FWIW, this is just so much angst over nothing, but if we need more rules, we’ll certainly get more rules.
We don’t need more rules.
I don’t care about the joke per say, but I do appreciate being told I’m in a zombie thread.
I agree with Grrr!. I appreciate the heads up. It doesn’t stop me from replying, if I have something to contribute, but it also gives me a slightly different perspective on the thread.
This for me too.
I also concur that we should welcome those folks who signed up just to post to the old thread. We need new members.
This is what I came in to say. I don’t make lame zombie references, but I do sometimes post an alert when folks appear to think they’re replying to a current conversation.
I’m not sure why the threads need to be reported to mods, though.
mmm
Again, to be clear, bumped old threads are not locked if the bump added new information. We like it when that happens. It’s only a problem when the bump is completely irrelevant.
Which is why TPTB are not interested in the zero tolerance approach that some have pointed out repeatedly.
Like my esteemed colleagues Grrr!, Sunny Daze, Qadgop, and mmm, I like it when someone points out that a thread is a zombie. Occasionally if I find myself in a zombie thread and no one has said anything yet, I’ll be the one to point it out. Or, maybe I feel the urge to make a topical post in a zombie thread, but want to make it clear that I do realize I’m posting in an ancient thread.
Making zombie in-jokes and nothing else when a newbie has resurrected a thread seems a bit impolite, but I see nothing wrong with pointing out zombies as long as it’s not done in a way that would chase away new posters. And I may be alone in thinking this, but occasionally a well-made zombie joke is funny.
It won’t stop until and unless there’s a rule, because too many Dopers still think it’s funny. It will only get funnier for them if more people respond to those kinds of posts, particularly in a negative fashion.
Plus, there are established Dopers who resurrect old threads as a general habit. Leo Bloom comes to mind as a Doper who keeps a few threads intermittently active, sometimes with years between resurrections. The zombie jokes are probably less off-putting in threads like those, because Leo Bloom knows we don’t mean anything by them, and isn’t going to be scared off by them.
So there’s a framework for a rule right there: Don’t make a zombie joke unless it’s been resurrected by an established user, in which case you can make a welcoming post or… you know… refrain from posting, as hard of a concept as that is sometimes.
why the hell doesn’t this board just auto-lock threads older than, say, (x) months or years ago? Does it really do this place a service if someone comes along and bumps a thread from 2001?
We want to be as welcoming to new posters as possible. Having someone come as a result of a google search only to find the topic locked is not as welcoming as possible. If there is a way the discussion can continue, that’s fine. If the circumstances dictate otherwise, participants no longer active, underlying information no longer operative, etc., then a polite note can be given with an invitation to start a new thread if people so desire.
Being called an “established user” is probably the nicest thing anyone’s ever said about me here. 
Because I consider GQ types members of a long on-going conversation on various topics which appeal to me, when I find something interesting I naturally want to share it, and then do a Google GQ search for what either I vaguely remember being part of or what surely other esteemed colleagues may have.
Under my posted username for a while was Lover of Zombies–I like the feeling of people sharing and continuing a good thread.
It annoys me when a thread gets poorly bumped, usually by drive-by, and the mods follow their rules and lock what was until then a stream of perfectly fine thought. But that’s the situation everybody follows.
Similar to the “Please wait 90 seconds [or whatever it is] before searching again” message you sometimes get, can the board be programmed to generate a message like “This thread is over a year old, are you sure you want to reply?” or something like that?
+1.
Although I know it’s probably technically more work than it’s worth I’d appreciate this. I can’t count the number of times I’ve opened a thread of interest, come up with some relevant anecdote or piece of information I’d like to post, and then discovered that I already posted it back in 2004 (or whenever). It barely even reaches the level of a ‘first world problem’, but it is disorienting.
Well every thread is potentially dead and buried before the next post comes along.
Just like this one was a moment ago.
never mind.
I’ll save my comment for eleven years from now when the thread gets bumped.
My understanding is that there’s little (if any) interest by TPTB to write new add-ons to the board software (is the board software is even structured in such a way as to permit user-written modifications?). Therefore, unless the feature you’re advocating is already part of the board software and need only be turned on, it just isn’t happening.
As always, of course, I welcome correction.
And the refractory period between searches is 120 seconds.
Vbulletin allows user-written mods. Here’s one for thread bump warnings.
Anyway, I think this is a solution looking for a problem. New members get teased and bombarded with inside jokes all the time. Zombie threads just have their own unique suite of jokes.
So long as nobody is breaking any rules about personal insults I can’t really get worked up over a few jokes about brains.
Great word. I bet never used to describe that here–I suggest putting that in a sticky just to let them know the caliber of the folks around here.
Isn’t the same word used to describe the amount of time after an ejaculation before a man can achieve another erection?