MN pleeeeease consider CLOSING OLD THREADS...

I vote for no.
If I want help with something, I often put the question into google and add mumsnet.
Just about always, helpful advice from MN, and yes it may be 3 year old advice, pops up.

MN is a very valuable resource.

I understand where people are coming from on this thread, but MN is by parents for parents.

@soniamumsnet

Hi - just dropping in to say thanks for the feedback. Where possible we post when a 'zombie' thread has been resurrected, but we're happy to take your comments on board.

As has been said before (many times!!) the zombie warning goes off after a few posts.

I've asked before and never got an answer - why can't they be a different colour?

No, they're not. Use a little imagination, or just read this thread?

Of course they are how can your post help someone with their situation 9 years later?

*no most not mother

Mother have valuable information in and sometimes means you don't have to post yourself as can already get the advice. It's not hard to check the date, if you don't as a mistake then oh well it's not the end of the world

Because any post on them years later is worthless.

No, they're not. Use a little imagination, or just read this thread?

"Agreed. I don't understand why some MNers are so enraged about reading old threads."

No, it's very puzzling. I can sort of understand why it's irritating to find someone has bumped say a thread about a childcare dilemma when the kids in question now have kids of their own, but others can be relevant and interesting despite their age? Sometimes you see the old-thread-police strut in and start posting ZOMBIE THREAD! ZOMBIE THREAD! when it's about two months old?!

I run a little forum myself, VERY little, under 20 members left now, and we LOVE our old threads and people hunt for a remembered thread and post on it all the time. The other day someone searched out our Slugs! thread to pop in an update and a question - it was begun about fifteen years ago

@ImpossibleLemon I asked for a banner months and months ago

Sigh, great idea though .

Having seen the current 'I only posted regards' thread on passive aggression, I guess the mnhq standard responses 'we'll be looking into it' and 'we take your comment onboard' is British for a less nice sod it reply .

I know it's remiss not to always check the date of the OP, but I'm sure I'm not the only one who forgets.

Then those who want tto rear/reread the whole thing can, those who want to look to see if there's an update from the Op can & those who want to ignore can!

Other forum sites do exactly this, so it would be possible from a tech perspective.

Being able to SEE them is great. Being able to POST on them after 10 years, not so great.

I have actually been very happy being able to see old threads, when I found myself in a difficult situation needing advise on my pregnancy, and found several others who had posted on MN about it. It was an absolute lifeline for me to see some of the advise they had received. So even if MN prevented further posting, I still hope they remain available to read.

I also recently started a thread myself on a niche topic (new medical diagnosis affecting TTC), and hoped to get some advise from others in the same boat. Zero replies so far. I hence was thinking to post underneath a thread from a year or so earlier on a related theme for the same condition, hoping some of the posters there might have advise.

They make me doubt my own sanity. I start reading a thread about a house sitter and horses and I'm thinking "i'm sure I've read this before"... get about 20 posts in and the clock the date at the top.

When it's spammers, it drives me mad. They ruin the boards with about eleventy million zombie threads where they reply with a link to their dodgy business . I think those ones do get banned tbf

I’d definitely support a ban on new posters resurrecting zombie threads, because spammers do it all the time.

There's a total piss taker on today resurrecting old threads. It should be a ban as far as I'm concerned.

I asked for a banner months and months ago like the MN one above this thread to alert people to it being a zombie thread but a different colour banner and all we get from MNHQ is we'll take it on board. It keeps getting raise that we need something to tell us it is a zombie thread or lock the damn thing with a link to the original thread.

This zombie thread thing is becoming ridiculous. It has been brought up several times on site stuff and nothing gets done. I have been on here over 15 years and never known the zombie threads to be so prolific.

The whole zombie alert is wiped the second someone posts and resurrects the thread, clearly this is being completely ignored.

Why not make the head in a different colour when not posted on for six months, and keep it that way when posters start it up again.

I know lots say but it's still interesting, valid etc. but then please start a new thread on the subject. Don't think I've ever seen someone who asked for advice resurrect an old thread, even they start a new one and link.

Agreed. I don't understand why some MNers are so enraged about reading old threads.

Because any post on them years later is worthless.

We need a warning at the top of the thread saying that it was created a while ago. A zombie warning at the end is neither use nor ornament when you have to read 500 posts before you see it!

I did this when I was pregnant and for some reason expected to give birth on the 11th. I did not and searched for pregnant and over due date. One came up from 2007 and I nearly posted on it!

But that’s why I love them. A reminder that your overdue pregnancy, non sleeping baby, tantrumming toddler, preteen with attitude, sullen teen - will pass.

The baby names board is the worst for this. Someone googles their own name or heir baby's name and some thread from 2007 pops up and people saying they don't like it, so the new poster gives them a piece of their mind...14 years too late! It's a bit embarrassing for the new poster then and off-putting. If the point of keeping the threads open is to encourage more traffic to the site and then the new posters just get eye rolls because they've posted on a zombie thread...not terribly welcoming is it?

Unless I’m remembering wrong, was there an actual cartoon zombie image along with the warning that it was a zombie thread? I vaguely remember that.