Can similar discussions really be a bad thing?

If you answer several discussions which all have the same topic, you do so at your own risk. MyLot remove the repeated topics and all the responses go with them too. We do not earn for our deleted posts.

hi folks why do not we think about the fact that we all have families with different problems and all the unused topics we can expound on here without copying anyone elses thoughts. Write about what you know and others will find it interesting too. be original as its fun.

There have been times when i start a discussion, post it and then there is one almost identical to it just below it. My thoughts and their thoughts at the same time, i am just slower than they are.

Duplicate discussions are a violation of the guidelines. Similar discussions, on the other hand, if they are approached from a different angle or slant than previous discussions, are not a violation. There is a difference. We are all supposed to search for a topic and make sure that it has not been done ... or at least not in the way that we are intending to do it ... before we start a discussion. If we do not do this, then I think that we can be blamed, especially if the discussion is a duplicate discussion. Duplicate discussions will be deleted by myLot, even if nobody reports them as violations, and Admin has stated that they do keep track of what goes on here and will delete violations even if they have not been reported by a member. When these discussions get deleted, nobody earns anything. The responders will lose their posts, the time they took to respond, and will not earn a cent for it, so I do think that the original posters of the discussion can be held accountable for not adhering to the guidelines and wasting other people's time and money when they could have easily avoided it by searching for a topic before creating their discussion.

Thanks for choosing my response. I appreciate it. See you around.

Exactly, Anklesmash! If you approach a popular topic from a different angle or put a different spin on a topic, then it is perfectly acceptable and can even be beneficial. It might inspire other people to think in another direction, too, or come up with a completely new and different idea on another subject. Even if it doesn't do that, it still gives people something new to think about and discuss.

Yes, there are times when you can search for a topic and not find anything similar and yet once you post the discussion there are bunch of discussions that appear in the list of similar discussions. Sometimes they really do not have anything to do with the one that you started, and other times they do. When this happens once in a while, it is understandable and I think most users realize this and do not have a problem with it, especially if the two discussions do not sound like one was copied from the other. When it happens on a regular basis, on the other hand, it gets frustrating. The search function is not 100% fool-proof, but there are definitely discussions that anybody that has been on here for even a short length of time must know are duplicate discussions. The ones that can be answered by reading the FAQs, Guidelines and TOS are the most obvious ones not to mention that we are all supposed to have read these before we start to post anyway. Many of the "who or what is your favorite" types of discussions have been way overdone, and these types are generally violations. However, I still find some that are new. Yesterday, in fact, I had fun responding to one of those kind of discussions, because it was on a topic that I enjoyed and I had never seen it done before. I don't think that anybody is saying that every single discussion that is similar to another is a violation, because that is not necessarily true. I do think that the ones that are repeats, especially within a short length of time, are the ones that frustrate people the most. When you can look through a page or two of an interest and see multiple discussions regarding the same thing that gets very boring and aggravating, in my opinion.

Ah. i see you whip out the rules. I tend to search my discussions as well before I post, but sometimes, I cannot find similar ones and then later on, come across them. Then I feel bad. I respond to the 'old' similar discussions as well. It's not necessarily bad to have similar discussions, but it isn't something that is promoted.

It is not about taking responses away from anybody as this is not a competition. You do not earn any more from discussions that have one response or a hundred responses unless you are active and keep participating in the discussion and on the responses. You earn from what you type not what others type. This is a discussion site, and it does not matter whether the discussion is a few hours old, a few days old, a few weeks old or even a few years old we are still able to add to it. In fact, there have been several times when older discussions from several years ago were commented on and all of a sudden a bunch more people responded and interacted on them.

It appears that we were typing at the same time, but you beat me to the post!