Zombie threads. How I'd do it.

[LurkingHusband]

• Remove the warning, since it's clearly useless.

• When someone posts on zombie thread, instead of immediately displaying it, hold it as pending and

-email the poster, warning them they have posted on a zombie thread, and requiring them to click a link to confirm the post. (The same sort of feature that a lot of forums have when you sign up).

This would preserve the ability to post on zombie threads (which may be useful in the grand scheme of things) but act as a brake when new members, dizzy with the heady air of Mumsnet, find themselves overwhelmed and posting madly.

(Even were this system to be introduced, there would still be unwitting resurrections. I speak as someone who once coded a 10-step process for deleting a file from a system I worked on, only to get a helpdesk call that - despite being asked 10 times if they were sure, the user managed to "accidentally" press delete.)

I think it would be much easier to lock them 6 months after the last post

That way they're still there for referral, but people are unable to randomly resurrect them.

I agree, I thinking locking the thread after a certain time will prevent some spamming especially ones about kitchens! And the sex pests searching key topics too.

When I see a 'blast from the past' named poster on a thread and see that some twit has posted something insensitive on it, it can make me really peeved until I've reported it

I agree, locking them would be for the best.

Nobody needs to post on a 5 yr old thread about farts, for example.

If someone comes across a really old thread there is no point posting on it. There is nothing someone can usefully add to a conversation that everyone else stopped having several years ago.

If someone had a burning desire to offer advice on first day fears of a child who actually started school ten years ago, they could always start a thread about it and link the locked thread.

Keep them as a resource, sure, but there is no value to them being resurrected years later.

Create an archive. If it's ok for threads in chat to go 'poof' in 90 days then it should be fine to accept that all other threads will be archived, locked but readable in, say, 6 months.

People could create a new thread and link to the archived thread if necessary.

Hi everyone - Thank you for your feedback, tis much appreciated. So far, the warning has cut down on the number of zombie threads resurrected, but we can see where you're all coming from and will take a look at all your suggestions.

What would be good, as a minimum, would be to have the zombie warning at the top of the thread instead of the end. I don't check dates automatically and it's quite irritating to read through a thread and be prepared to post a response only to realise at the last minute that it's a zombie.

The problem is zombie doesnt show up on mobile ap.