kylenelson said
And I'll point out that most forums that I've been on ask just the opposite, that you don't start a new thread for a subject that already exists. It's kinda built into my brain that new threads are worse than replying to old threads. I'm sure there's good technical reasons for this particular rule on this forum.
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Actually, there is and I'm glad you asked.
Most people that find forums and other websites, get there through Google or some other search engine. The only way they could have found the site or forum is if the search engine sent "spiders" or "search bots" to look for content. Good content is "indexed" or cataloged by the search engine to show to people who use search terms or phrases when they are looking for something.
Some search spiders just wander around the Internet looking for stuff, but many times a website will send a message of sorts to the search engine to let them know the site has new content and would you like to come have a look-see. Here at The Floor Pro, I have a software program that sends those invitations out to 4 of the big dog search engines every night at 2AM. The invitation includes a link only to our newest content - new topics, new posts, new member profiles, new articles, new directory listings and new calendar events.
Search engines like this kind of organization. It helps them to be efficient. They will not send spiders willie-nillie to sites that offer this service (well, there are still roaming spiders, but search engines are learning and becoming more sophisticated). They rely on us to tell them what's new and make their time here quality time.
Unfortunately, new posts to a topic don't rate very high on the list of importance. After a topic reaches a certain age, a lot of the new posts to it, especially to topics that are many multiples of pages or just really old, are ignored.
The good thing is that those old topics will still get found on Google. Maybe if there's only one topic about Armstrong tile, for instance, someone searching Google for Armstrong tile might find us, but only on the 3rd or 10th page of Google, not the first page. But if we have several topics about Armstrong tile, we could very likely end up on the first page of Google. Yeah! That's where we
want to be.
So, the rule is, no posts to topics older than a month unless you are the original poster. Starting a new topic, even about a same or similar topic, is a GREAT way to support The Floor Pro Community. It's the same thing when you add a directory listing, a calendar event about training or when a new member joins and provides information in their profile. It tells all those search engines and all those people using them to search for stuff we can help them with that we are a very important website. And we are.
In this particular instance, tdog did a good thing. It helps others understand why we have this rule. I know most people don't understand the technical stuff - and some don't even care - but now a lot of people will understand just how important this rule is. I can't help if other forums and websites don't understand this concept. We LIKE new topics here a LOT. If it's been discussed before, great, then there's more information to find.
Thanks for letting me do my job.
Jim
