Why not just make all posts older than a certain amount of time have a different background color? Then it would be immediately obvious what was old and what wasn’t!
Your experience is not universal. 
Regarding “reported” - if the mods say that it’s helpful, I’m (shock and horror) actually going to believe that they know best what makes their lives and their volunteer work on this board easier.
I know; stop the presses.
I do think that for something other than outright spam, it’s nice to have a note explaining to the poster WTF “reported” actually means.
On the other hand, I think you’re being awfully solicitous of potential new members. Hell, I think “Reported” was the response to one of my very first posts. If a new poster is so thin-skinned and tentative that they can’t handle figuring out board policy and regular usage, perhaps they need to hang out at DisneyChat a bit longer before they come out again.
For the OP - I like seeing at least one “zombie” warning, because I tend not to notice that they’re old (unless half the posters are BANNED - that’s usually a tip-off) unless there’s an obvious disconnect - the first zombie post usually makes me :smack: and check how old it is.
On the other hand, I agree that the multiple zombie comments get a little tiring - either the thread has legs and people post interesting stuff, or it doesn’t so it needs to go die again. Either contribute meaningfully or just let it die! Don’t just post zombie jokes to keep it alive longer.
what matters though, is that newcomers will have no idea what wrong they have done to be reported. even a still curt “reported for forum change” would be better than “reported 
”.
Like I said - for ‘not-spam’ a note is nice. Shouldn’t be the end of the world if it’s not there.
Also, I’m apparently now Zaphod, as I have three hands. :smack:
Just because it’s generally okay, doesn’t mean anyone gets a free pas when they do it at the wrong time. Which is what this was. This was apparently a young person with some real problems. He did not need to read a bunch of people making zombie jokes he wasn’t even going to understand.
Well, that’s the thing about opinions. And rectal orifices.
But what’s emphatically unfunny is when you start to reply to something only to realize that the person you thought you were talking to is a well-known Doper who has died. That’s happened several times, and unfortunately it’s only going to get more common as the years pass.
Is this really plausible? I’ll admit I don’t know much about the workings of vBulletin, but there are add-ons like this one. And even if that won’t work with this version, it seems like this would be a simple kind of operation to script.
Unless the database structure is especially arcane, it should just take a SQL statement like
UPDATE Threads
SET Locked = 'True'
WHERE LastPostDate < 20110323
This is obviously a simplified example, but it shouldn’t be a great deal harder than that.
And it is by those things that people make judgements about others.
Opinions, that is. Rectal orifices, not so much. Unless you deal with a lot of rectal orifices. Which I do.
I see nothing wrong with pointing out that a thread is a zombie. Fair enough, older posters may recognise it but it may not be obvious to a new person that they are talking to a void.
Neither do I, but there’s a nice way to do it, and a dick way to do it.
Look this fucked up thread has one big flaw in it. It’s a collision of two topics that have people appearing to argue supporting one side while actually not.
Topic 1 - People who pile on sincere newbies looking for guidance.
Topic 2 - People who play zombie games with the clueless and truly stupid.
For the record I support the OP’s request to give the Newbies a break and help them.
For the record I also think that those whining about Zombie fun need to reach back, grab some fabric, and remove panty from sphincter.
Yeah, shame on us for expressing our dislike of a board meme in a relevant Pit thread.
But this is what we’re talking about here. A specific case where an apparently sincere newbie was looking for guidance and got a bunch of zombie jokes.
No, No. You’re fine. You have just as much right to whine as I have to make fun of you for whining.
So, if somebody had replied to the Newbie with “Maybe he hits you because you’re a fat loser” we’d have to assume you may be OK with that since we’re talking specifics?
So which is it, did you bring your lunch or did you ride to work today?
And No, the OP may have been specific but the discussion isn’t.
Actually some of us are talking only about compassion to newbies.
Others are talking only about a board meme (example the Ugly Ripe Tomato post sandwiched between our last two).
And you I guess are talking specifically about this one incident where somebody used a meme to be rude. So we now know for certain that you don’t like using Zombie jokes at inappropriate times. What we don’t know is whether you think there is an appropriate situation to use a Zombie joke or if picking on a Newbie is ever justified.
Is it getting clearer?
You talk to lawyers lots?
Oh anatomic ones. Got ya.
I wonder how many of the people bitching about zombie threads and clueless newbies were also really excited for Google indexing.