Zombies...again.

Oh yes, Zombie we love you!

Zombies, however

Well said, Empress

Oh yes empress you're spot on there. We love Zombie.

I think it's important to mention at this point that while zombie threads are highly annoying, Zombie's threads are always very welcome.

Purple you're right, it did. It was something like

This is a zombie thread. Are you sure you want to resurrect it? with a little zombie next to it.

I think it completely depends what kind of topic is being discussed as to whether it's irritating or not. Like a PP said, if it's an old parking thread or something then it's a nuisance because it's irrelevant 5 years down the line. But lots of other topics are relevant for general discussion even years later. For example if somebody Googles pregnancy ailments and it leads them to an old thread with lots of helpful advice, they might not notice the thread is old and unwittingly reanimate it. Other people who then get involved are still benefitting from the old posts with advice, even if they are from years ago. So I don't think it's right to completely disable zombie threads when they are frequently still of use to people. But definitely a warning somewhere so people can choose to read and get involved or not.

Is it feasible to put a earning on every single post, where the date and time stamp is? So it would read something like "WARNING! Zombie Thread: 01/01/2001" at the top of each comment.

It's just clicked. There hasn't been a poll and nor will there be one.

MN makes money from advertising. Each click raises revenue. Each member raises revenue. Google searches will bring back relevant results. If those results bring back a thread, albeit a decade old, and it encourages someone to sign up, why would MNHQ discourage that?

Annoying though it is for 'regular' posters, we're hooked. We're not leaving. And we will not go to bed until we have proven someone wrong on the internet.

It's the newbies MN needs to keep flowing, and zombie threads on Google get that.

I'd like threads locked too, but in lieu of that a big, clear bright red zombie warning at the top of the OP would help. I don't tend to look at dates and usually notice it's a zombie either by the number of deleted posts on it or the fact I don't recognise any of the user names.

Just checked now and on the mobile site the little zombie pic has gone and all there is is a not very obvious sentence below the posting box saying the thread hasn't been posted in for over a year. I'm sure if used to be more prominent.

On the phone version of the site it now says "FYI this thread hasn't been posted on in over a year" under the posting box. No zombie cartoon.

Does the zombie thread warning appear on the phone app? I don't recall ever seeing one. Not that it really bothers me seeing old threads being revived if.

Sauv I saw that too but people were still asking for updates

I have been shouted at for pointing it out too

I've never seen a poll. I'd definitely vote for locking threads after a certain amount of time. I can't understand why they get reanimated. It's virtually never the op updating.

Yy gallavich

"Maybe having OP's posts in a different colour could also be standard instead of optional?"

When I re-regged it did do the coloured posts as standard. Maybe not if the app is used to register?

I don't know why the zombie warning disappears after 2 posts. Why can't old threads have a permanent warning on the posting box saying they are old threads? They could be ignored if the discussion is genuinely continuing but it would warn everyone who reads the op and the last few posts because that it how so many zombies stay active.

Yy to top and bottom.

I was only tipped off about a Zombie thread yesterday by an old user name that I hadn't seen for ages.

It was about a miscarriage from 5 years ago and people were starting asking for updates. I reported it to MNHQ as I though it could upset the OP but it was left to stand.

Helen warning at top and bottom then. Sometimes I don't mind reading a long thread but I wouldn't want to post on it if I knew it was a zombie, other times I would give up early on.

I also want to know it's a zombie even if seven people have posted on it recently.

It is irritating. As Helen said, it's often old usernames that are the clue.

I don't know whether most re-animators think they're doing the right thing or are just confused, but I do think the problem is compounded by posters who
comment on the OP without reading the full thread - which is quite easy to do ATM.

What if the zombie warning was visible at the top and bottom of the thread, AND you had to actually go to the end of a thread in order to post on it? Then re-animators would be more likely to notice that something funny was going on and non-RTFTers would (hopefully) be more likely to notice if things appeared to have moved on since the OP.

Maybe having OP's posts in a different colour could also be standard instead of optional?

IonaMumsnet when did mumsnet conduct a poll? I must have missed it.

A zombie thread is irritating, especially when it's someone posting about a parking problem in 2008. I'd imagine said problem has been rectified by now. And people can gauge how opinion has changed over the years without resurrecting an 8-year-old post.

But hey, it's your site. Do whatever you want with it.

And there's the banhammer coming down on me.

Blue

At the end doesn't stop you reading the thing, though!

Usually old user names tip me off. On occasion, an old one of my own!

If it's a really long juicy thread I tend to All One Page it so I can skip to the OP's posts if I want to, meaning I don't see the Zombie warning until I get aaaaaall the way through it. Can we not have a banner at the top, or have the option to put the OP in a different colour or something?

A poster could start a new thread and link a locked zombie thread if there was an update.