Topic: FAQ: Should I start a new topic (thread) or reply to an old one?

[gregswallow]

This always seems to come up... 

Example:
Say you followed someones how-to on how to install program "Foo", and now you have a problem using program "Foo"...  Should you...:
A - Post a new topic asking your question?
B - Reply to the end of the topic where the how-to was posted?

If you answered B, you are right   By replying to the end of the thread, all the people that are watching that topic will get an email notifying them of a reply.  Your chances of getting an answer to your question are much better that way.

Thanks,

[FreakWent]

UNLESS:

It's this post by me:
http://forums.contribs.org/index.php/topic,20442.0.html

In which case, four and a half years later someone will ask again
http://forums.contribs.org/index.php/topic,41458.0.html

And get no response at all.

[cactus]

UNLESS:

It's this post by me:
http://forums.contribs.org/index.php/topic,20442.0.html

In which case, four and a half years later someone will ask again
http://forums.contribs.org/index.php/topic,41458.0.html

And get no response at all.

What is the point of your message? Ventilating frustration? Keep in mind that the development team is small and has limited resources and do most of the work in their spare time.

As in that time no one has ever opened a bug for it AFAIK, requesting this feature, which is the proper way as the dev team does not have the time to track all wishes and problems from the forums.

[FreakWent]

I was a little obtuse. 

My point is that a lot of the forum posts are now archived (legacy) and can't be replied to.  Of course the reasoning behind this is that so much has changed over the years that the information in such old posts is probably no longer relevant, and I was surprised that I was able to find my old post but could not reply to it.

Then I saw the newer post about the same problem, then I saw this thread and I thought it was worth pointing out the exception to the rule.

I was pretty unclear about it though, sorry.