bcarlson,as they say "you can't fix stupid" and I don't think it fall's within the capiability people who post on houzz to prevent this happening. I generally look at origional post date before responding,I suggest others do the same. BTW,they have a name for it,"grave digging".

Two other factors:

1) Some people, especially newbies here, do a search and see a thread that they tag onto rather than starting a new one; perhaps they think somehow this is more efficient without realizing that most people don't want to scroll through 50 old responses before trying to answer their question.

2) Spammers sign on, do a search, and then spam any thread, regardless of age, that is marginally related to their spamming. When this occurs and the spam gets reported, the spammer's message gets deleted, but the thread has been reactivated so it's back at the top again.

I'm not too sure why it's so bad reviving an old thread in an old house forum. Aren't some of the issues (ie old window repair, etc) ongoing? I would think an advantage is that I can scroll through all of the previous responses and maybe finding an existing answer instead of posting a question which was already answered 4 years ago. Just a thought.

Part of it is that it is recommended that you search to see if there is a topic that has been discussed and answers your question, and in some of the forums if a common general question has been asked in a brand new thread there will be responses of the "Asked and answered before, many times" type of response.

I have also noticed with Spam that the Month and Date are often quite close to the current one when they are revived, so on April 17,2017, you may find a thread from April 12, 2010 near the top and scan the date and think you are answering a thread from 5 days ago, not 7 years ago. I don't think it's that people are stupid.

The downside to these old threads is depending upon the topic, the information may be out of date or the materials and solutions discussed may no longer be available. But I would imagine that some ten year old restoration advice is still relevant as compared to say a particular appliance or fixture in the Kitchen Design forum.

Would stickies help? Most forums have them,why not houzz?

Gargamel-

The problem often is that someone finds one of these old threads, with, say, 50 previous answers, and -- not getting exactly what they want -- adds on. Then everyone who is considering answering has to wade through all the previous answers to see what has been said, and whether the old info is still correct, and whether the new poster has really understood the info. In such cases, it is more efficient and considerate for someone to just post a new question.