Duplicate or connected posts

[Lisajb]

Or people go and find information for them, and original poster says "oh I already knew that!" 

[majm]

Of course, it could mean that the Original Poster needs to actually R E A D a message before they can actually have the thread go 'live' ....  or perhaps simply 'tick a box' as though they have read said message....

Cheers,  JM 

[pinefamily]

I find it more annoying personally when the OP ignores what advice/information they have been given, or refuse to accept it could be the right thing because of a spelling or location variation.
Possibly a simpler thing to add in would be an automatic search on their post/thread title, based on key words that could show them possible other threads. This could kick in when they click "post", and show them these threads of possible interest, and any they already created, with a message something like "have you already started a thread for this, and have you seen these possible threads of interest?"

[DavidG02]

While I do agree with the tenor of the OP and responses I will also make allowances for some.

 At times we do make searches , maybe the search terms are poor, or the responses are so varied that previous topics can be lost within the search return.

Then there is a difficulty in trying to phrase a topic that has no bearing on another similar post but uses similar terms. Though to be fair most of these are on the ToT Boards

But I also find it difficult when I have tried to help someone only to find the topic previously covered , BY THE SAME OP!!

[DavidG02]

I find it more annoying personally when the OP ignores what advice/information they have been given, or refuse to accept it could be the right thing because of a spelling or location variation.

And what makes your advice right?

I understand the point you make , and I am confident I have been guilty of this also. I know I have posted on one brickwall that I still don't feel confident is correct. A possibility certainly, but not to the level of certainty I desire.

Doesn't mean I don't appreciate the effort people go to. Every  answer or different path is an opportunity to test my own assumptions.

[groom]

I understand the point you make , and I am confident I have been guilty of this also. I know I have posted on one brickwall that I still don't feel confident is correct. A possibility certainly, but not to the level of certainty I desire.

I would hope that people don't just take what they are given as gospel truth, but also check it themselves. However, the beauty of a forum such as RC is that when several people come to the same conclusion it is more likely to be right - far more than just copying from an online tree. 

[pinefamily]

Sorry David, my wording was probably a little absolute. But you got my meaning. When we take the time to help people find a piece of data, and we post what we feel is a good possibilty. And yes, Groom is right. If more than one of us comes up with the same piece of data, chances are it is the right one.
I'm not sure which annoys me more: the OP dismissing things people have taken the time to find, or the OP simply ignoring/not acknowledging a post with possible information. And the ignoring one doesn't just apply to "newer" Rootschatters either.....

[mazi]

But on the other hand it is possible for someone to ask a simple question and come back home after a hard days work to find three pages of info they never asked for, and sometimes, especially newcomers, they don't realise the thread has gone to other pages.

Maybe if there are half a dozen reasonable replies we should wait for a response before we go further.


Mike

[majm]

I would hope that people don't just take what they are given as gospel truth, but also check it themselves. However, the beauty of a forum such as RC is that when several people come to the same conclusion it is more likely to be right - far more than just copying from an online tree. 

On the other hand, if those  several people coming to the same conclusion are actually all using the same source as each other then it stands to reason that we would come to the same conclusion as each other.   

There's of course plenty of online documents to look for from our armchairs, so perhaps it is simply needed for each of us to be striving to find the difference between searching and researching.   

We can all find online indexes, and online secondary sources, and thereby each of us can easily be coming to the same conclusion as each other.   

Cheers,  JM