Do you always run a word search before starting a discussion?

I don't bother, I run my discussion. If and when I find there is a similar discussion I check it out, every discussion is different so what you are both talking about love, there is some many ways a discussion can go.

They might not show up in your search because you use words that are too specific, but then your tags are used to find similar discussions at the bottom of the page.

i've never done that. i have only started a few discussions since joing mylot a few days ago. i've never run a word search before. probably, because i believe that with more than 77,000 users in mylot, somehow, one way or the other, somebody shares my concerns too. and it doesn't matter to me if the same question has been asked before. i usually start a discussion that has an element of importance and immediacy for me. i only ask what would be of genuine importance to me... not what would be popular discussions. for your question, even when you run a search and nothing shows up, then later similar discussions will just pop out at the bottom of the discussion you just started... my theory is: topics of discussions, although with tag lines for easy search, they are also sorted into interest groups. i remember we have answered questions like... (a) the things i've done with my life... (b) the things i would want to do... etc. similar topics like marriage can both be in the 2 groups i mentioned for different users... yet, will not appear in the search because if you list marriage in the category of (a), the category (b) might not have been included in the search because it's a different level of concern for different people.