Double Postings

[Supersturg]

Why does everyone get so mad and annoyed with someone who posts a prediscussed subject? There is no way to really know whats been talking about unless ALL you do is sit in front of your screen and argue every posting. So, all you people who say, "thats already been posted," is this true of you??? Please don't get all crazied up and shoot me with your babylon 5 ray gun, just be honest, because it annoys me that people can't be alittle nicer. Is it so hard to be nice to each other and show alittle love and respect. Like my new buddy Rob B he is awesome, people should be like him!

[owlcroft]

Why does everyone get so mad and annoyed with someone who posts a prediscussed subject? There is no way to really know whats been talking about unless ALL you do is sit in front of your screen and argue every posting.

Mainly because it is so easy to check and see. Right across your screen, just below the banner header, on most--or, probably, all--pages of this forum you will see a string of options running from User CP on the left to Log Out on the right; if you click o the one labelled Search you will get a drop-down menu that will allow you to enter a search term for either the Forums (which is what you want) or the Blogs; enter a term related to your proposed topic, leave Show Threads selected, and click Go. You will almost instantly get a very useful display of threads containing posts containing your search term.

(If you like, you can instead click the Advanced Search option and get a much more powerful search front end.)

You can normally tell rather quickly from the titles of the threads if they are likely to be similar to your proposed topic. Kep in mind that rolling your cursor over the title of the thread will show you the first sentence or so of the original post, which can help.

Common sense ought to suggest to you which topics are so broad or common as to likely have been discussed many times before. But if you don't see such a topic back for some reasonable period of time, which I would not want to state definitely (but would personally put at two or three months), it's probably ok to re-start one (but others may well have different ideas on that).

Just searching up "C. S. Lewis" as a test case, the first page shows threads running back to just about two months ago, of which a few--perhaps three--look like they might contain a lot of material on Lewis.

(Mind, after participating for a few months, you will know just from experience what has or hasn't been discussed lately.)

In short, it really does not take much time or effort at all to check, and saves the "here we go again" flavor of a post on a topic discussed well within living memory.

[Chuffalump]

I don't think anybody actually gets mad or annoyed. It's the moderators job to point these things out so the forum can run smoothly. I imagine that they are pretty busy trying to monitor the whole site so would rather post a short factual response rather than a rambling apologetic essay. On the other hand if it's not a moderator then they are most likely trying to be helpful.

I've seen very little actual rudeness on this forum.

Of course by actual rudeness I mean personal insults. Plenty of cutting remarks in evidence.

[Rob B]

Owlcroft summed it pretty well. Basically, the "here we go again" mentality a lot of the members may feel upon seeing a topic that had a lengthy discussion started as a new topic can be ... frustrating. Especially recommendation threads which are all over the place.

The best thing to do in any community, online or otherwise, is to hang out for a while before posting. Scroll through some of the older threads, which you can do by clicking the numbers up top or near the bottom of the page.

[creemore]

I normally don't mind when people most multiple threads on the same subject, at least on larger forums. But since sffworld is a fairly slow website in terms of post activity, you can often have - for example - multiple recommendation threads on the first page.

I guess this can annoy some people, but I assume most are just trying to be helpful rather than rude. It's sometimes just simple forum etiquette, because logically you'd search for an answer rather than post an entire question all over.

[Supersturg]

I might "double post," say if I had a question on something that wasn't covered and I might fear people have already said their "peace" with the posting, so I might think a new posting might bring new talk!

[KatG]

Having multiple recommendation request threads or having a poster ask another question is fine in the forums. But what we ask is that if you are going to make a recommendation request thread that it be for a specific type of recommendation, rather than just "what do I read next?" which is covered in the Sticky recommendation thread and which does not require a new thread each time.

And with even a specific recommendation request, for your own benefit, it's worth doing a search first to see what you can pull up before launching into the topic either in a new thread or reviving an old one. If you do a search and find that the old threads don't help you with what you are looking for, then asking for what you specifically are interested in is okay. But if a moderator comes in and says go look at this thread re your request, consider trying it, and there is no need to get upset and mouth off at the moderator for trying to direct you to information that may be helpful. Especially when you are new to the forum and don't know what's here. And if the moderator misunderstands what you are after, it's not a crime against humanity. Just try to make it clearer.

And if you're uncertain whether you should put something up or not, you can send a PM to any of the staff and ask, particularly the moderators assigned to the particular forum.