Since I am relatively new around these parts, I've had a question that has arisen. It seems that an awful alot of threads get closed because they are "duplicates." And it seems that no matter how long ago a topic was started, if somebody posts a similar topic later on down the road, even months and months later, the new thread gets closed and the old one gets linked to.

Aside from making me feel like I am doing something wrong when I see a thread of mine that is closed, I am wondering are we expected to just automatically search for past threads that may relate to a question we have today? I had one closed today or yesterday that refers back to a thread started in December. December??? I didn't even know these boards archived posts from that long ago, but aside from that point, what about new people who may be able to contribute to a new thread about the topic? Or if new web sites or new information is relevant to the thread that somebody may be willing to add that wasn't relevant to the topic back six months ago or whatever?

I am not saying I disagree with the moderator's closing the threads, but I guess I feel like when I see threads of mine closed, I am doing something wrong. I would think it would be more preferable to start a new thread that will more than likely be swept off page one in the next day or two anyway than to resurrect an old thread archived so deeply you have to dig for it or do a word search for it. But if you all want old topics resurrected, that's fine with me too, just was curious as to what was expected, is all.

If I think that there may be a previous thread of general interest, I go ahead and do a search.

In the one you had locked yesterday, the thread that they referred you to guaranteed you a great response to your question, and saves you the time of having to wait for responses.

I wouldn't feel badly about getting a thread locked. It happens to all of us, and they mean nothing personal by it. This morning, there was a mod in the Other forum that had to lock his own thread for the same reason.

I recently had three closed threads in a week. Don't feel bad it's never personal.

3? been a slow week?

Uh oh, vapoRware posted again. Time to close this baby up!

As already noted, just because a thread is closed doesn't mean you did anything wrong. Sometimes it does, but not always.

But yes, it is generally considered "polite" to do a search before you post a question. We have had many many questions and posts, and you'd be surprised at how many times an old post will cover a "new" question.

But not all posts get closed because they're "duplicates." In this particular case, the previous thead was very comprehensive and rather than have new threads created, it's better to just bump up the existing one to see if anyone would like to add to it. That helps keep everything together and makes finding the information a little easier.

to further add confusion (at least for me) the search feature rarely returns anything from before Jan 1 2002

But usually only in the case of Other. The "normal " forums go back quite a ways.

Actually, both the Main forum, and Other are regularly pruned. They go back to about Jan/Dec right now.

We won't usually close something if we can't find the link to it anymore. Usually.

The other forums, however, do go back quite sometime. Last time I checked, the Review forum went back to early 1999.

personally i often wonder why some threads are closed and others remain open. a great number of threads are basically the same questions or polls recycled over and over and over again...yet they are allowed to remain open even though a simple search would reveal that they have already been discussed ad nauseam.

98% of the internet is recycled. That is not the litmus test for closing a thread.