Ancient threads

[Marzipan]

I've come across quite a few old threads that have been brought back to life, a lot of them by spammers but some of them by genuine posters perhaps searching for a topic, finding a relevant thread and adding to it without noticing the date. Have just seen this one which ranks as the oldest case I've come across (from Feb 05):

http://www.ukbusinessforums.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=9361

I see this issue has been raised before, but the discussions didn't appear to reach any conclusion. Is that because nothing can be done to help prevent it? I realise the spammers will always be a problem but for genuine posters they're spending time to respond and it's time wasted in many instances.

 

[Fill-Your-World]

This gets on my nerves too, but I doubt theres much that can be done to prevent it. I guess it's just up to posters to glance at the thread date...I know I always do

 

[wildhaggis]

If it's a decent BBS (Bulletin Board System) , the moderators can close the thread to new posts. I'm guilty of posting in an old thread, as I had figured this would be pretty standard functionality.

 

[Marzipan]

I guess it's just up to posters to glance at the thread date...I know I always do

I try to check dates, but it's easy to overlook it

If it's a decent BBS (Bulletin Board System) , the moderators can close the thread to new posts.

I think they can do that but it's just more work for the mods and the vast majority of threads don't need it because they don't get dredged up, plus there will be occasions when the OP would want to revive an old thread in order to post an update.

I guess there's not really anything much can be done, never mind.

 

[stugster]

You could make use of forum pruning... or better still, just set the thread to closed after a set amount of time has past.

I'd suggest that as a default. After 3 months, the thread should be closed anyway

 

[Darren Falkingham]

Yep, as far as I know it's pretty straight forward to close old threads...hopefully automatically!

We'll look into it and see what options we have. I think 3 months is a nice time to close them too. And this won't stop them being indexed, visible, linkable, etc.

Cheers,
Darren

 

[DotNetWebs]

...I'd suggest that as a default. After 3 months, the thread should be closed anyway

I think this is a good idea for the tenders section and possibly the introductions but I am not so sure it's a good idea for the other sections.

As mentioned but Marzipan people often post updates to their existing thread. I have done this myself. For example look this thread:

http://www.ukbusinessforums.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=25616

and this post:

http://www.ukbusinessforums.co.uk/forums/showpost.php?p=235559&postcount=35

The continuity would have been lost with an automatic thread closure in place.

Regards

Dotty

 

[Alice3537]

I can't access your examples, Dotty.

 

[jdpos]

There is a facility to prune the old posts which is automatic, if no one posts after x amount of time the thread gets closed or deleted, if some one posts it resets the pruning timer.

 

[DotNetWebs]

I can't access your examples, Dotty.

Oops sorry I forgot I asked for this thread to be moved to the private forums (to hide the thread from the search engines while the case was still open).

Basically I received a 'parking charge notice' and I asked for legal advice. A few people on this forum were very helpful, either via forum posts or PMs.

If anybody is interested the basic story is here:

http://www.horshamforum.co.uk/Topic896-4-1.aspx

Anyway, a few months later somebody asked what the outcome was and I posted a follow up.

The point is had the thread been automatically closed then there would have been no continuity or follow up.

Regards

Dotty

 

[Alice3537]

Thanks for the link, Dotty!

The issue (of the threads, not your ticket!! ) is one of those that come up when there is a spate of a certain type of activity (in this case resurrecting old threads) and that makes for an 'interesting' debate as to the best course of action - it could be that the issue sorts itself out and nothing needs to be done or that it escalates and we have to hope that those who are interested in the outcome of a situation PM us about it!

I must admit, I've found it to be more regular an occurance over the past couple of weeks and people keep replying until someone points out the OP last posted 3/6/9/however many months ago! Having said that, saw a resurrected post today with advice given back to the person who first posted on it and that seems to be 'good' for the members who complain about new threads being started about questions that have been asked before!!

 

[Top Hat]

I think its a bad idea to lock old threads.

and can we have time out on the new posts again

 

[ken_uk]

Many threads require updates after time, so closing them would render the entire thread a waste of time, and possibly leave lots of inaccurate information on the forum that could otherwise have been updated or corrected.

As the problem seems to mainly be with spammers (usually people who are newly registered and have a low post count) why not have a limit on the age of a post you can reply to until you have reached so many posts.

 

[Top Hat]

spammers will spam whaterver

excited new users are bound to find old threads that interest them

 

[dagr]

As said above, it's a thin line between what is thought of as "out of date" by the established members and a poor newbie thinking he/she's doing the right thing by taking the trouble to search forums to see if a particular thread already exists.

I'm in favour of leaving the posts as they are. Best solution would be to implement a colour-coded scheme whereby the header of "old" threads (i.e. threads started over 6 months ago and not updated for a month, say) appear in red or some other colour. I realise this may not be an existing option in the current forum PHP code, but it shouldn't be too hard to implement.