tell members start new post, not follow another

Dear Moderators,
Just a suggestion... you may wish to put SOMEwhere that if a person is new and has a new question, they should make a new post, and not reply to someone else's post who is already looking for their own answer.  This tip could be put maybe when folks sign up or where they can readily see it somewhere on a typical forum page.  See, I was in neurology, and someone apparently found an old post in the archives, and they "replied" to that post.  Well, in that post 50 million people were "replying" to the post, but instead of helping the original poster, they were each talking about their own brand new complaint, with no offer of help.  So, here was this huge Q & A thing with all Q's and no A's.  What can happen then is, I'll see a post that looks like it's been answered on account of there's plenty of replies, when in fact it's yet someone else complaining of similar problems.  I hope this make sense.

Now, part of this sort of thing is, people normally post and then stick with their post, answering a reply, with some back and forth.  But then there's peo[ple who every single time they start a brand new post!  So, they'll be referring back to a post some pages before, so you gotta go look up what they said back there and catch up, and continuity is all goofed up.  What I'm afraid of, tho, is here in this note to you guys, if my first paragraph's suggestion is taken too literally, you'll wind up with a lot of this thing going on, with everybody starting a new post every time, so the wording needs to be just right.  Gosh, I cannot express myself in less than 5,000 sentences these days.  Well, thanks for what you do.  GG

[Emily_MHModerator]

Hi there -

This is something that we discuss quite often, and try to find a balance for.  We want members to find us and get support easily, and finding old posts in Google and other search engines is one way to do that.  We do realize that new members often post on long, older threads that are more Q than A, but don't want to hamper people from finding us, and getting the great support and info our members offer.

It's totally fine to respond to a member and suggest that they create their own thread in order to not get lost on a longer thread.  

Thanks for taking the time to offer your suggestion, and I will certainly add your thoughts to the ongoing discussion we have on this topic.

Emily

[FurballsMom]

I would make this suggestion, though:  If one has a similar problem as an old thread that was found doing a Google search, the person should start a new thread.  I find many of these threads get so long that I can't read them.  I can't be the only one who decides these are too long to read, because the browsers don't seem to work properly with the really long threads either.  I think leaving the old threads that get long like that is great if it helps someone find the website, but it would actually be helpful to close the thread but leave it there for others to read.  But, where the thread states that it is closed, perhaps at both the top and the bottom of these long threads, request if the reader wishes to ask a similar question that the person should start a new thread--because he would get a faster response to his question, too.

[opus88]

Furballsmom has made an excellent suggestion here, one that should be simple to implement. this would give the new reader the ability to read the old posts as well as give information on 'how to' create a question of their own. It would help ALL of our forums to be set up this way and new questions to not be overlooked.

[Emily_MHModerator]

Thanks, I'll pass your thoughts on.

Emily

[margypops]

I also find the old posts coming up so much a confusion at times .