Sometimes people just, in that moment, need to write something and if it creates a duplicate of something else, it really doesn't matter. Freedom and welcome is what Gransnet is all about and long may it continue.
You might. But, as I said, it can be nigh on impossible to find anything. Or you might just want to say it all again. Or you might want to be deliberately provocative. Or you might have absolutely no idea (because if you're new why would you think of searching for a previous thread anyway?) that it had been said before.
And so on.
I have sometimes searched for a thread that I know exists but have given up because I can't find it and started another. If you can't remember the thread title or which forum it was on, you're stuffed.
I wonder how many threads there have been already?
So anything that has been said/contributed the last time round can just be written off as irrelevant? If people want to comment on an issue that has been discussed before wouldn;t you want to know what has been said?
YANBU, but the search function on here is CRAP, so I think people can be forgiven for not finding old threads, at least. That doesn't really cover the Thatcher ones, which are all new, but there's no way of knowing how people 'enter' the site. You'd have to come in via Active to see what was already there and possibly many people don't do that.
I'm a great checker Grace. In fact I check so much I don't ever seem to initiate a thread - (possibly too scared) BTW hope Grace is feeling better after her visit to theyou-know-what?
Do we need more than one thread on a topic? Looking at Active Threads we have three in a row on Margaret Thatcher and I incurred bluebell's wrath this morning when I pointed out that we had at least one (if not two) threads already on organ transplants. I have been guilty myself of rushing to start a thread on Richard III without checking whether there was one already (there was) - so is it unreasonable to suggest we check first before initiating a new thread? When you have multiple threads you get posts on one OR the other(s), you can lose track of what has been said where and there is the risk of replication.