Why don't people search topic's?

Hi All,

I don't like to complain but will on this subject due to the increase amount of threads that are repeated. Already in the last hour there has been 3 threads started on the 13 year old that proved NASA were wrong. I had already posted this as breaking news earlier in the day.



May I please ask everyone who is going to post to search first. If you post then find the same thread has already been posted please ask the mods to remove or reply to your own post and state closure on this thread due to duplicate and add the link to the original thread.

Mod Edit: Spelling in Title

[edit on 17-4-2008 by MemoryShock]

Actually, this topic has been posted before as well.

Also, your post makes a good point - all within the past hour.
People find the news and post...by the time you find the news, search and post, its already up.

There are a lot of people here...its bound to happen if your tying to be the first to put up info...No biggy really. Typically the first thread up wins and the mods shut the others down...or even more so the best thread wins (or the thread that gets most attention, which is not necessarily the same) and the topic is discussed.

Peace

dAlen

Its not even just searching....I come to the site every morning and stay till i leave work. All I do is hit the "recent" posts link and check whats new, if people could just take a minute to scan down the recent posts link and see if their thread/story has already been posted. (three posts about that german kid are all listed on one page!!)

Such an utter waste of time/bandwidth and just makes people look stupid.

gee it makes me angry!

ditto, Ditto DITTO!

There are literally thousands of great threads in the archives about all sorts of topics. Please do a comprehensive search before posting. We need to coalesce information in order to wake people up, not offer twenty threads to confuse them more on an issue.

Additionally, I come to ATS to find the news that the MSM are not reporting...I don't need a cut and paste from a MSM news source or a prominent Alt site, with no Alternative spin added by the OP.

The ugly truth is that members are exuberantly posting for points.

I can't even count how many threads there are about 'the rapture'.
And they all end up saying the exact same thing.

Not being a professional programmer I'm not sure how this suggestion might be made to work but;

What if when you are initially 'creating' the thread a quick and dirty keyword comparison of titles could alert you to potential matches?

I know 'how easy it would be to just research the board' (and I can take this position because I've never created a thread). But the idea of technology is to 'simplify' processes, not encumber them with more steps. I suppose however, there are many instances of people earnestly believe that their particular 'approach' or 'query' onto the subject is distinct from what they perceive to be the older / previous one (especially in areas where new information might 'alter' the applicability/veracity/appropriateness of the original post title.)

I'm also wondering what it would take to make a new 'meta-category' of threads which could be used to identify 'potential' correlations between threads that could be queried. There would be many 'useful' applications for such a thing, from rapidly identifying repeating 'troll' type entries throughout the board to opening a window to view posting trends at an administrative level.

Or am I missing the point?

Originally posted by kosmicjack


Additionally, I come to ATS to find the news that the MSM are not reporting...I don't need a cut and paste from a MSM news source or a prominent Alt site, with no Alternative spin added by the OP.

The ugly truth is that members are exuberantly posting for points.

This may be true, but it was a breaking news item and this is how it is done. If there was another news source that had more information at the time I would have included it as well!

Thank you to all that have backed me up on this as it is a problem that does happen sometimes and I understand that, but 3 threads in 1 hour just goes to show that others are not doing the procedures that should be followed.

seeing how ATS doesn't even have it's own search engine (it just uses google), I find searching for anything specific on here is next to impossible unless you can remember the exact title.

This is probably the only forum I am aware of with this many members, without a dedicated search function.

I tell you what would be nice. It would be nice if when somebody entered text into the "Subject" line, it would search the database before allowing the post to go forward. It could present a list of already posted topics, so that the poster could choose one that already exists, rather than starting a new one on a similar subject.

It would also save the Moderators from having to do all the housecleaning of shutting redundant topics down.

Just a suggestion. I don't know how easy or hard this would be to set up.

P.S. -- Oh, I see that this was already basically suggested. Well, I second the motion.

[edit on 16-4-2008 by Nohup]

Part of the next steps after our transition to the new database server and the reintegration of the [POSTS] button is a brand new search function. It's still in "beta" but should help improve the ability to search ATS.

Originally posted by dAlen
Actually, this topic has been posted before as well.

lmao.. irony is the best laugh hehe

To the OP, honestly I have the advantage of being a member for a long time and just generally knowing what topics have come up over the years, but if that wasn't the case then I would be screwed. For some reason I can never really get my searches to "work". I am sure it's my inability, but I just avoid it now. Wish it worked as smoothly as ...MS Knowledge Base or something...

Originally posted by SkepticOverlord
Part of the next steps after our transition to the new database server and the reintegration of the [POSTS] button is a brand new search function. It's still in "beta" but should help improve the ability to search ATS.

Haha awesome Guess I should have read the last couple posts before I made mine!

Originally posted by FlyersFan
I can't even count how many threads there are about 'the rapture'.

And they all end up saying the exact same thing.

This is where the web 2.0 43 Things engine concept of the Tag Cloud comes in. Probably too late to intergrate that idea though..

[edit on 083030p://16u41 by Lucid Lunacy]

Originally posted by SkepticOverlord
brand new search function.

awesome.

Amen to what everyone has already said.

I get so tired of going to the Alien/UFO forum and seeing the same threads. I don't think people make much of an effort to resurrect old threads. I suspect this is due to laziness, and people wanting to start their own threads to collect the points?

If this is the case it shouldn't be. There are a million (ok not a million) different ways to get ATS points. In fact a thread (in this forum) recently pointed out that once you accumulate a certain number of points it becomes.. err.. pointless.

Instead of trying to get 1000 replies on an alien/ufo topic which has been done many many times before why not hop over to the FOIA forum juice up one of those threads!

Ok rant over.

The reason I don't is because I always end up being directed to this same file:






Just kidding I use the feature all the time

[edit on 17-4-2008 by dk3000]

In the past I have been guilty of double posting a news item in "Breaking News" forums.

I usually do a search, but the problem is, if you don't search the exact word that a member might have tagged an article/thread with, it won't come up in your search!

And I usually browse the forum I intend to put the news article/thread in also, but have overlooked the same news story because it had a different title.

It's pretty easy to miss 1 thread that was started on ATS, and unknowingly start a second thread on the article/info.

I don't really think it's a big deal, and the Mods usually catch it soon enough.

[edit on 17/4/08 by Keyhole]

In agreement with you on this one... When people don't search it totally cloggs up the lines... I generally do a search for about 10 min's before I post on something... So I go through about 100 threads before I decide the one I'm looking for doesn't exist... You might even try searching with different phrases too... Just because it's not the same wording you would use doesn't mean it doesn't exist...

Although I think we have all newb'd the system a bit.. I know I have... However, with time people learn...

I think what I hate more than not searching is when people don't read the thread and just post nonsense that has been said 20 times in other posts... PLEASE READ THE THREADS yay!

Try also reading the handbook... Go to the MemCenter and read it... peace!

Originally posted by cnm1976
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Mod Edit: Spelling in Title

But didn't spot the superfluous apostrophe, eh? Or was that your edit - putting it in?

reply to post by hidatsa


Thanks I was typing to fast and missed the C out.