ELI5: Why is the bumping trend happening

The "bumping" trend is like nudging something to the top of a list so more people see it.

Imagine you have a big bulletin board in your school hallway where everyone puts up posters. Let’s say you're selling cookies, and your poster is up there. After a few days, lots of other posters get put up, and yours gets covered and nobody sees it anymore. Bumping is like going to the bulletin board and moving your cookie poster back to the very top, so it's the first thing everyone sees again!

In everyday life, this happens online, like on websites where people sell things, or in forums where people ask questions.

• Old Stuff Gets Buried: When lots of new things are added, the older things get pushed down and forgotten.
• Bumping Brings Attention: "Bumping" means posting a new comment on an old post, which makes the website think it's new activity.
• Back to the Top: This "new activity" makes the post move back to the top of the list, so more people see it.

• You ask a question online.
• A few people answer.
• Days later, nobody else is looking at it.
• You "bump" the thread by saying something like "Still looking for help!" or even just "." (a dot).
• Now the website thinks your question is active again, and shows it to more people.