General Etiquette > Techno-quette

Dredging up old threads

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CakeEater:
I belong to a craft-specific forum which has a page for threads with newest comments. There is currently a new member who is also very new to the craft who is obviously doing a lot of back-reading in the forums. Good idea - I certainly read a lot of old threads when I joined. Except new member is commenting on lots of old threads.

Sometimes when people comment on old threads, it's to give updates on situations, or to ask a new but related question. However new member is just making observations on long-resolved situations, or adding her opinion to debates that are long-finished, or even offering advice to posters on threads that are years old.

Obviously it's annoying me a bit, but I wouldn't go so far as to say it's rude. I don't think it's top notch forum etiquette, though. What do you think?

Corvid:
I see this in another forum that I check in on and, in the case of that particular forum, at least, I think it's ridiculous.  There's been a huge turnover of regulars participating there so when someone does this, they're talking to people who haven't been there for years.

Lynn2000:
I guess it doesn't seem rude to me, unless they're bringing up hurtful threads that people wish could be forgotten--like if a thread contained a bitter disagreement about techniques which all the established members have moved on from, agreeing to disagree and dropping the subject. Seeing that pop up at the top of the "unread posts since last visit" list (to use the language from our own forum) might irritate quite a lot of people, bring up bad feelings, and start the debate once again. Even then I would guess the new person isn't so much rude/malicious as clueless.

Occasionally on here I've seen people respond to a thread they found, without realizing it started and ended years ago (probably done it myself!). Sometimes another member will add the next post in that thread, saying something like, "Hi, welcome to the forum! Just so you know, this thread was started in 2007. I think BeadLover10 resolved her issue, but if you'd like to discuss the topic again/ask your own question, you could start a new thread."

Two Ravens:
Aw, zombie threads. Yes, they can be annoying. I for one have been reading a thread, found one post and thought "I totally agree with this" and then realize I actually wrote it years ago (I guess its better than thinking I was an idiot.  ::))

Maybe someone could PM the newbie and let her know this is generally frowned upon?

artk2002:
Ah Necromancers. One blog I frequent just changed software and it now locks threads older than a few months, so that people can't revive them.

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