to wonder how people find zombie threads?

[Bagamoyo1]

I keep seeing them! Threads from years ago, that someone has posted on. And not just "any update OP?" posts. People are posting on them as if they're current, having not noticed the date.
It's easy to miss the date of course, but I wonder how people find the thread to resurrect it in the first place, given that it must be pages and pages down the screen!
If you've ever accidentally been the first poster on a zombie thread, how did you discover the thread?

By searching a particular topic. They don't appear in date order.

Probably by Googling then just clicking on the link without checking the date.

Google led me here with the results of an old thread. I didn't post right away though and didn't bump anything.

Yes I can see that happening, but some of the topics are so random, I wonder how people come to be googling them.

That reminds me that the carpet fitter thread is due a resurrection. Haven’t seen it in the last few months.

It's often bots who presumably are looking for a thread with specific terms to spam. If you google or search for a thread you get a warning when you try to post that it's a zombie thread.

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/mumsnet_classics/752184-hauck-stroller-pound-25-Asda?msgid=91816793

This is my favourite zombie thread ever

Yes, I saw that someone resurrected a thread from 2008 the other day!

Oh yes! And with the most appropriate username ever too...

Yes there’s one now about a pregnant lurcher. Posted in 2014.

Who was googling that???

That was for @MagentaRocks

@PinkWaterBottle2021

That reminds me that the carpet fitter thread is due a resurrection. Haven’t seen it in the last few months.

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/mumsnet_classics/1451929-Help-Carpet-fitter-has-just-stormed-out-AIBU

Sadly at 1000 posts...

Example of the warning message.

@Somethingsnappy

That was for *@MagentaRocks*

I laugh every time I see ‘is there an Ecco in here’ 😅

@ShowOfHands that explains it!

@EdgeOfACoin

Yes, I saw that someone resurrected a thread from 2008 the other day!

There was one from 2003 the other day. I didn’t even know MN existed in 2003!

@Bagamoyo1

Yes I can see that happening, but some of the topics are so random, I wonder how people come to be googling them.

Well we all have different thoughts and search different things. Can’t be that hard to figure out!

The search can be a bit approximate at best - sometimes you just see something in the results that piques your interest and you don’t notice it’s a zombie.

Also I reckon some people do it on purpose.

I quite often google looking for mumsnet threads - for advice, not to post, like ‘mumsnet chickenpox’ or ‘mumsnet weaning’ - some ancient threads come up!

Advertising bots post on an old but vaguely related thread, their post gets removed, and then because the thread’s been posted on, it comes to the top… and then everyone starts replying to the OP.

It would be great if MNHQ could lock old threads from which they remove spam, so it can’t keep happening.

Google usually brings me to a zombie thread.

Google also usually brings me to a massively zombie thread. I think sometimes it is very easy to miss the small date at the top left.

Some are spammers (which I report report report) but some people post things like, "I know it's been 2 years but I was wondering how you were getting on OP" when the teenager is probably at uni by now or the pregnancy is probably already out of nappies...

@PinkWaterBottle2021

That reminds me that the carpet fitter thread is due a resurrection. Haven’t seen it in the last few months.

Yes! LOL!!!!!!!!

I am fond of some of the old Classic threads and I enjoy rereading them. I'd never post on them, though. I wouldn't like to break the zombie thread rule!

Some of the threads that I'm following or I'm on would read as though the OP was going to come back and provide an update or conclusion though I wouldn't do that on a thread that was years old, just a few months. I don't know when a thread goes from being 'live' or 'current' to being a zombie. Is there some cut off or duration?