Riddle Me This

[Judysdottir]

So, I saw a closed thread about Ragnarok. Of course, it's old and necro-posting is a no-no, so fresh thread cause why not?

The Northern peoples were quite clever and enjoyed their riddles. Let's break down the events of Ragnarok (quoting from Kevin Crossley-Holland's The Norse Myths):

• Fimbulvetr, winter of winters, will grip and throttle Midgard
• Trees will sway and topple
• Mountains will shake and rock and come crashing down
• The sea will rear up and waves will pummel the shore
• Surt will fling fire in every direction - places of raging flame, swirling smoke, and ash will fill the skies
• Almost everyone and everything dies

There are two things to see in this tale:

1. Ragnarok is the other way to die - natural disaster (Ice age, earthquakes, flooding, volcanic eruption listed above)
2. Vidar and Vali's survival tell us that no matter how bad things get - whole family is dead, your world goes through absolute catastrophe, all the horrible things you just experienced - Life goes on.

​

If you'd like me to poke at other things, I'd be happy to.

[MaskedOne]

Well, if we're going for a theme of "life goes on" then I find the names of two humans to survive epically appropriate. That said, I barely even dabble in Heathen beliefs so others may have more exhaustive replies.

EDIT: Also the frown on necro-posting is sort of conditional. If you find a thread that you really want to add to and that has been closed by autolock then bug one of the staff (right now, Juniper, Volcaniclastic, Shahaku and I are probably your best bets for a swift answer) and we may reopen it for you (it's at our discretion but we approve more requests than we deny). This does not generally extend to threads closed due to wrath of mod/admin staff but those normally stand out due angry text in bright colors at the end of the thread.

[Judysdottir]

Ah, good to know, thank you. My previous sites generally frowned on necro-posting. Dunno if I'll actually make said request. ��

[MaskedOne]

Ah, good to know, thank you. My previous sites generally frowned on necro-posting. Dunno if I'll actually make said request. ��

We frown on necroposts made carelessly which is why threads past a certain age autolock and why threads that have been inactive over about a month say, "Hey, this topic has been dead for a month. There's a chance that whatever question it was made to ask has already been answered. Are you sure you want to continue?" We generally don't see a need for people to reply to a question where the original poster made and acted on a decision three months ago because no one reads post dates and watching people get angry with a position that was taken five years ago by a poster who has in no particular order changed their view, left the site, been banned from the site for being an idiot without a license or literally died makes staff pound their heads into the nearest wall. Adding a few extra hoops means that people need to take into account the passage of time when they post and as long people are aware of the passage of time and post accordingly, a lot of topics are sufficiently evergreen that we are happy to resurrect them.

In general, I find that while most forums have some bias against necroposting, the exact details are variable. I'm a member on another board where distaste for necroposts is a lot harsher because there's a decent size creative writing section and rezzing a story thread means that all the people following that thread think first and foremost "new content!!!". Those people are all quite happy to lynch someone when they hop into their favorite story thread and discover that there's no new content, just someone making a random comment. PF doesn't have that specific issue and we tailor our position toward necroposts more toward our specific headaches.