Solved Can people stop responding to 10 year old threads?

[Nifty-Chicken]

... and this post: https://www.backyardchickens.com/th...dredging-up-old-threads.1444029/post-23978273

 

[RosemaryDuck]

... and this post: https://www.backyardchickens.com/th...dredging-up-old-threads.1444029/post-23978273

While, again, I agree the post should stay relevant, I think allowing people to comment on such an old post can really pull away from the initial idea. I've seen 10 year old posts where someone has a completely different issue (bumble foot, an injury, something) and a random person will post "My puppy needs help oh nooo" and a long winded story on that thread. Leaving them open confuses new people (and old) and just lets people comment nonsense on them.

I think it would be really helpful if the threads had their own forum ('archives' or 'history') that way they wouldn't completely 'die', but no one would be able to comment on them.

 

[Nifty-Chicken]

"My puppy needs help oh nooo" and a long winded story on that thread. Leaving them open confuses new people (and old) and just lets people comment nonsense on them.

Ya, I can see how that would be problematic.

Unfortunately this kind of thing happens regardless of the age of the thread, so we usually invite our members, if they want, to report those posts, and our team can move them to their own new thread that is on-topic.

 

[MarkJr]

This thread will be replied to years from now too.....

 

[Lucy Brown]

Something I've noticed on this site is how frequently people (especially new members) resurrect ancient threads and ask OP questions. It really messes up the flow of the website, because I'll see an emergency thread pop up, go to answer it and see a time-stamp from like 2007 or something. It also provides outdated information for people arriving to the site. Is there any way we can fix this or have something implemented to stop people replying to such old threads?

Just thought I'd bring it up. Hope everyone's having a great day!

ack i think i have done that quite a few times on accident. most of the content that pops up when i search specific titles are from a long time ago.

 

[Wyorp Rock]

Something I've noticed on this site is how frequently people (especially new members) resurrect ancient threads and ask OP questions. It really messes up the flow of the website, because I'll see an emergency thread pop up, go to answer it and see a time-stamp from like 2007 or something. It also provides outdated information for people arriving to the site. Is there any way we can fix this or have something implemented to stop people replying to such old threads?

Just thought I'd bring it up. Hope everyone's having a great day!

While, again, I agree the post should stay relevant, I think allowing people to comment on such an old post can really pull away from the initial idea. I've seen 10 year old posts where someone has a completely different issue (bumble foot, an injury, something) and a random person will post "My puppy needs help oh nooo" and a long winded story on that thread. Leaving them open confuses new people (and old) and just lets people comment nonsense on them.

I think it would be really helpful if the threads had their own forum ('archives' or 'history') that way they wouldn't completely 'die', but no one would be able to comment on them.

If someone is asking for "HELP" on an old thread, then either answer their question and continue to help them or politely show them how to make their own thread in the relevant forum.

There's going to be "nonsense" posted on old and new alike, that's a given on public forums.

If it's a longwinded wall of text you don't want to read, close the window and go to the next thread in your alerts.

"Similar threads" are at the bottom of each page now, so I think you will see a lot of old threads with comments. I'm not that fond of it myself, but it is what it is. Some info is still relevant, but if you find that a thread contains old info/medicine dosing, etc., politely tell the person responding that there's "new/updated" information now and you'll be happy to share that new info with them.

Sometimes you just have to go with it...

 

[Percheron chick]

I always use the new post function. If those 4 pages are littered with aged posts that have been inactive for years, you have bumped new posts that have perhaps not been responded to off those 4 pages so very few are seeing them.

 

[Kusanar]

... and this post: https://www.backyardchickens.com/th...dredging-up-old-threads.1444029/post-23978273

You might want to consider how many people are complaining about this new feature that is dredging up the old threads, and how many ancient threads are being brought back to life after years of being inactive. Several people have been bothered enough by it to start new threads complaining, seems like it would be best to close comments on old inactive threads (inactive for a period of time 6 months to a year), or if that is too difficult, then remove the new feature which is causing all of this annoyance.

 

[casportpony]

I like @Wyorp Rock's suggestions.
https://www.backyardchickens.com/th...-to-10-year-old-threads.1446369/post-24043216

 

[kajetanwycz]

Something I've noticed on this site is how frequently people (especially new members) resurrect ancient threads and ask OP questions. It really messes up the flow of the website, because I'll see an emergency thread pop up, go to answer it and see a time-stamp from like 2007 or something. It also provides outdated information for people arriving to the site. Is there any way we can fix this or have something implemented to stop people replying to such old threads?

Just thought I'd bring it up. Hope everyone's having a great day!

Maybe you could give the owner the choice to archive their thread after their question has been answered.