OP
bleeb
Contributor
Every now and then, you see someone post to a thread that hasn't been active for years. (The record I've seen is 2001.) It seems to be mainly SB newcomers that have trouble noticing things like posting dates in the busy screen layout. Sometimes reviving an old topic is useful, but more often it'll be questions or advice to someone who may not even have logged on for a long time. And they get frustrated when they feel they're being ignored.
Maybe this has already been considered, or can't be easily done with vBulletin, but something like a popup window or an intermediate 'are you sure' web page pointing out that a thread may be out of date could help reduce the amount of 'noise'. Something like 'This thread has been inactive for more than a year (or six months, or something). Are you sure you still want to post to it?' This gives the pertinent information, but also the option to continue anyway. This also has minimum impact on SB regulars who wouldn't generally run into this. Messages inserted in the existing text tend to get lost in all the other information on the page, especially if it's scrolled off the screen.
Maybe this has already been considered, or can't be easily done with vBulletin, but something like a popup window or an intermediate 'are you sure' web page pointing out that a thread may be out of date could help reduce the amount of 'noise'. Something like 'This thread has been inactive for more than a year (or six months, or something). Are you sure you still want to post to it?' This gives the pertinent information, but also the option to continue anyway. This also has minimum impact on SB regulars who wouldn't generally run into this. Messages inserted in the existing text tend to get lost in all the other information on the page, especially if it's scrolled off the screen.
