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Zombie Threads

sanford12

sanford12

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After the update at first thought zombie threads might be kinda neat to read through and looked forward to it. Not so much anymore. Too many getting dragged up that are irrelevant because so much time has passed. I find myself checking the date of the OP post and if it's before 2018 I rarely go on. Those that had few replies to begin with are probably better left in the past.

I know others will enjoy them, but for me, a lot of them are just clutter.
 
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I’ve seen many threads that some years ago came to a sudden stop with no conclusion. Ie someone is working on a piece of equipment and needs a schematic or parts sub. Or someone gives suggestions and the op never comes in to say how it worked out.

Lately I’ve seen one hit wonder members come in and post the schematic, offer a source for the part, or come in to say ‘I had this exact problem and those suggestions fixed my equipment’.

These threads will continue to assist folks in the future, and I think enjoy seeing things come to a close. I’ve also learned quite a bit from these oldies but goodies.
 
I replied to a post from 2017 yesterday because it was still relevant. A cable thread that never got traction from 15 years ago. Why revive that.
 
I think a lot of the problem is that the "Similar Threads" and the Standard Search function are not sorted by date. (only if you use the Advanced Search which most people don't)

If they sorted by "most recent" by default, a lot of the dead threads would stay that way.
 
I think the post getting drummed up are probably more often relevant than not. Otherwise people wouldn't have posted in them. You do find the occasional "didn't realize the thread was old" from the new poster but if the info they provide is relevant to the OP then it's all good. The irrelevant threads will be off the first page in few hours to a day.

I thought about bringing back a thread from 2016 that seemed popular but died after about 100 pages because I alone could add 10+ pages of content. It was a daily singles thread in the music forum. But then I figured if I have that much content available I can keep a tread going for over half a year on my own so I might as well create a new thread and we can start from scratch.

I'm not sure if the similar threads are the same for everyone or not but right now below this as I type 3 of the 5 similar threads are dead threads of things that are also current threads. Which just goes to show many threads don't really die they just get reborn.
 
What difference does it make if the thread was created 20 years ago or 20 mins ago? If there's something that someone feels is of relevance or is useful to the discussion it makes absolutely no sense to take issue with how long it's been since the last comment was added. Those people who bizarrely get irritated and find themselves unable to refrain from making the useless "zombie thread" comments and proceed to point out the obvious but yet completely irrelevant fact that an extended period of time had passed since the thread was active are ultimately doing the site a disservice by both steering away or even derailing the focus on the topic of discussion and even worse, discouraging others from wanting to add perhaps an important piece of information to the thread for fears of being reprimanded by an ornery site member when it's entirely unnecessary.
A lot of people, myself included, use AK as an information database and often times find pieces of info shared in users comments that can't be found anywhere else so it would be a huge loss if more and more members follow suit with the zombie thread ridicule trend and deter others from wanting to join in older threads.
 
PROJECT 2501 said:
What difference does it make if the thread was created 20 years ago or 20 mins ago? If there's something that someone feels is of relevance or is useful to the discussion it makes absolutely no sense to take issue with how long it's been since the last comment was added. Those people who bizarrely get irritated and find themselves unable to refrain from making the useless "zombie thread" comments and proceed to point out the obvious but yet completely irrelevant fact that an extended period of time had passed since the thread was active are ultimately doing the site a disservice by both steering away or even derailing the focus on the topic of discussion and even worse, discouraging others from wanting to add perhaps an important piece of information to the thread for fears of being reprimanded by an ornery site member when it's entirely unnecessary.
A lot of people, myself included, use AK as an information database and often times find pieces of info shared in users comments that can't be found anywhere else so it would be a huge loss if more and more members follow suit with the zombie thread ridicule trend and deter others from wanting to join in older threads.
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Depends. Many times, the OP is no longer a member and replies to the original Q from 10 years ago aren't going to serve much purpose. It doesn't bother me. I try and check the original post date before replying. This may be more prevalent because of the Similar Threads prompt you now receive when posting a thread. I think this occurred after the last site update.
 
Bill S said:
Depends. Many times, the OP is no longer a member and replies to the original Q from 10 years ago aren't going to serve much purpose. It doesn't bother me. I try and check the original post date before replying. This may be more prevalent because of the Similar Threads prompt you now receive when posting a thread. I think this occurred after the last site update.
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If somebody chooses to respond with useful information to a question asked by a member who's been dead for 20 years, what difference does it make?
 
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