Idea to prevent duplicate threads

A quick question/suggestion for the owners of ATS: Is there any way that you can incorporate a function when starting a new thread that looks for key words in the thread title, and brings up other thread titles with the same keywords?

There are A LOT of duplicate threads started these days, and think something like that would help people know whether one already exists, without having to do a basic search.

I understand if someone starts a new thread that had been covered several months or years ago, but holy cow. . I see multiple threads started on the same topic on a daily basis.

reply to post by amongus

That's a good idea - before you get to the "Create Post" page - there should be a quick form to fill out - You enter a proposed "thread title", and then post URL hyperlinks you plan to include in the post, then click "Search".

ATS then returns a quick list of hyperlinked thread titles + (sorted by dates and times) it thinks are similar to your topic. It is your job to click on those hyperlinks to see if in fact any of those are the same news item/topic you plan to post on.

If nothing comes up or none of the links are the same topic, then you proceed to the Create a Post page.

Good idea!

i agree

30 second between each search is way to long for me

It would be one thing if we saw duplicate threads started by people who registered, say, a few weeks ago. . but the thing that irritates me the most is seeing LONG TIME members of ATS doing this.

At the bare minimum people should be clicking on the "recent posts" tab to see if anything new has been posted on the same topic. This is NOT happening.

I just have a low tolerance level I guess. But with so many new members joining daily, I think something like I propose would be a great idea.

reply to post by amongus

this IS a joke, right? tell me you're just being sarcastic. please tell me you did a thread search? and you searched for the terms "repeat threads?"

repeat threads

HAHAHAHA! Wow. . .I really need to take my own advice.

Last time I ever reply to someone about a duplicate thread!

Mods remove!

Originally posted by notsofast
reply to post by amongus

 

this IS a joke, right? tell me you're just being sarcastic. please tell me you did a thread search? and you searched for the terms "repeat threads?"

repeat threads

ROFLMAO



Oh the irony!!

Originally posted by Misoir

Originally posted by notsofast
reply to post by amongus

 

this IS a joke, right? tell me you're just being sarcastic. please tell me you did a thread search? and you searched for the terms "repeat threads?"

repeat threads

ROFLMAO

Oh the irony!!

This should be thread of the year. . . at my expense! lolol. . Classic. I searched "duplicate threads", and saw one from a year ago, so started a new one. If only I would have searched "repeat threads".

when i saw the thread title i was like.. WHAAA????? lol.. then your post was almost the same. i genuinely thought it was some kind of joke.

reply to post by amongus


Here's a tolerance test for you

abovetopsecret.com...

Originally posted by amongus
Classic. I searched "duplicate threads", and saw one from a year ago, so started a new one. If only I would have searched "repeat threads".

And right there you have hit the crux of the problem

But I do like the idea of being able to search for a story URL. I just tried that in doth the single search bar and the advanced and no results using a linked report from a recent thread.

But someone using a source in there OP, if it would find that it would work

Agreed there are WAY too many duplicate threads. I even have a few threads on this but it just gets lost amongst the doom and gloom.

People are lazy.

The search function isn't that great but when you type is key words or phrases it works just fine. Also people should look at the firehouse and recent posts page, but they don't. They think their idea is new and it hasn't been posted, when chances are it has.

I mean how many piano, wood and NASA announcement threads were there?

I give up on reporting duplicates cause it just annoys me and takes away from my time reading because I spend it looking for the original thread to post in duplicated threads.

I know many are new and just don't know to look but many are older members who know better and many are members who use the BA section as a place to make a duplicate thread and steal the limelight so to speak from the original poster. I never understood that rule and personally think it's stupid but hey it's not my site.

I read ATS through out the day. Mostly I check the firehouse of new topics and then recent posts to see if anything new popped up..and usually it's a duplicate thread.


I think your idea is a good one. It could help because I know the mass duplicates have to annoy mods because I know they annoy me

reply to post by amongus


This is an excellent idea.
I was just slapped around a little for posting a "duplicate" thread, even though a search did not seem to return any threads on the topic I started.

I hate the duplicate threads. I am not able to keep up with the bran new threads about the President's citizenship just now. Every individual keeps making his own thread about it. This is frustrating.