I wonder if G2G could include a warning to people commenting on or answering very old questions?

Question

Now and then a very old thread comes up in the Recent Activity listing because someone has found it, possibly by looking at threads related to what they're interested in, and the person comments when the conversation is long over.  I have done that myself.  I wish I had received a warning that no one cares, because the thread is quite old!

Edited to add tag.

Comments

Sometimes we still care.  

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Wouldn't it be better to post a new question?

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I agree with both Julie and Melanie.

I recently spent 10 minutes looking for the newest answer on a thread that started in 2017. The answer was nothing more than agreement with the original.

Perhaps there could be an automatic message when the original question is over a year old.

And/or the most recent answer to an old question might be highlighted in some way.

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Great suggestions, Kristina!

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Kristina - on the g2g index, where the "question" shows there is a link to the most recent activity.  Clicking that takes you directly to that activity.  (Of course, it is no help if there has been more activity preceding the most recent when you see it.)

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Many questions about genealogical topics should be regarded as "evergreen" -- a relative who has information about the person to share, or who wants to know more, may show up years later. In those cases, a response to an old question often has value.

It would, however, be nice to have an "old question" warning on threads about topics that are no longer current -- for example, a thread from 2016 that requested a technical improvement to WikiTree that was implemented in 2017, or a several-year-old thread about changes  that where then being made at some other genealogy website.

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Thanks, Melanie. There are so many things to see and to miss if you donʻt click every link!!

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In case there are others who do not know about the recent activity link, I "doctored" a screencap of the index, leaving the links as an example.

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As I said, if there was OTHER activity between you last checking, and the most recent, you may still have to go hunt it down.  But I find this catches most things.

Answer 1

I agree Julie , I have seen that happen many times

Answer 2

I do try to go through and close old questions when I see them pop up...

Comments

Thanks, Robin!  I'm sure that helps.

P.S.  I assume you are replying as a G2G Moderator.

And now that I think of it (maybe a suggestion for another post), I sure wish Moderators, Leaders, etc. were identified as such in their G2G posts.

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Unfortunately, closing a question gets tracked as new activity, causing the question to jump up to the top of many members' G2G queues. This often inspires members to add new comments (comments can be added to closed questions).

I often refrain from closing an old question precisely because I don't want it to be revived.

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I, for one, thank you for your restraint, Ellen

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Good idea, Julie. It would be good to know when a moderator is replying.

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And I've seen comments on closed questions.

It would be nice if when one tried to comment on a closed question, no comment would be allowed and the person would be prompted to ask a new question.

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The system currently only keeps you from "answering" closed questions....it would be hoped that people "see" the fact that the question is closed...

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I can think of good reasons to comment on closed questions. Sometimes that happens right after the question is closed (sometimes not the choice of the asker) and people are still interested, yet it is not worth starting a new thread.

Sometimes I comment on an old question to add a link to a more recent question so readers will be able to find up-to-date discussion.

I wasn't suggesting that we be prevented from posting to old threads, only that it would be nice to have a warning.