# How do guests find ancient threads? **URL:** \ **Category:** About This Message Board\ **Created:** [July 21, 2006, 2:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-guests-find-ancient-threads/365484 "2006-07-21T14:56:30Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2006, 2:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-guests-find-ancient-threads/365484/1 "2006-07-21T14:56:30Z")
We keep getting 5 year old zombie threads resurrected by guests. My question is “How do they find them?” Guests can’t search, so do they just stumble across a links, to a link, to a link in current threads and follw them like breadcrumbs, or what? ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2006, 3:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-guests-find-ancient-threads/365484/2 "2006-07-21T15:03:30Z")
Down at the bottom left of the thread index are some dropdown boxes; you can select to see threads from ‘the beginning’ and index them in ascending order of date. Can’t imagine _why_ you’d want to do that, having just strolled in, but that’s at least one way that a guest can do it. ---
**Author:** ![Precambrianmollusc](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/precambrianmollusc/32/63_2.png) [@Precambrianmollusc](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Precambrianmollusc)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2006, 4:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-guests-find-ancient-threads/365484/3 "2006-07-21T16:43:03Z")
If you go to the Archive page link from the home page, there under the long list of threadspotting threads are a helluva lot of old threads. Quite a few have eyecatching titles and would attract the attention of your standard common or garden lurker in the same way shiny things would attract the attention of your average common or garden lurker. Back in my lurking days I found this archive page is the easiest way to access old columns and other general nonsense. In a few quick clicks one can go from perusing the store of forbidden knowledge to unleashing zombie hoards to run amok on the message boards to be hunted down and sent back to the pit whnc e they came by our exaulted mods. ---
**Author:** ![picunurse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/7bcc69/32.png) [@picunurse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/picunurse)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2006, 3:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-guests-find-ancient-threads/365484/4 "2006-07-22T15:39:02Z")
[Archive page](http://www.straightdope.com/columns/index.html) ---
**Author:** ![bubastis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/d07c76/32.png) [@bubastis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bubastis)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2006, 7:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-guests-find-ancient-threads/365484/5 "2006-07-22T19:58:35Z")
called over to ATMB to ask a similar question… if mods are so against Zobie threads, then why arent threads locked once they pass a certain date? I dont know HOW some 5 year old threads resurface, and I do admit that its a pain in the hole to be reading a thread, entertained or intrigued by it, then BANG you realise that its a zombie thread, and five minutes later its locked. Why not lock threads after, say, twelve months? ---
**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:** [July 22, 2006, 8:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-guests-find-ancient-threads/365484/6 "2006-07-22T20:17:35Z")
> [@](#): > > Why not lock threads after, say, twelve months? Two reasons. First, they don’t have a system in place to do this automatically, and it’d be a pain in the butt to do them all manually. Second, the rules for resurrecting threads depend on the circumstances: GQ threads, for instance, are always fair game, if you’re adding something of substance, but not if you’re just making a joke. Most MPSIMS threads should be allowed to rest in peace, but even there, there are a few “anniversary” threads which are bumped once a year (I believe there’s one that resurfaces every Memorial Day, for instance). ---
**Author:** ![Martini\_Enfield](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/martini_enfield/32/11123_2.png) [@Martini\_Enfield](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Martini_Enfield)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2006, 3:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-guests-find-ancient-threads/365484/7 "2006-07-23T03:22:48Z")
Well, rather than locking them… you could always delete threads that aren’t in GQ after a period of time (6 months? 12 months?). I know, I know, it’s one of the benefits of being a member here- searching the messageboard archives, but as someone else said, it’s annoying to find yourself reading an entertaining thread, until you say “Look at all these banned members/usernames I don’t recognise…” then realise the thread dates back to 2001 or 2002. ---
**Author:** ![Strinka](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/strinka/32/512_2.png) [@Strinka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Strinka)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2006, 3:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-guests-find-ancient-threads/365484/8 "2006-07-23T03:46:09Z")
What advantage does deleting them have? I imagine that can’t be done automatically or be less annoying to do manually. Also, it’s nice to be able to look back at threads more than a year old sometimes. Why would you want to _get rid of_ information? ---
**Author:** ![Martini\_Enfield](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/martini_enfield/32/11123_2.png) [@Martini\_Enfield](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Martini_Enfield)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2006, 4:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-guests-find-ancient-threads/365484/9 "2006-07-23T04:21:13Z")
[QUOTE=Strinka] What advantage does deleting them have? I imagine that can’t be done automatically or be less annoying to do manually. Also, it’s nice to be able to look back at threads more than a year old sometimes. Why would you want to _get rid of_ information? [/QUOTE] To free up space on the server, and also to give people a chance to move on from incidents that could be embarrassing long after the fact… I mean, **Hal Briston** is still copping flak from people (mostly in a good-natured way, I think) over the “Sheep Post” incident, and that was something like a year ago- and no doubt other people on the board have posted things that Seemed Like A Good Idea At The Time (or they may have been going through a bad patch at the time), and posted something that might be considered… regrettable. I’m not saying we have the Mods- wearing trenchcoats and sunglasses- take every thread in which someone thinks “What the hell was I thinking when I posted that?” a few days later, and metaphorically hustle it into a car with tinted windows, never to be seen again- but after a year or so, threads in places besides GQ (and maybe CS) could be quietly deleted, unless they’ve got some special significance or reason to be kept. It might help keep things “fresh”, and also encourage some more discussion, instead of saying “We covered this topic in this thread here back in 2003”. Again, it’s just a suggestion. ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2006, 3:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-guests-find-ancient-threads/365484/10 "2006-07-23T15:01:30Z")
[QUOTE=Martini Enfield] …snip… It might help keep things “fresh”, and also encourage some more discussion, instead of saying “We covered this topic in this thread here back in 2003”. Again, it’s just a suggestion. [/QUOTE] The “we have discussed this before” statements seem to come in two flavors. Most of the time they are polite and include links to review prior answers/debates. Sometimes they are said with a disdain or Ennui, where I think other posters need to start calling people on the statements as Bullshit. I am guessing you are refering to this second group. Many of the old threads are great and informative. It would be a net loss to lose them. Are the number of Zombie thread really that bad? In some cases the Zombie resumes as a poster has an update from recent news stories or breakthroughs. Overall it is just old debates and arguments that the Mods and Admins do not wish to see resurrected. In a [recent old thread in GQ](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=7583987) Samclem had this to say: > [@](#): > > In General Questions, we don’t get too excited if you bring up a Zombie thread, as long as you are adding something new in the way of additional factual information. If you bring it up just to make an amusing side comment, then that’s when it gets shut down. > > samclem moderator Jim ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2006, 3:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-guests-find-ancient-threads/365484/11 "2006-07-25T03:14:13Z")
[QUOTE=silenus] We keep getting 5 year old zombie threads resurrected by guests. My question is “How do they find them?” Guests can’t search, so do they just stumble across a links, to a link, to a link in current threads and follw them like breadcrumbs, or what? [/QUOTE] If the guest is a sock backwards Jeopardy! host, they could have posted to them before and followed up on an old reply notice. ---
**Author:** ![Nature\_s\_Call](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nature_s_call/32/19006_2.png) [@Nature\_s\_Call](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nature_s_Call)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2006, 8:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-guests-find-ancient-threads/365484/12 "2006-07-25T20:49:05Z")
Kind of dry, but not too bad with ketchup. ---
**Author:** ![Rigamarole](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/77aa72/32.png) [@Rigamarole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rigamarole)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2006, 9:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-guests-find-ancient-threads/365484/13 "2006-07-26T09:07:35Z")
[QUOTE=Nature’s Call] Kind of dry, but not too bad with ketchup. [/QUOTE] I was going to say at thrift shops.