Redundant Threads

[Saniflush]

The thread about quarry diving yesterday got me thinking last night and led me to another thought. This is aimed at the long term posters of the board and is not a critique per se just food for thought from someone who has been around this forum for a short time (2 months).

I have noticed that there seems to be a collective breath holding when someone posts multiple threads about the same topic. I think most everyone does a really good job of just pointing out that there are other threads about a certain subject and they need to use the search function or even posting a link to the other thread(s). However, speaking as someone who only recently found this forum and by comparison is in his infancy in numbers of logged dives I would offer this tidbit to the more senior members of this forum.

Those of you who have been around here may not realize it or may have forgotten how vast this board and information on it truly are. I am on here a good bit during the day and after two months I am just now beginning to really learn my way around. Even the number of "help threads" that are pinned to the top of boards can be overwhelming. I am a veracious reader and am still clicking into threads that I only have just found. Some of this is because I find a topic and zone in on it and some is because there is just SO MUCH great information here.

I am highly appreciative of everybody that chimes in on any of the threads simply because I love knowledge for the sake of it and even uncomfortable conversations have good data that can be gleaned from them.

I say all this to say that don't forget that things that seem old hat to you may not seem that way to us newbies.

 

[The Chairman]

The "you might want to do a search" users have quieted down a bit. I don't have an issue when someone posts a link to a previous discussion as there are a few users who have moved on and we're not going to be able to hear from them again. The old timer's job, in this case, is to point you to these gems that helped them in the past.

 

[Doby45]

Welcome to forum life. I think what Pete said was the absolute best way to handle new people that have questions about repeated or "over hashed" topics. There always seems to be two camps on forums, the "SEARCH NAZIS" and then you have the "NECRO NAZIS". How these two factions exist on a forum confounds me, but they do. The Search Nazis will berate you if you ask the all to often asked question and set you straight that you should search and help yourself. While there is merit to that, it is how you convey it as Pete said. Then, you have the Necro Nazis that will berate you if you do a search and find a valuable thread and post a question on it. The kicker is the thread is a year old so you just raised a dead question, which is crap. I will say this, Scubaboard has far less of both groups than many other forums I am a member on. So a small kudos to the members, mods and @The Chairman!

 

[Saniflush]

Welcome to forum life. I think what Pete said was the absolute best way to handle new people that have questions about repeated or "over hashed" topics. There always seems to be two camps on forums, the "SEARCH NAZIS" and then you have the "NECRO NAZIS". How these two factions exist on a forum confounds me, but they do. The Search Nazis will berate you if you ask the all to often asked question and set you straight that you should search and help yourself. While there is merit to that, it is how you convey it as Pete said. Then, you have the Necro Nazis that will berate you if you do a search and find a valuable thread and post a question on it. The kicker is the thread is a year old so you just raised a dead question, which is crap. I will say this, Scubaboard has far less of both groups than many other forums I am a member on. So a small kudos to the members, mods and @The Chairman!

You left out the Illinois Nazis

 

[Hoag]

It can sometimes be a tough call. I have "resurrected" a dead thread before (here on SB). I did it knowing exactly what I was doing and when I did it, I explained the reasons why I continued an existing thread rather than starting a new one. (It had to do with how a specific lens worked underwater and I wanted to see if more people had experience with it now that it had been out for a couple years. I wanted to continue the train of thought that had been going, but update it with more current info.)

I could have started a new thread, but I didn't want to lose the context of what had been said before.

 

[Lorenzoid]

Duly noted. I hope I'm not being a search nazi when I, as an, uh "old timer," try to point out the wealth of information in old threads that can be found pretty easily. There are people who are no longer with us who have left some pretty great posts. My favorite trick is to not use the board's search function but rather use Google. To limit search results to Scubaboard, use the "site:" parameter--that is, the word "site" followed by a colon followed by (with no space in between) "scubaboard.com" followed by your one or more search terms.

Refine web searches - Google Search Help

 

[northernone]

Duly noted. I hope I'm not being a search nazi when I, as an, uh "old timer," try to point out the wealth of information in old threads that can be found pretty easily. There are people who are no longer with us who have left some pretty great posts. My favorite trick is to not use the board's search function but rather use Google. To limit search results to Scubaboard, use the "site:" parameter--that is, the word "site" followed by a colon followed by (with no space in between) "scubaboard.com" followed by your one or more search terms.

Refine web searches - Google Search Help

An excellent reminder. I lurked for years on the forum just searching the archives like a collective library. Truly remarkable how much shared experience and wisdom has been freely offered over the years.

The only sadness was specifically searching certain user's posts I particularly found insightful and discovering they suddenly became silent and never returned. Hope they passed on doing something they loved.

Regards,
Cameron

 

[TMHeimer]

I have mentioned at times that "There is another thread about this on the_______sub forum, probably still on page 1". I too gave up years ago doing a search for anything, but I'm not good at that on a computer anyway.
After a year or two on SB I posed the question of just how many topics can there possibly be regarding scuba. Lots of stuff gets repeated, and asked again. If someone is relatively new, they probably don't want to search either, so I will respond.
Check my post on the "Quarry logging" thread, for example.
If someone starts asking about weight needed or how to improve buoyancy or trim, I just watch the usual responses or just bypass that thread. Another good one is "What suit should I wear when I make my first dive trip (ever) to Cozumel"? I've answered that many times--"Everybody's different with cold, you'll just have to estimate and give it a try".

 

[CryHavoc]

I hate Illinois Nazis.

 

[Saniflush]

Duly noted. I hope I'm not being a search nazi when I, as an, uh "old timer," try to point out the wealth of information in old threads that can be found pretty easily. There are people who are no longer with us who have left some pretty great posts. My favorite trick is to not use the board's search function but rather use Google. To limit search results to Scubaboard, use the "site:" parameter--that is, the word "site" followed by a colon followed by (with no space in between) "scubaboard.com" followed by your one or more search terms.

Refine web searches - Google Search Help

I really have not seen anyone be over the top in pointing folks to other threads that have the same/similar information. Personally speaking my problems with finding other threads usually have pertained to not using the search function correctly. ( yea I know @The Chairman, read the how to, lol) Every time I start delving into another area I get surprised by the shear volume of information it contains from hard core data to just personal experiences. I equate the board with dropping below the surface, I find something new each time I log on and "go diving".

My favorite thread to resurrect from time to time: Divers Song Parodies