It happens because of the new layout and I don't mind it, but maybe we need some kind of colorcoding or notification, because new posters keep giving advice to people who posted 6-8 years ago, and they don't even realize that the OP might be dead.... Maybe like a line that says after the last old post: "You are responding to an old thread that has been dormant for X years."
I have observed this problem also. I think the best solution would be to just automatically lock a thread once it is inactive for 90 days. If it were just a warning they would just ignore it.
Thread necromancy. In some cases it is alright to resurrect a thread, but in others, the information is way outdated, thus the warning. That is alright if they ignore the warning, but at least when they look like jack ass, they can't blame us... 90 days is way too short to lock old threads anyway, maybe 2 years....
Couldn't the unwary poster simply look at the date of the last post? Not to mention old threads have to be intentionally "dug up" to begin with.
They are newbies who do searches on some subject and then post on any thread, no matter how old, that turns up and seems remotely similar to their subject of interest. They do not want to start a new thread because they are vaguely aware of admonitions on some other forums not to start new threads needlessly. There are several dates floating around on the screen and they do not assimilate right away what date is what.
What's the point of posting on a two-year old thread? Better to start a new one and link to the old one.
Well, that is the whole point, several of the posters don't realize that these threads are that old. And now that there are famous/popular threads on the main page it is happening more often... As to answer your question, sometimes a poster just want to know what happened to the OP or what was the outcome of the experience or whatever. There could be plenty of legitime reasons, but as I said, several times it is just accidental...
I agree completely. Posting those famous old threads on the main page guarantees that newbies will resurrect them by adding new mostly-trite posts. This despite the fact that the threads eventually stopped because they were logically complete at a certain point. Adding more trivial newbie posts just dilutes their value in my opinion. If famous old threads are going to be posted on the main page, I would suggest that they be locked first. People can always start a new thread referring to them. Or a link could be provided beside each famous old thread to reopen the discussion in a new thread. In my opinion, encouraging infinitely long continuing undivided threads is not a good idea. It is almost impossible to read very long threads with hundreds or thousands of posts.