...so that it is obvious before opening a thread (that the browser marks as unread, due to age) that somebody has replied to a historic, even extinct, thread.
...so that it is obvious before opening a thread (that the browser marks as unread, due to age) that somebody has replied to a historic, even extinct, thread.
A thread can only be considered extinct if it has been deleted.
Painting the background blue for posts which have been "aged out" would be an alternative, new content in old posts can be interesting.
If I understand the original post correctly, the request is that the age be visible when looking at the list of threads in a forum. I imagine this was a reaction to a recent poster who reopened threads that had been dormant for years.
Showing the age of posts within a thread is not the same.
My attitude is that it costs nothing to open a thread, but that then seeing - immediately - that the thread contains ancient history and that anything new will be further down, that is useful information. Do you routinely look at the timestamps on thread posts (only the first one is sufficient) in order to make sure they are new?
dormant
...That's the word I was looking for!
ETA: Reason for this request:
I've opened threads with unread posts, and with the thread link colour showing 'you've not followed this link', I just start reading without checking the post datestamp, which can be confusing - one recent thread I only twigged it was a resurrected one when I saw a post by Ernest Bywater. With a 'First Posted' datestamp on the thread list page, this will be easier to notice, and so act as a prompt for a post datestamp check and a scroll to the bottom of the thread.
one recent thread I only twigged it was a resurrected one when I saw a post by Ernest Bywater.
It's happened to me too, except the post I started reading was from me years ago.