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It seems that recently I am seeing a lot of questions "rise" up from seemingly out of nowhere? I have gone in on several occasions and have found myself commenting on questions that were asked in 2009.

Are there people going into the time machine and bringing these questions back to life for a specific reason?

Just wondering if there is value to having those questions edited. Do the original askers really care anymore about those questions and/or any subsequent follow up 1+ years later?

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There is a "community" user (that is an automated batch that runs on the server) that pokes two old, un-answered questions every hour to give them a bit of attention.

If you see them, absolutally edit them and make them more readable. Even if the original op doesn't care any more, someone else in the future most likely will. Plus, if you want a bit of extra rep, the rep comes from your peers not the op, so it doesn't matter if they never see it.

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    Fair enough. For whatever reason the older questions just seem more prevalent than I guess I was used to.
    – Corey S.
    Commented Feb 9, 2011 at 2:59
  • It could also be because someone answered the question and then deleted their answer or had it deleted by a moderator.
    – Ben Pilbrow
    Commented Feb 9, 2011 at 9:10
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Remember that our definition of "answered" is quite strict -- one answer with at least one upvote.

http://blog.stackoverflow.com/2008/09/ok-now-define-answered/

Any question that isn't answered after 2 weeks is eligible for periodic random hourly nudging to ensure that it's getting some eyeballs.

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