Will eveyone stop resurrecting long dead posts!

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Some of them are 2, 3, 5 or even 7 years old. Chances are the original poster has left the site, or doesn't give a s**t about the topic anymore.
And Steve Irwin's been dead 7 years.

We'll have to make the thread rise from the grave seven years from now.

Lol I came to this thread hoping that is what had already happened. Oh well, I can wait.

On a serious note, it's not like the original poster of a thread is morally required to be the "MC" of the thread forever. If people are still talking about the issues that the thread raises, then it's still an interesting thread.

It happens mostly on less active forums. Because the waaay old stuff is only on page like 3 or 4. In more active forums you usually have to go a few hundred pages back (at least) to get several year old stuff. (No offense WP!)

On another note: Hello people in the year 2020! This is me from the past. You better not rez this thread! Or else another one exactly like it will be posted

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Think that will scare them off?

Fat chance.

Future! FEAR ME AND MY BAD GRAMMOR. AND CAPS LOCK RARH!

thread necromancy is very popular here

some say its a dark art

As a relative newcomer here, I find this complaint to be slightly perplexing.

I have noticed a number of new threads in which the op is ignored and instead respondents complain, "we already had a thread about this! Why can't you people learn to search?"

But here is this warning against the dark art of thread necromancy.

Which bit of netiquette rules in this situation?

Which is the lesser evil: thread necromancy or redundant thread proliferation?

But sometimes new members might want to read all 1070 pages of WP general discussion, then reply to old threads from years ago, like the nose-picking one that someone should resurrect again, my favorite thread on WP.

Well, I've recently seen one in "news and current events" about steve Irwin's death - 7 years ago - hardly news. I've seen another that was several years old where the OP was discussing their suicidal thoughts. Quite possibly they've moved on from those thoughts and feelings. Why dredge them up?

I think there is a difference between threads that should be allowed to Rest In Peace and ones worthy for Re-Animation. I'm not going to attempt to define where the line be drawn.

One thing that bugs me is Ghost Posts, the ones where the OP seems to disappear and then pop up again somewhere else, or am I just too Old School?

I find most of the old posts with information about ASD still valid but most of them are really to old and need to be catergorised in a "Very Old Posts" list or something.

And searching should be the first thing you do but we do have a few aged ones that sometimes ask questions that thave already been posted and may not know how to use a search engine.

I think you are quite correct there Neilson and I have just realised one reason why this bothers me so much. In the past a couple of really old posts were resurrected where the OP or contributing poster had since taken their life. It may have even been a quite innoccuous post/thread but I found it really unnerving and quite sad at the time to see their avatar and their thoughts and feelings from long ago. so sorry if some people found my response over the top but I really think out of respect that some things should be left in the past.

I know I have said things in past threads that I don't particularly want to revisit.

RIP Steve Irwin (I can't believe it's been 7 years.)

I can see where these types of posts shouldn't be dredged up. It would be nice if there was some way to have those locked.

That's a very heavy and loaded situation. I have seen other communities (notably the alternative Christian site Ship of Fools) where the mods are very active in locking those threads and did create a special board for the memorable and powerful threads--one that I recall involved a terminally ill member and included their final posts, comments by their closest survivors and tributes from the community. That can work, if there is that kind of community of moderators.

They would also just lock old posts to prevent the Steve Irwin thing from taking over the boards.

But there also has to be some balance between the old community members saying "We've seen all this before" and newcomers who have seen none of it before and are full of questions.