# Has the rule against raising zombies from the dead been reinstated? **URL:** \ **Category:** About This Message Board\ **Created:** [September 6, 2021, 10:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-the-rule-against-raising-zombies-from-the-dead-been-reinstated/950186 "2021-09-06T22:24:45Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2021, 10:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-the-rule-against-raising-zombies-from-the-dead-been-reinstated/950186/1 "2021-09-06T22:24:45Z")
I wanted to post something to an older thread and got a prompt asking if I wanted to revive this old conversation, and further telling me that everyone who had participated would be notified. That last bit really gave me pause. I don’t want be the cause of sending out a mass email to everyone. Will it really notify **everyone** who posted in the thread? Or does it only notify people who subscribed to the thread? ---
**Author:** ![GreysonCarlisle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a87d85/32.png) [@GreysonCarlisle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GreysonCarlisle)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2021, 10:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-the-rule-against-raising-zombies-from-the-dead-been-reinstated/950186/2 "2021-09-06T22:30:44Z")
It’s just like any other thread, really. If you have it set to Watching, you’ll get a notification that someone has posted a new reply. If you have it set to Normal, you’ll only get a notification if someone replied directly to you. If you have it set to Muted, then you won’t get a notification at all. It’s not an email (though some have email notifications turned on), just a normal notification. ---
**Author:** ![thorny\_locust](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thorny_locust/32/431_2.png) [@thorny\_locust](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thorny_locust)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2021, 11:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-the-rule-against-raising-zombies-from-the-dead-been-reinstated/950186/3 "2021-09-06T23:28:55Z")
Sounds like it’s just discobot going on again: that’s not a Straight Dope rule at all, as far as I know, just one of those non-removable things baked into the software. discobot likes to give advice, which in my experience is almost always safely ignorable. ---
**Author:** ![codinghorror](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/codinghorror/32/4242_2.png) [@codinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/codinghorror)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2021, 9:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-the-rule-against-raising-zombies-from-the-dead-been-reinstated/950186/5 "2021-09-07T21:39:48Z")
> [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](#): > > That last bit really gave me pause. I don’t want be the cause of sending out a mass email to everyone. Will it really notify **everyone** who posted in the thread? Or does it only notify people who subscribed to the thread? Yeah that’s a bit too strong of a warning; only people who have actively subscribed (are watching, at the highest notification level) the topic would be notified of a new reply. I’ll see if I can edit the copy to tone that part down. It really depends on local ordinances if replying to a 10+ year old topic is preferable to starting a new one. I tend to err on the side of the user – if you really feel _this_ 10 year old topic is exactly the right fit for your reply, go for it! ---
**Author:** ![Maserschmidt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/maserschmidt/32/18829_2.png) [@Maserschmidt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maserschmidt)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2021, 3:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-the-rule-against-raising-zombies-from-the-dead-been-reinstated/950186/6 "2021-12-08T15:50:17Z")
I was in the mood to read something funny this morning, and so I went to find Scylla’s “when blimps attack!” thread from Feb ‘03, which absolutely did the trick. I was surprised, however, to find that it had been closed in April ‘05 after somebody bumped it. I guess rules for resurrecting zombie threads used to be pretty strict? Anyway, for anyone unfamiliar with it: > [@The horror of blimps](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-horror-of-blimps/152885): > > Last week while travelling I stopped at a Zany Brainy store and saw that they had a blimp for sale. It’s called Airship Earth, and it’s a great big balloon with a map of the Earth on it, and two propellors hanging from the bottom. You blow up the balloon with helium put batteries in it, and you have a radio controll indoor blimp. I’d seen these things for sale in Sharper Image catalogs for $60-$75. At Zany Brainy it was on clearance for $15. What a deal! Last night my wife was playing tenn… ---
**Author:** ![Latimera](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/latimera/32/497_2.png) [@Latimera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Latimera)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2021, 4:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-the-rule-against-raising-zombies-from-the-dead-been-reinstated/950186/7 "2021-12-08T16:50:47Z")
Thank you for this…I needed a reason to laugh today…! ---
**Author:** ![Yllaria](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yllaria/32/3452_2.png) [@Yllaria](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yllaria)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2021, 12:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-the-rule-against-raising-zombies-from-the-dead-been-reinstated/950186/8 "2021-12-09T00:48:40Z")
Truly a classic! ---
**Author:** ![asterion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/4da419/32.png) [@asterion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/asterion)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2021, 1:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-the-rule-against-raising-zombies-from-the-dead-been-reinstated/950186/9 "2021-12-09T01:42:34Z")
Not to speak for the mods, but the prohibition was always lighter in the Cafe Society. With this aggressive policing of thread drift (which I disagree with but isn’t the point), I’d almost expect harder prohibition on posting to old threads. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2021, 1:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-the-rule-against-raising-zombies-from-the-dead-been-reinstated/950186/10 "2021-12-09T01:55:29Z")
The details vary by forum, but you’ve always been allowed to bump threads to add something substantive and new to them. Some of this board’s greatest triumphs have been long-standing questions bumped a decade or more later with the answer.