[SOLVED] allow old threads

The Internet's oldest forums--network news transfer protocol (NNTP)/Usenet--generally have no time limit for threads, and I suggest you do the same. On Usenet sometimes people replied 20+ years later and had a good discussion; there's no reason that shouldn't happen on world wide web (WWW) forums. There's some ill-conceived WWW forum fad idea that old threads are bad and are called the bad grammar 'necro thread', with 'necro' being a prefix in other words, not word on its own... and is a very stupid idea. There is no actual harm from old threads, and if someone replies, it's no longer old! Administrators/moderators should just stop their pointless moaning & groaning about old threads.

On LQ there is nothing preventing starting a new thread with a link to the old thread and then comments about what is new or different now. I, for one, find that sufficient.

I do believe that a warning pops up if the thread is more than six? months old, but it does not prevent one from posting.

Originally Posted by dchmelik Administrators/moderators should just stop their pointless moaning & groaning about old threads.

Speaking only for myself, the moaning and groaning is mostly from my own age and not the age of threads!

As above, old threads are never closed solely because of their age and there is nothing preventing new posts to them. But there are reasons for encouraging new posts to be opened in new threads in most, but not all cases.

Frequently, when a new post asks a question or describes some new use case similar to that discussed in an old thread with, "I have the same problem!", a lot of time is wasted because responders must first read the old thread and try to discover how the new case differs from the old. For always changing technical topics, all of that is avoided when we start fresh with a complete description of the current problem.

Also, when a new question is added to an old thread it can quickly disappear from view and be forgotten. Conversely, when a new thread is posted it is automatically bumped to the top for some period of time until it receives a reply or two, so it is in the posting member's best interest to open their own thread.

Remember that LQ is primarily a technical forum, and the threads posted here become part of a growing searchable database for future visitors. A well asked question followed by discussion leading to resolution can provide the specific search terms and more or less concise accessible information for others. When such information is diluted and obscured by never ending additions which may be similalr but not often the same it becomes less useful and less accessible to others as a result.

Finally, old threads are frequently the target of a semi-human species called "spammers" where they hope their droppings will be found by search engines but may not be immediately seen and removed by moderators. That also accounts for much of the moaning and groaning coming from old threads.

So the advice in most cases is to post to an old thread when you have something useful to add to the existing discussion, but for new and related questions, please start fresh with a description of your issues in your own thread.

Hope that is helpful!

Originally Posted by dchmelik Administrators/moderators should just stop their pointless moaning & groaning about old threads.

It's not the admins, just certain users keep bringing it up: https://www.linuxquestions.org/quest...ags/necrobump/

But why didn't you post this to an existing old thread rather than opening a new one?