I see some pretty good suggestions that get closed because some dude in 2015 posted a now-dead-for-5-years suggestion asking for the same thing. Often, the original post is old and is a mess to reply to, and will often become inactive again after 3-5 new posts.

So, I suggest that, under certain conditions, a post cannot be forcefully closed by an ST member.

Here is the criteria for a dupe to not be a dupe:

-The original post (non-dupe post) must have not had activity for 3 months (if you think this is too low or high suggest a new number in the thread)
-The original post must not be on the 5th page or lower (also changeable if you think it’s too high or low)
-There must be only one other open post about it, if 2 posts exist and they’re both open, no matter what, the new suggestion becomes a dupe
-The dupe post must be reasonably detailed compared to the original post (example is too long so it is listed below)


Example for 4th criteria:


A dupe suggestion goes up saying “The (block) block should be added!” but the original post goes “The (block) block should be added, it does this, this is the reasons why, here are the pros and cons, here are some uses”. The dupe suggestion would be closed. Now if the dupe lists some of what it does in the replies of the thread, then there is an exception. Also, it doesn’t have to be THAT detailed but it has to be reasonably detailed.





Pros:
-Allows suggestions to stay up and get more attention
-Allows the ST to focus on more important things
-Makes the report queue a little bit less cluttered up because there is less dupe reports

Cons:

-New scratchers might not learn dupes exist without self experience
-Only minor cluttering of forums


If you think there is anything that should be improved in this suggestion please comment it. If you think this is a stupid idea in general then tell me why

Duplicates exist so the ST doesn’t have to go through so many threads to decide on adding something.
They can merge posts is something is so constructive.

A seven-year-old post with two sentences does basically the same thing as a post with several paragraphs, the only difference is that the author doesn't waste their or the readers' time.

GIitchInTheMatrix wrote:

Duplicates exist so the ST doesn’t have to go through so many threads to decide on adding something.
They can merge posts is something is so constructive.

Like I said, usually old posts are a mess, most of the people who talked there are inactive, and would not get any attention from the scratch team in the first place. If a new post was made it would be able to squeeze a lot more discussion out of it, which is also something I said in the post, often when dupes are spotted the original post just dies again after 4-5 new posts.

serialnumber404 wrote:

GIitchInTheMatrix wrote:

Duplicates exist so the ST doesn’t have to go through so many threads to decide on adding something.
They can merge posts is something is so constructive.

Like I said, usually old posts are a mess, most of the people who talked there are inactive, and would not get any attention from the scratch team in the first place. If a new post was made it would be able to squeeze a lot more discussion out of it, which is also something I said in the post, often when dupes are spotted the original post just dies again after 4-5 new posts.

-Old posts aren’t anymore than new ones, but easier to read.
-Why would a new post get any more ST Attention?

SavetheAtlantic wrote:

A seven-year-old post with two sentences does basically the same thing as a post with several paragraphs, the only difference is that the author doesn't waste their or the readers' time.

But it is much more detailed and gives better reasons. A detailed post explains the suggestion a lot better and it makes more sense to keep it there if it does.

No support, if a suggestion is similar to one suggested years ago, it should always be considered a duplicate no matter what.

GIitchInTheMatrix wrote:

serialnumber404 wrote:

GIitchInTheMatrix wrote:

Duplicates exist so the ST doesn’t have to go through so many threads to decide on adding something.
They can merge posts is something is so constructive.

Like I said, usually old posts are a mess, most of the people who talked there are inactive, and would not get any attention from the scratch team in the first place. If a new post was made it would be able to squeeze a lot more discussion out of it, which is also something I said in the post, often when dupes are spotted the original post just dies again after 4-5 new posts.

-Old posts aren’t anymore than new ones, but easier to read.
-Why would a new post get any more ST Attention?

1. True but old ones are still typically worse to post on
2. It would get more attention than a post that was made in 2015 and hasn’t had activity since 2016.

If the new post is way more clearer, and concise and makes way more sense then the old one, you could always just ask for a merge isntead

serialnumber404 wrote:

GIitchInTheMatrix wrote:

serialnumber404 wrote:

GIitchInTheMatrix wrote:

Duplicates exist so the ST doesn’t have to go through so many threads to decide on adding something.
They can merge posts is something is so constructive.

Like I said, usually old posts are a mess, most of the people who talked there are inactive, and would not get any attention from the scratch team in the first place. If a new post was made it would be able to squeeze a lot more discussion out of it, which is also something I said in the post, often when dupes are spotted the original post just dies again after 4-5 new posts.

-Old posts aren’t anymore than new ones, but easier to read.
-Why would a new post get any more ST Attention?

1. True but old ones are still typically worse to post on
2. It would get more attention than a post that was made in 2015 and hasn’t had activity since 2016.

1. Why? Duplicates don;t exist in suggestions
2. Dark Mode, despite being suggested in 2016, is being added, adn while active, most of it was off-topic.

serialnumber404 wrote:

-The original post must not be on the 5th page or lower (also changeable if you think it’s too high or low)

It should be
5th page or higher
not
5th page or lower

And support, there was once a dupe that was way better than the much older original, but with this suggestion, things like that probably won't happen again.

eikh2 wrote:

No support, if a suggestion is similar to one suggested years ago, it should always be considered a duplicate no matter what.

Ok. A dupe is made, and is closed eventually, correct? Let’s say the suggestion is very good. Having a new post would make it get more attention by ST and possibly have it implemented. However, let’s say the dupe is closed. The original post gets barely any more posts before people stop commenting on it. The suggestion, that is very good, will probably not be seen by anybody for a long time.

qwerty_wasd_gone wrote:

serialnumber404 wrote:

-The original post must not be on the 5th page or lower (also changeable if you think it’s too high or low)

It should be
5th page or higher
not
5th page or lower

No, it’s supposed to be if the OP is on pages 5, 4, 3, 2, or 1, the dupe counts as a dupe.

GIitchInTheMatrix wrote:

GIitchInTheMatrix wrote:

-snip-

1. Why? Duplicates don;t exist in suggestions
2. Dark Mode, despite being suggested in 2016, is being added, adn while active, most of it was off-topic.

1. Yes they do
2, Dark mode like you said is active and gets many dupe suggestions so the ST knows people want it. an old post with 5 posts supporting it will not be seen by ST if it already hadn’t when it was made.

serialnumber404 wrote:

Having a new post would make it get more attention by ST and possibly have it implemented. However, let’s say the dupe is closed. The original post gets barely any more posts before people stop commenting on it.

When has this shown to have happened?

eikh2 wrote:

serialnumber404 wrote:

Having a new post would make it get more attention by ST and possibly have it implemented. However, let’s say the dupe is closed. The original post gets barely any more posts before people stop commenting on it.

When has this shown to have happened?

While the last posts weren’t too long ago, this is a good example. A dupe popped up asking for cached variables, someone found this topic, there is only 1 post made since it was found out, which was today.

serialnumber404 wrote:

someone found this topic, there is only 1 post made since it was found out, which was today.

…3 hours ago.
Another example please.

serialnumber404 wrote:

qwerty_wasd_gone wrote:

serialnumber404 wrote:

-The original post must not be on the 5th page or lower (also changeable if you think it’s too high or low)

It should be
5th page or higher
not
5th page or lower

No, it’s supposed to be if the OP is on pages 5, 4, 3, 2, or 1, the dupe counts as a dupe.
.

I know, that's why you should change it. Did you exit the page?

serialnumber404 wrote:

eikh2 wrote:

serialnumber404 wrote:

Having a new post would make it get more attention by ST and possibly have it implemented. However, let’s say the dupe is closed. The original post gets barely any more posts before people stop commenting on it.

When has this shown to have happened?

While the last posts weren’t too long ago, this is a good example. A dupe popped up asking for cached variables, someone found this topic, there is only 1 post made since it was found out, which was today.

which is because nearly everything has already been discusses, similar to dark mode, alot of suggestions are just sitting there, waiting to either be added or to be forgotten. Starting a new dupe to get ST attention would work, but it would 1. Require everything to be discussed again, and 2. Be pointless, as the old posts has already been know to the ST, they simply hasn't been implemented due to whatever reason.

eikh2 wrote:

serialnumber404 wrote:

someone found this topic, there is only 1 post made since it was found out, which was today.

…3 hours ago.
Another example please.

I was saying, you can see that ONE post was made since it was found and posted in the dupe suggestion. There was no activity for almost a month before. This is a less extreme case but I’m sure there are more out there

blablablahello wrote:

serialnumber404 wrote:

-snip

which is because nearly everything has already been discusses, similar to dark mode, alot of suggestions are just sitting there, waiting to either be added or to be forgotten. Starting a new dupe to get ST attention would work, but it would 1. Require everything to be discussed again, and 2. Be pointless, as the old posts has already been know to the ST, they simply hasn't been implemented due to whatever reason.

1. Often original posts aren’t very discussed and sometimes don’t even have enough posts to get to the second page. Suggestions that discussed are very rare, it was an example.
2. The ST doesn’t see everything. In the suggestions forum There are 2 commonly active ST members, Paddle2See and cheddargirl. Some others might pop up every now and then but usually it’s only 1 or 2 monitoring. They can’t remember everything and even if they were gonna want to discuss it, they could have forgot or just simply didn’t even notice the post.