I kind of like it when old posts I’ve posted in get revived…I get an email when someone posts to a thread I’ve subscribed to, and it brings me back to this board for a while. Sometimes I read through the posts and think, “Boy, I really agree with that one…oh, it was posted by me!”
I find it amusing that the posters who pile on the snark about reviving zombie threads are the same ones who summon up righteous indignation and an angry link when anyone starts a new thread even remotely related to one that has previously existed.
If people really hate zombies they should canvas to have a mod appointed whose sole duty is to go around locking threads that have lain idle too long.
I thought the whole point of the zombie joke was to alert further posters that the thread is a zombie.
Front page: Cecil most intelligent person on the planet.
http://www.straightdope.com/pages/faq/cecil
Top of page:
“Fighting ignorance since 1973”
We are the smartest and most awesomeness place on the earth.
I’d suggest that the monkeys are not the correct people for fighting ignorance. Yes, they can look up and see the light we bring to the benighted, but, like children, they should be seen (after a suitable washing, of course) and not heard.
But, meh, I don’t have a problem with old threads, either.
So did I , but apparently some posters feel that we should say anything so as not to hurt someone’s pwecious little feewings.
So our own Special Rainbow Doubly-Smart posters aren’t able to tell the age of a thread unless they are given a specific zombie warnings…
but those pitiful drones on the web are morons for not realizing the age of threads- without any special zombie warning in place?
Got it.
We had this whole “openness” argument years back, when we were discussing whether to lift the ban on lawyers. No need to remind you how that worked out!
I’ll bump this thread in five years to say “this”.
No! I’m not shitting you! That’s what I actually think!
This is the second time people here have recognized how fun I am at parties! I think you guys must really know how to party. It helps that I have a great music collection.
Most regular Dopers have been duped by Zombie threads before. So yes, I agree - be nice to newbies who find SDMB by accident and post in a Zombie thread.
I am. Perhaps warnings should be given out for the zombie “jokes” in the same way that warnings are given for Yakov Smirnoff jokes.
All the complaints people have with posting in old threads seem to apply equally to new threads. There is no logical reason to be bothered by it.
It’s just that despite all the neologisms and annoying ads, there are people who still can’t seem to find enough pointless crap to bitch about.
Human sacrifice, dogs and cats living together… mass hysteria!
You know, sometimes zombie threads are fun. Like, you see an old thread, and start reading it, and you see all these people who haven’t been around in a while, making the same dumb arguments they always used to make, and you wish the thread was current so you could pop in and set everyone straight. And then you see your earlier past self say exactly what you wish you could say in the present. And then you feel a little bit of warmth towards that past self–see, he wasn’t such a bad guy after all. He was actually quite clever. So there’s that.
They give warnings for Yakov Smirnoff jokes?
In Soviet Russia, Yakov Smirnov jokes warn them!
Yeah. Sometimes it’s humourous - like a recently-revived thread about foods from your local area, so who could blame anyone for making a zombie-related pun there? It also reminds people that they might have already read the thread or even posted on it.
Sometimes it’s just a way of saying ‘uh, dude, you didn’t read the whole thread. If that illegal parker’s car is still there, it’s a pile of rust inhabited by raccoons.’ Because the post-dates aren’t really highlighted and newbies might not realise that a current Google search might turn up a thread that’s not so current.
I haven’t really seen any obnoxious omg it’s a zombie! posts. But I might have missed them.
That’s true. It’s not like racists or the like are tolerated here.
I totally agree with you. You can’t win - if you revive an old post you get the snarky “braaaaaaains” comments and if you start a new one you get “this has already been discussed”; equally as snarky.
The “We’re SOOOOO Special” attitude here is kind of annoying. I do love the Dope…I’ve been here for over a decade now. But sometimes we’re not only snooty, we’re mean and incredibly egoistic. There ARE other message boards on the internet that are equally well-spoken. There ARE other message boards that are equally well-informed. Snopes, for example. Our offshoot, the Giraffe Boards, for another (which, while a bit more free-wheeling, consists largely of Dopers and former Dopers). The Dope is not unique by any means…other boards do what we do just as well, even if they don’t have quite the traffic we do. And I have to note that the conceit that we’re some kind of major message board hub or something is just that, a conceit. Our member base is tiny compared to a lot of other boards, and this attitude that we “have to keep the riff-raff out” is not conducive to keeping it fresh.
And, speaking of the Giraffe Boards, they’re proof that snark can be constructive if you’re willing to not take yourself too seriously. I do think that’s one of the things that the Dope doesn’t do well…we, as a board, tend to put on that noble face and spout off about our sacred charge, fighting ignorance. Which is silly…as someone posted in another thread, the purpose of the Straight Dope column is fighting ignorance. The purpose of the Straight Dope board is amusing ourselves.