Most traditional forums never had a timer system, and it did not seem to be needed. It indeed resulted in some threads being alive for months, but that was onl

Most traditional forums never had a timer system, and it did not seem to be needed. It indeed resulted in some threads being alive for months, but that was only because the discussion in it was healthy and interesting, and new input on the same subject continued to be had. They typically also do not have an archival system and often præfer that one revive an old thread that was dead for years rather than make a new one on the same subject, as in doing so all the old content becomes visible again for a fresh perspective. I agree that often it is quite interesting to receive new replies with new input to a thread that died off three years ago. I am not seeing these fora being gamed at all: in order to game them, one must provide content interesting enough to draw replies. — Visibility is purely a function of the number of replies, not of agreement.