Zombie threads

[mnmnddddd]

Please can posts that haven't been commented on in (eg) 3 months be read_only?
Other forums do this to stop zombie threads, so there's no obvious reason why MN couldn't.

But quite often old threads are resurrected for good reasons, rather than just because someone has failed to notice how old they are. Eg, a new development in a news story, or a good discussion of some subject a poster wants additional details from.

Disagree. I've had someone resurrect an old thread of mine to ask for advice, and I've done similar. It's really helpful.

I think the message about 'this thread was last posted 3 years ago' etc should last beyond the initial resurrection, though. Perhaps after 3 months a note above the 'post' box should remind people to look at the date the thread was started.

(Don't know why people don't do this already tbh)

Hi there @mnmnddddd. This is something that comes up a lot so you're definitely not alone in feeling like this. Generally, after some consideration, we've always felt that it was best to leave threads open, mostly for the reasons outlined by others above. But we're always open to new ideas. If people have strong thoughts, please post them here and we will keep reading and discussing options.

I don’t see what the problem is with old threads. Surely it’s better to be able to find, read and pick up an existing thread if you need to than start the same topic off anew constantly. I find it more annoying seeing the same or similar threads constantly restarted tbh.

One issue is that a lot of people, for whatever reason, will only ever reply to the first post of a thread. You can point out that when a thread is several pages long events are likely to have moved on, but they don’t understand or don’t care.

So if someone adds a post to the bottom of an old thread, these twits will often ignore it & reply to the opening post from maybe 2 or 3 years ago.

Can zombie threads be flagged in some way, perhaps in the thread title?

I can appreciate the reasons to leave threads open and available for comment, but flagging them would mean people who find them annoying could steer clear.

Depends on the topic, surely? I've just posted on a two year old thread on Telly Addicts to say the second series of the tv show being discussed is starting soon. Technically that would be a zombie thread but seems logical to update the original thread to me.

There's already the date posted, right next to the title! I think if that's "background noise" to some people, it would also become so adding it to every title (there would be hundreds of thousands of such threads).

People are clicking on zombie threads when they see the list of "similar threads" underneath one they're reading.

A more prominent message, for more people, before allowing people to post on it might work.

It’s really irritating. It would be better if only the OP could re-open it for an update. There’s been loads recently where someone has inexplicably commented on an old thread with no apparent reason.

I think many of them get resurrected because they’re shown at the bottom of a current thread as “You may be interested in…” That’s a bot problem.

But just today on a Books thread, a reader came back weeks later to say how much they’d enjoyed persevering with the book in question.

This.

So then you get 20 new people giving advice to an OP about something that was resolved a year ago.

Sometimes it's people in same situation asking for advice.

I agree it is sometimes appropriate to resurrect a Zombie thread, but @KellyMumsnet it would be really great if the warning that pops up (see image) could persist for 24hrs because so often once it's in ActiveThreads there are loads of new responses that are just answering the dilemma in the OP that was resolved months or years ago. Obviously a slightly adjusted wording after the first Resurrect but something like "Heads Up - this thread has been recently resurrected and the original Opening Post was a long time ago - does that change how you respond?"

They are quite often resurrected by advertising spam or similar, and of course it is only that post that gets the zombie thread message. Other people finding it then don't get a message and respond regardless. Bit of a pain really.

Perhaps it might be useful if all ancient threads can only be re-started by the OP of that thread and nobody else.

Yes but that’s not what the PP is talking about. I’ve seen loads this past fortnight where people are just posting inane shite on old threads like ”my husband would never do that”.

But even in your scenario, the culture on MN is to start your own thread not hijack a zombie, it won’t result in good advice as PPs have said as people won’t read the full thread before posting and so the OP gets more responses that they don’t need and the PP needing help now will sometimes get ignored or get 1 reply. It’s not helpful for anyone.

It is obviously different with TV threads or other long running threads.

I think this is a great idea.

Often if I have a question about a thing, I'll do a google search with the added term "mumsnet". That often leads me to some usefuls info, and sometimes I have questions about it. I'm glad MN keep them open.

I like zombie threads staying open, especially ones about books, or woo stories about places. They are very relaxing and have the timeless feeling of an old-fashioned community library.

I've never once seen that pop-up, which suggests to me that, either it's not obvious enough, or not persistent enough.
If only the first person to try CPR on the thread sees it, it's reliant on the weakest link.

Yes currently only the Dr Frankenstein sees the warning, and if they ignore it no one else sees anything so if they don't notice the date on the op there's nothing to stop it.

Can you highlight the text of the original post so it is obvious it is a zombie post?