# Re-responding to a zombie thread
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/re-responding-to-a-zombie-thread/677034
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion
**Created:** [December 23, 2013, 8:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/re-responding-to-a-zombie-thread/677034 "2013-12-23T20:31:55Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)
#### Post date: [December 23, 2013, 8:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/re-responding-to-a-zombie-thread/677034/1 "2013-12-23T20:31:55Z")
I knew it was inevitable; in fact I don’t know why it took so long. Or most likely I’ve done it before and didn’t notice:
Responding to a [zombie thread](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=516210) that I had already responded to, the first time around. In fact, telling exactly the same story.
Ever happen to you?
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### Author:  [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)
#### Post date: [December 23, 2013, 8:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/re-responding-to-a-zombie-thread/677034/2 "2013-12-23T20:35:26Z")
Yes, but I can’t remember when…
I did once start the same thread with the same topic about 6 months apart. :smack: Never realized what I’d done until much later…
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### Author:  [@Trinopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trinopus)
#### Post date: [December 23, 2013, 8:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/re-responding-to-a-zombie-thread/677034/3 "2013-12-23T20:44:51Z")
Almost! There have been a couple, where I got to re-reading the whole thing from the top, and hit comments that I agreed with…only to realize they were _my_ comments.
(Embarrassing if I _didn’t_ agree with 'em, eh?)
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### Author:  [@buddha\_david](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/buddha_david)
#### Post date: [December 23, 2013, 9:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/re-responding-to-a-zombie-thread/677034/4 "2013-12-23T21:07:07Z")
I did almost respond to a zombie thread once, with almost exactly the same words as my original reply a year prior. Didn’t even notice until the last moment.
Most memorable (and embarassing) was taking to task someone’s comment (not realizing the post was several years old) and then being told that said poster had actually died some time ago. ☹
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### Author:  [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)
#### Post date: [December 23, 2013, 11:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/re-responding-to-a-zombie-thread/677034/5 "2013-12-23T23:06:02Z")
Yep, done it more than once. Also caught myself doing it on a couple occasions and stopped before actual posting, but I don’t always catch it.
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### Author:  [@smaje1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/smaje1)
#### Post date: [December 23, 2013, 11:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/re-responding-to-a-zombie-thread/677034/6 "2013-12-23T23:23:36Z")
I did that recently! It was a thread about a murder in my town. I thought to myself, “Wow, that’s right in my neck of the woods!” and then I came across my post from years earlier that actually used the phrase “in my neck of the woods.” 😛 I’m nothing if not consistent.
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### Author:  [@Tim\_R.Mortiss](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tim_R.Mortiss)
#### Post date: [December 24, 2013, 12:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/re-responding-to-a-zombie-thread/677034/7 "2013-12-24T00:44:46Z")
No. I have this thing about not replying to a thread unless I’ve read the whole thing. So if I have already made a reply, I’ll see it. And I’ll think, “what a moron!” just before I notice it is by me.
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### Author:  [@jabiru](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jabiru)
#### Post date: [December 24, 2013, 1:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/re-responding-to-a-zombie-thread/677034/8 "2013-12-24T01:47:50Z")
Yeah, once or twice. I’ve had my post composed, sort of, in my head when I read the _exact_ opinion. Who is this brilliant person who so fully agrees with me? Why, it’s me. Then I feel like the biggest idiot.
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### Author:  [@Missy2U](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Missy2U)
#### Post date: [December 24, 2013, 3:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/re-responding-to-a-zombie-thread/677034/9 "2013-12-24T15:49:18Z")
> [@Tim\_R.Mortiss](#):
>
> No. I have this thing about not replying to a thread unless I’ve read the whole thing. So if I have already made a reply, I’ll see it. And I’ll think, “what a moron!” just before I notice it is by me.
Exactly this.
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### Author:  [@Ace309](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ace309)
#### Post date: [December 24, 2013, 4:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/re-responding-to-a-zombie-thread/677034/10 "2013-12-24T16:06:34Z")
[Never.](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=16883576&postcount=19)
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### Author:  [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)
#### Post date: [December 24, 2013, 4:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/re-responding-to-a-zombie-thread/677034/11 "2013-12-24T16:19:39Z")
I always start with checking my User CP for responses to subscribed threads- anything I’ve ever posted in is automatically subscribed. So if I see a zombie thread has been revived I always search to see what I’d had to say previously.
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### Author:  [@Doctor\_Jackson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doctor_Jackson)
#### Post date: [December 24, 2013, 6:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/re-responding-to-a-zombie-thread/677034/12 "2013-12-24T18:08:39Z")
I have gotten old enough that I tell the same stories to people in real life, does that count?
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### Author:  [@Orr\_G](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Orr_G)
#### Post date: [December 24, 2013, 7:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/re-responding-to-a-zombie-thread/677034/13 "2013-12-24T19:46:41Z")
I’m just posting in this thread so I’ll have something clever to say in five years.
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### Author:  [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)
#### Post date: [December 24, 2013, 7:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/re-responding-to-a-zombie-thread/677034/14 "2013-12-24T19:48:16Z")
Yes, but I can’t remember when…
I did once start the same thread with the same topic about 6 months apart. :smack: Never realized what I’d done until much later…
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### Author:  [@Tim\_R.Mortiss](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tim_R.Mortiss)
#### Post date: [December 24, 2013, 9:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/re-responding-to-a-zombie-thread/677034/15 "2013-12-24T21:11:20Z")
> [@JohnT](#):
>
> Yes, but I can’t remember when…
>
> I did once start the same thread with the same topic about 6 months apart. :smack: Never realized what I’d done until much later…
You must not have gotten any satisfactory replies the first time!
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### Author:  [@TruCelt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TruCelt)
#### Post date: [December 24, 2013, 9:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/re-responding-to-a-zombie-thread/677034/16 "2013-12-24T21:33:44Z")
Don’t think so, though I’ve come close before noticing my previous post. I did once start the same thread a couple of days apart. In my defense, my computer froze during the first posting, and I thought it hadn’t gone through. I didn’t have time to try again for a few days; then a mod left me a note that they’d already answered me and locked the thread.
That was also the day I learned about the “search” function. :smack:
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### Author:  [@Jamicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jamicat)
#### Post date: [December 25, 2013, 2:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/re-responding-to-a-zombie-thread/677034/17 "2013-12-25T02:52:55Z")
> [@Orr\_G](#):
>
> I’m just posting in this thread so I’ll have something clever to say in five years.
Its so hard to be original anymore. ☹
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### Author:  [@Shoeless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shoeless)
#### Post date: [December 25, 2013, 1:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/re-responding-to-a-zombie-thread/677034/18 "2013-12-25T13:11:48Z")
I usually have the opposite thing happen. I’ll see a thread marked as me having responded to it, but I don’t recognize the thread or remember posting to it. Then when I open the thread and start reading through, I discover that it’s a zombie thread from five or ten years ago. No wonder it doesn’t look familiar!
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### Author:  [@Orr\_G](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Orr_G)
#### Post date: [December 24, 2018, 12:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/re-responding-to-a-zombie-thread/677034/19 "2018-12-24T00:17:47Z")
Well, damn. You’d think that would have been enough time to come up with something.
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### Author:  [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)
#### Post date: [December 24, 2018, 1:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/re-responding-to-a-zombie-thread/677034/20 "2018-12-24T01:44:56Z")
See you in 2023.
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