What is the point of the "similar threads" section at the bottom of the page when reading a thread (see below)? The purpose on other forums is to avoid multiple threads on the same topic. Here, a forum member recently was lured by a "similar thread" on water heaters. He posted to it and his posting was moved to a new thread. He was simply adding to an old thread and had no intention or need to create his own thread. He just wanted to add his own bits of info for completeness of the old thread - that caught his attention while reading a different thread.

If we are not allowed to post to these old 'Similar Threads', why are they there?

 

And now I am taunted by these similar threads...

 

Hello,

We want to have new members who are posting new threads to have the oppertunity to find more info on the wanted subject.
The idea is that new members to search the forum to specify their questions better.

Bertus

 

Hello,

We want to have new members who are posting new threads to have the oppertunity to find more info on the wanted subject.
The idea is that new members to search the forum to specify their questions better.

Bertus

And based on the number of old threads newbies are Adding onto vs starting themselves, do you think your methodology is working?
Do you think any improvements can be made to the system to guide newbies to starting their own thread vs appending existing threads?
Do all mods have the same view about the horrors associated with adding onto old threads?

 

It was that way before you showed. It will be that way if you leave. Want it a different way, start your own site and do it your way.

You may not agree with the reasoning, but there is a reason for it. Agreement by you is not a requirement.

 

It was that way before you showed. It will be that way if you leave. Want it a different way, start your own site and do it your way.

You may not agree with the reasoning, but there is a reason for it. Agreement by you is not a requirement.

I didn't say it should be changed, just thought people here would get the hint that there is a problem and, with all the engineers around here (aka "problem solvers"), I am surprised that no effort goes into solving the problem. Especially the problem of newbies (and non-newbies) posting to old threads.

On the other hand, I cannot call it a problem if it is actually the goal - keeping the mods busy.

 

I fell in that trap when I was a noob. I think some clarification is in order. Something like, "Similar old Threads for you to examine. If your questions are not properly addressed in them, please start a new Thread."

 

@#12
Thanks for your support but I am not sure you should have wasted your street cred by joining me on my adventure down this rabbit hole.

 

@#12
Thanks for your support but I am not sure you should have wasted your street cred by joining me on my adventure down this rabbit hole.

You merely mentioned an old thorn that I got wounded with, so I added my two cents.

 

If we are not allowed to post to these old 'Similar Threads', why are they there?
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Thanks for the feedback. Similar Threads is a great 'discovery' feature. Most of the traffic to our forum is people searching on Google for very specific information. They don't have any plans on registering and posting. The 'similar threads' feature is generally for those visitors, as it displays some useful related threads. Our forums have such a wealth of information, and this is one way to help visitors discover more of it.

To try and prevent necro posting, we now have a 'warning' for threads over a year old.



We had this back in the vBulletin days and it did a pretty good job. My apologies for taking so long to bring it to XF - thanks for the bump to do so