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See all MNHQ comments on this thread

Please consider locking old threads.

80 replies

PriamFarrl · 03/11/2022 22:46

Twice tonight I’ve opened up a thread to find they are ancient. One was 15 years old.
I know it gets asked all the time but please think about locking threads over a year old.

OP posts:
PAFMO · 04/11/2022 07:27

lowgreyclouds · 04/11/2022 03:01

A good solution might just be to have a header on the comment box that says "warning: this thread has not been posted in for 12 months..."

Then the user has been warned, and can continue to post if they feel it is relevant to do so.

In case they haven't seen the one directly underneath the "message" box?

Does it really matter that on a website with archives of hundreds of thousands of threads, a couple every week get resurrected? If you are that invested in policing the website I'd suggest a hobby tbh. I've been here since 2004 and despite having posted on zombies myself by mistake, or pointed then out, I'm not emotionally scarred enough, or bossy enough, to feel that MN must "do something!"

CarPoor · 04/11/2022 07:28

Are zombie threads really an issue? I enjoyed reading the soap one.

It's rare that a zombie thread ever gets going beyond a couple of posts and if it does its probably a new conversation anyway. I really don't get the panic about something being a zombie thread

RedHelenB · 04/11/2022 07:29

PriamFarrl · 03/11/2022 22:46

Twice tonight I’ve opened up a thread to find they are ancient. One was 15 years old.
I know it gets asked all the time but please think about locking threads over a year old.

But sometimes you get updates. Maybe of threads ate more like 10 years old I agree.

PAFMO · 04/11/2022 07:30

CarPoor · 04/11/2022 07:28

Are zombie threads really an issue? I enjoyed reading the soap one.

It's rare that a zombie thread ever gets going beyond a couple of posts and if it does its probably a new conversation anyway. I really don't get the panic about something being a zombie thread

It's posters that just spend all their waking hours on here that can't cope. They feel slighted because they've opened one by mistake.

Beees · 04/11/2022 07:32

Are zombie threads really an issue? I enjoyed reading the soap one

I've seen a few where the subject matter is very upsetting e.g. Bereavement which have been revived and I would imagine that would be very much an issue for the OP should they have spotted that something very sensitive they have posted in the past was being revived without warning.

Obviously sometime the threads are lighthearted but it's just as likely threads which are very serious and personal are resurrected.

Sparklingbrook · 04/11/2022 07:37

Keeping the warning up for a few more posts would be beneficial IMO.

But there's always Hide Thread, and wait a few years. Grin

ShaunaTheSheep · 04/11/2022 10:40

Someone has revived a related thread which contains the expression 'necroposting' . Brilliant.

What some of you don't realise is that back in 2007 MN was a much smaller place with fewer threads and a lot more entertaining and some of us enjoy a bit of nostalgia Smile

PurpleButterflyWings · 04/11/2022 13:33

Completely agree @PriamFarrl ... It gets on my nerves tbh. And I agree with the poster on here, who said only the OP of a thread, should be able to post on an old thread, (when it's been more than a year since it was posted.)

And it should locked to everyone except the OP - a year after the first post, NOT the last post, as someone will come along and re-boot the bastard thing when it's 11 months and 3 weeks old, just for sheer devilment.

If someone wants to see threads 'for nostalgia' then click on the page furthest back. EG... page 442 on site stuff. Stop reviving ancient threads!

www.mumsnet.com/talk/site_stuff?page=442

As a pp said, some people may have posted sensitive and personal stuff 10 years ago, and the issue is pretty much dead and buried, then some numpty comes and brings it all to the surface again. No-one should have the right to resurrect a thread after many years except the OP.

Also, further to that stupid 'I stole the hotel soap' thread, the OP posted a second thread saying she'd had an email from the hotel, just a few hours after the first one. There would have still been plenty of room on the thread, and she did NOT need to start a new one about the same subject! Hmm And NOW some muppet has revived that one too. FUXAKE! Confused

I am also PMSL at the comment that it was OK for the ancient thread to be revived, because it was an 'established poster' who did it? WTAF?!!!!! 🤣 Also, not a single explanation as to why she did it. How ludicrous!

ChessieFL · 04/11/2022 15:42

@PurpleButterflyWings the second soap/hotel thread was started by a different person - it was started by one of the Mumsnetters who emailed the hotel because they were outraged by the treatment of the OP on the original thread. I agree she could have just posted the reply she got on the original thread, but it wasn’t the same OP on both threads.

PriamFarrl · 04/11/2022 17:56

Sparklingbrook · 04/11/2022 07:10

It may have been better to start a new thread with whatever the new info was with links to the zombie ones in the case of the hotel soap debacle.

That’s what I thought. Yes it was interesting that the hotel is up for sale, but it would have been better to start a new thread with a link to the original thread.

OP posts:
ShaunaTheSheep · 04/11/2022 18:20

EG... page 442 on site stuff.

What are these 'page' things you refer to? I don't have pages, I can scroll an entire 1000 page thread in one go. Or is it only us long-standing posters that can do that?

ShaunaTheSheep · 04/11/2022 18:23

BTW I described the soap thread bumper as 'established' to differentiate from spammers and trolls that join/name change to make mischief. Sorry that some of you have got your knickers in a twist about it.

Sparklingbrook · 04/11/2022 20:06

PriamFarrl · 04/11/2022 17:56

That’s what I thought. Yes it was interesting that the hotel is up for sale, but it would have been better to start a new thread with a link to the original thread.

Yes that’s what I would have done in a ‘remember this thread well the hotel is for sale now’.
But when you say stuff like that you get accused of being the thread police. Nee-naw. 😂

ChessieFL · 04/11/2022 21:02

When the pp referred to pages they didn’t mean pages of a thread, they meant pages of a board. So when you go to a board (e.g. Site Stuff) and see the list of threads on page 1 of that board you could then go to page 442 of that board and see whatever threads or so old they’re on that page.

CourtneeLuv · 04/11/2022 21:15

What difference does it make how old the thread is? Surely a topic can still be discussed however old the op is.

ShaunaTheSheep · 04/11/2022 21:31

ChessieFL · 04/11/2022 21:02

When the pp referred to pages they didn’t mean pages of a thread, they meant pages of a board. So when you go to a board (e.g. Site Stuff) and see the list of threads on page 1 of that board you could then go to page 442 of that board and see whatever threads or so old they’re on that page.

Nope, no pages in topics either. Just scrolling for days.

PriamFarrl · 04/11/2022 22:56

CourtneeLuv · 04/11/2022 21:15

What difference does it make how old the thread is? Surely a topic can still be discussed however old the op is.

What annoys me about it, which wasn’t the case recently but has happened before, is when someone revives a thread that is 10 year old asking for advice about something. You know about that topic so based on just the OP you run off a load of advice and recommendations, just to discover that the thread was ancient and you’ve wasted your time.

Now yes, it could be said that you should check the date, or read the full thread before answering but sometimes threads are like ‘urgent, does anyone know how to get chewing gum out of hair’ and so you answer quickly.

All it would take would be a thing saying that the OP is over a year old and are you sure you want to post?

OP posts:
CourtneeLuv · 04/11/2022 23:25

But surely that's not a waste if time because people searching for that problem in the future may find it.

I don't see the issue.

SkylightSkylight · 04/11/2022 23:32

Hanswurst · 04/11/2022 07:19

I don’t agree with locking threads.
I will never forget the poster whose DH had sadly passed away. IIRC they had teenage children, and with their blessing if I remember rightly, OP had just started dating again and was really torn about her feelings. I never forget her describing having a breakdown and leaving the restaurant sobbing during the first date because her DH that had passed away had always let her order a desert and, knowing she might fancy something else ordered a different desert and offered her a swap when they food arrived. It was so heartbreaking, you could feel her anguish. Anyway, new man was very lovely and understanding, and very respectful about OPs feelings for her DH. She revived her thread years later to say they were now married and she had their new baby sleeping next to her. Her previous DH would always have a place in her heart but she had found peace and happiness again. It still brings a tear to my eye!
Likewise, I read another thread just yesterday where the OP had had a positive pregnancy test after decades of infertility, and had revived the thread to say yes, it really had been true and she now had a healthy baby boy.
I don’t see the problem with zombie threads at all and it doesn’t bother me to trawl through a few pointless ones by accident if it means I can continue coming across posts like the above ones.

Yep!!! There are far better reasons NOT to lick threads than there are to lock them, but I have asked MNHQ if they couldn't just change the colour of threads where the opening post is, say, 2 years old (or older) just to alert you to the date of them.

ErrolTheDragon · 04/11/2022 23:58

What annoys me about it, which wasn’t the case recently but has happened before, is when someone revives a thread that is 10 year old asking for advice about something. You know about that topic so based on just the OP you run off a load of advice and recommendations, just to discover that the thread was ancient and you’ve wasted your time.

Ah well, others of us get annoyed by people who post a load of advice having not bothered to RTFT.

YetAnotherBeckyMumsnet · 05/11/2022 12:23

Hi @PriamFarrl we get how annoying it is to post on a thread only to realise it's a zombie. As previous posters have mentioned, sometimes the OP comes back to update people as we've seen on a few occasions this week - and so sometimes there's a really good reason for bringing an old thread back.

In any case, if you see a zombie thread that should probably stay that way, let us know and we can close it to new posts.

WeBuiltThisBuffetOnSausageRoll · 05/11/2022 13:30

I also enjoy the resurrection of a thread, and the constant zombie warning messages unnecessary. Why do posters get so upset if the subject matter makes for an interesting read?

I agree. There are some threads that don't age well, although I still think the problem there (as so often) is people who don't bother to RTFT - or even just the OP's posts - and wade in with outdated or now-inappropriate comments; but that's perfectly possible with a thread that was brand new yesterday but has since moved on.

We all talk about mansplaining, but there are lots of people of both sexes who assume the psychic ability to know what everybody else is talking about, without feeling the need to see what they've been talking about - coupled with the assumption that their pearls of wisdom will be original and more apposite to the discussion than anything that could possibly have been already made by people who are in the discussion.

Thus, if people are determined to just to blunder straight in at the end of a discussion, it doesn't really matter how old the thread is, as they're still going to post inappropriate and unhelpful responses. Without a way of forcing people to RTFT/all the OP's messages, this is always going to happen. The topic comes up frequently, but usually only results in angry Don't-RTFTers asserting the vastly superior value of their time and insight over other people's. In particularly sensitive cases, MNHQ do plaster a big obvious warning into the title - such as the recent thread where the OP was concerned about her dying DM and then the inevitable sadly happened.

Some people do definitely want to just make a name for themselves as zombie-hunters, though, and seem to quite like the sound of their own voices. Many of the zombie threads are still funny, interesting or helpful, however old they are. As an outsider on a huge anonymous forum, it doesn't really make a big difference whether a stranger had a big entertaining, spectacular argument with a CF neighbour over parking today or ten years ago. Obviously, nobody will be adding specific new advice to the OP anymore, unless they're a committed Don't-RTFRer. Even if an OP is discussing a baby name and the original recipient of that name has now gone on to make them a grandparent, other people are still having babies and choosing names for them, so it's hardly completely out of date, is it - unless maybe it was a time-travel thread from decades before MN even began and somebody was looking for a cutesy nickname for bc name Adolf.

WeBuiltThisBuffetOnSausageRoll · 05/11/2022 13:35

Along with the clear warning that a thread hasn't been posted on for over a year, I'd also like to see another warning that wading straight in at the end without having even got the gist of the thread so far is rude, arrogant and very likely to prove useless, irrelevant, insensitive and/or upsetting.

The only problem, though - as with so many areas in life - that the only people who ever bother to read signs and notices are not the ones for whom they were needed in the first place.

Gingernaut · 05/11/2022 13:40

Too many posters fail to recognize that the thread's a zombie.

Even if the resurrectionist has the best of intentions, most of the posters who follow answer the original post and carry on regardless.

PriamFarrl · 10/11/2022 22:13

The last two threads I’ve opened have been zombie threads that have had the reanimating post deleted. Why someone can’t lock the thread at the same time as deleting the post I don’t know.

It wasn’t anything that would still be interesting or informative.

OP posts: