Why so many duplicate discussions remaining?

Yes there are duplicate discussions all the time and yes answering could potentially get the discussion deleted. However, is it truly duplicate and or similar? See all interests surely on a daily basis have similar discussions. My understanding from what I have seen Admin say in responses is that there is nothing wrong with similar but duplicate is where they delete. As to how I go about it, sort of depends. I really don't mind responding if the discussion starter per se is no longer active. I usually go to the discussions and review what the responses are and if the responses are not really of help and or my response will truly be completely different then I will answer the discussion. I figure if all discussion here are searchable on the net then if I can apply some quality, useful and or helpful response then I go for them. I apply the same type of quality I would with recent discussions to those. I once had a five year member log in because of my response and commented to me. Not sure if the member is still active but it was a total surprise to me. I only wished I could have helped that member back then because the discussion was asking for help and many entered it back then in a joking manner. There were no earnings and or guidelines when the site started so it was almost a free for all. Sad because some members were serious, while others posted nonsense. In your case, I would only revive a discussion if I found my response was different and or added something useful that the current members can benefit from seeing.

I would just begin a new discussion. I would not bother responding to a discussion that was four or five years old. A lot changes in four or five years. And no matter the topic. I just think that it is time for a new discussion after such a length of time. A new beginning!

I have had a few of my old discussion resurrected which is always a pleasant surprise. As far a opening a new discussion that is similar (but not identical) to an old discussion. I have no qualms about opening a new one giving a new update or slant on the older similar topic. I have done this without causing any problems or discussion deletions.

It is up to the one who made the duplicates to report them. I think muh of them has to do with the slowness of loading an that the person did not believe his discussion went through so he either copied the discussion and put that through. More then likely it would be the first dissuasion or else the one with the most responses since the original poster is going to ask administrant to take off the ones that have only one or two or zero responses.

The risk of duplicate topics getting deleted is always there. I would therefore not attempt to respond to any of them. There is plenty of uncomplicated fish in the ocean. Go for them bagarad!

I think that happens because Mylot's admin is human, too. He can't see all the duplicate discussions unless somebody is helping him. We are supposed to report duplicate discussions. And we shouldn't participate in such discussions so that the discussion starter won't be encouraged to repeat the mistake.

Well, there are so many discussions being started here all the time, you never know if anything is going to be a duplicate or not, and many times these might even be from people that are no longer here. Personally for me, it is always something I feel might be worth taking a chance. Especially if it is from a friend of mine here. Since you get paid for responding no matter when the start date, it is always worth it to try.

It's very hard not to get duplicates....for me I am only on here for a little while in the afternoon except for the mornings of my day off...like this morning. I don't have time to research and see if a discussion is a duplicate....and if the discussion is too old and I see low numbers next to the person that started it I won't answer it....because they probably aren't here anymore.

Normally I would not have time to look to see if there were duplicate discussions before responding to one. If a thought occurred to me I would just jump in. If I did look down to the bottom of the page and saw a listing of near identical ones, that might give me pause. Then I would choose either the first or the most interesting in case there was a qualitative difference. I have sometimes done a search before starting my own discussion and not found any matches, and then after posting it learned that others posted on the same subject prior to me. It happens.

If the discussions were that old I don't think I would be overly worried about myLot removing them as duplicates. I think eventually all discussions but current events will be duplicated to some extent or another.

How about this. Lets say you want to start a discussion that you found to be a duplicate and extremely old. And that the users are not active for 5 years. How about, contacting Admin and letting them know that the user and the discussion is so old, and you think that that one should be deleted. And if they agree, they will remove it. Now, you will be free to post the discussion that you want to.

Maybe, if you carefully word the topic, it might not be considered a duplicate. I would also pm the administrators and see what their thoughts are. I am curious to see why topic you are going to start.

I don't know. That's a toughy but I'd probably check out whether or not the user was still active and whichever seems to be the most active I'd respond to that one.

I am experiencing the same problem. As a newcomer to mylot (I've been here only one week)I have been trying to abide by the rules and guidelines. There are many times I thought of starting a new topic only to find that when I did a search it had already been discussed, sometimes more than once. As you said, a lot of the discussions had been started 3 or even 5 or 6 years ago. So, what to do? Respond to an old one? If so, which old one? In the week that I have been on here I have started very few discussions for that reason alone. I mostly have been responding to discussions instead and still have had 3 responses deleted because the discussion was a duplicate. I had the same thought as you in that discussions started over a certain amount of time ago should get deleted by admin. Also what are the guidelines for determining a duplicate discussion? Some questions/discussions are worded differently but essentially are asking the same thing as others. Is it ok to ask the same question or start a duplicate discussion as long as it is worded differently than a previous one? This is an issue that should be addressed.

I think what stine says, "answering a 5 year old discussion where the last answer was also years ago and the topic starter is not active anymore any might have only 1 point." is something to consider, especially the part where the starter is no longer active, because you won't get a reply back. But if I found one where the starter is active and I really want to add my two cents in, I will choose that one..

hi, bagarad... same experience with you, this last days I found many duplicated discussion with same repeated topic.based on experience I would not response one of them.my reasons : 1.discussion might be deleted soon -usually the recent discussion 2.if I response old discussion, there's no guarantee I will get response back since the user started may have leave it and no longer active 3. I'm already boring before give my response to duplicate discussion when I find duplicate actually I just leave it and not too pay attention to that discussion so I will not find detail about how long the discussion have been or does the user still longer active or not.for me duplicate is not interesting anymore