Issue: redundancy -- I present a solution.

This won’t solve all of our redundancy issues but it could solve some.

Every time someone posts a question or asks for a solution to a problem what always seems to happen is 10+ people posting the exact same thing, even after the thread’s creator says “thanks that fixed it”.

Solution: What if we could modify threads so that there is a specific sub-type, some sort of “Ask a New Question” thread creation option. In this thread the creator will have an option, on each answer given, to select it as the correct solution. Once a solution is determined to be the correct it will auto-lock the thread so that it won’t be kept in priority due to people repetitively adding redundant or irrelevant responses. The thread will die as it should after the problem is solved.

I’m sure this will require some coding but the end result will be nice, I think.

That’s not a feature this forum has. Seems like a good idea though.

I’m assuming this is a php based script, I don’t know php but I wouldn’t be surprised if someone has figured out how to put that sort of script into their code.

Or, you know, instead of hacking up the forum we could just post in threads that have already been answered.

The problem with that is custom add ons to forum code can cause a lot of problems at patch/update time.

Yeah. This forum is not exactly coded manually. It was created with Simple Machines Forum, so there are limits to the features that it has.

I kind of had a feeling that was the case, tbh I didn’t really expect this to happen, I was more displaying it as a possible solution in the offcase that it might be possible

What is the big deal with replying to an older topic? If you’re asking a new relevant question that wasn’t fully answered by the prior posts within that thread, isn’t it constructive to help turn it into a more holistic topic that ideally answers all aspects and implications of the original topic?

I can understand it when people just reply with non-constructive blabber, but when there is a new idea being contributed or a new related question, it seems more efficient to utilize a thread that is already there.

Long story short, please give me some kind of an idea what the philosophy is behind not replying to older threads?

I know people hate having someone dig up an old post just to put “Oh yea, I did this too!” Which is understandably annoying, but what you’re saying is why not do that if they need help? Like : “I tried this but my yoyo exploded…” In that case though, you’d have an unique problem not addressed by the thread, and thus, would probably be better off making a new thread that focuses on your problem especially, and not make people read the useless posts before, and then see your problem as a footnote.

Very well. I accept your argument; only as long as the original question/topic was concluded.