Is there any way that the number of resurrected threads could be cut down? It seems very common now for a thread to "die" and then be resurrected several months later without any particular reason, and I for one find it somewhat distracting.

sometimes its required that a thread be brought back to life - especially if a previously bashed companys management is changed or procedures are changed, or if its ongoing analysis on a host, service or site.

I agree most are needless bumps but the requirement still exists to allow it to happen.

I agree that sometimes it is appropriate... but not very often. Perhaps resurrecting posts could be moderated so that the moderators could decide if the resurrection was necessary? (I have no idea if vB can do this.)

good point to take on board, although i dont know if vB can do it, we normally rely on the reports from users when there are problems with it coming back to life.

Theoretically it's not hard to implement but vB doesn't have the capability at this point.