Suggestion Revival of old threads

[spacemanspiff1974]

Just a suggestion, but would it be possible to prevent someone from reviving a 6 month or older thread until they have a certain number of posts under their belt. I've seen too many brand new posters search for an old topic and comment on it even though the last post was months to years ago.

Just a thought.

 

[HowardE]

Is it bad that people revive old threads? (just curious what you think)

 

[emcbride81]

Is it bad that people revive old threads? (just curious what you think)

I see no harm in it. I think there are threads that do not need to be revived, but others could be very informative and new information could be useful. I think the diversity of the topics on this board would make it to difficult to have an all-encompassing rule for thread revival. On more than one occasion I have searched a thread and almost brought it back from the dead, but didn't due to social pressure!

 

[El Orans]

Just a suggestion, but would it be possible to prevent someone from reviving a 6 month or older thread until they have a certain number of posts under their belt.

We can have threads locked automatically after a specified period but it would be difficult to put a restriction like that in.

Please note: The last reply in this thread was more than 53 month(s) ago.

All threads that haven't been active for a month or longer display a similar message at the top.

I've seen too many brand new posters search for an old topic and comment on it even though the last post was months to years ago.

Damned if you do, damned if you don't... Many users encourage new members to do a but they shouldn't add their questions to the thread. :huh:

 

[HowardE]

I see no harm in it. I think there are threads that do not need to be revived, but others could be very informative and new information could be useful. I think the diversity of the topics on this board would make it to difficult to have an all-encompassing rule for thread revival. On more than one occasion I have searched a thread and almost brought it back from the dead, but didn't due to social pressure!

I agree that there's no harm (IMO).

I do feel that sometime social pressure is against it. However, with a growth rate of 80+ new members daily, it's hard to restrict people from digging back in the past.

As El Orans stated, often times new members are encouraged to "use the search" which could be taken as "don't ask your question".

There was a time when we were all new users to ScubaBoard and/or forums in general. I think we should be encouraging new members to post, at whatever cost... even if that is the horrible inconvenience of seeing an old thread revived.

 

[drl]

Too right, El Orans. It's probably the same folks who complain that newbies should "Do a search!" before posting a common question, who then criticize them for reviving the old thread they found when they searched.
It would not be desirable to forbid reviving old threads in any case; sometimes people have real new information to add.

 

[Diver Dennis]

I don't think it's bad and sometimes it can be educational when the new members have something concrete to add. As time goes on, equipment evolves, new facts come to light in accident reports and we change the way we dive. Can't hurt to update old threads.

 

[MeiLing]

I really don't see the harm in letting folks post on an old topic. If you have no interest, just scroll past it.

Preventing others from talking about some old topic, IMHO, is like trying to control the conversation at a party!

 

[The Chairman]

Is this thread still alive??? I thought it would be put out of it's misery a long time ago!



In reality, the relevance of the age of the thread is an individual thing. For a while we had a couple of moderators who wanted to COMBINE (merge) all of the similar threads. It looked like we might be destined to have six or seven VERY, VERY long threads!

I like when some of these old threads are resurrected. Sometimes we see thing in a slightly different light! Cool dat!

 

[knotical]

Just don't revive the ones in which I've embarrassed myself!
But heck, that's not just old threads.