Thread creation suggestion

[An Old Head 4,816]

I read through this suggestion about reviving old threads, http://mlpforums.com/topic/64769-topic-revival/ where an upcoming problem was said to be that if threads remained dormant for too long, other users would make new threads on the topic instead of posting in the old one, and then a moderator would go and merge them (which would become quite frequent in the predicted influx of new users after BronyCon).

 

So my suggestion is this; I think there should be a system that searches for threads similar to a thread that someone is about to create. Let's say a user wants to create a thread with a title about favourite films or whichever. The system would look for existing threads with similar titles, either by finding keywords or doing what the search bar does, and then display a message saying "We have found some topics that may be similar to what you are creating..." to allow the user to see if a thread about the same subject is already in existence before he submits it, - then the user can post in that thread instead.

 

This would be advantageous in the fact that it would (to an extent) automate the enforcement of making sure there's no duplicate threads, and while I know the staff team are more than capable of keeping on top of duplicate content it would be a very handy feature to assist them in doing so when the population of this forum begins growing massively. I can imagine it taking some time to implement nonetheless, and one might say that it's up to the user to make sure they know the rules, but I think this would be a nice addition.

 

Thoughts?

Edited July 3, 2013 by Flipturn Amaterasu ツ

[Concord 1,982]

Hello!

 

Just imagine, making a wall of text on a certain topic, just to find out a thread already exists... You can imagine the dissapointment...

 

Of course, the idea of possibly reducing the ammount of merging an admin or a mod has to do sounds appealing, but the difficult part is making that system. I'm not a coder or anything, but I believe that this system would be quite messy and difficult to create. Perhaps, in the future, some more experienced people will look into a similar idea.

 

If the system wes based on keywords, then there would be a danger of mis-used keywords, which could complicate the system. The thread may also be based on a similar topic, but with a different twist. Please, correct me if I'm wrong.

Edited July 3, 2013 by Concord

[Quilava 1,290]

What you're suggesting is sort of the equivalent of an automatic search function.

 

Though, the concept is quite appealing, making more use of tags in the process, it has its downsides as well.

 

 For starters, like said above, it's practically just an automatic search feature, so even if it were to be implemented, it probably wouldn't have high priority for addition. You also have issues like @Concord stated, some threads may have around the same title/keywords, but the posts inside are of different concerns/discussions and wouldn't merge together well. Of course, they could then just go to the thread, read up a bit, find out that it wasn't actually the topic they were going/try to discuss, then head back to the thread creator and make it anyway, but it's just added hassle to the user.

 

 Though it would help to quickly moderate the forums when there aren't many, or any, mods/admins on, and help to lessen their load a bit.

 

I like the concept, quick and efficient in it's use, but I'm not sure of it's implementation.

[Shiki 5,855]

This is a very flawed idea.

 

As already stated, it would be an automatic search feature. The search feature is already flawed as is, to begin with, so we'd have to create an entirely new system just to truly implement this feature.

 

Then, even if we had a good search feature, many threads to not use tags, and it doesn't seem like moderators have been too big on going back to threads from 8 months ago just to add some tags. Also, titles can be jokes, or can be similarly worded, but completely different. Or, perhaps it could be the exact same title, but about different things, as Lugia also stated.

 

Things such as "I tried to draw ponies" in Octavia's Hall are common. It wouldn't make sense to put these two threads together, because they'd obviously be completely different. It would only take a human to truly understand what a thread is about, and what would go together with what. There'd be too many mistakes in an automatic system.

 

The fact that every single member has the ability to use the search feature to help find duplicate threads is enough. It's what we should be doing as members -- we have the "report" button for a reason.

[Shanks 10,816]

If there would be a way to make this work I would be 100% for it, but even the best automated search function is by no means perfect. Threads are mis tagged or not even tagged all the time and though the moderators do what they can because of just how huge this site is there are threads that slip under their radar. Of course even threads that are properly tagged and titled may be mislabled as duplicate threads by such a system due to similar, tags, phrases and terms.