There surely must be a way to prevent this MNHQ?

[Arregaithel]

A thread (or any old threads) originating from 2021 being posted on.

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/4272427-To-think-that-people-who-keep-their-curtains-closed-all-day-must-be-ill-or-hiding-something?page=22

Minor irritation obviously

There must be a way, but for some reason MN have never implemented it, despite it being frequently requested.

Why would they, when any activity on the site is good for advertisers?

Yes, they eventually threw us a crumb with the 'Zombie' alert when someone goes to bump a thread.

But I think they should be locked after about a year, so they can be read for reference but not posted on.

If an OP wants to update they can start a new thread linking to it.

call me a cynic @AmyDuPlantier? 😉

As soon as a thread reaches 1000 posts it's locked down automatically.

Ergo, threads which exceed a certain time limit should also be shut down (still searchable obviously)

Yes threads lock at 1000 posts but if it’s a lively thread there will be a thread 2/3/4, etc. The activity continues regardless if it’s a thread worth keeping alive.

Morning @Arregaithel and others,

Yes, this is something that comes up from time to time and we've not yet found a solution that pleases everyone.

We do think it would be a shame if no thread could be resurrected. Sometimes an OP comes back with an update years later and that's always welcome. Other times, someone happens upon a thread and wants to post on it and the thread is happily resurrected. We do understand that sometimes people end up commenting as if a thread is in 'real time' when it's historical and that can be confusing, but mostly they're like the one you've linked to here where it doesn't make an tangible difference to the discussion whether you know it was started in 2021 or not.

There is, as others have pointed out, a warning that you're about to post on a thread that's old and then for the next few posts, there's an alert that this is a zombie thread, so hopefully people are aware this is the case at least and can decide to start a new thread instead if they prefer.

But as we said, we know it's something that not everyone enjoys and we're always happy to have feedback on it and will think about it here at MNHQ.

It must be technically possible for only the OP to be able to resurrect a thread that hasn't been posted on for a specific period? That would mean old threads get locked to pointlessness but OPs can come back with updates.

There is, as others have pointed out, a warning that you're about to post on a thread that's old and then for the next few posts, there's an alert that this is a zombie thread, so hopefully people are aware this is the case at least and can decide to start a new thread instead if they prefer.

@HebeMumsnet that doesn't show if you are only reading hte thread. You can read hundreds f posts before you get to the end of the thread to post, and only then realise it is a zombie thread.

This also happens when someone finds a thread asking a vaguely similar question to theirs, adds their question after 500 posts, and then everyone answers the 8 year old question relating to a child who has now left home, got married and had kids, rather than the new question at the end.

The really annoying ones are where someone has decided to spam the thread after 8 years, and the spam gets reported and deleted. The thread is re-launched into active, with nothing new to show.

The only case where it would seem reasonable to resurrect an old thread is if the OP wants to report back, and surely this could be programmed in somehow?

It would be a simple enough programming job to lock a thread to everyone except moderators and the OP if it hasn't been posted on for say 3 months. It could either be done in the front end or as a regular database job that checks/sets a flag, obviously I don't know what platform MN is built on but given threads can currently be locked or hidden the facility must be there. The OP can then post if they have an update but the thread won't fill up with crap from posters demanding updates or resurrecting something from years ago.

I (and many others) have said this many times before though and there's apparently no will to do it - presumably it isn't something that's sufficiently annoying that people will leave over it so MN don't care. The old thread flag is pointless, people don't see it or do see it and don't care - a lot of people are unable to even do something as basic as "See all" on the OPs posts which in itself leads to a lot of dross and misunderstanding.

I never mind seeing old threads revived - often very interesting. If I found it very annoying I would be careful to look at the dates on the OP. Maybe these could be highlighted on older threads if that would help people to notice and decide not to read.

I don't get what the problem is. If you don't like old threads, don't go on them. Why the need to stop everyone else?

Because it's easy to not realise it's an old one if someone has already revived it and then you get invested when there's no chance of the OP returning.

And people comment on an old thread with a related but new problem hoping for advice that hardly anyone sees because they just start at the OP and answer that so the newbie doesn't get what they need.

Keeping threads open benefits nobody except possibly the OP if they want to give an update which is why anything not posted on in 3 months should be locked to anyone except the OP. And then once the OP has unlocked it anyone else can comment again.

"Keeping threads open benefits nobody except possibly the OP"

Well, no, it benefits anyone who enjoys the old threads. There are plenty of new threads where the OP disappears so that's hardly a reason.

I bump old threads occasionally because I want to encourage oP to update.

I wouldn’t mind it if there was a permanent zombie thread warning. So something like it having something at the beginning of the op saying that this thread is years old.
Sometimes you can read the op asking for advice, know that you can help and it’s only when you get a few posts in and someone says ‘it’s the summer holidays soon’ and you realise that it’s ages old.

In the old days, the active convos list had the date the thread was started with title, number of posts etc. That was really helpful, but was got rid of when MN made some of their 'improvements'. Maybe that could be re-introduced?