How often does the phrase "This has been discussed before" get used as a putdown on here, together with a link to a thread from, say November 2005?

One of the joys of internet forums is, just like discussions in the pub, some topics come up repeatedly; the fact that you discussed it some time ago doesn't stop you doing so again. Furthermore, if a new thread is merged into an old one it can get confusing; partly as the names of long-vanished forummers appear on current threads, and old arguments which may no longer be topical appear alongside current ones.

So once a thread's older than a month (or maybe not had any new postings for a certain period of time) get rid of it!

that's not going to work well for the history and ex-pats forum, and the sheffield discussions forum should be preserved as a record of events in a similar fashion to news articles on the BBC site....

I can only think of the classifieds where auto-deleting threads is a great idea

i tend to agree with basil on this, some threads that crop up are more than 4 years old with 1000's of posts, usually history and ex pats, but surely it would be better to start a fresh thread every so often ( i say about 6 months).

some of the posters have long gone and some even deceased.

I'm a thumbs up

Think we're fighting a losing battle here though.

On reflection maybe a month's too short - perhaps I should have suggested deleting all threads older than say 2 years? How annoying is it to search for, say, a restaurant recommendation only to find that the post saying how great it was dates from, 2005 and the place has changed owners and gone downhill since then?

The classifieds, evenings out and 'bored' threads do get culled on a regular basis, I think - it's mainly the general sheffield etc threads that remain.

Depends on what it is. For example I've lost track of the number of times "I've got a mouse" has cropped up; same goes for moths, ants, rodents, wasps, bees, red subarus, etc etc. And the solutions are not going to change.

I dont think Dates matter at all.....

When i first came ashore here,i found many threads with last reply dates from 2002 and the links in the threads WERE STILL VALID so i didnt see any reason to not reply.... (I had something to add to the topic)

I dont see why people have such a big problem with dates.. GET OVER IT!!!!!

Things are OK!!

Outcome

This idea maintained an average of 10 thumbs down for at least 24 hours and the opinion of those who voted is inline with that of the site owners. This idea will not be implemented at this time. Please note that all listings areas (classifieds, jobs, property, etc.) are already cleared out on a regular basis.