It'd be nice to have an automated message at the end of a thread that is X days old. vB shows this at the bottom of old topics:

Old Thread Warning

This thead is more than 396 days old. It is very likely that it does not need any further discussion and thus bumping it serves no purpose. If you still feel it is necessary to make a new reply, you can do so by ticking the box below. Alternatively, you can search for newer threads that contain the same topic, or start a new thread (preferred).

I am aware that this thread is rather old, but I still want to make a reply.

:whistle:

I can see this might come in useful in some circumstances so +1 :)

+1

This would be well used I would think. Of course a on/off feature should be a available :)

This feature is also included in SMF, and IPB should include this as well +1! :)

Yes, this is definitely a nice feature to include, so I'm for it. It should probably have certain exceptions though: say the topic is pinned, but no one has replied in a long time. Obviously posting wouldn't bump the topic any more so the warning might not be necessary.

And also have the additional option to either set the warning to days old the topic was created or days old the last reply has been made.

for example some boards may want to keep recently active topics open

1

Good idea, my forum is six years old now and every now and again someone will dredge up an ancient topic without good reason. I wasn't aware other forums had such a warning. Seems like this would be a good candidate for a mod. :)

..Al

Especially with all the old topics being posted in. It'll still happen though.

heh, i was just coming to suggest this. I think this is a great way to avoid archiving or deleting old topics/posts.

IMO, the idea should be taken a little further

Such as...having multiple options:

1) After a certain date a warning message pops up saying you can still reply, but topic is really old.
2) After a certain date a warning message pops up saying that the topic is too old and you can't reply. (The board won't allow you to reply to those old topics.)

Yeah that feature is one one site I go to that uses SMF software.

I don't really care about it though. My site is so dead, hey bump old topics, better than not posting. lol

Plus I never cared even when sites were active. I always thought it was a dumb rule to not bump old topics unless it was something where a person asked a question a year ago, it was answered, and dead. But if it was discussion topics, who cares how old they are.