Do they just google their question and get a hit on boards.straightdope.com or do they happen to just come here and search “Brass Knuckles”? I have seen some really bizarre zombies brought back by first time posters and I’ve been curious how exactly they decide what their first post should be.
My money’s on Google.
Yeah, the phenomenon really increased at least an order of magnitude after the message board became searchable by google.
I’ve run across extremely old threads using Google when I’m not on the Straight Dope which I can’t find with the board search engine if I tried.
Enjoy,
Steven
When I’ve felt mischievous in the past I just went to the last(first?) page of a particular forum and looked for a zombie-worthy corpse. For instance, among the first GQs is this one. The realy old ones are dead(heh) give aways because most of the poster names are blank. But there’s lots of tricks you can pick from in 2000 or 2001.
One time I found a pit thread that had no replies and resurrected it with a “Cite?”
Another time I found the oldest GQ without a response, got my google on, and gave it a good answer. (something about the NFL’s contoversial treatment of an Australian national who was a punter for the 49ers I think)
I feel so trendsetting! Not technically a googlewhack, but this |–| close.