Old threads

Question

This is a question for moderators.

I have been warned not to participate on old threads.

I need to know what an old thread is. Which is the time limit?

Furthermore, I wish to know where the Code of Conduct regulates this item.

Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

Please see: [Article] Community Tip: Get the most out of active questions

Answer 2

Say that person A asks a question, and persons B, C, D answers and there might be some forth and back, and maybe A accepts one or more answers. Or maybe the thread just dies.

Three months or three years later, person X posts to the thread. In many cases X has a similar problem, or at least it looks similar on the surface. But it may prove that when digging deeper that the root cause is different. As someone who answers questions, I find this behaviour problematic. If I try to answer this new question from X, it easily becomes a mess with several questions entwined. Therefore, I almost always tell people to ask a new question. The exception is if the answer is apparent, then I might post it directly. But I am also likely to tell the person that if they want more help, they should ask a new question and to prevent further littering of the thread, I might also lock the thread.

Sometimes, someone who is coming late actually has a solution to the problem. Maybe a fix has been released since the thread was active. Maybe everyone involved overlooked this solution. Sometimes it is simply a vendor who is trying to hawk a product.

Generally, I would advice you to think twice before posting to an old thread. Do you really have something to add to the thread? As for what constitutes an old thread, I would say that any thread where there has been no activity for the last 30 days counts as old.

As for reference to any Code of Conduct, I'm afraid that I'm only talking from my own common sense.