Would cut down on all the posts from 2012 that are getting resurrected lately.
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In the same line why does someone think that asking " What did you do to solve your problem to someone who has been inactive for years " will do them any good ?
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I think a little red thread locker should do the trick.
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Rather than locking old threads, wouldnāt a better approach be to not have the site software list all those old threads in front of the readers?
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^ Yeah, this never was a problem until the website started āsuggestingā 6-year-old threads to follow-up on.
I have noticed what I call backdoor spam where someone has found an old thread and recommends a product while claiming to be a user of said product.
I recently reopened an old discussion, and weāre having a great time with it
I was the OP
The website warned me I was reopening an old discussion
I did nothing wrong
Thanks for your suggestions. Weāll keep them in mind. as constructed now, I donāt have a way to auto lock threads.
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Closing the treads would reduce the number of active discussions, if that is the goal. There must be a better way of quieting the complainers.
I think a good balance between the wishes of the extremes (of close them down vs they can still be viable), make threads that are older than 1 year locked except for the OP. Of course if the OP responds, the flood gates should reopen. Just my 2 cents
Well, the OP ought to be able to update his own thread. Also, there MIGHT be a few instances where somebody else would want to go back and update a year-old thread. Finally, this forum serves as a collection of information, so I might want to access a 5 y.o. thread about Ford EEC-IV codes, even if I donāt comment in it.
ā¦but I donāt know why, with the site āupgrade,ā the software goes out and ārecommendsā years-old threads! It just seems like a means of cluttering up the forum with low-value necroposts that donāt help out the OP at all! (I mean, after 5 years, OP either already solved the hesitation issue in her Cavalier, or sold the car and bought something that runs betterā¦)
Does anyone within the sound of my voice think the āSuggested Topicsā is a wothwhile feature???
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No, no, and hell no! I always thought that the search function was for finding other threads I might be interested in looking at.
Suggested topics is a useful feature, but with some constraints. The last activity on two of mine was last July; if I hadnāt looked at it in five months, why exactly do I need to read it now? Another one is recent, but went off the original topic about 50 replies ago and Iām not interested in it anymore; I havenāt figured out if thereās a way to stop following a thread in which Iām no longer interested.
I suppose an underlying philosophy of message board site design is to keep you reading on the site whether content is relevant or useful to you or not. And I donāt have a problem with that; the boardās not costing me anything except time and I can choose to stop reading.
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Going off topic is why I requested the ability to close my own threads.
On the other hand, I have been on a lot of forums where someone opens a new thread only to be told that āsearch is your friendā.
It really doesnāt bother me to see old threads revived. You can always ignore them.
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Yeah, my unofficial, unscientific, largely gut feel is that after about 30 replies, the discussion is about something else, at best tangentially related to the original post. At about 50, you havenāt the slightest idea what the original post was.
Not complaining - thatās the way spoken conversations work, but many times Iād like to exit the conversation. Closing would be nice, too, if you started it.
The problem is with the way the new site sorts the threads. The threads are sorted by last time one was updated. Yet there are threads that were last updated months and even years ago. Since sorting is extremely trivial for any web developer to do I can only assume this is done by design.
For some of you, people opening old threads is a pet peeve. For me, people whining about opening old threads is my pet peeve, and then some.
This board is a treasure house of information on cars and mechanics and diagnostics. It is counter productive to start limiting full access to old threads, IMO.
Let me tell you about a real experience. Some years ago, when I started on the Atkins Diet, I signed on an Atkins type board. There was a small section on related medical issues. Less than one page of postings total.
I paid no attention to dates. Why should I? And, there was a posting that had extremely dangerous information on it, about certain medications and how they interacted, or didnāt, with Atkins. It included information capable of killing people. I knew because a medical student had asked me to research that very issue and let him know what I found on-line.
So, I posted a warning on that thread. A very anal moderator took me to task for posting on an old thread. No matter that it was on the first page of postings for that topic, nor that it involved an emergency safety warning. I realized at that moment that anal is not always a good thing. That was the last time I logged on that board.
I have moderated several low traffic special boards over the years. On my boards, if someone complains about the horrors of opening an old thread. I suggest to them that if someone has come to their house with a gun and is forcing them tor read something they donāt want, they give us their location and we will notify their local police to rush to the rescue.
As far as shutting them down because OP is done with it, so who cares? I am sure the moderator could give us data, but I know from experience that on a board like this many people come here to read old threads, for every person who actually posts anything.
When you post a good answer, which happens every day by several people, that is for future readers who need not even log on, ever. That is what makes the board such a treasure house.
I have no issue with old threads being āreopened,ā but would not be opposed to the date being more clearly displayed.
I sometimes get a bit confused at something like āNov 13ā- does it mean November 13 of the current year, or November 2013?
Not a big deal, and not something I lose sleep over, but a minor contention. Iām learning the difference. 
I, for one, find a bit of sadistic amusement at the folks that complain about an old thread being opened with their constant āWHY WOULD YOU OPEN AN OLD THREAD??? DON"T YOU HAVE ANY SENSE OF DECENCY??ā comments.
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