Detection of Duplicate Question at Posting

[DaveMD]

I'm new here and have been impressed by the functionality of this platform. I've noticed when reading a thread it does a good job of identifying similar threads at the bottom of the page. One thought was whether that similar functionality could be integrated where when a user attempts to post a new thread, it could prompt the user before they post that their new post may be a duplicate of such and such previous post(s).

This could help reduce potential duplicate-like threads. I understand there are pros and cons to this where it can help reduce redundant questions but where you don't want to discourage users from posting. This is something sites like stackoverflow make a point of and I can understand if you think that type of functionality wouldn't fit well on this forum.

 

[The_Doc_Man]

Given that our thread history goes back over 20 years, the odds are non-trivial that we might have a lot of "similar posts" to be considered. However, 20 years ago we were limited to Ac2003 and earlier. The next version of Access didn't come along until 2007. The answer to your putative question at THAT time MIGHT be radically different to the answer for a more recent version. Among other technical reasons, the internal layout of the Component Object Model changed radically in that time frame, going from Tables (the collection of all TableDef objects) to CurrentProject.AllTables for a list of tables. Then add similar changes for queries, forms, and reports to the table object model changes.

Another consideration is: Let's suppose that we intercept what is essentially a duplicate question and the interception routine says "Here, look at this for your answer first" and BLOCKS the new posts acceptance. The person seeing the (old) answer might not have the level of experience to know how to understand that answer and thus needs help anyway. But there isn't always a senior member around to help explain the answer right away. It also might be that the old answer was an near-intractable train wreck for a while before it settled down because the original poster (OP) had trouble enumerating the elements of the problem. I can't even BEGIN to tell you how many new members don't know how to ask a proper technical question. Let's ask the counter-question, DaveMD... how many patients have complaints for which you have to almost drag out the real symptoms out of their mouths with a forceps?

The final "gotcha" is that if the question is common enough, the AI scoring routine that selects "similar posts" might pick one with a wrong answer that didn't get deleted because other content of the thread made it worth retention anyway - just not for that specific problem. We don't delete threads if they contain errors. We only delete threads for rule violations such as excessive vulgarity or serious disrespect for members or being blatant advertising platforms for the OP who actually didn't care if the problem got solved as long as s/he got product exposure.