Curse of the Zombie Thread
 

As we approach the real dog days of summer I have been looking for some entertaining 50+ threads from the past.

No offense but this is sort of like panning for gold: Lots of filler with a few flakes.

Some of the flakes are interesting. The evolution of the active members is almost like a long pace line. Some members are always active up front, some are there for a while and then gone off the back. Some claw their way back to the front and some are never heard from again.

My approach was to go back through the active threads at one year intervals and I was really, really tempted to bump some of these back into circulation. Some are still timely and some are very ironic in light of history (some folks really getting exited about a certain rider named Landis) and some are just funny.

I personally have felt kind of foolish when I responded earnestly to a post on a forum thread only to realize later it was years old and the OP had moved on long, long ago. Other times it doesn't matter at all.

So my point here is:

How do you feel about revived threads?

Should there be a warning attached somehow to the revived post? The font of an old thread in a different color for example...

Zombie thread. Sounds like bad sewing material. I have also seen some old ones that seemed timely.

Kind of like I tell people at work--"If you don't believe in the resurection of the dead, come around here at quitting time"!

They make me feel dirty. But that's just me.

I still really like the "scoop on pardeeville". I think about bumping it every so often and consider it a foo thread for the 50plus.

The problem with reviving old threads is that an individual's knowledge, attitudes - whatever - may have significantly changed in those intervening years, and it may be unfair to revive an old thread representing those outdated thoughts.

Of course, this does not apply to yours truly, who has never changed opinions or knowledge level over 10 years!!

I think if someone revives an old thread, the thread should display a red flag of some sort within the revived thread - i.e., this thread is over 6 months old, or displaying the actual age prominently within the text.

I noticed that

But you did go to the heart of the matter. Somethings are best left in the past.

What I would almost like to see - across the forum - is a thread dormant for a period of time TBD when re-posted the title is that warning you suggest. But how old is old?

I love these things about BF and the 50+: The company, the banter and the information. I come here to learn and do the group entertaining thing (maybe we should do skit night?) and some of the stuff that went on before I got here is good.

I regret not experiencing the Diegos. The references I've read makes me regret my Johnny-come-lately status.

You missed a WHOLE lot of self-absorbed filler.

Was that self-absorbed, or self-absolved?

This isn't from the 50+ forum (although Stumon is probably over 50) but it always makes me laugh.
http://www.bikeforums.net/showthread...7836#post17836

OK-in spite of the fact that it cost me a few minutes of time I might have spent better elsewhere, that whole thread was worth the read!:lol:

Thanks, Ron.

That's exactly the sort of thread I'm talking about. Leg shaving never dies on these forums and there is a lot of humor as well as practical knowledge sometimes to be found in a thread 10 years old.

Maybe the way you did that is just the way to handle resurrecting an old thread worth re-reading. Title it "REPOST: name of thread and a brief explanation of the value found in it. That way any new reader would know it's not current. Then paste in the link.

I guess if someone had to respond to the thread in their new post they could "Go Advanced" and put a sub-title in to alert following posters that the thread is from by-gone days.

MAYBE IN BIG BOLD FONT

Some of the old post's make interesting reading. Makes you realise how some of the riders have evolved over the years and the type of riding they do.

I have on occasions started on the last page and worked my way forward. Fills a lot of time in those long winter evenings when I am getting bored.

But to revive an "Old" thread seems pointless to me. If you have something to add to a year old post- make a new posting and refer to the old one via a link. Save me ploughing through 23 pages of "This is the post that never ends" (haven't seen that one recently ) to find the 35 posts since I last read it.

http://www.bikeforums.net/showthread...ght=never+ends

OK. So I think I learned some things here but I'm not sure I got the answer yet.

I have learned that the long time members of a forum don't really want old threads to come back to life it seems.

But that doesn't necessarily stop them from doing it. "This is the post" was brought back not by moi but by a certain member who shall remain nameless, ahem...

In that thread (which I did plow through all 23 pages of) I found a reference to a very timely and timeless thread which I did resurrect (I just couldn't restrain myself) and I think a lot of us newbies have had fun adding our own bonmots to the confection. There's some good stuff there.

Thanks for sharing your thoughts.

Well, as an expenditure of your and our time, sure beats trying to find the solution to world peace or debating vehicular cycling (something they do over and over and over again, with the same never-ending arguments, in the VC forum)!!

OK - here's my $0.02.
I actually think it shows some respect for the forum when an old thread that answers a specific question is revisited or brought forward if the reader is asking for clarification or seeking new information - particularly if it is obvious they read and digested the original material, it shows they at least took the time to do a little research on the topic before asking the question. We always get the same questions over and over again as people join, not that I mind the questions or the new folks, just that I think they should learn to do a little digging first. I think it might have been last summer or the summer before, we kept getting the same questions as new people came in, I could almost cut and paste the responses from the "old guard", it became almost comical. I think many of our experience folks are just not responding quite so much to these this year.

I hate when silly threads are revisited, most humor goes stale - but that's just me.

"I'm so slow" was certainly a good one.

So: new members should avail themselves of the information in old threads.

Therefore, if old threads contain outdated or erroneous information, they should be updated/corrected - which will entail the old thread's "resurrection".

tcs

Well, this is a better place to revive a thread than some of the forums where I hang out. A woman revived a thread on a lung cancer support forum this morning, responding directly to the OP. No one has yet gotten around to telling her that the OP died a year or so ago.