This is a follow up idea to my previous question and discussion.
Is it possible to have a sort of statute of limitations for reply posts
to Discourse threads but handled a bit differently?
I was thinking that replies after X months to a thread would start
a new thread with some boilerplate text with a link to the old thread
and maybe a requirement for a new/refreshed topic.
That would avoid zombie discussions and still maintain
continuity where it is useful.
So if someone comments on an old post and a new thread is generated, and then, I find the old page and click comment, what happens? Am I redirected to the most recent newly generated thread? Or is my comment spawning another, potentially redundant thread?
If it’s the former, then I’m not sure how that’s different from just keeping it all on one page except that you don’t have to scroll as far to get to the bottom. Maybe we could have very old comments and/or blocks of comments fold so that they aren’t seen when someone clicks into an old post that’s been revived?
If it’s the latter, then I’m not sure I’m a fan of that policy. The What don’t you like about Julia for serious work? thread was recently bumped by some new activity and being able to scroll back and see comments, have quoted text from some time ago, etc. improved readability for me as a newcomer to the conversation.
I’m maybe definitely a weirdo, but I really enjoy going back through debates about syntax or whatever from before I was even writing code.
Long conversations aside, I also see value in the situation where someone posts about a problem, a solution is not found, post dies, someone else has the problem, finds a solution, and updates the post with their findings. I’m not an SEO expert but breaking those out into separate pages seems like a bad idea for searchability.
Good point, I hadn’t thought of what to do about repeated
necro-posting.