Old threads - early warning

agrinnall

I posted on a two year old thread this week that someone else had resurrected, I didn't spot that it was ancient until a later poster pointed it out. I mentioned there that I have thought for a while that displaying the date a thread was started alongside the OP's name in the forum list would be a good idea, and a few people agreed with me. So, this is me asking if it's possible (I'm sure there is no technical reason why it can't be done) and will you do it?

As an alternative someone else suggested locking threads 3 months old but I wouldn't really agree with that due to some threads running for years with constant updates, although I suppose one that hadn't been updated for 3 months could maybe be locked.

abbyscuito

agrinnall wrote: »

I posted on a two year old thread this week that someone else had resurrected, I didn't spot that it was ancient until a later poster pointed it out. I mentioned there that I have thought for a while that displaying the date a thread was started alongside the OP's name in the forum list would be a good idea, and a few people agreed with me. So, this is me asking if it's possible (I'm sure there is no technical reason why it can't be done) and will you do it?

As an alternative someone else suggested locking threads 3 months old but I wouldn't really agree with that due to some threads running for years with constant updates, although I suppose one that hadn't been updated for 3 months could maybe be locked.

Or perhaps you can just read the dates which are clearly visible?

MoneySavingUser

some forums have a warning on really old threads when you reply to them (however this probably only applies to the person who resurrected it so might have been n/a when you got round to posting)

as for generally having the start date I can see it is possible but it would take up more room on a page with a lot of info anyway and maybe annoying for those old threads which do get a lot of posts anyway

however in display options there is a sort by start time option too at the bottom of each forum section

agrinnall

abbyscuito wrote: »

Or perhaps you can just read the dates which are clearly visible?

Yes they are, ONCE YOU ARE IN THE THREAD. I don't want to waste my time opening up threads that have been re-opened after a 2 years, clearly you have so much time on your hands that you can pore over every little detail of a thread but as I said in the title of this one my suggestion would give an early warning of an old thread.

agrinnall

MoneySavingUser wrote: »

as for generally having the start date I can see it is possible but it would take up more room on a page with a lot of info anyway and maybe annoying for those old threads which do get a lot of posts anyway

Yes, a bit more room, but only 10 characters per thread (dd-mm-yyyy) so not exactly a huge amount. And I'm not sure why it would really impact threads with a lot of posts, it's usually obvious which those are because they have a lot of pages.

shelly

Apparently they have started auto locking old threads. See here. I don't know what date range they are up to as of yet but I posted a warning on a 3 year old thread last week so they probably haven't got far.

bob_a_builder

Other forums have an old thread warning as per the image below
( pretty sure they are based on same code as this one )

this would seem to address this issue ?

or is that already implemented here and I've missed it

Mandelbrot

agrinnall wrote: »

Yes, a bit more room, but only 10 characters per thread (dd-mm-yyyy) so not exactly a huge amount. And I'm not sure why it would really impact threads with a lot of posts, it's usually obvious which those are because they have a lot of pages.

As an alternative, couldn't the thread smiley be used (it often isn't being used much now). Perhaps a smiley of the grim reaper, or a skeleton rising from the grave?

Or a specific colour for the thread title ... perhaps something of a suitable age ... Chartreuse?

Candy53

I think it would be a shame to lock old threads, as there's alot of good information in them that is still of use.

Candy

Tixy

Candy53 wrote: »

I think it would be a shame to lock old threads, as there's alot of good information in them that is still of use.

Candy

The old threads are only locked from new postings being added, you can still view them and they still appear in the search facility etc.