It appears that the zombie apocalypse has already occurred here with threads rising from the dead with seemingly increasing frequency. In the Bible at that time God will mark his servants and Satan will mark his servants. Can we do likewise? Would it be possible for a zombie thread to appear in a different color, have a symbol or some indication that it is a zombie thread? Something a bit more obvious then the small date text that both regular and zombie threads share?
How would you define “zombie thread”?
That would be up to the Mods, but perhaps a thread that gets no replies or no views (if that is possible) in ‘x’ days, or when it falls to a certain position on the board. It appears there would be many ways to determine it.
It would not prevent someone from posting or commenting, but it would allow posters to quickly see it is zombie and perhaps go right to the more modern date to see why it was reanimated.
The best thing we could do is teach people on the SDMB to look in the upper left hand corner of the original post and…y’know…read the date.
I have never seen a message board that has so much trouble and drama about this issue.
There have been 63746736476 threads suggesting various methods* of how to treat this “problem”. The easiest way is to simply look at the dates on the post.
*and your suggestion has been done at least 54534 times
What with Wikipedia answering so many questions these days, if it was not for zombie threads there would sometimes be precious little interesting discussion going on on these boards. I (often) like them, and am often disappointed when they get closed or overwhelmed with zombie jokes.
If only someone had suggested this sometime before…
Did you consider resurrecting a Zombie ATMB thread to make this point?
The only possible problem I can see with zombie threads is if someone tries to directly address a poster that hasn’t been heard from in years.
This cuts to the chase quite well. People either complain about the zombies, or complain about starting identical threads.
Except I think the problem a lot of people have with Zombie threads is that the Necromancers are often conspiracy nuts or people who post once and then are never heard from again, adding nothing to the conversation.
But I’ve started to like Zombie threads. Gives you a chance to make a Zombie joke that isn’t a tired cliche. That’s often a real challenge!
Which would happen less if there was a clear indication that it is a old thread without derailing the new postings.
Additionally if the thread was marked somehow that is obvious* there should be less comments about it being a zombie thread which should increase it’s likelyhood of serving it’s original purpose as opposed to being closed due to all the zombie comments.
*And sorry, no, the date does not work as evident by the number of zombies and the number of postings as if the thread were new.
Making it “obvious” to you won’t stop others from resurrecting them, especially first time posters that are doing 99.99% of the raising. If you are worried or ashamed or frustrated that you are replying to a zombie thread that someone else resurrected, that is your problem that you did not see the date.
Why is that a problem? What is the worst that could happen; they don’t get an answer?
Then what is the problem with a indication?
Nothing. But it has been suggested dozens of times already, and I’m assuming the lack of responses to the suggestion by TPTB is an indication of either lack of concern or that they think it is more bother than it is worth. This subject comes up at least once a month. You aren’t the first one to post of it, as I’m sure that the sarcastic responses so far should have shown.
That’s why I said it was only a possible problem.
Yes but technology is advancing and what may have been dismissed as to complex before may be easy now, also it does appear that more zombie threads have arisen lately so perhaps before the incentive is higher now then before due to the increases number of zombies, at least from my perspective.
I also see it as a benefit to the SD on 2 levels. First we won’t get questioning of the old posters as much and second we won’t get the zombie warning by posters which have a tendency to derail the thread and get it closed.
And 3rd we recently had a possible record setting time between posting and mod warning which i can’t find right now but recently a mod gave a warning to a poster who made the comment perhaps 7 yrs ago. I think it would be better if the mods also saw that it was a zombie more easily.
For the record, Kanicbird, I’m with you. But I don’t see it happening.
I have been trying to train myself to first look at the date when I open a thread, but am failing miserably. Hell, I didn’t even check to see if this thread is a Z.
(it isn’t…is it?)
mmm
I’m with you in spirit (if not actually seeing a “real” problem), but I don’t see it happening.