Lock old threads

Thread Starter

tindel

Joined Sep 16, 2012
936
I have seen a surge of folks practicing necromancy on this forum. Is there any way to automatically lock threads that over 1 or 2 months old or so, or have a popup acknowledging to the poster that it's a very old thread? It's just annoying to see these old threads popup from people that I generally assume are noobs or trolls.
 

ericgibbs

Joined Jan 29, 2010
18,766
hi tindel,
We try to weed out new posts to old threads that have one off Necro posts.

When the Necro poster gets replies from members, it is a choice of deleting/locking the posts or creating a new Thread for the Necro poster, with the Title suffix ..#2.

With regard to the Technical Repair Forum, we find that sometimes the repair of a particular piece of equipment, which is giving many posters a problem, is best left open and accessible for new posters.

In general if would help if members do not reply to Necro posters to old Threads.

E
@bertus
 
Last edited:

Thread Starter

tindel

Joined Sep 16, 2012
936
Certainly understand the viewpoint.

I only bring this up because I've responded to old threads and spent time answering those threads, when I haven't realized they are old threads... wasting my precious time - sometimes lots of it. As I get busier in my career, my time is more limited and valuable... I don't want my time wasted. A simple reminder that it's an old thread could save me some time.

I like to come here occasionally for a 'brain break' and try to contribute in meaningful ways, but I want to be efficient.
 

jpanhalt

Joined Jan 18, 2008
11,087
I only bring this up because I've responded to old threads and spent time answering those threads, when I haven't realized they are old threads...
The date for each post is in the upper left corner. Everyone misses that on occasion, but it doesn't seem to happen to most very often. The trolls and noobs are easy to spot.
wasting my precious time - sometimes lots of it. As I get busier in my career, my time is more limited and valuable... I don't want my time wasted. A simple reminder that it's an old thread could save me some time.
Forum software already gives a warning when the last response to a thread is more than 1 year (?) old.
I like to come here occasionally for a 'brain break' and try to contribute in meaningful ways, but I want to be efficient.
If you only come here occasionally for recreation, then that shouldn't be too much time.

I am against locking threads after such a short period as proposed in your original post. Not everyone is one and done. Some have projects on going for several months, even years, and may want to update. Sure, the TS of a locked thread can appeal to the moderators to re-open it, but why should that additional burden be put on the TS to keep you from wasting your time?

I would find a more complex logic less objectionable. Take a poster with less than a certain, relatively small number of posts who hasn't been back in a year. I can understand locking threads started by that poster for a few reasons, if that can be done by forum software.
 

MrChips

Joined Oct 2, 2009
30,708
In my opinion our current practices should suffice.

Basically as I see it the thread belongs to the TS. If the necro-post is relevant to the TS then we should let it stand unless the thread is very old and the TS has been long gone. If the necro-poster is seeking help then we move it to its own thread.

We have a small number of long running threads that member add their appreciation of finding fixes to a common item. These are tagged with SUCCESS STORIES in the thread title.
 

Thread Starter

tindel

Joined Sep 16, 2012
936
1609819788314.png
So I did just notice this, which was helpful on a thread. 365 is a long time, but not unbearable. Would be nice to get this on a little bit younger threads, just as a warning.
 

SillyChamp

Joined Mar 30, 2021
2
Certainly understand the viewpoint.

I only bring this up because I've responded to old threads and spent time answering those threads, when I haven't realized they are old threads... wasting my precious time - sometimes lots of it. As I get busier in my career, my time is more limited and valuable... I don't want my time wasted. A simple reminder that it's an old thread could save me some time.

I like to come here occasionally for a 'brain break' and try to contribute in meaningful ways, but I want to be efficient.
This is so very thorough and clear.

Great work!!
 

Deleted member 115935

Joined Dec 31, 1969
0
The date for each post is in the upper left corner. Everyone misses that on occasion, but it doesn't seem to happen to most very often. The trolls and noobs are easy to spot.

Forum software already gives a warning when the last response to a thread is more than 1 year (?) old.

If you only come here occasionally for recreation, then that shouldn't be too much time.

I am against locking threads after such a short period as proposed in your original post. Not everyone is one and done. Some have projects on going for several months, even years, and may want to update. Sure, the TS of a locked thread can appeal to the moderators to re-open it, but why should that additional burden be put on the TS to keep you from wasting your time?

I would find a more complex logic less objectionable. Take a poster with less than a certain, relatively small number of posts who hasn't been back in a year. I can understand locking threads started by that poster for a few reasons, if that can be done by forum software.
The data of relevance is the one in the upper left corner of the first post,
I totaly agree,

But older threads tend to be multi pages,

I have replied to threads over many years,
if a thread gets replied to , I get a notification, that takes us direct to that post,
QED, I would then have to go back to the fist page to see if its an old thread or not.

If you are relying on users not to reply to old threads, you have to make it easy / obvious if its an old thread.
May be change the colour of a thread after a period of inactivity is a half way house.

Purely from the fact in your own words, it keeps coming up , its still a problem and IMHO needs fixing.
 

Ya’akov

Joined Jan 27, 2019
9,069
It would be nice if posts in an old thread had a visual indication, like the "NEW" that appears on new messages. I find it easy to miss that it is an old thread.
 

ericgibbs

Joined Jan 29, 2010
18,766
hi,
I agree with post #6.
In the Technical Repair Forum especially, as some of the posts are covering repair advice for other owners of the same faulty equipment.

E
 

djsfantasi

Joined Apr 11, 2010
9,156
I have replied to threads over many years,
if a thread gets replied to , I get a notification, that takes us direct to that post,
QED, I would then have to go back to the fist page to see if its an old thread or not.
Typically, you don’t have to go back to the first page. Just scroll up on or two responses. If they are from a long long time ago (and a land far away), then it’s likely a necropost (unless it’s a Success Story or similar thread). Just scrolling up suffices in most cases.
 

Deleted member 115935

Joined Dec 31, 1969
0
Typically, you don’t have to go back to the first page. Just scroll up on or two responses. If they are from a long long time ago (and a land far away), then it’s likely a necropost (unless it’s a Success Story or similar thread). Just scrolling up suffices in most cases.
I love "Typically" ,

This is evidently an on going question over many years, how to stop old posts resurrecting.

If forum boss's wanted to do something to make it easy to flag up old posts, thy could do ,

What ever they have done so far evidently is not working as it "Typically" keeps coming up as a question

QED the system is broken,

Sorry I really do love the Typically wording, I use it a lot ,,,
 

SillyChamp

Joined Mar 30, 2021
2
I love "Typically" ,

This is evidently an on going question over many years, how to stop old posts resurrecting.

If forum boss's wanted to do something to make it easy to flag up old posts, thy could do , Upsers

What ever they have done so far evidently is not working as it "Typically" keeps coming up as a question

QED the system is broken,

Sorry I really do love the Typically wording, I use it a lot ,,,
What a great and, of course, well written post. It`s so useful…
 

MrSalts

Joined Apr 2, 2020
2,767
Typically, you don’t have to go back to the first page. Just scroll up on or two responses. If they are from a long long time ago (and a land far away), then it’s likely a necropost (unless it’s a Success Story or similar thread). Just scrolling up suffices in most cases.
As I understand your post, you are saying:
Scrolling a bit is easy, reading both the body text AND the date of each post is easy.

I’ve tried it, and you are right. I no longer see a need to protect users from “wasting their precious time” as they pop into the site to waste a little time on a brain break.
 

Deleted member 115935

Joined Dec 31, 1969
0
As I understand your post, you are saying:
Scrolling a bit is easy, reading both the body text AND the date of each post is easy.

I’ve tried it, and you are right. I no longer see a need to protect users from “wasting their precious time” as they pop into the site to waste a little time on a brain break.
i wonder why this topic of how can we easily flag up old posts to keeps occurring in the forums ?
 

Deleted member 115935

Joined Dec 31, 1969
0
They are already flagged, the date is on every post since this website started
I think you are wrong @MrSalts, but I agree with your being able to say so.

As I see

The problem of people posting onto old posts, keeps getting flagged ,
thus there must still be a problem
and if the mods wanted to find a better solution for us users they could do ,

Any way, have a great easter vacation,
 

Delta Prime

Joined Nov 15, 2019
1,311
Hello everyone
:) I must admit I am a culprit it's just I get caught up in the conversation that happened years ago it's still viable I'll refrain from thumbs up and anything older than one month very sorry for the inconvenience annoyance.
 
Top