I know this has been done to death, but zombie threads….

@RockingMyFiftiesNot it was about a pushchair. The OP asked whether a particular pushchair was any good. There were no replies. 4 years later the OP gave herself feedback on how good the pushchair was.

One benefit of zombie threads is bringing some classic threads to a new audience. I’ve read some lovely or hilarious classics threads that I would never have found if somebody hadn’t bumped them. I do agree though that in general bumping zombie threads can be annoying.

This shouldn't be hard, should it? I thought it's as simple as putting a permanent sign at the top of threads that haven't been posted on for 6 months upwards. Then anyone can post if they want to and those who don't want to, won't.

It's just so that people will be aware of the date and make an informed decision to read and enjoy or not. I don't get the delay.

I agree. I don't understand what the point is of keeping threads for decades anyway. Why not just delete all threads that are older than, say, 5 years?

@toastofthetown the list is endless! Why start a new thread when the discussion in the old thread is valid and of value to the discussion?

I do however agree that there are some topics that which might upset the OP if they have moved on from an awful situation and don’t need reminding about it. So maybe an OP should be allowed to request that a thread be frozen and new comments turned off.

Ah, but if zombie threads were locked we wouldn’t have had the beauty which was the poster replying to herself on one, not realising years later that she’d been the original poster

I think people are misinterpreting what people are saying about zombie threads. No one’s says it causes them angst or anger or distress of any kind. But to me it’s annoying and frustrating. There’s no value in bumping an old thread and people tend to be either ambivalent to zombie threads, or dislike them so on balance locking them makes sense. Most threads are bumped by accident and though Mumsnet say they flag old threads, clearly it doesn’t work well enough.

@RockingMyFiftiesNot what kind of old thread would be useful and need to be revived? I can see the value in old threads, if you are looking at baby names for example and looking at old threads to see what people think over time. I’ve done that. But if you want to have new discussion about the name, you start your own thread (which will probably get a better response as lots of people will just hide a thread from years ago). If you are an OP who wants to update an old thread, starting a new thread makes more sense as people won’t just reply to the OP saying ‘well maybe the condoms were planted as a joke’ when actually you’ve already started divorce proceedings on page seven. And if it’s a subject you’d rather not discuss on MN again then no one else can bump the thread asking for an update. I just can’t see that locking old threads for new posts would be a worse way of doing things in the vast majority of instances.

Definitely but that’s not just a zombie thread issue, I wouldn’t say. Harmless threads that get upped by accident seem different to me.

When I was 39/40 weeks pregnant I did a Google search about going overdue and some MN threads came up. I nearly upped one from 2007. I think she’d have had the baby by now

It isn’t worth this amount of angst surely!

Sometimes it can be. Especially if people start tagging the OP and it's a sensitive/emotional thread.

I’m with Russell. I honestly can’t understand why people get so angry and upset about it. I upped one yesterday and it was a complete accident. I was searching for something, came across a thread, started reading it and then got distracted by my children and when I came back to the thread I just forgot that it was an old one.

It isn’t worth this amount of angst surely!

Trolling is different but trolls are a bloody nuisance whatever.

I don't know why threads are not locked (thus prohibiting new posts being made to them) once they are 12 months old with no new posts within the past 3 months of that.
So a thread could start in January and the last post would be in August of that year and then by December, the thread is locked for additional posts.
If someone comes back to the thread they should copy & paste the link to the original thread in a new post (linking the discussion) but new comments happen in a new post.

Why oh why is that not possible???????

Even locking posts rather than deleting them would help massively.

Some zombie threads have the OP come back and join in after seeing them ressurected by others so it's not all bad and I wouldn't like them to automatically be closed.

I think they're fine to keep and to allow posting on, but there should be something v obvious to show that they're zombies. A different colour filter or something can't be that hard surely.

[quote TragoCardboardCopper]@Russell19 I loved the t rex thread the first time, it got revived the other day and now the whole thread has been deleted for being a zombie [/quote]
No, it's back! They said they deleted it by accident. Its in classics.

Not all zombie threads are bad though so I don't see why there should be a blanket deletion.
There was one Christmas related resurrected in December (I guess someone has done a search and found a relevant thread). There was an incredibly rude comment about why a zombie thread had been resurrected. But It was still relevant, and the new comments were useful. Definitely not trolling.
Where there was trolling or anything else you object to involved, why wouldn't you just report and get MNHQ to deal with it?

I don't mind them, it's obvious when you read the OP whether it is old or not, so this should prevent people from getting emotionally invested.
In the case of threads with general advice such as the 'Best way of removing skin tags?' / 'Which games for toddler birthday party?' or topics which are not time specific such as 'How did you know it was time to stop drinking?' it doesn't really matter if it is an old thread and someone adding their contribution after a long time of dormancy isn't causing any harm, just adding to a canon of helpful perspectives, possibly even improved by having a long-range sample.
I think the obsession with zombie threads is a tad pedantic in its insistence on efficiency.

Yes I agree. Zombie thread either seem to be revived by spam posts or (and I see this a lot on Baby Names) people finding a post on Google and adding to the thread, despite the child in question being old enough to be a secondary school. It’s almost always annoying.

Locking old threads for new comments won’t stop people searching for or reading old threads. If someone wants to post an update after that time they can start a new thread with a link to the old. It would stop people just replying to the OP of a zombie thread as well. I can’t see a downside but every time it’s raised Mumsnet just shrug it off.

Zombie threads really don't bother me. What's the issue with them?

There's lots of issues with zombie threads.

Firstly they are predominantly bumped by trolls looking to cause a nuisance.

Secondly many of them are sensitive topics, dragging them up again can cause upset to the OP, I've seen thread resurrected with very emotional topics such as miscarriage or affairs.

Thirdly if you want to start a discussion on a specific topic it's mych more sensible to start your own rather than bump an thread that's years old and where people will only reply to the initial post.

I'm sure there's lots more reasons. However as I've said I've never seen a good one for why a thread should be brought back from the dead.

@Russell19 I loved the t rex thread the first time, it got revived the other day and now the whole thread has been deleted for being a zombie

What's the issue

The waste of time and emotional investment. It almost feels like a betrayal to get to the end and suddenly realise …

Zombie threads really don't bother me. What's the issue with them? Is it that the posters issue has probably been resolved now? I loved it when I read the t rex supermarket one again the other day and recent posters didn't get it, I was just laughing harder than the first time 🤣

Nothing will change. I and others have suggested a traffic light system with threads. Green background if under 6 months old, Amber up to a year and then red background after. Seems a simple solution but there doesn't be any desire to do anything.