# What's up with all of the old threads? **URL:** \ **Category:** Maintenance/Repairs\ **Created:** [December 9, 2010, 12:56pm UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/whats-up-with-all-of-the-old-threads/58462 "2010-12-09T12:56:06Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![willey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/a9adbd/32.png) [@willey](https://community.cartalk.com/u/willey)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2010, 12:56pm UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/whats-up-with-all-of-the-old-threads/58462/1 "2010-12-09T12:56:06Z")
I noticed there are alot of old threads with no new responses. What happened? ---
**Author:** ![VDCdriver](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/cartalk/user_avatar/community.cartalk.com/vdcdriver/32/30_2.png) [@VDCdriver](https://community.cartalk.com/u/VDCdriver)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2010, 1:01pm UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/whats-up-with-all-of-the-old-threads/58462/2 "2010-12-09T13:01:16Z")
Some time last night, a spammer went wild on this site, posting blatant commercials for his/her DVD sales company. I flagged at least ten of those posts before I gave up for the night. Apparently Cyberbabe removed the offending posts, but due to the way that the site is programmed, those old threads remain near the top of the page due to recent activity. ---
**Author:** ![UncleTurbo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/e9a140/32.png) [@UncleTurbo](https://community.cartalk.com/u/UncleTurbo)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2010, 1:05pm UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/whats-up-with-all-of-the-old-threads/58462/3 "2010-12-09T13:05:05Z")
Old threads are pulled in when someone (ie. a hacker) posts an inappropriate advertisement. There have been some posts selling cheap knockoffs of designer handbags for example. When the site monitors delete the inappropriate posts they can’t restore the order of posts to the pre-hacker order. Therefore, the old threads remain in view for awhile until new posts supercede them eventually. ---
**Author:** ![UncleTurbo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/e9a140/32.png) [@UncleTurbo](https://community.cartalk.com/u/UncleTurbo)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2010, 1:07pm UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/whats-up-with-all-of-the-old-threads/58462/4 "2010-12-09T13:07:49Z")
When you read a post it helps to look at the date of the 1st response. If it is an old post just ignore it, what you have to say was probably already said long ago and the OP isn’t going to read your comment anyway. ---
**Author:** ![common-sense-answer](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/cartalk/user_avatar/community.cartalk.com/common-sense-answer/32/716_2.png) [@common-sense-answer](https://community.cartalk.com/u/common-sense-answer)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2010, 1:08pm UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/whats-up-with-all-of-the-old-threads/58462/5 "2010-12-09T13:08:42Z")
Whew ! I Thought I Was Entering The TwiLight Zone Or Having A Sudden Case Of CRS. CSA ---
**Author:** ![willey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/a9adbd/32.png) [@willey](https://community.cartalk.com/u/willey)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2010, 1:17pm UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/whats-up-with-all-of-the-old-threads/58462/6 "2010-12-09T13:17:50Z")
I figured it was something like that. ---
**Author:** ![common-sense-answer](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/cartalk/user_avatar/community.cartalk.com/common-sense-answer/32/716_2.png) [@common-sense-answer](https://community.cartalk.com/u/common-sense-answer)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2010, 2:07pm UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/whats-up-with-all-of-the-old-threads/58462/7 "2010-12-09T14:07:50Z")
Wikicoolantleaks Attack? ---
**Author:** ![tardis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/f0a364/32.png) [@tardis](https://community.cartalk.com/u/tardis)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2010, 2:35pm UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/whats-up-with-all-of-the-old-threads/58462/8 "2010-12-09T14:35:45Z")
The exceptions are that sometimes the OP responds to their original post with an update of the final outcome, or sometimes someone searches for and finds a post similar to their problem and adds to that post. ---
**Author:** ![jtsanders](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/c2a13f/32.png) [@jtsanders](https://community.cartalk.com/u/jtsanders)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2010, 4:44pm UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/whats-up-with-all-of-the-old-threads/58462/9 "2010-12-09T16:44:19Z")
But what if thoses DVDs were going to increase my mileage to 150 MPG? I need to see that stuff!!! ---
**Author:** ![CTC\_Cyberbabe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/3da27b/32.png) [@CTC\_Cyberbabe](https://community.cartalk.com/u/CTC_Cyberbabe)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2010, 5:17pm UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/whats-up-with-all-of-the-old-threads/58462/10 "2010-12-09T17:17:37Z")
Hi guys, Sorry for all the confusion. We had a particularly active nocturnal spammer who posted somewhere in the neighborhood of 130-140 ads last night. My eagle-eyed fellow Cyberbabe did the best she could to try to remove these ads, but as you guys have quickly figured out the old threads got bumped in the process. Generally we try to lock out these super-spammers as soon as they start up, but even we lackeys have to sleep sometimes. We’re trying to figure out the best way to prevent these incidents, but obviously it’s still imperfect. You can help by flagging these posts for removal as you see them. If you’ve got comments or questions, let me know. Again, it’s annoying and distracting, but keep doing what you’re doing – asking and answering questions – and the old stuff will settle down to the bottom with time. ---
**Author:** ![oblivion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/3ab097/32.png) [@oblivion](https://community.cartalk.com/u/oblivion)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2010, 1:03am UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/whats-up-with-all-of-the-old-threads/58462/11 "2010-12-10T01:03:19Z")
Perhaps I’m being nit-picky, but hackers aren’t known for placing ads on web forums. Not much of a hack to register for a membership, place a bunch of ads and get out, if you ask me. The type of person that would do this is the type that would steal your wallet then help you look for it.