How to avoid reposting threads

[size="5"]1. Introduction

It appears that lately, several people have been having some difficulties with deciding whether to post a topic for the 10th time on the Lounge or not. This article will be your guide on figuring out whether you should post your item or not. This, of course, can apply to other forums as well, but since the nature of the other forums usually calls for asking questions and not just posting news items/stories, repitions are more or less accepted and answered properly.


[size="5"]2. Short Investigation

There's one important thing to always keep in mind: If you want people to take time to read your post, you should take some time to read their posts as well. So take a look on the list of the threads, at least read their titles and see if they resemble what you're going to post. If you're posting a news item that you just read somewhere, chances are that some others have read it before you, and if someone beat you to posting it, their thread should be somewhere on the most recent threads list. So it doesn't hurt to look.


[size="5"]3. Scrollbars Are Not Decoration

Remember, the last line that your browser shows on the first page you load is not the end of the world, believe it or not there are some thread topics below it that you can reach through scrolling down (unless you happen to be running at an insanely high resolution and fit everything in one page). Also, pagination is your friend, maybe you want to look at the second page of threads, too.


[size="5"]4. Search Feature Was Fixed A Year Ago

Okay, so the search page was broken for a really long time, and that was some people's excuse for reposting. But honestly, it's working again, you just click on the search button, enter some keywords in what you're planning to post to see if it has already been discussed. For example, if you're about to post "Aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at an Elingsh uinervtisy, it deosn't mttaer ..." just enter the few words "Aoccdrnig rscheearch uinervtisy" in the search box and see for yourself that it has been posted several times before. (at the time I was writing this article, that search query returned 13 threads that were about the subject)


[size="5"]5. Conclusion

Following these directions, you should be able to conceal the fact that you're stupid from other people... For a while.

-- Pouya