Hi All,
We all know how frustrating it can we to desperately require information that is not forthcoming. But alas these duplicate requests appear to be causing upsets all round. Our volunteers are becoming grumpy when they realize that they have just used their time and resources on a problem that has been answered elsewhere. We also have those posting the queries becoming upset when somebody mentions the duplication. The last thing we want is anger and hurt feelings. All we all want is a smooth running board with queries being answered as quickly and efficiently as possible. Far better for the Poster's and for the Look up Volunteers alike.
As a general rule only one post is required for your query. If you accidentally place it on the wrong board or later decide it will be better served elsewhere all you need to do is ask and I can easily move it for you. If you have a question that has not yet been resolved there is generally a reason for it. Unfortunately reposting the query is not the solution. If since posting you have managed to gain further information that may help you can simply reply to your own post and add the extra information. The other reason a lot of these questions have not been answered is that the information you require is not readily available as yet. By the time these resources become available there can be multiple posts on the boards for the same thing. With all the new resources becoming available in recent times this is certainly adding to the current problem. A new source becomes available and people start to work on the older posts. Different people pull up different requests and resolve them only to then notice other posts for the same thing may have already been answered by others.
Our volunteers then tend to feel let down to have wasted their time looking for something that has been resolved elsewhere. As a person who does lookups myself I can certainly understand why. A hard to find entry can take many hours to find. If it was an elusive entry we tend to feel a sense of elation to have found it and then what a let down to find that somebody else has done the same thing. The feelings of elation fast become feelings of let down, frustration and annoyance.
If you wish to post a follow up thread requesting a specific piece of information by all means please do so. Again to avoid duplication of efforts, and grumpy volunteers, it is best not to make this new post identical to the previous post, but rather to ask for a specific piece of information. When you do this please be sure to always place a link to the "parent" thread, so that we are all aware of information which has been amassed to date, and no duplication of efforts occur.
From my side there are some things I can do to help alleviate the situation without causing any hurt feelings. If I happen notice a Duplicate post that has not received any replies I can simply delete it, or lock it and direct replies to the "parent" thread. Where some lovely volunteers have endeavored to help but have not resolved it, yet I notice it has since been resolved on another thread, I can mark it accordingly and move it to the completed requests board. I don't notice them all so your help is needed.
To help with any of your own that have since been resolved it would be a big help if you could mark them accordingly. The request where you got the answer may have already be moved to the completed requests board so we may be unaware this has been resolved. There may be some where you requested a few lookups in the one request and though most of it was answered there was one part that was not addressed so you have reposted for that part. If this is the case it would help if you did mark the original request *COMPLETED* so that nobody later brings up that one and redoes it. If you have a problem just PM me and I will gladly do it for you. If as a volunteer you come across one that you know you have already answered elsewhere it would be a big help if you could just PM me with the URL's and I can sort it out from here, or use the report to moderator button.
Hopefully this sort of thing will be noticed a lot sooner than it has been in the past and can be quickly fixed without anybody getting their hackles up.
Thank You
.....Kris
