Suggestion Thread Revival Limits

[261311]

Love Scubaboard but one thing that makes me boil is going into threads with new posts, reading all the way through them only to find out that the thread was started 4 years ago and someone revived it by essentially bumping it with summary advice for someone who no longer browses the forum. While I have no doubt the archive of posts that we have on this forum are invaluable, can we add an auto-lock system for inactive threads dated a year or longer? Adding to some threads is an important process which I understand but there's a good few I read through and can't help but think "why was this revived".

 

[ScubaSteve]

Wait a tick.....I am Canadian! I am glad I got that off my chest.

Fish are friends not food .......just kidding. They are tasty


---------- Post added March 24th, 2013 at 11:05 AM ----------

Never mind, they are Canadian, it all makes sense now.

You are just jealous of our snow bound fortresses and vitriol production facilities

Haters be hatin'

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk.......figure it out

 

[Hockeynut]

Oh, Zack.... lighten up, man! The banter about Canadians was just friendly teasing! (Even I can see this, and I'm famous for my lack of a sense of humor.)

I disagree. You crack me up all the time.

 

[coldwaterlloyd]

Some threads should never die . I have no problem with old threads being updated , you can go back and check history etc .
We have a vis report on our local section , it is great to get local dive conditions , hope it never goes away ............................

 

[261311]

So you're suggesting by excluding boil in my original post all this trolling would have been avoided? Come on Quero, I know you know that's pretty untrue. I have Hoaty in here, that alone means I could have wrote of unicorns or CESA's and got the same response The usage of boil is hyperbole yes, but that doesn't mean someone can't voice a concern and see if peoples tastes have changed in suggestions. PS: I did use the search function, those were 2-3 years old and I was hoping to avoid some of the same issues from some while getting fresh opinions without a bunch of others forming theirs based on what others had wrote. While I can get into Canadian jokes, and laugh at Canadian jokes, being Canadian and hearing them on a daily basis just makes you roll your eyes after awhile and sigh that nothing more original was presented. You're talking to someone who's spent years of their life trying to collect donations for their igloo melting in the temperate summer. I'm sure every Canadian here can admit to liking good and fresh jokes but someone may as well have asked me why a chicken crossed the road because the same response was given.

@Lorenzoid, I think a middle-ground solution was posted about flagging overly outdated posts that meets between our two expectations. I was speaking in generalization because there's enough to add up towards what I was speaking of. As I keep repeating, I'm not suggesting we shut down and auto lock active informative topics, those usually have posts on a much higher commonality than one year and would be in the clear. I'm also not saying that once a thread is locked that someone can't prod a mod for it if it's truly important and the system happened to nab it a day before it was seen and actually worth continuing an old historic discussion about someones bad vacation or instruction experience.

 

[divad]

Thread moved to Whine and Cheese.

It should be moved to Boil and Toil.

 

[boulderjohn]

ScubaBoard used to have warnings on old threads--I don't know why it was discontinued. Despite that warning, though, old threads were resurrected with at least the same frequency that they are today. I don't think people paid any attention to the warnings.

There is, however, a benefit to this. Usually after a post or two in which someone gives advice in response to a question asked in 2001 (and I have seen this), we get some posts pointing this out, often using pretty funny graphics about reviving zombie threads. There is often a fair amount of wit displayed, followed by a good-natured "Oh Rats!" response by one of the people who mistakenly helped feed the zombie. Those can be amusing.

 

[mike_s]

Love Scubaboard but one thing that makes me boil is going into threads with new posts, reading all the way through them only to find out that the thread was started 4 years ago and someone revived it by essentially bumping it with summary advice for someone who no longer browses the forum. While I have no doubt the archive of posts that we have on this forum are invaluable, can we add an auto-lock system for inactive threads dated a year or longer? Adding to some threads is an important process which I understand but there's a good few I read through and can't help but think "why was this revived".

Just think....in another few months, or a few years.... someone will come back and revive this thread to give you something else to "whine" about..

 

[261311]

Just think....in another few months, or a few years.... someone will come back and revive this thread to give you something else to "whine" about..

Mark it on your calendar and be sure to PM me, I won't want to miss it.

 

[letterboy]

just set your subscription to send you an email when there is a post in the thread.

 

[Quero]

Zack, we're an online community which means one big extended family in which there are jokers, know-it-alls, grumpy old folks, clueless youngsters, leaders/followers, clear thinkers, muddled thinkers, and lots of other types. Heck, some of us embody one type one day and another type another day. Mostly we embrace other members who come along and they end up finding their own place in the community by making friends and becoming involved in their favorite forums. So please consider the comments below as my observations about adjustment into our community.

So you're suggesting by excluding boil in my original post all this trolling would have been avoided? Come on Quero, I know you know that's pretty untrue. I have Hoaty in here, that alone means I could have wrote of unicorns or CESA's and got the same response The usage of boil is hyperbole yes, but that doesn't mean someone can't voice a concern and see if peoples tastes have changed in suggestions.

I don't actually see any trolling, Zack. What I see is ribbing. And what I'm saying is you take yourself way too seriously. I mean, even your sig quotes..... (drumroll) yourself! Lighten up, Zack! When a group teases you, you've got several options: 1) get all prickly about it and thus distance yourself from the group 2) roll with it, laugh at yourself, and thus make yourself a part of the group 3) ignore them and put off a decision about whether you want to join the group. So far, your reaction is looking like choice number 1. And no, changing the word "boil" to "unicorn" would probably not change the outcome since the outcome is a product of your perception more than anything else.

PS: I did use the search function, those were 2-3 years old and I was hoping to avoid some of the same issues from some while getting fresh opinions without a bunch of others forming theirs based on what others had wrote.

I actually think it would have been more effective in an ironic way to pick the oldest of these threads--the one in which El Orans announces as a response that he's written a patch for vB that signaled when an old thread was being zombiefied--and ask what happened to that patch. That would have been quite comical!

While I can get into Canadian jokes, and laugh at Canadian jokes, being Canadian and hearing them on a daily basis just makes you roll your eyes after awhile and sigh that nothing more original was presented. You're talking to someone who's spent years of their life trying to collect donations for their igloo melting in the temperate summer. I'm sure every Canadian here can admit to liking good and fresh jokes but someone may as well have asked me why a chicken crossed the road because the same response was given.

Have you noticed that we've got a smiley that says all that in a non-prickly way?
The whole Canadian joke thing isn't about being fresh--it's about pretending to punch your friend in the ribs. Come on.... you've been invited in from the "cold". Why not just lighten up and accept the invitation?

@Lorenzoid, I think a middle-ground solution was posted about flagging overly outdated posts that meets between our two expectations. I was speaking in generalization because there's enough to add up towards what I was speaking of. As I keep repeating, I'm not suggesting we shut down and auto lock active informative topics, those usually have posts on a much higher commonality than one year and would be in the clear. I'm also not saying that once a thread is locked that someone can't prod a mod for it if it's truly important and the system happened to nab it a day before it was seen and actually worth continuing an old historic discussion about someones bad vacation or instruction experience.

Getting back to your topic.... doing anything of the sort most likely means writing code to insert into vBulletin. And then during the next upgrade it will just have to be removed since it won't be compatible. The real solution is simply to scroll back a tiny bit on the page to see when the last previous post was made before the most recent additions. It's true that most of these resurrections are performed by new members to whom even old threads are new. Let it go. It's a non-issue, actually. Because most of us see it as a non-issue (and maybe a few even remember the old threads that went nowhere), this thread quickly turned into a rash of cross-border snowball lobbing.

ScubaBoard used to have warnings on old threads--I don't know why it was discontinued. Despite that warning, though, old threads were resurrected with at least the same frequency that they are today. I don't think people paid any attention to the warnings.

There is, however, a benefit to this. Usually after a post or two in which someone gives advice in response to a question asked in 2001 (and I have seen this), we get some posts pointing this out, often using pretty funny graphics about reviving zombie threads. There is often a fair amount of wit displayed, followed by a good-natured "Oh Rats!" response by one of the people who mistakenly helped feed the zombie. Those can be amusing.

Exactly! Hawkwood linked to the thread that I suspect triggered Zack's boiling: http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/ne...ering-diving/325531-fail-weekend-certify.html and indeed the member's response when he realized he had brought the thread back from the dead was

Whaleboy,

GlORia's last appearance on SB was March 2011. You might be a tad late to offer her advice

Well, Ill be dog gone!