The "Been Discussed" Thread Nazis....
 

I understand the need for our threads to be monitored, but very often a new thread is posted that is still interesting even though it has been discussed before. The Monitors go in a close a thread, and leave the rest of us searching.

If a thread is going to be closed I think the least a monitor should do is provide a link to the older thread.

Thanks

i absolutly agree. i can understand closing threads that have been discussed to death like the horsepower issue, but some topics that have only been discussed like once a long while ago, are also locked. this is absolutly inappropiate. if all the topics that have been disccussed before(however few times) are locked then we're gonna run out of things to talk about.

all if not all of the thread lockings are done by 1 person, sputnik. he takes the term "forum nazi" and admin abuse to a whole new level. he should be stripped of his moderator powers

Why don't you meet him half-way and excercise the search button a bit more. 99.9% of the time people post without even bothering to look. I often try to put a link to help direct it myself, but I'm not a traffic cop and I waste my time finding it for you. This problem is easily fixed by each individual searching first then posting, no one is here working full-time to run down searches for you (not even admins). If your search craps out, start your thread by first saying "I tried to seach the forum... blah, blah.." at least it indicates you made an effort.
:)

I can understand peoples reluctance to search, because the search is not very friendly. A search for RE040 returned 39 threads of which one had 438 replies. I personnaly don't want to read 438 replies to see if someone has discussed my concerns or answered my question. I often visit the audi forum and a search there will return only the replies that deal with the search request, thus eliminating a lot of duplicate threads.

I'll grant you that the search engine could use some work, but did you realise that you can click "Show results as posts" instead of the default "Show results as threads", and it will show you only the individual posts that contain your search arguments?

Thats nice to know

Thanks

alarabie youcould also limit your search more by using an additional word or two like if you want to know if the re040's are runflats type "re040 runflat" that should bring the results down a notch and definetly click the button to show reults as posts that way you can sort of preview the posts to see if it is about what your are looking for.

i've noticed that he is not only a nazi about it, he's rude and doesn't provide any kind of proof to back it up, at least post a link if you're gonna lock it and be rude

The reason why I am the person who has closed most (but not all) of the threads is because I am the one doing most (but not all) of the work with the threads in the Discussion and Lounge forums. Moderators are few, and time is limited. So, we don't have time to go searching for a particular URL for someone who doesn't take the time to do it themselves (or for someone who is under the delusion that what they have to say is sooo important that it needs a new thread, when what they have to say has already been said), especially when the performance if the site is like it is right now (you think you suffer from the web site's performance?).

If anyone thinks "Duplicate thread, closing..." is rude, oh well. It wasn't meant to hurt anyone's feelings. It is done that way because I don't have time to elaborate. And when I don't put an annotation like that at the end of a thread that I've closed, I get PMs asking why I closed this or that thread, so I will post a reason why it is being closed.

---jps

Sputnik is doing nothing short of a fantastic job policing and organizing the huge mess of bullsh*t that continues to be posted in the Discussion Section these days. it's not all bad, but it's mostly not good (not worth reading), and it's from lazy posters who don't even think about what they're saying, who they're saying it to, and where they're saying it before starting a new thread.

he seriously does most of the work as far as moderation goes, even checking up on other sections from time to time to help everyone else out. if you could understand how this BBS is run, and the constant problems (the worst of which is user abuse, and having to deal with it) you wouldn't worry so much about him closing pointless duplicate threads.