Active discussions

Please or to access all these features

Talk
Site stuff

Join our Innovation Panel to try new features early and help make Mumsnet better.

See all MNHQ comments on this thread

Original poster

Colour code zombie threads?

135 replies

quoteunquote · 29/04/2013 19:10

I unwittingly contributed to a thread that had for some reason (best known to the person that did it),been resuscitated,

Could you add, a colour bar where the title is, or on the side, that indicates how old a thread is, blue for current, green a week old, yellow a month, orange six, and red year and beyond,

Then people would be instantly aware when joining in with a thread as to when it was started, as clearly a lot of us don't spot the year when on these threads, and some times people carefully choose threads that the day and month match to resuscitate.

Anyway it would be a simple way of stopping the annoying problem, and for people like the person who started the thread in the above link, they wouldn't have to have something they probably rather forget jump out at them, I hope the OP of that thread is happy now.

OP posts:
Original poster
quoteunquote · 30/04/2013 11:00

After I started this yesterday , I realised I had posted on more than one zombie thread, (the train suicide) , now I know I am a bit of a pillock , but clearly I am not the only one,

At least it would make it obvious what you were contributing to.

OP posts:
LadyBeagleEyes · 30/04/2013 10:42

I remember that FruOla.
It was hilarious Grin.

MNHQ
RowanMumsnet · 30/04/2013 09:41

Hi there

Thanks for these suggestions; we will have a think about it and come back to you.

Startail · 30/04/2013 09:17

Yes to some sort of system and Yes Yes to sorting out search so most recent thread comes on top.

TheSurgeonsMate · 30/04/2013 09:14

I like the idea too. I saw one thread where the re-animator had done it deliberately from the best intentions and mentioned that on some forums it is correct etiquette and you'd be flamed for starting a thread on a topic that had one already, however old. Colour-coding would show that we do things differently here.

FruOla · 30/04/2013 09:10

Without giving too much away for fear of causing her further embarrassment if she's still here, she had asked about a specific brand of childcare equipment. Got no answers. Three years later (yes, it was three years, not two), she must have been doing a search for that brand name and found her own unanswered thread. So she answered something along the lines of "I bought one a few years ago and X, Y and Z" - and she still had her same NN. The next person on the thread said "you know you're talking to yourself three years ago, right?". I'm afraid this resulted in much hilarity, although peppered with a certain amount of sympathy.

The coincidental thing was that her NN was so apt under the circumstances, which gave rise to even more hilarity. If she's still here, I guess she's NCd.

But that actually proves your point, quote. If she'd seen the thread was over a year old because of a colour code, it might have jogged her memory that she'd started a thread about it herself a year or so back.

Original poster
quoteunquote · 29/04/2013 22:42

really FruOla ?Grin that's really funny, but only because it's the kind of thing I would do,

What did she say?

I'm sure it wouldn't be hard to change the colour of the line around this box I'm replying in , and the bar "Add your message here' and the topic bar at the top,using the opening post date as the time line.

On obscure subjects, its good to be able to use an old thread, something like bee keeping or one of the rare genetic subjects it's sensible ,

I dislike the idea of locking them, also people like to be able to return to threads to update, a colour code would mean that someone seeing the thread for the first time during an update, would realise it worth reading the whole long thread before commenting, something that often causes friction or irritation.

It seems to me that as we are all very good at taking visual reminders and warnings, it would be a very simple way of making the board far more user friendly, and as a result easier to moderate.

OP posts:
FruOla · 29/04/2013 20:38

Seems like a good idea. As long as it doesn't give poor Tech yet another heart failure when it gets added to his To Do List!

I will never forget that thread where the OP, who hadn't had a single reply anyway, unwittingly answered herself two years later Grin

RustyBear · 29/04/2013 19:24

It would probably also help if Advanced Search results were organised by date, latest first, rather than by alphabetical order of the topic they're in - if you search for a subject, chances are you'll hit an old thread before a recent one.

Tee2072 · 29/04/2013 19:19

That's a really good idea, quote. Better than locking them as has been suggested previously.