I thought about asking this in “About the Straight Dope” but it seems to me this is really more an opinion question than one about the regulation and governance of the SDMB.
How, in general, do people stumble on to zombie threads? My display, at least, shows only the most recent threads, so zombies aren’t even visible. By what mechanism might I suddenly become aware of a 2003 thread about “Ford vs. Chevy” or whatnot? How do most zombie threads get reanimated? (What should I be aware of to keep from doing it myself?)
(Obviously, the mods may, should, and shall move this if I erred in my guess re proper forum.)
I don’t think regular members often raise zombies (at least not by accident). I think most of the necroposting comes from people arriving via Google searches that point to a particular thread. Of course, that doesn’t include a date filter like the board search feature, so they may get an old thread, read it without noticing the dates, and reply. That bumps it to the top where members see it and read it, in turn, without noticing the original dates.
Some of it is also from spambots bumping things, I think. If someone replies to the thread before the spam post gets deleted, it looks like they raised the thread.
They’re usually stumbled (heh) upon by non-members who are led to a thread from a Google search. They then register in order to post in the thread. Other members notice the risen thread and post, too, often not realizing they replied to a zombie. They’re often reanimated by spammers, too.
EDIT - And I notice Balance already got in a reply before I did. Curses!
Happened to me the other day, I suddenly realised I animated a zombie. It just showed up in the display, but when I looked back it was definitely my post that was the first zombie reanimator. Someone pointed out it had probably been revived by a spammer, which was then removed, making it seem like I revived it.
Actually, Google’s by far the best way to search this board whether you’re a regular or not. “site:boards.straightdope.com <whatever>” is what I use whenever I need to search the board. The difference is that regulars (or at least those regulars who particularly care whether a thread is “zombie” or not) are more likely to both a) know the board culture on these things and b) think to check the posting dates.
Sometimes people link to old threads that covered the same topic as a current thread, and others post to them by mistake, or don’t realize how old they are. I’ve done that.
Absolutely. The board search is restrictive at best. The other day I did a search for a short word and the response was something like “Word too short-try adding more search terms.” Then when I tried again it said something like “You just searched, wait 120 seconds.” :smack: No I didn’t search, I tried to search but you shot me down.
You’re exactly why the Board prefer google searches.
Searching for a short phrase will often bring back tons of results and requires a hefty whack of processing against the database. It’s made worse if someone repeats the same search in a short window.
Both of the frustrations you mentioned are there to protect the performance of the Board, and indirectly to encourage you to use google (which doesn’t bugger the SDMB side of things).
Ick… I would have thought the account and password requirements would stymie such abuse. Bummer…
But that’s actually good, because when two people give roughly the same answer, it reassures me it’s probably the right answer! (Well, y’know, subject to some exceptions…) Especially early in a thread, I like “Me too” posts, and simulposts and ninjaposts too.
I’ve almost done it myself. Being new here, I’m a little afraid of duplicating a topic, so I search first, read through the older threads, then by the time I find something interesting, I start to reply, forgetting that it’s an old thread.
