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I7guy

macrumors Nehalem
Original poster
Nov 30, 2013
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Gotta be in it to win it
At the end of a page there is a box with the title of 'similar threads', some of them dating back a few years. A new feature in xenforo but I wonder if there is a likelyhood to necroing threads that should stay in the past. image.jpg
 
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I don't have any trouble bringing back threads when appropriate, but I agree that the Similar Threads list as configured is a waste of space. I'd rather see that area filled with more pertinent information. Perhaps including commonly used links that otherwise require returning to the top of the page to access.
 
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I don't have an issue with the similiar thread info being provided, however it seems it would be most helpful when you enter the title of a new post, this is when the similiar threads info could convientenly alert you that a similar thread exists and allow you to decide if a new thread should be created or add to an existing, but possibly an older thread, the goal being avoiding as many duplicate/similiar posts as possible. :)
 
It's only the odd random newbie that runs rampant reviving threads from 10 years ago. The similar threads section does save people searching. It's all good
 
It's only the odd random newbie that runs rampant reviving threads from 10 years ago.

Those are extreme cases. Rampant posts can be treated as unreasonable.

I'm more concerned about reasonable posts – where the reasoning, before a reply, included a fair amount of thought and/or gathering of information by the author.

Related:

Valuing relevant content

Why should threads stay in the past?

I find, sometimes, intentions to devalue – to force ignorance of – user content that is sometimes less than a year old less than four months old.

As an example, I'd like to share general troubleshooting advice under a troubleshooting topic; at the 2013 tail end of a concise, well-titled topic that spanned around thirteen months. But if I do so, that complementary advice might disappear.

The alternative: begin a duplicate topic, orphan the original topic. For me to detract from another author, by duplicating the effort elsewhere, would be disrespectful to the person who originally made the effort. Other readers might not treat the ignorance as disrespectful, but I would.

… Similar Threads list as configured is a waste of space …

Consider the possibility that some or all of the similar topics are old because traditional moderation has encouraged or forced the ageing; because moderation has discouraged or removed, from those topics, more recent replies that were relevant.

Related:
The similar threads section does save people searching. It's all good

The goodness of search results is partly dependent upon opening posters using good, focused, self-explanatory subject lines (titles).

Side note: as XenForo does not allow any new reply to have a subject line, so I wonder whether goodness/relevance of search results – from engines within and beyond the macrumors.com domain – will decrease, over time. If you'd like to discuss that point, please quote it under MacRumors Forums Theme Change and New Platform (I have more to add, but it's off-topic).
 
It's only the odd random newbie that runs rampant reviving threads from 10 years ago. The similar threads section does save people searching. It's all good

It's pretty funny when it happens though.

"Hi guys OS X Puma is running a little sluggishly"

"Have you tried updating to Yosemite?"
 
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Duplicate posts should not be allowed and simply be merged by the moderators in to the original thread about the subject. Why make 2 threads when you can continue in the old one about the same thing? All the people in the old thread will get a notification and that can be great for getting help or information. Since they wrote there before, they'll know about it.
 
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I am new to these forums and contributing to forums in general although I have been viewing these and others for years.

My question is, why is it so horrible for people to reply to an old thread? I have seen a couple recently where someone did it (likely by mistake) and the poster always gets completely mocked for it. Why is this such a horrible thing - especially if we are encouraged to find existing threads before starting a new one?

Honest question here. Hoping someone in the community can shed some light on the subject for me.

The negative attitudes, towards age of content, were amongst the things that drove me away from MacRumors Forums.
 
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I'll suggest again, if it's within the software ability, to provide similar thread info, before the new thread is created for the purpose of avoiding duplicate threads when it makes sense to do so. :):)
 
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