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[TyrantWurm]

I was wondering if it was better to bring back an old thread, or create a new thread on a similar (or even the same) subject.

I ask this because a lot of times someone new (or relatively new) will start a topic or turn a discussion towards something that's already been discussed, and then someone who's been around longer will point them to an older thread on the subject as though the thread that predates them is required reading.

I know I don't post a lot, but I also don't want to annoy people with things that have already been discussed- part of the reason that I don't post a lot, there's only so much weighty spiritual discussion that can be had, and I'll wager that a lot of it is already up there, and I'm not much of one for random chat.

I'm not calling anyone out or anything, like I said, I don't want toannoy anyone. I was just wondering what the right thing to do in that situation would be.

Thanks.

[Desren_Shemahlen]

Generally, we'd like you to try looking through older threads with titles similar to your question (i.e. it's got the same keywords in it) and see if those answer your question. This is mainly to cut down on repeated queries of "Am i a dragon? am I otherkin?" since we already have one of those, and the responses will be pretty much the same to every single question of that nature.

But, since some of the thread titles are not very, ah, informative, and we can't really expect every new member to search through piles and piles of old topics if you think your question is pretty unique, or if it applies only to you, then go ahead and ask it. If it turns out that there is a thread on it already, and you missed it, don't worry. No one will be really mad at you, and we CAN merge two topics of a similar theme together. It's just less work if members try to find their question has been answered already, and cuts down on the annoyance factor when the older members have seen one too many of the same post.

Anyway, if you see an old thread with your question in it, go ahead and read through it. If it doesn't answer it completely, or you think of a new angle on it, by all means, resurrect it.

[atomicdragon]

Some questions are very common while others are not so common but by luck were already discussed.

As far as other people, it can be kind of annoying to have to answer the same thing over again and may even be impossible to repeat if it involved a long discussion of many posts previously.  Plus it seems a bit wasteful of forum resources.

As far as the person asking the question, giving them a link to previous discussions would be a lot more helpful in my opinion.  Between laziness and absence of members that took place in the original discussion, it is likely that they wouldn’t get the same amount of answers, at least in a timely fashion.  So just ignoring the old thread would mean some answers would possibly just disappear and be lost.

It isn’t easy finding some of the old things and the memory of old members can be better than any search feature.  However, it is particularly annoying when someone flat out ignores the search feature and misses things that are very frequent or easy to find.

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