I agree that in this case that ridicule is fine. But I don’t think those are the posts jayjay is talking about, and in most cases they aren’t some lame joke either.
I agree with this as well, if so many people are really so upset.
there are people new to computers and new to the internet each and every day, let’s show some kindness to the newbs.
that said: there are some people who jump on each and every forum they find and have to ‘me too’ post as if the rest of the world cares. from the creation end they are excited until they learn there are hundreds like them everyday and when they come back to the forum they have to wade through others ‘me too’ postings and learn it’s crap. doesn’t anyone screen the calls around here?
i’ve seen new joiners resurrect a thread where the OP was banned. dates and status don’t yet have meaning to them.
on many forums i’ve seen newbs answer the OP and without reading the thread to see that it’s been answered once or twice or thrice. on technical forums threads might be closed when answered. on a wide multipurpose forum such as this (where members are smarter than the average bear) threads are left open for new content.
an appropriate to the topic zombie joke, in a non rude reply, is a challenge of wit. if it doesn’t pop into my head immediately it might later. it should be an attempt to get a laugh or at least crack a smile, bonus points for coffee on the monitor.
Compassion for slime mold, bacteria, prions, free floating strings of protein, sure. But noobs?
I almost never read dates unless there’s a reason to. It just doesn’t seem like a big deal. If nobody replies, oh well. Next zombie thread I’m participating in I’m going to pretend like its not a zombie and address the OP…
Sixty-four posts and no one has actually said why it’s bad to bump old threads.
It’s because it’s not.
See post #57 for at least a partial reason. It makes no sense to bump an old thread to argue with people that:
- Might have changed their minds in the years that followed
- Might have left the board.
2.a. Might have left the board because they died.
2.b. Might have left the board because they were banned.
doesn’t this version of vBulletin offer the feature of auto-locking threads older than a certain date? If so, I would venture a guess that TPTB didn’t want to do that and felt it was better to tolerate the occasional revived thread instead.
The trouble with that idea can be found in this thread-the people that have no problem with zombie threads vs. the people that hate zombie threads. There is no consensus.
I’m going to second this. As a moderator, I would really prefer it if people didn’t berate newbies for resurrecting old threads, and also if they refrain from making cryptic and often lame zombie jokes. If you want to note a thread is old, fine, but you can be courteous about it. I would also like to point out that there is no rule prohibiting the resurrection of old threads in GQ as such, as long as new information is being contributed.
Our membership in terms of active posters has held steady for quite a few years. We had an uptick in spammers joining when we first allowed Google Search, but much of this seems to have been alleviated recently with a new filtering system.
Something to do with the butterfly effect, I think. Start messing around with the past, we could suddenly find ourselves on a board with an archconservative elucidator and a hippie rabble-rousing Starving Artist, where the mods are universally loved and the board’s mission is “FITING GYANT ANTS.”
About 5 years from now I’m going to respond to this thread and give my thoughts on the OP.
May we all still be here to respond. 
And avatars - for the love of God, can’t we join the twentieth century and get avatars already?
Yeah, I haven’t seen this very much either. If anything, when a new poster revives an old thread 1) while acknowledging it’s ancient and 2) actually adding some value to the thread, by answering a question that hadn’t been answered before, for example, the response is usually quite positive.
I’m not one to make zombie jokes, as I don’t find them especially funny. But I think we can all agree that some threads (relationship threads and the like, for example) just shouldn’t be revived after a certain date. I’m okay with tolerating it if the thread found itself back on the front page for some reason and someone posted without looking at the timestamps, but for the one who dredged it up with Google Search (looking for what?) and had to post something, I don’t see why we should be nice. Same thing for those who revive GQ threads with something that’s either already been posted in the thread, or worse, something that’s already been disproved somewhere in the thread. It’s even worse if the response has bad punctuation, bad spelling or grammar, or no paragraphs, as is often the case.
I don’t think we can blame that kind of behaviour on “being new to the Internet” either. It’s feeling the need to put your grain of salt in any discussion, no matter how relevant it actually is.
So are the “jokes.” If it really bothers you, don’t reply. People are just doing it to be clever, but they end up just looking stupid. I really get a kick out of those that say they “had” to do it (no, I’m not going to bother looking up posts that said that—you all know it happens).
This whole subject is a useless exercise anyway, as people will continue to do it, either through ignorance or thinking that they have the ultimate quip.
This is not exactly true. It just creates an environment where only really snarky hard-headed idiots continue long enough to survive. But I think that is probably the aim of the snarkiness.
The whole Internet is lame. :rolleyes: Ffrom 4chan to the cheezburger network to Ask a Physicist, everyone thinks they are cool and the truth is we are all a bunch of dorks talking to ourselves.
It’s not like people here are contributing to the meaning of life or anything. This isn’t a fucking homeless shelter.
And what’s the deal with airline food these days?
I suggested this a few years ago, and was quickly shot down by Tubadiva because they were afraid it would cause a black hole to open up in the SDMB server which would quickly bring about the death of the entire universe (or something).
Emphasis mine.
How about because there’s no reason to be an asshole to a complete stranger for something as mild as bumping an older thread?