At the Falltacular after-party, I was talking with one long-time member of this community. He indicated that he does not participate much in the Wine Talk threads anymore as he feels so many topics have been hashed over for years and there is not much for him to add that he has not already posted in the past.
Perhaps by dredging up old threads, it can seem like long-time early participants of the Forum are still active.
Another reason - and one that might be consistent with the ‘Berserker’ personality - is merely to confuse (and annoy?) people thinking a topic is new, when it was started many years ago.
Thread dredging is a good thing - rather than start a dozen threads with the same subject matter, bringing back old ones and comparing prior comments/notes with current makes more sense
It’s pretty funny reading an old thread, not realizing as you read that it’s an old thread, then coming across a reply from yourself, which is the moment you realize this is not a new thread and confirm that by looking at the posting date.
You read it with a mixture of curiosity and dread - I didn’t say something really stupid about this six years ago which I’m now going to regret, did I?
To the “everything has already been discussed several times” comment, I think (just speaking personally for myself) that it’s still interesting to have a new discussion about a same or similar topic a few years later. People’s thinking may have evolved, they may have had new experiences, some different voices might join the conversation. I rarely have the “oh brother, let’s not discuss this topic again” feeling around here, and on those rare occasions I do, I can just not read it. Though I can totally get how some others might feel otherwise.
Heck, even the same wine is different a couple of years later.
But I was more referring to topics – we’ve discussed screwcaps, shipping temps and Coravin before, but I don’t really mind when a new discussion breaks out, either one that dredges an old thread or starts a new one.
Well we’re all different people too aren’t we? Don’t all of the molecules in our bodies get replaced? So we may look like we did ten years ago, but we’re all new substance. So to our new selves, the topics are pretty exciting again.
And once you get past terroir, screw caps, mailing lists, the latest high-point wines, some Burgundy stuff, and modern vs traditional, what else is there to talk about?