As long a s we can reactivate it if necessary.
@Rosika … you disturbed a hornets nest with this topic… well done!
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This is out of my knowledge, but I assume this is possible as well.
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the random bot accounts “reviving” these years old topics
When I saw the account profile I thought: “her account is fake”
Paul
This may be a silly question, but why would they want to revive an old question. Except to flooding the site with old material ?
Not silly, her answer was really well structured and it contained a link, I always put the mouse over the link to see where it targets. For example In other forum about Sabrent a fake account put a link with a fake label because the target was a casino
Alfred
May I suggest freezing any dead topic 6 months after the last post? I know from other discourse forums that this is possible.
+1 but giving the opportunity for known members to reactivate the same post by simply writing a new reply
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That is important, would not like to loose some posts no matter the age as they can revel important research information.
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Hi all, 
thanks a lot for your many replies. 
Yes, I can see all of them now.
34 posts right now.
But, I see the same as @Manuel_Jordan does: post #20 and #22 appear as “system” now, showing the itsfoss logo. 
Thanks Manuel for your feedback. Yes, as posted above, I see “system” now.
But the content seems to be back.
That is great!
I never had the chance to read it in the first place.
But now I can.
I still have to pick up where we left a long time ago. 
Yes, exactly. This would be important.
Even more important:
Keep any “dead” topic around at any rate.
Even if it may be seen as some kind of archive. It´s important as a knowledge base for present and future readers.
If need be one can fire up a new topic and refer to an “archived” one.
Perhaps not optimal but better than nothing.
Thanks Neville. I´m glad it aroused so much ineterest.
Many greetings from Rosika 
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Exactly, so much work goes into this
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Don’t panic! Frozen topics remain forever, or at least until a mod trashes them. 
IIRC, the only difference is that all reply and like buttons are vanished.
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I can understand deleting the bot user ID, but why delete the posting from valid users?
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To avoid dangling references.
The modérateurs looking any posting that is flagged either by users normal or other modérateurs, we hence have a choice to delete the entry, delete the user or delete the post.
So if there is a question subject with several entrées and we spot a publicity entry that we think is a bot or a sales pitch, we flag it, next modérateurs will then check and if he thinks the same normally we just delete the post, but if we think its more we delete the post and block the user. If the other entrées are OK we leave them alone.
If its a sales pitch buy XXX! Or has a phone number then we usually delete and block that user.
This does not stop them coming back as another new user.
The system automatically flags téléphone numbers, entrées done too fast suggesting a bot.
But we are human and sometimes its hard to spot these things as they are very good at hiring. If usure Neville and I have an exchange and make a collective decission, usually we agree on a course of action.
We had one this week, a developer of linux system wanted to post I flagged it for Neville and we exchanged over it, but agreed it was in the best interest to let it run, its still on the site and the discussion is progressing normal about création of material.
Very rare things get deleted totally, in this case it was a user error in modération but the posts returned after checking except the 2 posts identifier as bots,
Please if you do see things unsuitable in any form flag them and we will look, most days Neville and I drop in several times during the day and try to keep a lid on it. But if we get it wrong then do tell us and we will try to recover.
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There was a Real discussion about printer cartridges from known users of this forum. Nothing dangling about that.
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Maybe I wasn’t clear enough.