I know this has been done to death, but zombie threads….

[AlternativePerspective]

I’m aware I’m probably banging my head against a brick wall here as this has been mentioned so many times and MN HQ seem unwilling to do anything about it, but can you please do something about zombie threads?

Yet again there is one running in active from 5 years ago, which is only 2 pages long so how the hell someone happened upon it is beyond me, but now people are replying as if it was posted yesterday.

If you don’t want to delete them, could you put some kind of code in which locks the thread to new comments after a period say 6 months? That way if the OP came back and wanted to update, she could post a new thread but still link the old one, and people could reply to her new thread without resurrecting the zombie one.

I think people are misinterpreting what people are saying about zombie threads. No one’s says it causes them angst or anger or distress of any kind. But to me it’s annoying and frustrating. There’s no value in bumping an old thread and people tend to be either ambivalent to zombie threads, or dislike them so on balance locking them makes sense. Most threads are bumped by accident and though Mumsnet say they flag old threads, clearly it doesn’t work well enough.

@RockingMyFiftiesNot what kind of old thread would be useful and need to be revived? I can see the value in old threads, if you are looking at baby names for example and looking at old threads to see what people think over time. I’ve done that. But if you want to have new discussion about the name, you start your own thread (which will probably get a better response as lots of people will just hide a thread from years ago). If you are an OP who wants to update an old thread, starting a new thread makes more sense as people won’t just reply to the OP saying ‘well maybe the condoms were planted as a joke’ when actually you’ve already started divorce proceedings on page seven. And if it’s a subject you’d rather not discuss on MN again then no one else can bump the thread asking for an update. I just can’t see that locking old threads for new posts would be a worse way of doing things in the vast majority of instances.

Ah, but if zombie threads were locked we wouldn’t have had the beauty which was the poster replying to herself on one, not realising years later that she’d been the original poster

@toastofthetown the list is endless! Why start a new thread when the discussion in the old thread is valid and of value to the discussion?

I do however agree that there are some topics that which might upset the OP if they have moved on from an awful situation and don’t need reminding about it. So maybe an OP should be allowed to request that a thread be frozen and new comments turned off.

@CheesusWept

Ah, but if zombie threads were locked we wouldn’t have had the beauty which was the poster replying to herself on one, not realising years later that she’d been the original poster

Oh yes! This was also really funny! Wonder if that's still going.

Morning, all.

As we posted yesterday on the other thread about this: thanks for your feedback about this issue. Just to let you know, we are listening to you, and reviewing all your comments.

Please do bear with us a bit longer - this is definitely something which is on our radar.

@CheesusWept

Ah, but if zombie threads were locked we wouldn’t have had the beauty which was the poster replying to herself on one, not realising years later that she’d been the original poster

That sounds vaguely familiar, can you remember what it was about?

I agree. I don't understand what the point is of keeping threads for decades anyway. Why not just delete all threads that are older than, say, 5 years?

This shouldn't be hard, should it? I thought it's as simple as putting a permanent sign at the top of threads that haven't been posted on for 6 months upwards. Then anyone can post if they want to and those who don't want to, won't.

It's just so that people will be aware of the date and make an informed decision to read and enjoy or not. I don't get the delay.

@RockingMyFiftiesNot it was about a pushchair. The OP asked whether a particular pushchair was any good. There were no replies. 4 years later the OP gave herself feedback on how good the pushchair was.

One benefit of zombie threads is bringing some classic threads to a new audience. I’ve read some lovely or hilarious classics threads that I would never have found if somebody hadn’t bumped them. I do agree though that in general bumping zombie threads can be annoying.