# Question from a newbie

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-from-a-newbie/67349>\
**Category:** About This Message Board\
**Created:** [June 2, 2001, 7:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-from-a-newbie/67349 "2001-06-02T19:21:05Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 6\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![eunoia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eunoia/32/97_2.png) [@eunoia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eunoia)\
**Post date:** [June 2, 2001, 7:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-from-a-newbie/67349/1 "2001-06-02T19:21:05Z")

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Is it considered poor manners to post in really old threads and thus bring them back to life? I don’t want to be accused of beating a dead horse, but thars gold in them thar searches.

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**Author:** ![mblackwell](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5fc32e/32.png) [@mblackwell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mblackwell)\
**Post date:** [June 2, 2001, 8:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-from-a-newbie/67349/2 "2001-06-02T20:25:26Z")

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I say its OK if you have something relevant to add, others say you should make a new thread with a link to the old thread. It may be better to just link to it if its really old or really long.

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**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\
**Post date:** [June 2, 2001, 8:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-from-a-newbie/67349/3 "2001-06-02T20:32:06Z")

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The only rule that everyone seems to agree on is that if the thread’s so old that it’s still got UBB code (rather than the current vB code), then you should leave it lie and post a new thread.

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**Author:** ![eunoia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eunoia/32/97_2.png) [@eunoia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eunoia)\
**Post date:** [June 2, 2001, 11:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-from-a-newbie/67349/4 "2001-06-02T23:41:11Z")

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> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by mblackwell \*  
> \*\*I say its OK if you have something relevant to add, \*\*

I rarely have something relevant to add, but thanks to you and Chronos, your advice makes good sense.

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**Author:** ![SmackFu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/53a042/32.png) [@SmackFu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SmackFu)\
**Post date:** [June 3, 2001, 2:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-from-a-newbie/67349/5 "2001-06-03T02:26:38Z")

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Another issue with REALLY old threads is that there is sometimes history involved that you don’t know. So dredging it up may be upsetting to some.

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**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\
**Post date:** [June 3, 2001, 6:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-from-a-newbie/67349/6 "2001-06-03T06:31:30Z")

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**eunoia,** here’s an example.

This thread got started today: [Bounty Hunters](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=72872). Another poster promptly pointed out that the issue had come up in two other threads, one from two years ago, and [this one](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=61560) from a few months ago.

On reading the thread from a few months ago, I noticed that there was a specific question asked and not answered, so I answered it, in a post to that thread. I didn’t put it in the recent thread, because the recent thread just refers back to the older ones.

(And I didn’t post to both threads because the SDMB rules prohibit multiple postings of the same thing to different threads.)