Originally Posted by
Roland St. Jude
Sheriff: This question has been answered before in this subforum. Among many other reasons, it prevents people from trying to carry on a conversation with posters who have left (the thread or even the forum); it promotes active discussion that is inviting to new posters and not weighed down by discussion of prior posters who have already abandoned it; it prevents the revival of threads that are old enough to have embedded errors caused by one of the board transitions; it prevents the need for posters to search or view older threads, lessening the use of forum resources.
As with all our Forum Rules, we're aware that there are alternatives, and costs and benefits, but we've chosen this particular policy judgment as best for this forum.