromancy) is considered rude.  Thread-mancy being the practice of "bumping" a thread from a long time ago. How long "a long time" is seems to be dependent on how active a particular forum is. On a popular forum, threadmancy might be bumping a thread only several days old. On that forum your buddy started in middle school computer class to keep you all entertained, it might be several weeks.

Given the incredibly rapid speed of the hungry feed here at OS, which devours posts in mere minutes even during the slow 4 AM EST time slot, one would assume that OS falls into the category of "popular internet forum."  So does this mean that bumping a post from several months ago by rating or commenting puts one seriously behind the curve? Perhaps even to the point of committing an OS social faux pas?

Of course, OS aspires to be more than 4chan or some other temporary internet thing.  It aspires to RealQualityWriting (TM). And surely no one feels bad discussing Go Tell It On the Mountain instead of Just Above My Head. Or discussing Crime and Punishment instead of The Idiot. In literature, it seems fine to bump the relatively old "post" in light of its superior artistic merit.

"But wait," says the contrarian, "OS is a topical site; full of timely postings on current events, witty movies mocking Republican politicians, and screeds by lost right-wingers." To which I would respond, "true, except for those posters who favor such timeless arts as poetry, personal memoir, or artistic commentary."

And so I put it to you, OS, dare I comment/rate a post from December 2008, or should I return to surfing the feed for only the freshest posts? Those with "born on" dates within the past several days?