old threads resurfacing

[Dagwood56]

There seems to be a lot of older threads resurfacing in the last few weeks. Since many of the older threads were started by members who aren't even here anymore and in some cases never even came back to get the responses they did get to the post originally. Would it possibly be of a benefit, to automatically make threads that are 2 or more years old as 'read only'. Its not like someone would have to do this manually, I'm sure there must be software that would be able to sift thru the thousands or more posts here and just act on those from a certain year backwards. It would save people the time of trying to comment on a thread from 2012 or earlier.

 

[Designer]

I always see who is responding to these old threads, and it is usually some newbie who doesn't recognize the significance of timeliness in his response.

This is a new thread, though, isn't it?

 

[Buckster]

Is the information in them still relevant?

Typically, posted questions get answers. So, even if the person who posted the question got it answered and is no longer here, the information is probably still relevant.

That said, if someone wants to pick it up and post more info or ask further questions about the subject, even at this late date, does it hurt anything?

 

[astroNikon]

This thread is now 10 minutes old.

 

[runnah]

I normally leave helpful threads open. Ones that are rehashing tired debates or arguments I tend to close.

 

[sm4him]

Even if there IS an "automatic" way of doing it, the problem is that there are a lot of "photo theme" sort of threads that are ongoing. Some of them are quite old; some stay fairly active and others get forgotten for a while, then become popular again. For example, there's an Abstracts & Minimalism thread, a "Visual Echo" thread, things like that. It doesn't matter how old those are, they are still fun--and I rather like seeing some of the OLD stuff when one of those gets resurrected, and then being able to add to it.

 

[KmH]

Yep. It's best addressed on a thread-by-thread basis based on thread subject matter.

 

[480sparky]

One exception: The recurring file recovery threads. Someone deleted an image, or formatted their card. Those always attract the recovery software spammers. Some of the spammers resurrect half a dozen ancient threads.

 

[JTPhotography]

The funny thing is, when someone posts a new thread and asks a question, you can pretty much count on someone rudely saying "use the search function, this topic has been covered numerous times!!!!". So, someone uses the search function, finds what they are looking for in an older thread and gets it going again, and people complain. People are never satisfied.

 

[snowbear]

The funny thing is, when someone posts a new thread and asks a question, you can pretty much count on someone rudely saying "use the search function, this topic has been covered numerous times!!!!". So, someone uses the search function, finds what they are looking for in an older thread and gets it going again, and people complain. People are never satisfied.

There is a difference between reading through an old thread to get the information out there and blindly asking a repetitive question.

 

[JTPhotography]

The funny thing is, when someone posts a new thread and asks a question, you can pretty much count on someone rudely saying "use the search function, this topic has been covered numerous times!!!!". So, someone uses the search function, finds what they are looking for in an older thread and gets it going again, and people complain. People are never satisfied.

There is a difference between reading through an old thread to get the information out there and blindly asking a repetitive question.

The point is that the entire discussion is irrelevant and redundant. People wasting time being annoyed either by a thread that is a repeat or an old thread that is brought back up, when they can simply choose to ignore it. As I said, some people just like to complain.

 

[petrochemist]

If there's a way to have a warning issued to the person starting to reply to an old thread, it could reduce the number of newbies responding to questions that were answered years ago.

There are certainly times where new members have something useful to add, to old threads that are still relevant. Sometimes (rarely) the resurrecting post an just be along the lines of 'Did this ever get resolved & whats the solution?'...

 

[Overread]

A code that gives a user a prompt if they are about to post to a thread many months or more old would be a valid system. Would help cut down on accidental reposting of old threads.

Most of the time old threads coming back up (that are not long running themes) tend to be either newbies or spambots. The latter of which we deal with via bans already


The data recovery threads mods do tend to close once the user has found their answer and the thread no longer serves a purpose. They are quite tenacious spambots, but oft easily spotted and removed if the yget through.

 

[Dagwood56]

The only reason I brought it up, was because the other day I had opened two different threads, both rather lengthy, thinking I might like to respond and half way thru the pages of them I realized I was seeing a post made by someone no longer seen on the forum. When I checked, I realized the OP of the thread was also no longer around and the thread was of little relevance to anyone now. One of the threads was from 2009. Not sure why a few here got a bit upset with my "suggestion" and that's all it was. I wasn't annoyed and I wasn't complaining, I was just suggesting, in the forum titled -feedback and suggestions.

 

[Braineack]

My forum software has a "hey idiot, this is an old thread, are you sure you want to post here" check box that they have to click before they can resurrect the dead.