I wouldn't want old threads to be frozen. Well, maybe *occasionnally* someone is going to revive an inflamatory thread. So what? It's not the end of civilization.

Most often, old threads are topped because they're interesting or because someone asked a closely related question. That's a good thing, IMO.

Don't throw the baby with the bath water.

Topping is a convenient way for a poster to keep a list of threads of interest.

If you had topped the vikings thread, you could easily find it by clicking on your screen name; that's handy when the search function remains largely dysfunctional.

I also don't like the idea of freezing useful threads unless we have arrived at the end of time and nothing is ever going to change. Assume there is a thread praising a certain restaurant. The thread is frozen; the restaurant changes hands and becomes mediocre. We would then have an inaccurate thread that could not be corrected, and might lead some to visit that restaurant. I think a new thread would be far less useful than a posting to the original thread listing the current status of the restaurant. Our very first evening in Paris we walked many blocks to dine at a restaurant that had been praised on one of these forums; unfortunately the restaurant had been closed for over a year and no one had updated the forum.

Inflammatory or coarse threads should be totally removed. If a thread contains something of value, but has been sullied by a new posting, the editors should be asked to remove the new posting and suspend or remove the poster.

I have been lucky in that the offensive postings listed above have apparently been removed so I didn't see them, but my understanding is that the editors temporarily suspend users' posting privilege when they first misbehave; that would indicate that after the suspension, the malefactor could resume posting. I would hope that after two strikes, the offender would be permanently barred.

Oh! And indeed there are also some super-threads with links to other useful threads and/or compiled informations of significant importance about a destination. It wouldn't be a good thing to have them frozen.

Especially not since the search function isn't very reliable.

Topping is harmless...and useful, find something else to worry about!

Vikings reposted (sorry, edited!)

http://www.fodors.com/forums/threads...p;tid=34790830

If a post hasn't been topped since before registration AND it's mostly inflammatory politically nonsense (like comments about John Kerry and Swift Boatas), then why does it deserve to be kept open? What happens is that someone does top it with some more nonsense and then voila, it gets deleted in its entirety. Better to keep those OLD, INACTIVE posts as they were, rather than leaving them around for the trolls to re-open. Some of these posts that have been dredged up again by TTT etc. were neither funny nor useful.

I agree with BTilke.

FAINA,
I am so greatfull to you for this! I am already histerical and I just started reading.
What have you edited?

Thanks

"Topping is a convenient way for a poster to keep a list of threads of interest."

No, it's not. They soon get buried in his/her own listings and might as well be untopped altogether.

Far better to construct one's own Fodor's Favorites Folder and add direct links to threads of interest to it. Sub-folders by topic can help reduce the effort involved in finding a specific thread, <i>e.g.</i>, Paris Restaurants or Free London Attractions.

If one wishes to reference a thread for the benefit of another poster's question, that should be done by posting a direct link in the thread containing the question. Topping is a hit-or-miss way of presenting a thread, because it will rapidly sink out of sight and the poster with the question may have gone to church.

I think topping is stupid and unnecessary.

&gt;&gt;&gt;&gt;AND it's mostly inflammatory politically nonsense (like comments about John Kerry and Swift Boatas), then why does it deserve to be kept open? &lt;&lt;&lt;&lt;&lt;

Ahhhhhh, listen closely now. Don't tell anyone now, but, well, this was a joke. IT-WAS-A-JOKE!!!!!! A JOOOOKE!! Sheeeahesh, what a nimrod!!

Now, get a life and lighten up wil yah.

Robespierre, topping happens each time you reply. Take a deep breath. Count to 10. Go to another thread instead of calling others' actions &quot;stupid and unnecessary&quot;.

Ziana, the spelling and some posts like &quot;oh, this thread is great&quot; and don't remember if anything else.

We can't request to stop topping for the sake of the newbies - they don't know how to search!

Duh.

What do you call doing something over and over that doesn't accomplish its intent?

&quot;percevirance&quot; LOL

perceverance, sigh... we need spell check!!!

(or at least I do )

try 'perseverance'

Lots of very funny banter on some of the old posts made prior to registration.

&gt;&gt;&gt;&gt;Lots of very funny banter on some of the old posts made prior to registration&lt;&lt;&lt;&lt;

Yes there was.

Thing is that it is very easy to determine what is a trolling post or post that was written for humor.

Those people who do not like to partake in some of this sillyness always had the option to skip over the offending post.

I learned that it was easy to spot these kinds of posts. Why are Americans slobs? Why do the French not bathe? Why do Amerians insist on wearing those dreadful white sneakers? and so on and so forth.

What was funny was how people responded to some of them. LOL

Have they removed Robespierre's 'white album' post??? I can't find it... (and not just cuz I can't see the writing!)