I tried to search on a few different phrases to see if this has been suggested before, but I didn’t come up with anything useful. This is sort of a vb software issue, rather than SDMB specific, but I guess this is the best place for it.
I wonder if it would be possible in a future version of the bulletin board software if there could be some sort of notification on threads (similar to the differently shaded envelopes), to show if it was started a while ago, eg the timestamp of the first post is more than a month old. This would help when figuring out whether a thread has been revived, or whether it’s a new one. It would be particularly useful for those multi-page threads, which look like they’re ‘hot topics’, but are actually old news.
If you can’t wait for the update, you could just look under the OP’s username for the date. Sure, you have to open the thread first, but it works for now.
Yep, that would pretty much be carrying on doing what I’m doing. One thing, though, is that I often don’t bother to check the date at all, I just jump in reading, if it’s not familiar. Sometimes the first I realise is when I come across some old code <bold>…<whatever>, and then I realise the threads over a year old.
It’s not that this thing bothers me all that much - I just wondered:
1 - would it be possible for the software to include this feature (and I’m not asking that politely - I’m asking whether it would be practical at a programming level)?, and
2 - do others think this would be a useful feature?
Just my two cents, but I can open a post and look at posting dates, no problem.
And usually if a thread has been resurrected and is deemed unnecessary, the Teeming Millions will comment about it. Loudly. So it becomes clear quickly what the story is.
So . . . if it ain’t broke why fix it?
your humble TubaDiva
PS I should also mention that if a post is worthwhile, it doesn’t matter how old the thread is. Good is good regardless.
I opened a couple of old threads, which were just as interesting to those not around at the first “showing”.
That did seem to be the point of leaving them around and unlocked, after all.
But some oldbies would moan about how they’d already read it, got incensed by the prospect of having to ignore a thread they once added to, and indignantly they asked they be shut down.
So I opened a new thread. And was promptly told the old thread hadn’t yet been closed, so the new one must be.
Then they were both closed.
So, I just waited a week and opened the topic in a new thread, and it got a got a good run.
If old topics are such poison, why does Cecil comment on the Shroud of Turin, or what’s the most poisonous snake, when these topics, and the answers he quotes, go back decades?
I really think no thread should be locked because it’s “too old to raise”. If people are adding to it, it’s interesting to them. The oldbies can easily skip it. If no one cares it sinks in a few hours. Where’s the problem- There is none.
Hmm, you try to make one uncontroversial ATMB post, and look what happens ;).
After I posted it, I realised some people might take this thread as an attack on people who reopen old threads. This is absolutely not what I was trying to do. I was just interested in getting some general views from other posters, and finding out if such a thing would be a possibility for a future version of the message board software. Just something to give more information on the ‘forum’ pages, sort of like the shaded envelope letting you know, just by scanning down, how many threads have had something added since you last checked in.
I wasn’t trying to make a value judgement about old threads or people who revive them. I agree it’s better to have one large thread on the one topic, rather than 15-20 small ones popping up every time someone feels the need to comment on it.
Hey, Henry, if someone revives an old thread (and they’re not a troll) it means that the subject was a HOT TOPIC to them!
If others start to add comments and new information to that thread, it means it’s a hot topic to them, too.
It’s just a shock to open an interesting thread and discover you were interested enough to already comment in it over a year ago.
Know what? I think there’s a Cecil book (or, at least a chapter of a Cecil book) in threads and questions that keep popping up.
Don’t know what you’d call it…
“Questions that won’t die”
“Best of C.A. Because You Still Keep Asking It”