Preventing old thread resurrection?

DZA_

Hey TE Folks, 

Just curious, is there any way to prevent old thread resurrection? I noticed over the last couple months that there has some pretty crazy thread resurrections like 3+ and even 8 year old threads. Is there an option that we can archive threads that are longer than X period or archive a thread if no response has been given in X time period? I feel like its totally unnecessary to bring up a thread that has been buried a long time ago. I don't know, maybe I'm making something out of nothing or people love bring old threads back from the dead. 

Cheers, 

NetworkingStudent

I think it's ok for old forum posts to come back from the dead.  The lack of new form posts makes this forum feel like a ghost town.  (Maybe this is due to the summer season? )  The old threads give me something to read, does anyone else feel the same? 

I think the old threads will still hold value for the new members of the forum.

DatabaseHead

Instead of making a new one, why not reference one already created if it's in the spirit of what you were going to ask?

iBrokeIT

I look forward to seeing this thread again in +5 years 

DZA_

NetworkingStudent said:

I think it's ok for old forum posts to come back from the dead.  The lack of new form posts makes this forum feel like a ghost town.  (Maybe this is due to the summer season? )  The old threads give me something to read, does anyone else feel the same? 

I think the old threads will still hold value for the new members of the forum.

I do that from time to time reading old threads as some of them are pretty inspiring. I feel that most of the original members that browse already have gotten the certs that they need or need a little downtime from all the certs that we've wrote, myself included. We need more folks studying for their exams!

@DatabaseHead - It's not necessarily me per se but for some of the new folks that post here. I find it funny that some new user with less than posts resurrects a thread thats a couple years old thinking that the original poster is still there. But good point nonetheless. 

Jon_Cisco

A lot of time it seems like old posts are spammed by new accounts. It would be nice if there was some way to block that.

UnixGuy

Jon_Cisco said:

A lot of time it seems like old posts are spammed by new accounts. It would be nice if there was some way to block that.

I ban and delete their content as soon as they see them, this way the old thread isn't a highlight (unless a legit poster respond)

If the old thread is still relevant, I don't see a problem 

Infosec_Sam

This is definitely something we can look into! I think it would be nice to see some new threads as well, but I'd want to make sure we have a way of encouraging folks who visit "locked" threads to create a new discussion instead of just leaving the site without posting anything. I'll let you know what I find out!

LonerVamp

I don't know if this is still the case, but I think there was something at one point where you couldn't message another forum member without having so many posts already done? In which case, you'd hunt for things to post on that wouldn't be clearly just tying to pad numbers. I may be wrong, but I seem to distinctly remember having to do that when I first started several years ago.

LonerVamp

More on topic, for me, I basically visit "Recent Discussions" as part of my daily routine at work. When I look through the list, the problem is that I see the date of the last entry (no help, since they're all recent), but I see nothing about when the thread started. I have no idea I'm clicking onto an old thread unless I recognize it or think to look once in, which is a bit of a waste of time.

Likewise, if I've seen the thread before and click into it, it skips me down to where I last saw posts. Which again completely hides the original post and how old this thread may be. I still just see current activity.

That said, I don't see huge problems with resurrecting old threads. It's just a little odd when people post with new advice for an OP who clearly has moved on or something. Then 5 more people pile on, all for roughly naught.

Infosec_Sam

LonerVamp said:

More on topic, for me, I basically visit "Recent Discussions" as part of my daily routine at work. When I look through the list, the problem is that I see the date of the last entry (no help, since they're all recent), but I see nothing about when the thread started. I have no idea I'm clicking onto an old thread unless I recognize it or think to look once in, which is a bit of a waste of time.

I agree with you! I frequently click into threads that have new comments only to see that it's just a single comment on a thread that's 3+ years old. I think resurrecting a fun thread, like "what are you reading right now" can be fun, but I think cert-related stuff can usually be a new post instead of a comment on an old one. 

LonerVamp said:

I don't know if this is still the case, but I think there was something at one point where you couldn't message another forum member without having so many posts already done? In which case, you'd hunt for things to post on that wouldn't be clearly just tying to pad numbers. I may be wrong, but I seem to distinctly remember having to do that when I first started several years ago.

Now I'm not exactly sure how things were before I got here in March of this year, but it's definitely been on my mind as to how we can incentivize more participation. We've been thinking about doing monthly/quarterly giveaways for frequent posters/commenters and new members. Something like a subscription to our Infosec Skills platform, or a free boot camp with Infosec Flex.

I'm loving the feedback, though. Thank you @LonerVamp and @DZA_!

Spiegel

I'm generally OK with old thread resurrections if it means that the posted information is adding relevant and on topic with the nature of the thread. I agree if bots or anything of the sort are resurrecting threads for no reason then the post should be deleted as such.

JDMurray

I'm good with posting to old threads if the new posting is relevant to the discussion topic. Some old discussions are "honey threads" used to identify spam advert posting. They didn't start out that way, but the discussion topic attracted a lot of spam posts, so I kept those threads open specifically for that purpose.

If we didn't want people posting to old threads then we could simply close (lock) off of the threads that are, say, over two years old. That would fix that.