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ooooh, someone used an old message from last October.... and i'm on it with one of the replies....

Infamy, Infamy..... they've all got it in for me....

*Off to take my pills....* *twitch*

Tracey :)

and again

and yet again....

and again

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Chris

no-one is suggesting that the old threads be ignored .... but that a pm to the thread "owner" of an old thread would be more useful than posting on the actual thread.

I dare to suggest that you might be in the minority in still checking an old thread.

It seems in fact that most of the old threads may well belong to people who no longer come on to GR.


sylvia

I have a thread on here from February 2003 that I regularly check in the hope that someone someday will respond to it!
I can understand that people should not get tied into an old thread but perhaps just a quick message in the first instance just to see if it's still being checked would save a lot of time & effort!
Chris

I think I've found the record-holders.

http://www.genesreunited.co.uk/boards.asp?wci=thread&tk=637708

Posted 4 Dec 2002.

First replied to Feb 2008.

Several totally unconnected replies since ...

still not the record though is it???

Arghhhhhhhhh

I do wish people wouold looks at dates..... Come on !!

http://www.genesreunited.co.uk/boards.asp?wci=thread&tk=613050

Don't worry -- it's not the old messages themselves that are the problem.

It's just that people *reply* to old messages as if someone had just written them yesterday. ;)

The problem isn't the old messages or even the replies, really, it's that

- people who reply to old messages by putting a post in the thread are probably never going to hear back, because the person who started the thread won't ever know there's an answer;

- the rest of us occasionally get stupid and start researching a question, when the thread appears in the current list, before *we* notice that the original post in the thread is years old!

Deleting old messages isn't "wrong", it's just my own thoughts that leaving messages on the board, where they don't do any harm (and don't take up any room on anybody's computer, although there's always somebody who thinks they do!), is a good idea in case a distant cousin comes along some day and finds the post.

A message board like this can be a good archive for that purpose. Not remotely as well organized and functional as the genforum boards, for example, but you never know what you might find!

Rita -- why do you delete info like that???

I just never understand this ...

I often do a search of these boards to see whether anyone has been asking about someone of interest to me -- not everybody posts to a surname "board", so I search the whole set of boards.

Also, I sometimes do a search when I'm trying to help someone else, to see whether anyone else has asked about the same family in the past.

It drives me absolutely crazy when I see a question and I *know* there has a been a previous thread about related people, but whoever had posted it -- either the same person or someone else -- has deleted it.

I have no idea what this old message appearing in something's place might be -- but I'd suggest just avoiding the problem by not deleting information!

n

and again!!

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I've added this tip to my private collection -- which is open to the public and the public is STRONGLY URGED to visit!!!


For more tips for getting the most out of your posts at GR, follow these directions:

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Go to TRYING TO FIND.

(If you see "remove this filter", click on that.)

In the box for FILTER THIS BOARD BY SURNAME, type POSTING TIPS, and then click SUBMIT.

Peruse the collected wisdom that has flowed from the keyboards of many volunteers at GR who spend time on the boards helping people research family history.

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