Just saw a couple of threads from 2013 and even older like the one on the New York Westchester and Boston WTH
Because individuals post to them. Duh!
Never too old to have a happy childhood!
Because like Count Dracula, "You can't keep a good man down!"
Perhaps someday this thread will come back. Who knows?
Occasionally people will go exploring back through the threads, or perhaps do a search and the search engine pops up with one of those old threads.
Larry Resident Microferroequinologist (at least at my house) Everyone goes home; Safety begins with you My Opinion. Standard Disclaimers Apply. No Expiration Date Come ride the rails with me! There's one thing about humility - the moment you think you've got it, you've lost it...
When done for a good reason, I've never understood why it's frowned upon at some forums.
For an example of what I personally deem a good reason, say that we have an old thread about saving a particular historic locomotive and years later that hope finally has came to fruition. Fully acceptable in my book to bump that old thread with the good news about the locomotive finding a good home in preservation.
When you get some idiot bumping a 20 year old thread just to respond that they don't have an answer for the question asked by the thread creator, it's obviously not a good reason. But I can't say that I've ever noticed that type of problem around here.
roundstick3@gmail.comthreads from 2013 and even older like the one on the New York Westchester and Boston WTH
Railroading has a glorious past. Sometimes hashing over old subjects is more interesting that current ones. And every once in a while, you can hit the lottery. From time to time software updates will unlock topics that were previously locked, opening a whole new realm of possibilities.
Sometimes just listening to some members loathing "how did this old zombie come back to life?" is worth the price of admission, all by itself.
And sometimes old topics take on new relevance.
For example, suppose 12-15 years ago you made an observation about railroads deferring maintenance so that they could instead divert the money to geedy stockholders. And some of the "old heads" chastised you, insisting that could never happen, because trains would be coming off the rails.
Then fast forward and you see the same old heads grousing about PSR and misguided fiscal priority....some stories you just couldn't write any better, even if you were Bernie Taupin.
That's setting the bar low.
It's been fun. But it isn't much fun anymore. Signing off for now.
The opinions expressed here represent my own and not those of my employer, any other railroad, company, or person.t fun any
roundstick3@gmail.com Just saw a couple of threads from 2013 and even older like the one on the New York Westchester and Boston WTH
1. You are new here. Why do you object to old threads?
2. Perhaps the topics in old threads are more interesting than some current ones?
"
charlie hebdo1. You are new here. Why do you object to old threads?
"New". Using that term very loosely.
zugmannThat's setting the bar low.
I'm not real big on fiction, my first thought was to say "Ian Fleming" but was concerned I might get a "who"? in response
edit: (I subsequently changed it, just for you. )
Maybe Dr Frankenstein has become a railfan?
I've never made a serious study on this, but I get the impression that old threads frequently are awakened by fairly new members. My guess is that they are more likely to explore back through time while old-timers tend to have a lot of that history stored away in the back of their minds and are more involved in recent topics.
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"A stranger's just a friend you ain't met yet." --- Dave Gardner
Convicted One For example, suppose 12-15 years ago you made an observation about railroads deferring maintenance so that they could instead divert the money to geedy stockholders.
For example, suppose 12-15 years ago you made an observation about railroads deferring maintenance so that they could instead divert the money to geedy stockholders.
You wouldn't be thinking of TCIF (sp?) and the CSX by any chance???? ISTR that the attempted takeover was thwarted by the beginnings of the 2008 financial brouhaha, with a couple members stating (early 2008) that OPM (other people's money)was becoming scarce.
I always revive old threads when I can. If it is somebody else's old thred, it keeps me from thinking I have a new idea, when it's been said and done already. If it's my old thread, it keeps me from just repeating myself. A thread isn't "dead" if it's still available for reading.
Might be a similar exercise that drives people to go to cemetaries, and look for epitapaths that are funny, sad or truthful?
Thanks to Chris / CopCarSS for my avatar.
Murphy, Might I suggest that if they offend you and you don't want to read them, you just pass them by?
Erik_Mag You wouldn't be thinking of TCIF (sp?) and the CSX by any chance???? ISTR that the attempted takeover was thwarted by the beginnings of the 2008 financial brouhaha, with a couple members stating (early 2008) that OPM (other people's money)was becoming scarce.
I won't say that the discussion(s) did not involve Children's, at least tangentially. But what I'm thinking of was spawned in the "CSX Paint Your Bridge" era ....but then grew to include neglect of infrastructure in general, as well as rationalization of under utilized assets.......as part of a grander overall strategy to prioritize dividends over maintenance expenditures.
The counter argument was a "why would they do that? it would be like shooting themselves in the foot". So 15 years later, how many toes do we have left?
BEAUSABRE Murphy, Might I suggest that if they offend you and you don't want to read them, you just pass them by?
Backshop BEAUSABRE Murphy, Might I suggest that if they offend you and you don't want to read them, you just pass them by? I believe that he was being sarcastic.
I believe that he was being sarcastic.
daveklepperI always revive old threads when I can.
After my comment last night about many old thread revivals coming from newer members, I got a kick out of seeing a couple of your entries in old threads in the passenger and transit forums. I didn't realize you were such a young kid. (If you weren't, then you would be upsetting my observation.)
zugmann " charlie hebdo 1. You are new here. Why do you object to old threads? "New". Using that term very loosely.
charlie hebdo 1. You are new here. Why do you object to old threads?
New in member name only, same old stuff.
New users often come to the Forums via a Google search for their particular topic of interest, rather than the Forum portal. When they find a thread on their topic, they don't look at how old it is before they reply.
--Steven Otte, Model Railroader senior associate editorsotte@kalmbach.com
That make sense. Reminds me of the Kalmbach pitch for back issues, something along the lines that every issue is new until you read it.
FWIW, I don't have any problem with old threads coming back to life, as they can be quite a bit of fun starting up again.
My 'take' on this is that there are two broad kinds of necro thread. Some are just ignorant revivals of things discussed and finished; some are open-ended continuations of a particular informational topic or question. It's usually pretty obvious which is which. I encouraged people (in the specialized context of the things I moderated) to note up front, if they revived an older thread, that they had done so, and explain briefly why they did instead of starting a new and specific one.
Blanket bans on reviving threads once they reach a certain age or length sometimes makes sense, in a sort of expedient way. If the last-post-first option ceases to work, as it has for example in the deflicted remains of the PM system here, it rapidly becomes tedious to have to work through a sea of old posts to get to the latest one; it becomes a particular horror when multiple posters on e-mail reflectors haven't turned off thread quoting and get into some chatty exchange of pointless one-line remarks or Netiquette comments... with the whole damn post history appended. Digests in particular can become ordeals...
A couple of examples of threads that have an older original post, may go quiet for a while, and then come back as new information comes to light are:
Sunset Route Two-Tracking Updates thread
Updates On Multi-Tracking The Two BNSF Transcons thread
samfp1943 Might be a similar exercise that drives people to go to cemetaries, and look for epitapaths that are funny, sad or truthful?
Like this 18th Century classic?
"Remember me as you pass by, as you are now so once was I.
"As I am now, so you shall be. Prepare for death and follow me."
I believe that the point raised by Mr Otte was quite valid.
To the uninitiated coming here through a google search, the newbie likely doesn't know (nor care) that one of our more hard bolied members believes he had the last word on (whatever) subject.
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