Zombie / Lazarus Threads?

[Kali Yuga]

Heya, this is more a technical question than feedback or a comment.

I've noticed that every once in awhile, a long-dormant thread will pop up out of nowhere and people will start posting to it. Most of the time it doesn't look to me like it's a result of a search or someone revisiting an old thread on purpose.

Is this just an occasional DB error, that puts an old thread up on the front page?

[GeoffC]

'Old threads' can turn up when someone follows search results, or perhaps follows one of the "Similar Threads" leads at the bottom of the page;

and will be posted to often without looking at the date - even the worst of us do it .....

On Mobileread - no threads are lost ....

[Worldwalker]

There is also a situation right now involving a user who seems to be deliberately resurrecting old threads (often years old, and usually very long) by posting essentially pointless additions to them. I'm not sure what he gets out of it, but it's started to become quite annoying.

[GeoffC]

mmmmm

[bjones6416]

Originally Posted by Worldwalker

There is also a situation right now involving a user who seems to be deliberately resurrecting old threads (often years old, and usually very long) by posting essentially pointless additions to them. I'm not sure what he gets out of it, but it's started to become quite annoying.

Yep. I noticed that. I thought it was an oversight the first couple of times, but not anymore. Very strange.

[CRussel]

At the risk of replying to a dying thread...

Is there any way that threads older than some arbitrary age could be automatically marked read only? This would be a definite benefit to the overall forum, IMO. Otherwise, you will get people replying to the old threads. (And I strongly suspect it's the "Similar Threads" feature as much as anything.)

[Jellby]

I just edited and added a reply to a 2008 thread. It was a book upload that got an update. So, if old threads are ever locked, I hope the library stays open for editing.

[ATDrake]

Maybe just have some sort of visual warning next to the thread title in the regular forum view so people can notice and skip a revivified old thread, kind of like the smileys you can use as post icons or the stars for rating threads?

Something like:

This Really Old Thread Someone Has Decided To Bump Up
piningforthefjords (2007-06-05)
An Ordinary Thread With Maybe Some Cool News From the Future In It
martymcfly (2011-05-25)
Not So Old Thread Where My Ideas, Let Me Show You Them
tinfoilkindlecover (2011-05-01)
An Ordinary Thread With Maybe Some Incoherent Rambling In It
philosopherstoned (2011-05-09)
Ranty Rant Rant About Copyright/Pricing/DRM/Agency/Censorship
darnyoutoheck (2011-03-05)

Of course, there'd have to be some sort of minimum time since last post X years ago calculation so that long-running threads which are regularly posted in such as the What Are You Reading thread in the Reading Recs forum don't get tagged.

Or maybe just exempt sticky posts and/or use the same criteria that the system uses for warning "You are about to reply to a very old thread".

[GraceKrispy]

There are some ancient threads that are fun to see again, but some that are just obsolete. I don't mind it so much in the lounge, but I don't always understand "why" when it's in a specific help forum.

I haven't noticed that particular phenomenon this time, but I've seen it before, done by certain people.

I've resurrected older threads before. It's usually in the self-promotions forum, when I've done a review on a book, and I bump the original book thread created by the author.

Wait, you're not talking about me, are you??

[bjones6416]

Originally Posted by GraceKrispy

Wait, you're not talking about me, are you??

No, Grace, we're not talking about you! Where have you been lately, anyway? Not in the lounge very much!

[kindlekitten]

Originally Posted by bjones6416

No, Grace, we're not talking about you! Where have you been lately, anyway? Not in the lounge very much!

ditto! on all accounts!

[GeoffC]

Originally Posted by bjones6416

No, Grace, we're not talking about you! Where have you been lately, anyway? Not in the lounge very much!

Originally Posted by kindlekitten

ditto! on all accounts!

on every count ::::::

[JSWolf]

Sometimes it is better to resurrect an old thread that's in your topic then to star another on the same topic. But only if theold thead is still relevant.

[Worldwalker]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Sometimes it is better to resurrect an old thread that's in your topic then to star another on the same topic. But only if theold thead is still relevant.

I think there are three problems:

One is the "related threads" list that links to some truly ancient threads. Google searches that land on old threads are a related issue.

One is people used to some forums where established members will throw a fit if a newbie dares to start a thread about something that was discussed five years ago instead of posting to the old one. I don't understand them either, but they exist, and I think they've left a lot of people a big gun-shy.

And one is people deliberately doing this to be jerks. With over 100,000 members we get all types, including griefers, and this is just another way of griefing.

Type 1 (which has accidentally included a lot of us, too) could be redirected by having the software automatically add an "[Old Topic]" note to every thread subject over a year old, or some other date.

Type 2 (mostly new members) could be at least partially addressed by making it clear in the rules that it's not necessary to post to a years-old thread; you can start your own if there's no recent one. Admittedly this requires people to use common sense, which is rather uncommon, but it would be a start. (though we don't want to go too far the other way and encourage fifty threads where one would do, either)

Type 3 just need smacked and/or banned.

[GraceKrispy]

Originally Posted by bjones6416

No, Grace, we're not talking about you! Where have you been lately, anyway? Not in the lounge very much!

Originally Posted by kindlekitten

ditto! on all accounts!

Originally Posted by GeoffC

on every count ::::::

Glad you're not talking about me! I've been crazy busy lately, with little energy left over. And it's so hard to keep up in the lounge when you miss a week or 10. I did post a few times yesterday and today though!