tag search might further eliminate dupes April 29, 2005 8:25 AM   Subscribe

Avoiding duplicate threads with different URLs: In order to avoid posts like this, a tag search might further eliminate dupes. Would it be worth having (for example) the last three FPPs using the same tag(s) listed when you preview a new thread? And would that be easy to implement?
posted by GhostintheMachine to Feature Requests at 8:25 AM (25 comments total)

*puts away gasoline can, lighter*
But... but... but.... a site search for "woodpecker" would have done it, right?
posted by dfowler at 8:38 AM on April 29, 2005


It would be also worth having the last day's (or so) of FPPs on some easily available page. Like the front page, maybe?
posted by Plutor at 8:39 AM on April 29, 2005


It can't be said enough, apparently: If your post is about a breaking story, make sure you've read all the front-page posts back to the point before the story broke. Pretty simple, takes five minutes tops, and you don't look like such an inattentive noob.
posted by soyjoy at 8:45 AM on April 29, 2005


yup. just switch to DATE view and scroll down, if that's not already your default view.
posted by amberglow at 8:54 AM on April 29, 2005


Why bother with any effort to prevent duplicates before posting? The Metafilter "hive mind" is very effective at finding them as soon as they're up. Much better than any automated system. This one was found in 6 minutes, and there might have been flags earlier than that.
posted by smackfu at 9:06 AM on April 29, 2005


Or just Ctrl-f & type 'woodp' or less and it will show itself.
posted by peacay at 9:09 AM on April 29, 2005


Wow, such AMAZING suggestions... suggestions I've NEVER heard before. I'm sure now, now that they've been offered here, it will be IMPOSSIBLE for there to ever be another double post. Great, now that we've got that fixed...

Or maybe, rather than simply offer the usual witticisms, it would be nice to actually admit that some users (mostly the new ones who don't read MeTa) are still going to double post. Even well-intentioned semi-regular readers who don't manage to compulsively read every FPP could use a hand sometimes, or that sometimes you can search the usual ways and not come up with an answer.

Having the system automatically search the tags you've used would be a simple, quick, pain-free way to reduce the problem. It's not a big problem, sure, but neither is it a big solution. The system already checks to ensure the exact URL hasn't been used before, so obviously there is some desire to flag these problems before they make the front page.

Cripes, people... tone down the snarkiness a tad.
posted by GhostintheMachine at 9:59 AM on April 29, 2005


"tone down the snarkiness a tad"

Ghost: You're not in Kansas anymore.
posted by mischief at 10:19 AM on April 29, 2005


Wow, such AMAZING suggestions... suggestions I've NEVER heard before. I'm sure now, now that they've been offered here, it will be IMPOSSIBLE for there to ever be another double post.

...

Cripes, people... tone down the snarkiness a tad.


Uh.... yeah.
posted by soyjoy at 10:24 AM on April 29, 2005


I was trying to get my snarkiness toned down but it keeps sneaking downstairs after I go to bed and raiding the pantry for crappy junk food. Now my snarkiness has a double chin, high blood pressure and a 54 inch waistband.

Actually, I think this isn't such a bad idea.

I'd also like to suggest having the MeFi internal search default to "Since Day One" searches since mine always searches for just within the last year.
posted by fenriq at 10:32 AM on April 29, 2005


You know what, I'm not going to tone down my snarkiness. If I have to put up with people not searching the front page, or searching the archives, or checking for tags, or even reading the site once in a while, then they can put up with some snarky comments in the blue and a thread in the grey.

I can live with the fact that people are going to double-post. I'm not going to start purposely double-posting to make a point, nor am I going to leave MeFi because of rampant duping. Nor do I really think that duping is a systemic fault of Metafilter, just an oversight by the occasional user. Even #1 has duped in the past. But I do think that it is my right -- nay, my responsibility -- to snark about dupes. If the duper doesn't like snarks, xe can take hir posting-with-abandon somewhere where that stuff is appreciated.

(Note that I do recognize that snarks don't accomplish anything. I flag as well. But snarking is more fun.)
posted by Plutor at 10:42 AM on April 29, 2005


It would be also worth having the last day's (or so) of FPPs on some easily available page. Like the front page, maybe?

it would be also worth clicking the link at the top of the page that says "Customize" and setting for yourself how many day's worth of posts you want to see on the front page.
posted by quonsar at 10:43 AM on April 29, 2005


I'd also like to suggest having the MeFi internal search default to "Since Day One" searches
Yes.
posted by Wolfdog at 10:45 AM on April 29, 2005


*takes out gasoline can, lighter*
posted by dfowler at 10:46 AM on April 29, 2005


I'd also like to suggest having the MeFi internal search default to "Since Day One" searches

it used to. it also used to search comments as well as posts. then the server began to grunt and moan as the number of comments grew to millions. there must be some valid reason the administrator doesn't run swish-e or similar on a cron job to handle indexing and searching the site. like, he doesn't feel like it. or he's hoping mickeysoft will make it part of windows. or something. shrug.
posted by quonsar at 10:52 AM on April 29, 2005


a "cron job" quonsar?

this is a family-oriented website.
posted by dfowler at 11:00 AM on April 29, 2005


Cripes, quonsar... tone down the snarkiness a tad.
posted by AlexReynolds at 11:01 AM on April 29, 2005


COULD YOU TONE DOWN THE USE OF THE WORD 'CRIPES' PEOPLE? I'M STARTIN A FIRE HERE.
posted by dfowler at 11:05 AM on April 29, 2005


Cripes, quonsar... tone down the snarkiness a tad. - AlexReynolds

HA! *roftl*
*wipes tears from eyes*

Have you honestly never heard how q talks about/to Matt?
posted by raedyn at 11:07 AM on April 29, 2005


(...oh, and NO inline images! we'll be havin NONE of THOSE!)
posted by dfowler at 11:07 AM on April 29, 2005


Have you honestly never heard how q talks about/to Matt?

I'm being snarky, dear. ;)
posted by AlexReynolds at 11:13 AM on April 29, 2005


For instance, THIS is prohibited:

posted by dfowler at 11:17 AM on April 29, 2005


All this bitching about snarkiness and people not reading the front page is distracting us from the real question, which is whether the fish in quonsar's pants is in any danger now that the ivory billed woodpecker is on the loose.
posted by me3dia at 11:35 AM on April 29, 2005


goatse.jpg
You know you want it.
posted by me3dia at 12:25 PM on April 29, 2005


q, I bet it would be possible to put in a string that would skip over the stupid comments and that would cut down on the amount of data to crunch through by about 95%.

As an aside, I love it when a server moans for me. Come on, baby, get that file for me, yeah, work that port! Oooh yeah!
posted by fenriq at 2:15 PM on April 29, 2005


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