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

Highlighting Zombie threads

106 replies

5foot5 · 03/05/2017 13:53

Maybe this has been mentioned before but, having just invested about 20 minutes I won't get back in a NINE YEAR OLD thread on AIBU, is there not some way that you can highlight at the top of a thread or in the thread title that it is a zombie.

Surely some criteria can be devised e.g. initial post more than x months ago, that these could be easily spotted?

Typically someone notices and posts a Zombie Alert on the thread but inevitably that will be near the end of the thread so you can easily have read hundreds of posts without noticing.

Notification at the top, or even before opening the thread, would be preferable.

OP posts:
Stormtreader · 03/05/2017 16:23

They are often brought back by spam posters as well who are not going to care about a message by the box.

TrollTheRespawnJeremy · 03/05/2017 16:15

New users are spoiling the board doing this though- If they want to talk about an existing thread can they not just link to it or start a new thread referring to it.

It's good forum etiquette.

I don't think the newbies enjoy getting rounded on for reposting a 9 year old thread- i've seen so many tantrums and flounces because of this.

Your excuse that it is offputting to new people is silly in my opinion. If they find THAT offputting then they're certainly not going to like the rest of the boards.

Original poster
5foot5 · 03/05/2017 16:09

Which little message box? Where?
I have just been back to check the thread that I was looking at today (from 2008!) and I can't see anything to make it stand out as a zombie.

Does this warning disappear when someone else has posted to it?

Because that doesn't really help. It is quite possible for several people to respond and post before someone notices that it is a zombie, by which time the warning may have disappeared.

OP posts:
MNHQ
LornaMumsnet · 03/05/2017 13:59

Hello, 5foot5!

Thanks so much for your feedback.

We totally understand your concerns, however, we actually changed our zombie alert a while back as it was quite off-putting for new users!

Now we have a small zombie warning next to the little message box.

At this time, we don't have any plans to change this feature but are always more than happy to get feedback.

Flowers
Sparklingbrook · 03/05/2017 13:57

We have asked so many times. I am not sure what the problem is with locking them TBH.

Apparently on other websites reanimating old threads is encouraged. Doesn't work on here.

Stormtreader · 03/05/2017 13:55

I agree, I think if any of the last 10 posts are more than a year ago and not by the OP then it would cut a lot of zombie threads out.