I occasionally see posters posting to really old threads (which automatically brings the original post into the current page) such as below:

http://exmormon.org/phorum/read.php?2,79588

This post was originally created 4 years ago, back in 2011, about Mormons and dancing. Then today, FOUR YEARS LATER "greengooblygook" replied to this thread bringing it to the current page.

I'm just curious, why do people post to such old threads? And how do they find these REALLY old posts? I mean posts from 2011 are THOUSANDS of pages deep. Did "greengooblygook" search for "dancing" and this old post popped up? I know there's a search function on this website that can pull up old threads and I know that if you google a certain topic, Google might pull up an old post from RFM.

I guess I don't get it. Why post to old threads? Unless its a certain topic you were specifically searching for and maybe had a question about it or something. But I often see people such as "greengooblygook" post what seems like a random comment or reply to really old threads. Was "greengooblygook" REALLY searching for old posts on Mormon dancing?

Not that there's necessarily anything wrong with it, I just don't get. Why? Have you ever done it and how did you get to such an old post?

Why? Because the poster can be interested in a particular subject, leading to a search-bar topic entry for key words, which produces the old post/thread. (The searcher may be tracking for a particular post/thread or for a specific subject. In any event, you get what you're looking for).

How? If the post/thread is still open, you can still oost to it.

Results? If people are interested in the topic, they will respond; hence, the post/thread remains relevant. alive and open for further discussion. Still-open old posts/threads that may be on the back burner from even years earlier can be brought to the fore with a simple click of the mouse. Consider it an RfM version of Cold Case Files.

I fail to see the big mystery of it all.



Edited 6 time(s). Last edit at 04/18/2015 07:39PM by steve benson.

One more thing about using old threads. There was a time when we could type a very long subject like then the character length was limited. That is why some of the older subject lines are so long.

i love the resurrected threads that happen in the middle of the night (in north america) as that's usually a sign that some TBM has stumbled onto a thread through a google search and posted a response

those responses (as long as you catch them before admin does) can be comedy gold!

I love the little trolls.

some old threads are popping up on google searches which is most likely why they are showing up on top once again.