# An epiphany

**URL:** <https://community.cartalk.com/t/an-epiphany/111149>\
**Category:** General Discussion\
**Created:** [January 10, 2018, 3:17pm UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/an-epiphany/111149 "2018-01-10T15:17:52Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![the\_same\_mountainbike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c89c15/32.png) [@the\_same\_mountainbike](https://community.cartalk.com/u/the_same_mountainbike)\
**Post date:** [January 10, 2018, 3:17pm UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/an-epiphany/111149/1 "2018-01-10T15:17:52Z")

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I had an epiphany as I lay in bed last night. I realized that when I posted my thread a “block” popped up that said **“your topic is similar to”** and showed several very old threads with links.

Could it be that the reason so many old threads are suddenly popping up by new posters is because that link is encouraging people to drag up old threads? Could the root cause be that algorithm? I urge the cyberfolks to consider shutting that function off. Perhaps then old threads will stop popping up.

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**Author:** ![VOLVO-V70](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/8e8cbc/32.png) [@VOLVO-V70](https://community.cartalk.com/u/VOLVO-V70)\
**Post date:** [January 10, 2018, 5:48pm UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/an-epiphany/111149/2 "2018-01-10T17:48:02Z")

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The people in charge most likely don’t want to close old threads because they show up on internet searches therefore bringing traffic to the Cartalk site. What is hard to understand is why someone will logon, post some ridiculous answer to an old thread and never be heard from again.

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**Author:** ![PvtPublic](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/cartalk/user_avatar/community.cartalk.com/pvtpublic/32/13089_2.png) [@PvtPublic](https://community.cartalk.com/u/PvtPublic)\
**Post date:** [January 10, 2018, 5:53pm UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/an-epiphany/111149/3 "2018-01-10T17:53:54Z")

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> [@VOLVO\_V70](#):
>
> What is hard to understand is why someone will logon, post some ridiculous answer to an old thread and never be heard from again.

That’s an easy one. Because most of the time someone will point out that the thread is over "x’ years old, or they take offense that someone points out the ridiculousness of their reply, then they feel foolish or embarrassed and just never come back.

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**Author:** ![RandomTroll](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/cartalk/user_avatar/community.cartalk.com/randomtroll/32/12184_2.png) [@RandomTroll](https://community.cartalk.com/u/RandomTroll)\
**Post date:** [January 10, 2018, 8:40pm UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/an-epiphany/111149/4 "2018-01-10T20:40:33Z")

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Epiphany was January 6

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**Author:** ![jtsanders](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/c2a13f/32.png) [@jtsanders](https://community.cartalk.com/u/jtsanders)\
**Post date:** [January 10, 2018, 8:58pm UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/an-epiphany/111149/5 "2018-01-10T20:58:41Z")

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Could be. I get those, too, and they never, ever, are even slightly related to the points I want to make. Whatever parsing software is used is awful.