Old Threads - Need More than just Flashing Date

In response to a recent flurry of complaints regarding the posting to obsolete threads, I would like to suggest a possible solution.

Rather than retype it, here is my response given in the Addicts forum

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I would like to assume that people responding to these old threads are simply unaware that they are so old. The flashing date simply does not stand out enough to be noticeable. Many of these replies would be avoided if people could be made more aware of the state of the thread; therefore limiting those responses, hopefully, to the more useful ones.

To that end, I would recommend a message, instead of simply a flashing date. Something along the lines of "This thread is more than three months old. Please do not reply to this thread unless you are making a correction, asking for clarification, or answering an as yet unanswered question." This could be in the form of a text message on the line beneath the date, a javascript popup, or an additional page requesting verification before posting.

I am against a blanket ban. It would prevent questions and answers from being indexed on the same page, and thus make the forums harder to search than they already are, as well as adding additional load to the servers.

Unless a proactive measure is taken to minimize the problem (an explanatory message), and not just a reactive measure (in the form of PM's or AP's), any and all efforts made to minimize the problem will be wasted. Nobody reads the welcome email anyway, much less search the page for the posting date

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Sorry, no time to paraphrase it for Suggestions.. I must be off to bed now.

Another request you's to deal with. Have fun with it.

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Kudos to Katja for getting my brain in gear on this.
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How about an in between page stating the age of the thread and the things you though the message should say. Like when you click post reply, it takes you to a certain page, then you have to click continue or something.

Yes I do agree that more needs to be done... Once I got negged 3 times for accidently responding to an old post... anyway I like both your ideas :)

Another solution would be to close every thread more than two months old...that would not get rid of the problem but it would eliminate very old threads from being revived...I've seen threads 3 years old being posted to and you wonder how they even found those threads :D

Eg ;)

The option to add to old threads should always be there, you never know what useful information can be added to any thread.

I agree old threads should be more prominent, I have replied to one recently and didnt realise it was 2 years old!

Good Idea!!

Yes some sort of preemptive warning would be useful. Something similar the the 'spread your APs around pop up' but probably with something like, "this is an old thread are your sure you wish to post. you may be negged to death for it" and then they'd have to think (you'd hope) a bit more before posting.

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Originally posted here by Egaladeist
Another solution would be to close every thread more than two months old...that would not get rid of the problem but it would eliminate very old threads from being revived...I've seen threads 3 years old being posted to and you wonder how they even found those threads :D

Eg ;)

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Just an alternative suggestion: why not close a thread when the last response is over 2 months old? That way, old threads that are still reasonable alive might still exist for a long while.

Because then there is no possible way to add more info to a thread if necessary.

Exaclty, the idea of having an archive of old threads is so that if needs be they can be brought up again!

How about a message if the last one or two responses are older then 2 or 3 months....

that way when a thread for some reason has restarted you don't get these popups.

Also let it warn a user when he presses both the reply link and the submit button.

Well, the problem with the flashing dates is that it isn't noticeable. Took me about 2 weeks to notice it when I joined AO, and it's because someone mentioned it to someone else. So the approach wouldn't be closing threads, sometimes thread creators want to add to it instead of making a new topic. My opinion, what should be done is something more noticeable, something that you CAN'T miss but you know that it means that you are trying to reply to an old thread. :)