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Original poster

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

34 replies

AlternativePerspective · 21/01/2022 06:23

I’m aware I’m probably banging my head against a brick wall here as this has been mentioned so many times and MN HQ seem unwilling to do anything about it, but can you please do something about zombie threads?

Yet again there is one running in active from 5 years ago, which is only 2 pages long so how the hell someone happened upon it is beyond me, but now people are replying as if it was posted yesterday.

If you don’t want to delete them, could you put some kind of code in which locks the thread to new comments after a period say 6 months? That way if the OP came back and wanted to update, she could post a new thread but still link the old one, and people could reply to her new thread without resurrecting the zombie one.

OP posts:
MichelleScarn · 21/01/2022 07:52

And there was one about a poster saying they were anxious about visiting a hospital to take food in to their mum as she didn't like the hospital meals, cue all the typical 'you are evil/horrible/cruel/I'd LOVE to do this for her/OMG it's safe to visit hospital now' it was a zombie thread from the initial weeks of the pandemic when so many people were terrified and visitors were banned from wards! Grin

SnowyPetals · 21/01/2022 07:26

I agree, it's such a waste of people's time. Someone revived one from over ten years ago about a boy and his hamster
The OP came back on to say "Thanks for the recent comments but the hamster died a decade ago and my son has left home!" 😂

TheChemicalMother · 21/01/2022 07:21

@ZenNudist

I assume people resurrect zombie threads to troll us and waste our time. I don't know why mumsnet don't lock inactive threads. It must be difficult or they would have done it by now.
They do.

So many Zombies are revived during the night by first time posters.

I am sure it is part of a game.

Posters who don’t RTFT don’t help, either.

ZenNudist · 21/01/2022 07:17

I assume people resurrect zombie threads to troll us and waste our time. I don't know why mumsnet don't lock inactive threads. It must be difficult or they would have done it by now.

PinkWaferBiscuit · 21/01/2022 07:13

Another adding their voice to say I agree but as you said unfortunately I think it's clear MNHQ have zero interest in making any changes so yes I think we're banging our collective heads against a wall.

It's nonsensical that they have not already implemented the very logical suggestions of locking a thread after a set amount of time or only allowing the OP to resurrect a zombie thread. I genuinely have yet to see a sensible reason why this should not happen.

sittingonacornflake · 21/01/2022 07:03

Can you link to threads from the app?

I started a thread that is now in classics about 3.5 years ago about starting out my journey as a lone parent and me and another poster still update each other on it. It would be such a shame if the 6 month rule meant you couldn't do things like that whilst using the app.

If you can link on the app ignore me Blush

Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g · 21/01/2022 06:51

Agree with OP.

LiterallyKnowsBest · 21/01/2022 06:36

I stumbled upon one yesterday from 2009! Lord knows how the guilty party managed to dig it up and pointlessly post on it. It didn’t seem unusual enough to be the first thing Google would offer up.

I reported it, but it’s still up and there doesn’t appear to be anything to stop people posting on it anew, though they’re not now.

MichelleScarn · 21/01/2022 06:28

Absolutely agree! And it's so odd when it's a really niche thing and the zombie poster then must have searched for the thread! Especially when the new post is nothing to do with the op!!