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Teknomancer
Joined: 19 Sep 2005
Posts: 335
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 Posted: 9/20/2005, 12:09 am Post subject: Duplicate threads |
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In many forums, especially those with thousands of members, I've noticed that the forums are pretty much flooded with tens of duplicate threads all pertaining to the same topic.
Then the admins starts to make announcements and warnings on "Please search before starting a thread". Then there is a mixed reactions among members, some calling the admin names for defeating the purpose of having forums, while old-timers and "search freaks" siding the admin.
There is always bound to be duplicate threads in my opinion. But when you have hundreds of threads on the same topic, it wastes space on the server, leads to data redundancy etc. The question is how many threads on the same topic is acceptable.
While I know there is no sure fire method to avoid creating duplicate threads. What could be done is to make a phpBB mod or something that searches for similar topics and WARNS the user that these topics exist and that is he sure he wants to start a new thread anyway? 
Oh and here is one example forum where there is an on-going struggle to avoid duplicate threads: MisticRiver.
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harishankar
Joined: 10 Sep 2005
Posts: 203
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| Posted: 9/20/2005, 4:45 am Post subject: |
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Difficult to answer. The forum search engines are not very efficient in any case and they don't return good results... Also searching is more an art than a science and there's no real guarantee that two people will have the same level of success searching for the same subject...
The best option is to allow duplicate threads, but make sure that they aren't created on a daily basis. If it's a very old topic buried deep in the forum, then there's probably no harm in allowing a similar topic to be created. But if there are a couple of topics of the same subject being created every day, then I'd say lock those with a link to the original topic politely explaining the rules regarding the creation of duplicate topics.
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Teknomancer
Joined: 19 Sep 2005
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| Posted: 9/20/2005, 7:47 am Post subject: |
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Monitoring each and every thread created in a forum that spans thousands of members with millions of hits everyday even with a team of admins is not fully possible to do such "locking and giving a warning".
The search need not be accurate. Afterall, keyword search is enough. Example: creating a thread on "what does the SRS/WOW function do in my player" and searching for "SRS/WOW", "function" and skipping the other words (like how google does) and throwing up thread results for just "SRS/WOW" is a great start.
That itself would prevent a lot of duplicate threads.
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Patrick
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Joined: 28 Aug 2005
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Location: Harbinger, NC, U.S.A.
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| Posted: 9/20/2005, 8:55 am Post subject: |
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Well, duplicate threads to me is where someone posts the same thread in multiple forums. Cross posting, in other words. We don't allow that. Any duplicates are removed.
But, I gather that you mean covering the same subject. Like, two threads asking what your favorite color is, started by two different users at two different times.
I don't have too big a problem with this at this time. If there is a thread that was recently active that covered the same exact subject, I might close the new one, sending people to the older one. If there is an old thread that covers the subject, I will let the new thread go because the old thread is full of old answers and old users, who may no longer be there. From time to time, even the most basic topics (such as what is your age) need to be revisted and refreshed with the uses who are currently at the site.
On the support forums that I run, we don't really close any threads that ask a question that has already been asked, unless that sort of problem has already been addressed - we'll link them to the thread and we may or may not close it, depending on the situation.
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Triumvirate
Joined: 10 Sep 2005
Posts: 262
Location: New York, USA
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| Posted: 9/20/2005, 1:32 pm Post subject: |
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Like Patrick said if by duplicate threads it is cross-posting or starting a second topic when one is already available (and fairly new/active/recent/whatever) then I would probably either move the topic or lock it and point it to the other one. If it is just a second topic of the same nature though after a previous topic has died I wouldn't care if someone started a second topic about it, that's usually better than responding to 4 month old posts.
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dojo
Joined: 03 Sep 2005
Posts: 287
Location: Romania, Timisoara
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| Posted: 9/21/2005, 12:31 am Post subject: |
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When I see an identical post made by a person in many forums I PM the offender and delete the duplicates. If other people write similar stuff, I usually close the latest post and redirect the chat to a previously started one. In that case I am not angry at the topic starter, and after some days (to make sure he did ... redirect) I delete the thread I locked.
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Teknomancer
Joined: 19 Sep 2005
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| Posted: 9/21/2005, 3:13 am Post subject: |
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| Patrick wrote: |
Well, duplicate threads to me is where someone posts the same thread in multiple forums. Cross posting, in other words. We don't allow that. Any duplicates are removed.
But, I gather that you mean covering the same subject. Like, two threads asking what your favorite color is, started by two different users at two different times.
I don't have too big a problem with this at this time. If there is a thread that was recently active that covered the same exact subject, I might close the new one, sending people to the older one. If there is an old thread that covers the subject, I will let the new thread go because the old thread is full of old answers and old users, who may no longer be there. From time to time, even the most basic topics (such as what is your age) need to be revisted and refreshed with the uses who are currently at the site.
On the support forums that I run, we don't really close any threads that ask a question that has already been asked, unless that sort of problem has already been addressed - we'll link them to the thread and we may or may not close it, depending on the situation. |
Yes I don't mean cross posting, I meant posting duplicate threads with similar topics. I agree with your method about locking threads etc., but my point is, in a forum that has thousands of members that has threads spawning by the second, doing that sort of manual reading and locking would be next to impossible. Especially, round the clock.
I still say it would be so sophisticated to have a quick-search for the keywords in the "Subject" field and list the results to the person creating the new thread so he is automagically informed of similar threads
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Patrick
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| Posted: 9/21/2005, 8:15 am Post subject: |
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Would it? I don't know about round the clock, but the general idea of having staff is to at least get one pair of eyes on every thread. But, on unbelievably crazy communities, it may be hard. Communities of the size of SitePoint and a bit bigger, I could see doing alright, however.
I am sure you can come up with a hack that takes what someone posts in the subject line (or body) and displays a dialogue before they post ("Are any of these threads what you are looking for?") and if not, allows them to post.
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Teknomancer
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Patrick
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