Duplicate thread tagging

Carlos · Posted: Wed Jan 01, 2003 9:49 am Post subject: Duplicate thread tagging

I realize that right now the thing we're supposed to do when we spot a duplicate thread is to post the relevant link, but I just thought of something that might make it even easier for moderators to find duplicate threads that non-moderators had found: there could be a secret phrase, like "This is a duplicate post.", that you'd encourage us to write in the post in addition to the relevant links. Then, every once in a while, a moderator could search for that phrase, checking on threads that contained it but that were not already in the duplicates forum.

Maybe it wouldn't be worth the trouble - I'm not sure how many duplicate threads live on, undetected by the moderators - but perhaps it would make their job easier.
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abhishek · Posted: Wed Jan 01, 2003 2:14 pm Post subject:

Or you could just PM a mod with the thread, eliminating the searching for them.

Carlos · Posted: Wed Jan 01, 2003 2:20 pm Post subject:

pilla · Posted: Wed Jan 01, 2003 3:49 pm Post subject:

I like the idea of tagging. It is better than PM'ing because then any moderator browsing the forums may find it easily.
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pjp · Administrator Joined: 16 Apr 2002 Posts: 20488

When I first read this, I thought it sounded like a good idea. Though I tend to think a PM will be more effective. There is enough difficulty getting everyone to read FAQs, existing documentation and searching, that I think it could be difficult to get enough people to know and use The Phrase.

This does give me an idea though. A sticky thread in Feedback where users can leave a link to potential duplicates. The thread will be available to all mods. After a moderator has looked at a particular post of dups, they can edit the post indicating they've looked at it.
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Carlos · Posted: Mon Jan 06, 2003 2:05 am Post subject:

For the time being, I'm going to say 'dupdupdup' whenever I find one; just marked number one. :wink:

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Carlos · Posted: Mon Jan 06, 2003 2:19 am Post subject:

pjp · Administrator Joined: 16 Apr 2002 Posts: 20488

OK, we'll try it out in Report possible duplicate posts here.
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rac · Posted: Mon Jan 06, 2003 4:35 am Post subject:

Does that mean I should go report this thread in there as being a duplicate of that thread?

...sorry.
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