MN pleeeeease consider CLOSING OLD THREADS...

[Userguaranteed]

...and only reopen if the OP requests it.

Posters are exhuming threads from ages ago and asking for updates, posting advice, etc. The recent one was from 2012!

I often look at dates now because I've been sucked into zombie threads many times in the past but sometimes I forget, especially if the thread hasn't got too many replies.

Can MN close zombie threads from say a year? There's nothing more to be said - let it go [in Elsa's voice].

@Crockof

Old threads are a complete highlight at the moment, nothing is new in life anyway, it's all been experienced before.

This. I just think it is funny or occasionally interesting when an old thread is resurected

I saw 2 today and fell victim to one.

Someone pointed out that one of the resurrectors on posts today has only posted twice, once today and once on another zombie thread from 2018! So it seems some accounts are just hunting zombie threads or something (that can’t be a coincidence).

@soniamumsnet a post from MN doesn’t really help though because it’s clear posters don’t read the bloody thread to work out they’re years old to start with. It’s absolutely ridiculous the amount that are being resurrected at the moment. It’s honestly not difficult or a strange thing to lock threads after so long, it’s beginning to look like MN don’t actually listen to posters or they’re deliberately leaving zombie posts to get resurrected as a weird way of driving traffic.

@WankmasterBastardDeLaShithead

I think old threads can be really helpful. Occasionally there's an interesting update after a few years!

Entirely agree. Especially long-running chronic health condition ones, where seeing how people progress is very useful.

Yes, I would like this too.

People who aren't familiar with the site will sometimes just post even if the thread is ancient.

It's helpful for posters to make that choice to read a zombie thread or not - so even if not lock it, a permanent conspicuous sign at the top will help, not one that goes away after one poster has given their much needed advice on an issue that's likely to have been solved. Like the 2012 one, posters are still commenting on the issue when the OP has moved on and a lot has changed since then. Thankfully, the OP came back to say so.

Again, the OP can still update their thread and the thread itself isn't deleted. Just to make it easy for every poster - not just the one who found it first - to know that it's an old thread.

Unless I’m remembering wrong, was there an actual cartoon zombie image along with the warning that it was a zombie thread? I vaguely remember that.

The baby names board is the worst for this. Someone googles their own name or heir baby's name and some thread from 2007 pops up and people saying they don't like it, so the new poster gives them a piece of their mind...14 years too late! It's a bit embarrassing for the new poster then and off-putting. If the point of keeping the threads open is to encourage more traffic to the site and then the new posters just get eye rolls because they've posted on a zombie thread...not terribly welcoming is it?

I did this when I was pregnant and for some reason expected to give birth on the 11th. I did not and searched for pregnant and over due date. One came up from 2007 and I nearly posted on it!

But that’s why I love them. A reminder that your overdue pregnancy, non sleeping baby, tantrumming toddler, preteen with attitude, sullen teen - will pass.

We need a warning at the top of the thread saying that it was created a while ago. A zombie warning at the end is neither use nor ornament when you have to read 500 posts before you see it!

Agreed. I don't understand why some MNers are so enraged about reading old threads.

Because any post on them years later is worthless.

Why not make the head in a different colour when not posted on for six months, and keep it that way when posters start it up again.

I know lots say but it's still interesting, valid etc. but then please start a new thread on the subject. Don't think I've ever seen someone who asked for advice resurrect an old thread, even they start a new one and link.

I asked for a banner months and months ago like the MN one above this thread to alert people to it being a zombie thread but a different colour banner and all we get from MNHQ is we'll take it on board. It keeps getting raise that we need something to tell us it is a zombie thread or lock the damn thing with a link to the original thread.

This zombie thread thing is becoming ridiculous. It has been brought up several times on site stuff and nothing gets done. I have been on here over 15 years and never known the zombie threads to be so prolific.

The whole zombie alert is wiped the second someone posts and resurrects the thread, clearly this is being completely ignored.

There's a total piss taker on today resurrecting old threads. It should be a ban as far as I'm concerned.

I’d definitely support a ban on new posters resurrecting zombie threads, because spammers do it all the time.

When it's spammers, it drives me mad. They ruin the boards with about eleventy million zombie threads where they reply with a link to their dodgy business . I think those ones do get banned tbf

They make me doubt my own sanity. I start reading a thread about a house sitter and horses and I'm thinking "i'm sure I've read this before"... get about 20 posts in and the clock the date at the top.

I have actually been very happy being able to see old threads, when I found myself in a difficult situation needing advise on my pregnancy, and found several others who had posted on MN about it. It was an absolute lifeline for me to see some of the advise they had received. So even if MN prevented further posting, I still hope they remain available to read.

I also recently started a thread myself on a niche topic (new medical diagnosis affecting TTC), and hoped to get some advise from others in the same boat. Zero replies so far. I hence was thinking to post underneath a thread from a year or so earlier on a related theme for the same condition, hoping some of the posters there might have advise.

Being able to SEE them is great. Being able to POST on them after 10 years, not so great.

@RaspberryCoulis

Being able to SEE them is great. Being able to POST on them after 10 years, not so great.

Yes, I agree.

Other forum sites do exactly this, so it would be possible from a tech perspective.

@FGSWhatNow

We need a warning at the top of the thread saying that it was created a while ago. A zombie warning at the end is neither use nor ornament when you have to read 500 posts before you see it!

I agree.

I know it's remiss not to always check the date of the OP, but I'm sure I'm not the only one who forgets.

Then those who want tto rear/reread the whole thing can, those who want to look to see if there's an update from the Op can & those who want to ignore can!

@ImpossibleLemon I asked for a banner months and months ago

Sigh, great idea though .

Having seen the current 'I only posted regards' thread on passive aggression, I guess the mnhq standard responses 'we'll be looking into it' and 'we take your comment onboard' is British for a less nice sod it reply .

"Agreed. I don't understand why some MNers are so enraged about reading old threads."

No, it's very puzzling. I can sort of understand why it's irritating to find someone has bumped say a thread about a childcare dilemma when the kids in question now have kids of their own, but others can be relevant and interesting despite their age? Sometimes you see the old-thread-police strut in and start posting ZOMBIE THREAD! ZOMBIE THREAD! when it's about two months old?!

I run a little forum myself, VERY little, under 20 members left now, and we LOVE our old threads and people hunt for a remembered thread and post on it all the time. The other day someone searched out our Slugs! thread to pop in an update and a question - it was begun about fifteen years ago

@ApplesinmyPocket

"Agreed. I don't understand why some MNers are so enraged about reading old threads."

No, it's very puzzling. I can sort of understand why it's irritating to find someone has bumped say a thread about a childcare dilemma when the kids in question now have kids of their own, but others can be relevant and interesting despite their age? Sometimes you see the old-thread-police strut in and start posting ZOMBIE THREAD! ZOMBIE THREAD! when it's about two months old?!

I run a little forum myself, VERY little, under 20 members left now, and we LOVE our old threads and people hunt for a remembered thread and post on it all the time. The other day someone searched out our Slugs! thread to pop in an update and a question - it was begun about fifteen years ago

I agree. I don't think they should be locked.

Because any post on them years later is worthless.

No, they're not. Use a little imagination, or just read this thread?