There is a thread currently found on the IMHO board. It is a good question, and twenty-seven people have replied. That
includes the person who said “my answer is here” and gave us a link - to the same question and lots of replies. From
6 months ago. WTF is up with this? Is there a time limit on starting a (previously discussed) thread? There are new teeming millions every day - are we expected to research every thread before we post? How much research is expected,
1 hour, 2 hours, more? Why not let the “newbies” enjoy themselves? If you already answered the question in the past, ignore it and move on. It is possible that these links (and I have seen many) are for information purposes only, but some of them come across as chastisement.
Deepest apologies if someone has already started this thread
and I didn’t notice…
I’d say in GQ, it’s fair to expect that someone will do a search for their question before posting, and the posters who dig up old links are saving time/doing the OP a favor.
In GD, I think it’s legit to post links to old threads and say “we discussed this here, fyi, and this was the conclusion.” Or “last week we had a 10 page discussion of the ethics of male circumcision. Why don’t you read that, and if there is still life in the horse when you are done, THEN come back and post your take on it.” Some discussions will happen over and over, like the creationism threads, or abortion - and that’s cool. It’s a sign that the topics are very much on people’s minds.
IMHO and MPSIMS will always spawn new crops of silly games, popularity contests, and sex questions - I say let 'em run their course. It is kind of snotty for someone to come in with the tone of “What was your first kiss like?” thread was done before in 1999. Are you some kind of idiot?.
But that is just my humble opinion. By the way, why don’t you chastise us all with a link.
As if this board isn’t slow enough, lazy whiners like you have to bog it down with this crap. How hard is it to do a search? It hardly takes “an hour or two” to search the SDMB archive. If you’re legitimately interested in getting your question answered, do a little research. Do us all a favor.
(Irony Alert! This reply has officially slowed the board - doh!)
Or perhaps the person was attempting to be helpful by linking to several different opinions at the same time? I’d started a thread last fall about a “funeral faux pas” and it ended up being a ‘funny funeral stories’ thread. some one linked to a prior ‘funny funeral stories thread’ inside that one. Oddly enough a short time later, some one asked for ‘funny funeral stories’ (who knew there was such a market?), and I linked to my thread which also had the other thread linked. The poster also got new ones. shrug. go figure.
Now, OTOH, it wouldn’t hurt to do a search of, say the last week, to find out that we’ve already had 8 threads on All Your Base Are Belong To Us for example.
I often do this. And very rarely do I think I’ve been snotty about it, if ever at all. I save my snot for people who really deserve it.
Partially because I want people to see my answer, and I don’t want to type it all the way out. Also, showing links to simlar threads if going to give you more answers than just asking, becasue often times a lot of answers in those old threads are posters who don’t post anymore.
Because, invariably, the newbies will post an “All Your Base” thread (15 threads and counting…). Because, if you sign up to the SDMB and begin posting instantly, without lurking, without reading other posts and, good heavens, without reading ATMB, you’ll invariably ask how to make smilies, how to make text bold, how to make links and what all those letter stand for.
In the case, of the thread you’re discussing, beckwall, I think Karl wasn’t chastising you at all, nor the OP (who only has three posts). But, he was:
answering the OP
making the OP aware that an archive of the SDMB is available
Hi, Opal!
And, quite honestly, if I was interested enough to start a thread about a question–with or without searching–I’d be interested to see what folx answered, today or a year ago.
Final hint: Might be worth posting to other folx’s threads first, rather than signing up and immediately starting your own discussion.
Upon review, this prolly isn’t Pit-worthy on my behalf, but if someone replies, maybe I can truly work up to the “aaargh–newbies givin’ newbies a bad name” rant.
