Replying to ancient thread warning?

[ColinJ]

Hi @Shaun.

Quite a few threads have been dragged back into life recently by posters who clearly hadn't noticed that that was the case. I wouldn't want to stop that by automatically locking old threads because then we would sometimes end up with duplicate threads linking back to the originals.

Here's a suggestion... If a previous post was more than a certain number of weeks or months ago, how about popping up an alert pointing that out and asking the new poster if they wished to continue?

 

[Cycleops]

Good idea. An old thread if posted some time ago may still be relevant currently and worth reviving. The key thing is if the poster was asking for specific information and hasn't been on for some considerable time. I don't know how you factor that in.

 

[alicat]

Or asking the OP if they want it revived. A thread that I started in Personal Matters was revived after a couple of years, which I found distressing.

 

[Electric_Andy]

Other forums have an "old thread alert"...I'm not sure how useful it is but it does let you know that some details/info might be outdated since the thread was created. @alicat I know what you mean about personal matters, I just requested that mine was deleted, might be a better way to go?

 

[Deleted member 1258]

I don't always remember to check the date so an alert is a good idea.

 

[Pat "5mph"]

Or asking the OP if they want it revived. A thread that I started in Personal Matters was revived after a couple of years, which I found distressing.

Hi @alicat!
You can ask for a personal matter thread to be deleted or locked at any time, by using the contact us feature.

If a previous post was more than a certain number of weeks or months ago, how about popping up an alert pointing that out and asking the new poster if they wished to continue?

When @Shaun comes online, we will ask him to add this one or a similar feature.

 

[alicat]

You can ask for a personal matter thread to be deleted or locked at any time, by using the contact us feature.

Thank you for the suggestion, @Pat "5mph"

I asked for the thread to be locked once it had been resurrected. In future I'll think about asking proactively. Some responsibility does lie with the person reopening the thread: he could have been more sensitive in all the circumstances.

 

[Ming the Merciless]

I’d check back into this thread in 10 years

 

[mistyoptic]

This, from another forum running on Xenforo. Should be possible when Shaun has time

 

[ColinJ]

This, from another forum running on Xenforo. Should be possible when Shaun has time
View attachment 712466

Brilliant - that is exactly the kind of thing that I had in mind!

 

[Time Waster]

The good and bad of online life is surely that nothing you publish or post online truly goes away. Part of being online is the skill to know what you should or should not post. Unfortunately we rarely have that skills of foresight so the ability or right to be forgotten or posts to be deleted is an important option that should be available imho.

However, the idea that an old thread being resurrected in and of itself being wrong or deserving of a warning I find curious. Causing distress or harm aside obviously. If the search function finds it for a poster who then adds to it, what's wrong with that?

 

[ColinJ]

If the search function finds it for a poster who then adds to it, what's wrong with that?

We have had multiple cases recently of people making long posts to try to help someone who posted once many years ago and has never been back since.

Their advice might well be worth somebody else reading but would they have bothered if they had realised that the OP was long gone? A warning gives them the choice whether to continue.