If you have the heart to broadcast in /ooc to others that an item is rotting, make sure to not leave the zone empty of players if you are the last one in the zone. This is because if you leave a zone, and then the zone has no players inside it, the zone will go into what I call "hibernation mode". When a zone enters this mode all creature corpses are instantly deleted. Then all the players you had broadcasted to in /ooc or had whispered you "ZOMG OMW!!!11111cos(0)" might be very sad. :(
This has been a public service announcement from Ragna the Bloodedge, thank you for your time.
(PS: The last three items I've chased that have been rotting have all met bad ends to the memory graveyard, thus I decided to make this post.)
-Ragna the Bloodedge