daydreams, the problem arises when a member gets to the Trading on eBay page and is presented with an Ask a question option towards the top of the page. If a member comes here looking to ask about inspecting an item before buying they might just type in "inspecting" into that box and they are then presented with some threads in a Does this information help? drop down menu as shown in the screengrab below
Then, the member clicks on one of the links and is presented with the Opening Post and solution (if marked) of the thread. This remains on screen until the member either clicks another link or ignores the links and proceeds to type in more text into the Ask a Question box.
IF the member clicks on one of the links and reads the information they may notice a More about this topic . . link over on the bottom right hand side of the thread summary . IF this link is clicked it takes the member directly to the (sometimes old) thread and then the member adds their post at the end of the thread.
The result is that the thread is resurrected, regardless of how long it has been dormant or when it was started. In event weeks a 7.5 year old thread was resurrected, as well as many 3 and 5 year old threads.
This HAS been brought to the attention of an eBay.au community manager and they have taken this onboard. Change can be a slow beast at times, but at least the locking of old threads is going to be considered.
