Paleo Diet and Paleolithic Diet Questions & Answers

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The thing I don't quite get about PH is we are discouraged from responding to old questions. And yet we can't ask the question a second time. So what if the old question yielded sucky answers, or maybe there is simply more to say about a specific question. What recourse does a person have? We can't revive the old question, but we can't ask it again, either.

flag	asked Jan 31 2012 at 20:06 Renee 11.1k●1●4●42

Kelly · Answer 1 · 2012-01-31 20:14:59Z UTC

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Where does it say that we are discouraged from reviving old threads? It happens all the time. There's even a badge for it.

answered Jan 31 2012 at 20:14

Kelly
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When I first started on here I answered some old posts and people gave me flack for it. Sounds like maybe I should just ignore said people. – Renee Jan 31 2012 at 20:27

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There's one in every crowd. I tend to add to old threads, unless the answers are hopelessly out of date, or like Eric said, you may need to reword/clarify the original question to get better answers. – Kelly Jan 31 2012 at 20:46

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I do find it irritating when someone answers an old question that was time-sensitive and specific, like "Paleo restaurants in _," for a trip that took place six months ago. But not so irritating that I would ever waste a post chastising someone for it! I just move on. – Christopher Gagnon Jan 31 2012 at 20:59

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just ignore them, or flag their comments so I can punish them – Bread-Eating Beelzebub Jan 31 2012 at 20:59

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I respectfully disagree Christopher, only because if you look at it from the future reader's perspective, it makes sense. If I were going to Albequerque (for example), that post would be the first place I'd look, rather than ask the question again, expecting people to repeat themselves and leaving two disjointed questions for the next person who goes to Albequerque. – Kelly Jan 31 2012 at 21:37

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Jack Kronk · Answer 2 · 2012-01-31 20:52:45Z UTC

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this exact question has been asked before. bwahahahahaha just kidding ;)

answered Jan 31 2012 at 20:52

Jack Kronk
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Nance · Answer 3 · 2012-01-31 21:13:03Z UTC

As Eric said, " Duplicate questions dilute the resource." I'd add they can fracture the resource if several conversations on the same topic are discussed separately.

The ideal process is to search using a few possible tags and find any existing questions that are very close or on exactly the same topic. If you decide to start another question, you can include a link to one or more existing ones and explain why you've chosen to branch off from them.

In my mind, this site is full of thoughtful, articulate conversations that deserve to be included in relevant questions.

It's easy enough to miss older questions if they happen to have different tags than you thought of, and if others bring them up in their responses that's a good thing as your thread is thereby enriched and the tags on all questions can be reviewed to make sure they share tags that are the same so they all come up in future searches.

I was surprised by your statement about discouraging older questions because many of the active questions on a typical day date back weeks or months.

Caleb the Hobbit · Answer 4 · 2012-01-31 20:59:30Z UTC

I think this is also why people are allowed to retag questions. I had searched for an answer on something, found nothing. Then I asked my question, and it was promptly closed. Had the original question shown up in my search, there would have been no duplicate.

That said, i think it is good to go back and look at old threads. People forget about things not on the first page of questions, but we sometimes need to revive a conversation because of inadequate answers, or in the best case, better information.

Bread-Eating Beelzebub · Answer 5 · 2012-01-31 21:03:54Z UTC

I think there were two questions that got closed recently that are a perfect illustration of why I close. Both were from ex-veg*ns new to paleo. Question 1 was full of multiple loaded questions (implying the meat caused bowel cancer, questioning that paleolithic people actually ate very much meat, etc.) that had been answered before. It was like a ticking moderation timebomb. So I closed it. I closed it because it was loaded with multiple ideological questions that have already been discussed here. Question 2, was one woman's very specific question about trying to hack her transition to paleo. I left that open, despite the fact we've had similar, but less specific questions in the past.

Eric · Answer 6 · 2012-01-31 20:19:18Z UTC

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Replying to an old question brings it back onto the active question list and often results in some conversation. I know that is not exactly what you are looking for. Duplicate questions dilute the resource. However if you have a question you may need to rephrase it to get answers closer to what you are looking for.

answered Jan 31 2012 at 20:19

Eric
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Well, also because of the voting thing, a new answer to an old question, no matter how useful, might not be seen by most people. When I see an interesting question at the top of the homepage, I first scan the date of the question, then then top-voted answers, and typically quit before getting anywhere near the bottom of the zero-vote answers. And I doubt I'm alone in that behavior. So in this way, I'd kind of like to see questions re-asked if sufficient time has passed to make it likely that new or better information could be provided. I also like when someone posts links to previously asked. – Christopher Gagnon Jan 31 2012 at 21:03

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@Christopher, you can more readily see the newest answers if you sort the thread using the "newest" tab instead of the default "votes" tab. – Ed♦ Jan 31 2012 at 23:47

{meta] why do exact duplicates of questions get closed?

6 Answers