Duplicate or connected posts

[groom]

One thing I have noticed. When I start a new thread about someone connected or perhaps mentioned (but not the subject person) in an earlier thread of mine and put a link to my older thread, the new post sits in limbo waiting for moderator approval. It can be some time before it appears on the forum.

A possible way round that is to post your question on the new thread, then  go straight back and  modify it to add the link to the other threads.

I think I read somewhere that it is the spam catcher, or whatever you call it, that catches a new topic with a link. It may do this to prevent people being directed to other unsuitable websites?

[LizzieL]

I understand that there should be a method to prevent spam and undesirable links, but can't see why it prevents posting of a thread linking to another post on the Rootschat forum

[groom]

Probably just too sensitive. Also, if you use the shrink link tool you get a link address that looks as if it comes from Rootschat, so serious spammers could get round it that way if it didn't pick up anything with the word Rootschat in the link.

[trystan]

I just come across this thread this morning that was posted yesterday (Sunday).

So the answer to the question raised (and the comments):

Hope this hasn't been raised before  I did do a search honest 

I have contributed to several threads on the last couple of weeks which have turned out to have been duplicate requests or connected to earlier posts. Usually the mod or an observant member has found the original post & given a link. It's a bit annoying to find you have spent time looking for & providing information that another kind chatter had found 2 years ago.

I have no idea of the technicalities but I just wondered whether it was possible, when a new topic is posted, for a message to appear to the poster to remind them to provide a link to any other thread on the same or connected subject?

Josey

As far as warnings and things before people post, generally we find that very quickly people tend not to read warnings and just press OK boxes just to get onto the next bit. It could almost be a case of where would you stop with messages before people post. Such as, "Are you sure this doesn't possibly breach a living person's privacy?" or "Are you sure you are not breaching copyright in posting this?". All these of course are virtuous messages to put up before somebody posts.

We have tried out over a number of occasions a "Related / Similar Topic" features. This showed up posts that had similar wording in the title. It wasn't perfect though - especially if there was a word in it common to many posts. Some of the related posts do appear quite bizarre quite often too (which can bring up some other interesting topics anyhow).

The biggest difficulty was that the feature was pretty heavy-going on the web server itself. As you can imagine, each and every post resulted in a search of some 5.1 millions posts. This caused a slight delay in pages loading up at times and was prone to pages occasionally timing out.

Some of you may have noticed the Similar Topic or Related Topic feature.

Anyhow, as this has been raised, we'll just try out a feature that feature again, and this time try and display possibly similar topics as people are posting. It may need to be turned back off again due to the technical effects of it though, but we'll see how it goes.

All the best,
Trystan

[josey]

Thanks, Trystan.

I didn't realise about the strain on the servers of a search like that; to some extent I was hoping the responsibility could lie with the OP. I admit I am guilty myself on some occasions (like 5 pages of Terms & Conditions'  ) of not fully reading stuff on screen in order to click 'OK'.

I hope it was not rude of me not to have included you in the original post.

Josey

[trystan]

Josey,

No it wasn't rude at all. Sarah and I tend to try and keep Sunday free as much as we can for each other so we're often slower to spot a topic like this.

We'll just have a go with this thing, and see how it goes for now. I'll probably move things around a bit - like where it appears and how many related topics it shows and things though. It does hammer the server and we don't have the resource to upgrade the hardware so it's often a fine line to get the right balance.

Cheers,
Trystan

[fraser1]

Hi,

I posted a topic yesterday re James Grant and Lilias Stuart which has since been merged with a previous post of mine.  I had read this topic and checked with my last to make sure I put on right board and to see if I should put a link.  After consideration it seems I wrongly took the view not to.

Sorry to have got it wrong.

Sandra

[josey]

Great that you took the time & effort to read the previous post. Hope it's infectious  . Exactly my original point  . Only a mod can merge 2 topics.

[JenB]

We'll just have a go with this thing, and see how it goes for now. I'll probably move things around a bit - like where it appears and how many related topics it shows and things though. It does hammer the server and we don't have the resource to upgrade the hardware so it's often a fine line to get the right balance.

New thread 
http://www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php?topic=738939.0