Suggestions

We have all done it, replied to a thread on here only to discover that it can be several years old.

Can GR not design ad add on, whereby if you wish to resurrect an old thread a pop-up appears and suggests you may wish to contact the Poster by Private Message and then if you do not want to PM you can then add to the thread for bringing forward. (Hope that makes sense!)

In the last few weeks I have added to more resurrected threads as I am naughty and very rarely look at the date of the OP.

Just a thought :-D

good idea!

DC ................

are you aware that there IS a banner that appears when you put a name in the quick search????


If you do that, this appears ..................


"These matches have been found on the Community Boards in member discussions. Please be aware that some of these discussions contain very old content, but it is always worth checking them as you may find something useful. To check the date the discussion was originally posted click on the title of the post you want to read in the 'Topic' column. You'll see the date the discussion was first posted in the right hand corner. If it was added more than a few years ago there is a chance that the original poster may not see your reply to their thread. We suggest you send the member a message instead by clicking on the 'send message' button. They'll receive a message from us letting them know you've been in touch and we'll let you know when they reply."


This was done by GR a couple of years ago in response to several members requesting some sort of action.



I think most of the old threads that are resurrected ARE a response to people putting in a search for surnames.



However, there's nowt we, or GR, can do if people do not read and / or pay attention to that banner.



as for us, the helpers .................... we just have to get into the habit of looking more closely at the date of the OP on ALL threads before we respond. :-)

To be honest when I come on here, sometimes daily sometimes not for a couple of days. I only look at the following

General
Genealogy
Military
Find Ancestors
Suggestions
My Threads

In that order. I can not think of a time when I have looked at any others, and as I do not have a tree on here have never used the quick name search (do not think I used it even when I did have a tree here).

So thanks for that advice. :-)

DC ....................

I use GR much the same as you. I also don't use the Name Search ............

........... but someone who is no longer a member jolted my memory about the fuss we caused trying to get GR to put up such a "warning", and that they had done it.

It would also help if the date of the first post was given on the index pages.

Alternatively have another column with a symbol in it if the date of the first post is more than, say 100 days, ago.

I do not have a tree on here, but I often use the quick search or advanced search to see if there are any other threads about the same thing or person....especially if the name sounded familiar

First thing I do when opening a thread is to look at the date, maybe that's why I spend a lot of time advising new members they have replied to an old thread ect ect

A lot of the old threads were started by people who no longer use the site. So would it really be worth sending them a pm? It would be better to get a pop up highlighting the age of the thread.

You don't know that they no longer use the site until you send a pm. Just because it was posted a few years ago does not mean they no longer use the site or don't have the same email address, I have had the same email since 1999.

There is a banner that tells you it could be an old thread as mentioned by Sylvia....not sure what else they can do if it is too much trouble for people to read it.

Flashing lights maybe :-D

Perhaps we can have a green light on a new thread, an amber light on a middle-aged thread or a red light on a dinosaur of a thread :-D

How about a very loud siren, that makes you jump out of your chair :-D

jax - that would certainly wake me up!!!!! :-)

:-D

Is this really such a big issue?

As far as I can see, the few threads that do get resurrected, and in percentage terms the number is small, do so as a result of someone picking up on the subject topic, rather than posting a reply to the original question.

I can't see it warrants GR spending any more time than they already have in posting warnings. There are more important matters that need seeing to first.

http://videohive.net/item/alarm-flashing-light-siren/1777096

Hi DazedConfused,

As SylviaInCanada said, we have a pop up advising that content may be old, but we could certainly look to make this more prominent.

KenSE, I will pass on your suggestion re dating indexes to the development team.

Regards

Shelley