30
votes
Alert users if link already posted in last 7 days
I think it would be sensible to have an option to tell a user if a link was already submitted to a particular group recently. I don't think they should be stopped from posting it, but these reminders would be helpful to avoid needless duplication.
Example of what happens without this. u/cfabbro said this was planned for the future but I can't find it in the docs.
Thoughts?
Some kind of repost detection is definitely a good idea imo.
However, something to consider is that any time limit on reposts will affect how the site feels. Currently, posts can continue to be active for several days, though I think the default 3-day sort may have lessened that a bit. If repost detection only works for the last 7 days, it's possible that new posts will spring up for the same content fairly quickly; I wonder what the site would be like if the convention was to resurrect an old post rather than post a new one.
Like you go to post a link and it says "That link was already posted 6 days ago (last activity 4 days ago) would you like to resurrect this topic yes/no?
If that was implemented I would think it should be limited to one reserecrion per user per topic and I suppose it could also be tied into the trust system where only trusted users can reserect a topic.
Partly just commenting on and old post would resurrect it slightly, no?
I suppose I need a clarification, is the activity feed activity on post made in the last 3 days or is it activity in the last 3 days on a post made whenever?
If it's the latter then yes you're correct, if it's the former then no it would need some kind of button to stick it back in the activity feed.
But I don't know which one it is
It's the former – if the post is more than 3 days old, it won't be shown by default. (You can see this on ~tildes.official; there are only 4 posts shown with the "activity from last 3 days" sort. Even though this post currently has a comment posted less than 3 days ago, it isn't shown in the feed.)
Cool, so some kind of reserecrion button could be worth while; most likely trusted users could push a thread back into the activity list (and it would be logged that sosndso pushed the topic on mm/dd) if it becomes relevant again.
Welp I guess I should have expected to see you here :)
Heh, I wondered if you were who I thought you were! I guess so :)
I think it should warn you if the link has ever been posted. Coupled with if posts aren't automatically "locked" after 6 months and the incentive to get votes isn't shallow then there shouldn't ever be a reason to "resurrect" a topic.
Reposts are fine, in general. People miss the content the first time, and the repost speaks discussion that many people find interesting. I’m a mod on a subreddit, and I am constantly amazed at what some people still don’t know yet. But they don’t, and they value that discussion.
Maybe there could be a different threshold, like an article being posted within the last 24 hours, or eight times this month. But we don’t want people to have to be on the site constantly, or even every day, to keep up with it.
the system should encourage finding the first time. posts should remain open for votes and discussion indefinitely and new comments should bring old posts back up the ladder
My only concern with repost "detection" is that this was present on other sites for a really long time and it just turned into blog spammers editing the link slightly by adding parameters at the end so that the URL wouldn't be an exact match, setting up blog posts just to link to the reposted content, and setting up shortlinks to the exact content so that it can be reposted without issue.
I think the better solution is some basic detection along with judicious modding. If a link is slightly different than something already posted, it should be flagged automatically for mods to determine if it's a repost. That's not perfect but it's better than inviting in a bunch of subversions that'll clutter up main pages just so people can repost content.
Most of those parameters can be automatically stripped (and really, they should), blog posts like that should be re-routed to the main article, and shortlinks banned altogether.
I'm for those fixes anyways, regardless of if reposts are flagged or not :) They make for a non-transparent link, which isn't ever really done in good faith.
Locks keep an honest person honest. If someone is determined to repost they are going to do it. But a gentle reminder can still be useful for people who just didn't see the first post and would be happy to be redirected to where the discussion is already happening.