Do you tend to answer out of date question?

If I feel I have anything further to contribute then I will answer an older question.
Hopefully, although most people will have given the most relevant answers, if I feel there is something extra I can add, then I will answer the question.

I have some very narrow interests and if I see a sibling out there that nails one of those interests I will answer if for sure. Questions that have been beat to death though I will take a pass on.

I do not tend to answer older questions as much as the newer ones. That is kind of a bummer when it comes down to it, because when I see an old question of mine revived it always makes me happy.

I do not tend to answer older questions since I was around when they were born and either participated or didn’t when that time was.

I do regularly get answers to older questions of mine. I am always interested to read them and the GA the answerer if they deserve it.

I delve into the “orphan” stack every now and then. If I see a question in the “sibling” column that interests me, I’ll look into it; if I have anything constructive to add, I’ll do so.

I do if I can add to something people might google. I will add to “Why does Photoshop crash on startup” and not on “What should I do with these 1281 dozen of eggs?”

If it is time-sensitive I avoid it. And I rock the random button so I see lots off old stuff.

I like to give a GQ to orphaned old questions.

I’ll answer a question and then continue to a related question suggested to me – it if interests me. I don’t look at the date. I do read what has been written.

If I stumble across it and it is interesting. I will even mark old questions to follow if I really like them.

I’ll often check some out, either by those tags on the right, or by the links they give to questions that are similar to the one I’m in.

I don’t go looking for old but if they turn up in the active section and I haven’t already answered them then I will. I tend to only answer questions that are active.

@johnpowell – GA

I don’t have a random button. Where is the random button? I want a random button.

(Or are you teasing with a manipulated screen shot?)

I want a random button, toooooo.

I don’t go looking for them, but if I happen to see one on the side of the screen, I might answer it. About once a month or so I look at the Orphans, but I rarely find anything I can answer there.

What is considered a ‘out of date question’? I sometimes don’t get online until late or a day or so later. There might be ‘Questions for You’ 4, 10, 12, hours old. Most times I just read them and wonder should I contribute to this question or not. I guess I’m still learning the ways of Fluther.

If you use Firefox and greasemonkey you can get the random button by installing this.

All it really does is generate a random number between 1 and 90000 and makes up a url and redirects you to it. Sometime it points to deleted questions. But it would be really slow if I had to check to make sure the question was valid before forwarding you to it.

Nice work John Powell!! Works like a charm.

Most consider it taboo to answer an old question (thread rez, zombie posts, whatever you want to call it :P) but in the case of a really good question that hasn’t been fully answered, I usually look into it if I can help.

Now and then I see something come up on the Siblings bar to the right of the page and I want to check it out, sometimes it’s still alive.

I read a lot of older questions. I only answer them if I really have something to add to them that hasn’t already been said.

I made the mistake of answering some very old questions, I go by topic/knowledge or interest in a question over the date as long as its not too old.

There is really no such thing as “too old”. Even if the OP’s problem has long been solved, someone else might well benefit from a new answer. The only thing I’d avoid is repeating an answer already given.

Yes, I do. I’m always behind but when I’m catching up I read the new stuff first. Just today I discovered a question which is more than 6 months old

http://www.fluther.com/62086/what-do-you-make-of-spiral-dynamics/

And I answered it today.

@mattbrowne When I first signed up for fluther 2 months ago I answered 2 questions that were over 2 years old by accident, I guess sometimes If I see an interesting topic sometimes I forget about the dates. I try to keep it within 2 months now, sometimes a topic/question that seems dead and forgotten can be “revived” again and other people will start to answer the old questions again.

@Jabe73 – Yes, sometimes these revivals lead to interesting new debates. Depends on the subject. Great to have you in our community!

but @augustlan, no one hearts of ancient Qs new posts except the OP and a few stragglers still following. It does not re-present itself as a newly active Q so newbies are unlikely to notice.

@anartist That depends on how people are viewing the questions. If they are under the active tab, the old question will be up on the active tab when it gets the new answer, so others will see the question in the active tab and possible answer it as well.

I don’t consider a question “out of date” unless it pertains to some specific past event that is now either moot (e.g., “Who do you think will win the 2008 election?”) or stale (e.g., “What do you think of Tiger Woods’ apology?”). Otherwise they remain fair game, and in fact many continue to attract new answers over time. Often I’ll happen to look at a certifiable oldie and see that the last exchange of comments on it is only a week or two old—and sometime just ten minutes old.

Not only might I post on those but I will also GA and GQ them.

@ApolloX64, “Most consider it taboo to answer an old question”—where did you get that idea?

Also, many people using Google for their questions will be directed here (we’re often the first or second hit). Those are the people I was thinking might benefit from new answers.

@Jeruba It’s a thing that has crawled around most regular forums for years; usually it’s just for fear of waking the cranky, long-term lifers of the forum who like to complain when a new member responds to a question or post that is old, no matter how relevant the response.

@augustlan – I’ve been astounded by the daily frequency that Google indexes this site. Someone (I forget where) typed in something for a post and an obscure error code showed. I Googled it and even though his post was only 42min old, it was already indexed worldwide. Unbelievable technology those guys! That’s actually how I found this site, via an old question I found via Google, so I definitely believe answering old questions is relevant and valuable to this site.

I occasionally answer a question without noticing that it was asked long ago, but they are generally not time-sensitive ones so I don’t know if that qualifies as “out of date”.

@ApolloX64 I’ve been on forums that frown on resurrecting old questions, luckily, Fluther is not one of them. :-)

@Seaofclouds – This is not a an old BBS style forum, where an old thread (if updated) will pop to the top of the queue, and thus intermingle with the new questions – hence there is no reason here not to “necropost”. People who do not want to follow an old post can just unsubscribe (“stop following”).

As mentioned above, additions to old stuff should be “value-add” for search engine posterity, otherwise it’s kind of silly to think you’re having a social conversation with a 2yo post and expect people to read through it all again, if they are even around.

Likewise, if you post to an old question, no one following new questions will see it, except those who are still following it (or if – by chance – someone give a GA, where it will then pop up in the [community feed] box on the right.

I think that’s how we roll here.

@ipso If you view questions in the “active” tab instead of the “everything” tab, it shows the questions with the most recent answers, therefore an old question would get pushed up to the top of that queue (unless there is something in the Fluther coding that makes it so that doesn’t happen).

I agree that it’s a bit silly to try to start up a conversation again after a long period, but that shouldn’t stop someone from answering. Worst case scenario, the person you were hoping to get a response from doesn’t answer because they are no longer following. Best case, people start talking again.

I don’t think it’s “taboo” to answer any question on fluther. I also doubt the wisdom of trying to speak for “most,” especially as a new member.

@Seaofclouds – thanks! I didn’t even know there was an “active” tab. I’ve been looking for something like that. So much for me spouting what I think I know…

@Jeruba I wasn’t implying “most” as being people of Fluther, and just ‘cause I’m new to Fluther doesn’t mean I just discovered the internet. “Most” people have been to other forums and “most” people at one time or another have been trolled by a senior member when they have answered an old question. It happens a lot.

Ok, @ApolloX64. The implied context was fluther. As you see, there’s no apparent bias against older questions here. Some of them live on and on. I started a thread nearly a year and a half ago that’s in its eighth generation now.

However, I don’t know what most people on fluther think, much less what most people on the Internet think. It’s always interesting to hear from someone who does.

Yeah, @ApolloX64 – and talk nicely when you are in the presence of a lady like Jeruba.

* sigh *

Yes, I’ll answer some old questions. ...When I first got on the fluther (early 2011) there were a bunch of 9/11 questions I answered because I live near the WTC and felt I had something to contribute.
That’s pretty much the bottom line for me, if there’s something to contribute on a question new or old, why not?