# Have you ever realized you were reading a zombie thread... **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [December 22, 2015, 3:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-realized-you-were-reading-a-zombie-thread/741062 "2015-12-22T03:31:35Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Cicero](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cicero/32/3594_2.png) [@Cicero](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cicero)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2015, 5:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-realized-you-were-reading-a-zombie-thread/741062/21 "2015-12-23T17:53:54Z")
I hate it when I search to see if a thread has been started before and yes it has. By me. ---
**Author:** ![Baker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bb73d2/32.png) [@Baker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baker)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2015, 8:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-realized-you-were-reading-a-zombie-thread/741062/22 "2015-12-23T20:25:47Z")
> [@John\_Mace](#): > > Sure. But what’s really trippy is when you see your own post and have absolutely no memory of posting it. This would be my reply. ---
**Author:** ![Freudian\_Slit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/5daacb/32.png) [@Freudian\_Slit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freudian_Slit)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2015, 8:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-realized-you-were-reading-a-zombie-thread/741062/23 "2015-12-23T20:29:14Z")
All the time. Thought I was the only one. ---
**Author:** ![butler1850](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/779978/32.png) [@butler1850](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/butler1850)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2015, 8:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-realized-you-were-reading-a-zombie-thread/741062/24 "2015-12-23T20:50:41Z")
I find “This guy writes just like I would.” Then I find out it was in fact one of the voices in my head. ---
**Author:** ![Tim\_R.Mortiss](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tim_r.mortiss/32/142_2.png) [@Tim\_R.Mortiss](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tim_R.Mortiss)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2015, 9:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-realized-you-were-reading-a-zombie-thread/741062/25 "2015-12-23T21:06:45Z")
> [@Lemur866](#): > > Sometimes when I’m reading a zombie thread, I come across someone being wrong on the internet in the past, and I wish I had a time machine so I could go back and correct this person. And then a few posts later, there past me is, kicking ass and chewing bubblegum like a big damn hero. > > And so I don’t need to go back in time to correct the past, since I always already would have been going to do so. No paradox because the past already happened. How do you know it wasn’t a \*future \*you, gone back to the past to correct the person, and you don’t remember it because you haven’t done it yet in your own timeline? ---
**Author:** ![Grrr](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/grrr/32/146_2.png) [@Grrr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grrr)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2015, 10:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-realized-you-were-reading-a-zombie-thread/741062/26 "2015-12-23T22:30:20Z")
Not only have I done this but I can think of two occasions where I took the exact opposite stance as I did the FIRST time I posted in the thread. I guess I’ve grown since I’ve become a member here. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2015, 1:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-realized-you-were-reading-a-zombie-thread/741062/27 "2015-12-24T01:11:40Z")
I’ve done what the OP and everybody else has said. Many times. :smack: But … I recently learned a trick to minimize the odds of falling for a zombie. What I now do is look at the rest of the row on the forum listing page. On the left there’s the title & OP username. Then the date, time and username of the last post. Then the reply count. And finally the view count. This last column is the key. I always ignored it while thinking: “Yeah, yeah, who (other than Ed) cares about views?” I was wrong. If you see a thread with 20 posts and 50 to 300 views, it’s fresh. 20 posts and 1,000 or 5,000 views? That’s a zombie. A fresh thread with 200 posts may well have 2,000 views. But if it has 10,000 views it’s a zombie. Etc. IOW, Easy Peasy to tell the difference \*before \*you open the thread. And if the post count is kinda ambiguous in the middle of the range, at least you’re forewarned to look at the OP date to be sure. This has saved me a lot of re-reading and some dumb posting in the last month or so. ---
**Author:** ![DKW](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dkw/32/3118_2.png) [@DKW](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DKW)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2015, 9:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-realized-you-were-reading-a-zombie-thread/741062/28 "2015-12-26T09:07:45Z")
Yeah, it’s happened to me a few times. Most recently that Game Room thread about the shotgun formation. I was the second post. It was fascinating revisiting my own words and reflecting on just how bizarre it seems in retrospect that I ever gave a damn about that ridiculous game. 🙂 Then there was that post about bad experiences with video game consoles of whichever, and I thought “Hey, I really should mention my experience with the Neo Geo here”…then I read down a bit and found out that I actually did. What usually tips me off, though, is seeing a name I haven’t seen in ages, particularly one that’s been banned. I’ll be like, “Whoa, who the heck is…wait, I’ve seen this name before…ohhhh.” ---
**Author:** ![davidm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/davidm/32/225_2.png) [@davidm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/davidm)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2015, 9:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-realized-you-were-reading-a-zombie-thread/741062/29 "2015-12-26T09:25:28Z")
> [@2gigch1](#): > > Several times. I usually read along and I start to think “I should mention X” then sure enough, I did. > [@Trinopus](#): > > Grin! Yep! Several times. Exactly as **2gigch1** describes. I’ve had the exact same experience as both of you. I think “I should post XYZ” and then I discover that I already did. I guess humans are pretty predictable. Stimulus X elicits response Y. It’s kind of humbling. ---
**Author:** ![Hail\_Ants](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/dc4da7/32.png) [@Hail\_Ants](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hail_Ants)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2015, 11:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-realized-you-were-reading-a-zombie-thread/741062/30 "2015-12-26T23:40:26Z")
I sooooo want to write a long, detailed reply to this describing my experience just so I can wait five-ten years and make a duplicate reply when it’s a zombie! 😃 ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2015, 11:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-realized-you-were-reading-a-zombie-thread/741062/31 "2015-12-27T11:03:09Z")
> [@Hail\_Ants](#): > > I sooooo want to write a long, detailed reply to this describing my experience just so I can wait five-ten years and make a duplicate reply when it’s a zombie! 😃 You’ll be too lazy then too. 😉 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-realized-you-were-reading-a-zombie-thread/741062.md?page=1)