Bloody zombie threads

[NigellaAwesome]

I've

Sorry, dropped phone and it posted. I'll try again. I've had 3 this week alone come up on threads I'm on. 2 from 2008 and one from 2012.

Is there any way that they can be prevented from new messages being added after a certain amount of time. Or perhaps only the op can reanimate if they are posting an update?

So annoying and pointless

... been caught by them clearly

Click off and try another thread? People who contribute to zombie threads not only haven't rtft but haven't bothered to read the OP as well which is even worse!

Sometimes they're useful if it's an ongoing issue. Some forums actively encourage the use of old threads rather than starting new ones on the sane topic as ppl tend to post the same things every time...

I disagree that they should be removed or anything. Rather people should look at the date on the posts. Or, the 'zombie thread' notification should be at the top of the page not the bottom.

You do get a warning though, don't you? Saying something like 'this thread hasn't been posted on for a while are you sure?'

But people just ignore it

a) either for the same reasons that they don't bother to RTFT
or
b) they're trolling

I think the warning only comes up for the first poster to repost. Then there are about 10 further posts from people who don't know it's a zombie.

Some are about the most inane things. I have one about someone extension from over 10 years ago, another about the baby name Guy

How does that even happen? Someone must have searched for the thread and thought 'oh, there's a thread from 11 years ago, I'll post on that'

I'm not feeling very tolerant this morning.

Do we get trolls on mumsnet then do we?

Hi OP

Thanks for the suggestion. We do have a warning that alerts posters to a thread being a zombie - we'll discuss with tech and see if there's anything else we can do.

We've spoken about closing them down before etc but it's just not something we can consider, but we're always happy to discuss any suggestions.

Thanks Lily. So my suggestions:

1. After a certain period (say 12 months) the threads are still visible, but locked. Only the OP can reopen the thread beyond that period, at which point others can also post. (thinking of providing updates etc)

1. The 'this is a zombie thread message' remains on the 'add message box' indefinitely for all subsequent posters. At the moment, the zombie thread alert is only there for the first zombie reanimation poster, then it disappears.

1. That there is a little zombie icon next to the thread title so that people can tell without even opening the thread.

Whaddya think?

This issue has been ‘discussed with tech’ a million times and nothing changes.

I have suggested a colour change for the background of the thread. So green if active within a month or so, Amber if active in last year and red if not active for over a year. But nothing ever changes with it.

There are times though when there is a thread in trending that is years old but has not had any new posts on it so no idea how it ends up in trending. People then think it is current and start posting on it.

Magenta. I like your colour coded idea.

One of the reanimated threads that has popped up on 'Threads I'm on' is about someone whose cat was run over in 2014. I can't imagine how upsetting it must be for the OP for that to pop up on her threads I'm on out of the blue.