Not sure if COTH has any leeway to alter forum function, but what if you write a validation query that runs in the background when you click Reply, where IF (today) is >1 year (or whatever) from the date of the OP, THEN user gets a simple dialog box that they have to click through. “This thread is more than a year old. Do you want to continue?”
This would help limit the inadvertent resurrection of Zombie Threads.
Go a step farther–if the thread is more than a year old (or whatever) any new posts go to the mod for review. So many zombie posts come back because of spam, anyway.
But yeah, something (anything!) would be nice to get those to stop coming to the top for no good reason :lol:
It is simple to see the date on the first post so I don’t see why it’s a problem.
You can see the start date before you click on it.
Furthermore, if a post shows up with LOTS of replies, and you don’t remember seeing it recently, there is a good chance it is an old post.
Some of the old posts are still relevant and interesting.
Good idea – especially since so many of those threads are restarted by newbies who don’t catch the fact that the threads are so old.
I honestly never really understand the whole issue people have with old posts. It’s so much more efficient to just revive an old post. The only time it’s slightly annoying is if the OP never comes back for closure… but that happens with new posts anyway.
Well, probably 90% of those old threads are bumped up with spam that just gets deleted anyway. Maybe another 9% of posts on old threads are either irrelevant to the thread or so tangentially related that they should be a new thread. So that leaves us with perhaps 1% that are actually relevant to the thread and not spam. A way to reduce the 99% might be nice.
I don’t think that most of the time the intention is to revive an old post in order to give an update. People are just responding as if it’s a current issue. The reality is that people don’t check the first date. They just don’t.
So when there’s an easy a programmatic solution, why not implement it (Rather than check every single thread to make sure it’s current before posting)? What I suggested does not prevent people from reviving a years-old thread if they want to-- all it would require is one mouse click.
But if the belief is the only people reviving dead posts are bots or idiots, is a notice that the post is old really going to stop them?
Also I think you misread my post, that was the opposite of what I said. I don’t think a lot of the topics here can really be outdated, unless it’s some sort of scientific or medical or trend thing maybe, but then just say “the other info is outdated, here’s the current take”.
I guess I enjoy seeing some of the old posts revived, no matter who revives them.
A little bit of a belated addition to this thread, but I’d also add in defense of old-thread-bumping, I believe I’ve seen situations where people who make new threads (on topics that have been covered before) are told “This has been discussed before, check out the forum search function.” So it could very well be that people are using the search function, finding old threads, and instead of starting a new topic on something that’s had a discussion, revives the old one instead.
I disagree with your percentages. I’d say at least 75% are legitimate new posts on an old subject, and less than 25% are spam bumps.
I’m reporting spam on old threads several times a week. Are you?
Perhaps you’re only seeing those threads once the spam post has been deleted.
No, I am not seeing spam on old threads. Almost all the spam I see is on brand new threads. Maybe it has to do with what time of day I look at COTH.
that was the reason I suggested the Mod erase the “Reported” post also, the thread would then return to the grave as long as no else had posted to the thread
But the thread doesn’t automatically drop back down to the graveyard, though, if the recent posts are deleted. It stays in the list of posts where it was before. The “reported” or note from the mod that it’s an old post just tells people who come to it as a new post (and don’t check the date) that it’s not recent.
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