Would it be possible to add in another envelope icon to indicate threads where the OP is over a year old, to give a heads up for “zombieness”. I keep getting caught out, reading a thread and spotting a “BANNED” under someones name, thinking “hey they were banned a while back weren’t they…” and only then spotting the datestamp is 5 years old. If the envelope icon were to subtly indicate that is is an old OP then I wouldn’t do that. This also wouldn’t negatively affect long running active threads like the Order of the Stick one, as people would already expect the OP to be old.
I’m on another VB board where if you attempt to reply to a zombie thread there’s a big red warning in between the reply box and the submit button explaining that it’s an old thread (and in the nature of that board, you probably don’t have anything useful to add). You then have have to check a box confirming that you’ve read the warning before you can hit submit. Then, IIRC, it still takes you to another screen asking you if you’re sure.
I’m not sure if it’s a hack or built in though.
Anyways. I, personally, have no problem with zombie threads. What bugs me, is that they used to be shut down right away, we complained about that, the mods loosened up on that (sort of) and now every few weeks we have people complaining about them.
Anyways, you sort of touched on the problem, but I think we might find out that there are more older threads then we realized (I don’t know, are there?) if that’s the case, there’s going to enough zombie icons that you won’t notice it anyways.
I still say, who cares if it’s a zombie thread. If you were entertained while reading it, it seems worth it to me.
ETA, looking at the other VB board I mentioned, the warning seems to be in relation to the most recent post, which makes sense, except, I assume it goes away after the first time someone posts to the thread again.
That might be a hack … or it’s offered in a later edition of vB … which we do not have.
Dunno what to tell you about old “zombie” threads. Whatever choice is made, someone is disappointed.
One of our members coded a Greasemonkey script to insert a warning on the first and last posts of a zombie thread. You do have to open the thread first, though. It works for me, but standard disclaimers apply, not officially sanctioned, use at your own risk, etc. http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?p=13438467
There’s also one for before you open threads, later on in that thread. I use that one. It’s not quite as precise as one year old, but it works pretty well anyways.