Reviving Dead Threads

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Who else likes to bring dead threads back to life?

I'll do it if I can find an older topic that's relevant and a new one doesn't really need to be started.

I think most of us can agree that one of the biggest problems with WP is way, way, way too many topics covering the same ground.

it is a good kind of necromancy

All forums have this problem. Maybe even worse than here. After all many of us actually search before we start new threads. Most forums I go on can have the same questions over and over again because NTs don't search first.

Depends on the thread.

If it is a general thread, I don't mind, as quite possibly the general question has been asked before and been explained very well in an existing thread. If it's a specific person asking about a specific problem, I find it a bit pointless, especially if its 5 years since the original post, the problem has been resolved, and the person no longer frequents the website.

There were also a few threads a while back containing posts by a member who had taken their life, and I found that really sad and kind of disturbing.

Reviving dead threads just for the hell of it isn't very cool; you end up with members who don't notice it is a zombie thread and posting replies to members who have long left the site, expecting a response from them. If someone makes a habit of resurrecting dead threads for no valid reason they will likely incur the wrath of the moderators.

Is it really such a big problem? I don't see any serious problem in reviving ancient threads although I'm not really interested in doing so. I can't really be bothered to browse beyond the first few pages of the thread list. But when someone revives one and if the topic is interesting, I would happily respond to it. I usually state in my post that I'm responding to an ancient thread.