I wanted to open a new thread. I did a quick search and there is an old thread on the topic (7 years old) and so I started typing my post in this thread as I was under the impression that users are encouraged to not open new threads if there are existing ones. But then even the suttabot/-algorithm asked me if I really wanted to revive the thread. So my question is: Do the threads have an expiration date?
In the FaQ it says:
start a new thread if you feel some aspect of an existing thread is worth further discussion, by using the Reply as linked topic option
use the search function to read up on pre-existing threads before starting a new discussion
Iāve read into many older threads and there was a lot of interesting stuff to discover. But a lot of users who posted in older threads are not around anymore and it sometimes feels a bit like warming up cold coffee tbh.
My feeling is that it depends how specific the old thread was to the particular participants. If it were, for example, a discussion of the meaning of a particular sutta, then continuing the thread would often make sense. If it were an old thread where someone was asking about how they might fit into some particular monastery then probably not.
If you start a new thread, but there is an old thread that has some relevance, including a link can be helpful to signal that you have actually searched for relevant posts.
Yeah, this makes sense to a certain extent. I think that in many threads, though, the same questions or ways of looking at a problem come up at regular intervals. So many aspects of Buddhism have already been discussed at some point which I noticed when reading through older threads. So in a sense they are all still relevant.
Reviving older threads feels akward to me, like youāre coming late to a party and all the guests have already left.
On the other hand, we have like 5 parallel threads on what nibbana is and what not and what anatta really means etc. plus all the older ones that can be found when using the search funcion.
So, I guess I was looking for a more specific answer.
On Dhamma / PÄli topics, I usually donāt mind necroing old threads with like less than 20 posts (even if itās like 5 years old), if it was short enough to reread again for newtimers. If it was a long thread that got out of topic a lot, didnāt get resolved, I usually post a new thread and link old relevant threads / posts.
I donāt think I got warned for an untimely necro or making a redundant thread before, so I guess that works!
When in doubt, just make a new thread if the old ones are not really satisfactory, since most people will usually read the first post and react to it, instead of going down all the way to the last post. Again, it helps to quote relevant bits from the old thread to explain why it wasnāt satisfactory for you.
So my question is: Do the threads have an expiration date?
Thatāll be hard!