How to people end up on threads from months/years ago?

[LeaveTheSweetsAlone]

I know I probably don’t use MN in the way a lot of people do - I tend to sit in the active section, engage in some threads and then move on. I don’t tend to go on to specific boards. Every now and again I will get a notification that someone has posted in a thread that died off months or even a year ago. I get that people will scroll down on boards, but it’s mostly AIBU which gets so many threads a day you’d have to scroll for hours to probably end up there.

So how do people just ‘stumble upon’ and resurrect an idle thread like that!!

By searching a topic and not paying attention to the date

Google!

They might Google a subject and the mn thread appears. In fact, that’s how I found out my agonising chest pain was gallbladder related and not in fact a heart attack

Google!

Sometimes (I have yet to work out why) you get "similar threads" rather than "trending" at the bottom of the page.

I've stopped just short of replying, but have wound up on years-old threads this way multiple times.

I get for subjects where you may need advice but honestly it’s usually something like AIBU to think my neighbour should park their car seven streets away because the colour is disturbing my sleep! 😂

Sometimes there are bots, spammers, sales people or trolls that post on an old thread for nefarious reasons so it pops back up in active which then means others may not realise how old it is if they haven’t paid attention to the dates. I made a thread about tutoring months and months ago and it occasionally pops back up when someone selling their services or advertising a website are going through adding their details to old threads.

Ohhhh maybe! I’ve never paid attention to that part!

Really! I’ve never actually seen anyone advertise themselves apart from the morning spam supplement threads haha!

I always get 'similar threads' at the bottom of a thread, and they often aren't recent

Yeah it’s the ones that try and do it subtley that make me laugh, there was one recently that had posted on an old Center Parcs thread I was on and they said something like “don’t you hate it when you’re trying to book activities but they’re sold out?! Try this website that will alert you when a slot comes free, it helped me so much!” (Or something to that effect) not very subtle…

I’m always getting old conversations coming up. I nearly comment then realise they’re from 3 years ago or more!

I’ll probably see it more now you’ve pointed it out! I always thought this was strictly no advertising! Unless they get reported before I see them!

Yeah I think that’s why they try to make it look natural, but fail! If you ever get onto a thread that’s been recently reactivated after being defunct for ages and the most recent post that kicked it off has been removed for not meeting guidelines, it’s often because of something like that.

Didn’t a new mum once ask for pram recommendations on here and then a few years later replied to her own thread with a pram recommendation 🤣

It’s easily done!