What should be done about duplicate threads on same or similar discussions?

2015-07-17T13:34:14-04:00

I have noticed lately that there have been a number of instances where several folks have started threads on the same or similar topics (I include myself in this list).

The RP engine offers similar topics, but often misses the ones that are identical.

So, when you make a post on a hot topic (e.g. when Col Williams and I both started threads on the Baltimore Police Commissioner being sacked), how do you check if someone else started one like it?

And for the RP staff, how strong is the RP AI engine? Is it able to find multiple thread that are similar? It seems it currently takes hand jamming to combine the threads, meanwhile we post to multiples, and sometimes miss sage comments...

Response by SSgt Private RallyPoint Member made Jul 17 at 2015 1:38 PM

2015-07-17T13:38:34-04:00

This was pretty bad yesterday with the shooting. The Admins were pretty busy yesterday.

Response by SGT Ben Keen made Jul 17 at 2015 1:39 PM

2015-07-17T13:39:16-04:00

One of the things I do as a 4 star admin is look for these duplicate threads. The "engine" you speak of is exactly this, people trusted by RallyPoint to help police the site and take the appropriate action when needed. Personally, I'm very careful before closing any posts because I don't want to be seen as the "thought police" but at the same time I'm trying to clean up the clutter that can sometimes choke RallyPoint.

Response by COL Charles Williams made Jul 17 at 2015 1:50 PM

2015-07-17T13:50:47-04:00

LCDR Rabbi Jaron Matlow I believe what you need do, is ensure you check the pop-up page where it shows similar posts, and if something looks close, then click on it and check it. If they are the same, then cease work. This seems to be happening more and more, and my sense posters are not reading the pop screen and/or checking the other posts.

Response by LCDR Private RallyPoint Member made Jul 17 at 2015 2:15 PM

2015-07-17T14:15:02-04:00

The admins should be able to pick up the few that get by the engine

Response by MAJ Robert (Bob) Petrarca made Jul 17 at 2015 2:32 PM

2015-07-17T14:32:40-04:00

As a 1-star admin as SGT Ben Keen points out, I have the ability to close duplicate threads and have done so when I find them on multiple occasions. We are given some broad guidance and do our best to not be conversation killers or as Ben Keen points out "thought police". If a potential duplicate thread has quite a number of responses and "taken on a life of it's own" guidance says to leave it be. One issue I have is that the initial search when posting a thread, to see if its a duplicate or not, is not very robust. It returns the top matches and if only a few key words match it would appear your question is unique so you post it.

Since the community has gotten so much bigger, it is inevitable that you will see duplicate posts. What I try to do is before trying to add a question, do a search by entering a topic at the top of the question page and really look at 20-25 results to see if the intended question exists. This allows you to bring up more responses than in the add a question wizard. Use the key words of the topic and skip question words like "would", "should" "is there" "does anybody" to really see if your proposed question exists before adding it. There are probably 20 ways to phrase the same topic/question. It takes a bit more time and you could still post a duplicate but this gives you a bit more insight. Personally, though I've done it myself before, I avoid "trend posting" - finding every trending topic out there on every news feed and posting it here, 9 out of 10 times I'm beaten to it anyways :-) anyways that's my 2 cents for the afternoon!

Response by SPC Margaret Higgins made Jul 17 at 2015 4:04 PM

2015-07-17T16:04:56-04:00

I am probably guilty of this as well.