Redundancy on the Forums?

[Kynvuu]

Well, I've strayed away from this topic for a while now, because I could see how it could come off as controversial and I'd really hate to facilitate a feud here, so let me start off by saying that this discussion topic is in no way intended to offend anyone or come off as a complaint. This is just an observation of mine that I noticed and I was curious to see if you have noticed the same thing and have any opinions on it.

This is something I notice a lot in the Game/Forum Help boards, but the observation I've been making is that there seems to be a lot of redundancy in posts. This isn't happening all the time and everywhere, but I've noticed it more times then for it to be a coincidence. What I mean by redundancy is that, say someone puts out a help thread asking a question. And a generous handful of our community comes to aid this person in need of assistance. Which I totally love! It's so great to see that there are so many people willing to help out an individual here.
 
The case of redundancy comes about in the replies: What I've been noticing is that suggestions and ideas are often repeated. An example being that Person A replies to the help thread with the suggestion of, I don't know "Restart your game" plus a few other things. And then Person B will sometimes come along and say "Restart you game like mentioned above" or "Restart your game, like so..."

Before I become hypocrital, Yes, I am guilty of being that Person B too, it's all fine and most of the time it ends up helping to reinforce or better explain what the person before had said.

But do you guys ever think, that maybe a post like that is unnecessary? It almost seems odd to me that we have to restate the answer given above maybe just to get a post in or get acknowledged. Maybe that's not always the case and maybe we want to restate the idea just to be an extra helping hand. I'm not saying that it has to be driven by a jealousy factor of the person helping above. And this is such a general thing too. It pertains to plenty of other websites as well, Yahoo Answers for example.

So I guess the main questions here are: do you notice this happening on our forums? What do you think about it? Is it necessary and for a good reason, or is it unecessary and for publicity/post for your count? Is there something that you would suggest to users who would like to help others but not seem redundant?

[ArcticGalaxy]

I couldn't agree more. I mean, I'm not going to say I'm not guilty of the same thing, but anymore these days, if someone has already suggested a helpful comment, I will not post at all so I can avoid that.

[Morgra]

I'm guilty of this every once in a while, but most of the time, I like to add on new information, rather than just repeat the same exact thing the other person suggested, because I see the redundancy issue a lot. I believe this was discussed in An Honest Rant as well.

It's hard to tell from person to person if they're doing it for the attention or actually trying to help the person. I'm just not sure anymore :/ Exact replicas of someone else's suggestion are unnecessary but if someone has something to add I think it's fair that they post as long as it's providing something useful.

[LordSuragaha]

I've seen that happening on the forum since forever. Honestly I think there's a few reasons why some do that depending the exact scenario.

If the person simply just posts something to the extent of  "Yeah as the person above me already stated." Without adding on to their reply with other suggestions it does seem like they're just seeking a post count boost. But it could seem to the person asking the question as validation that the suggestion that one person posted is highly agreed with by others and thus must be a reliable suggestion.  Personally I don't think it's necessary for people to do that as it just looks obnoxious but it may be taken differently by the one receiving these answers.

In the case that a person says "Yeah as the person above me already stated. (plus their own suggestions)" I see it as their way of just trying to acknowledge the previous posters suggestion without seeming like they're trying to overide what the previous poster suggested with their own suggestions. Maybe they don't want to seem rude by posting their suggestions to a solution as though the previous suggestion was void.

Another reason could be that they want you to know that they consider that solution that was previously posted before them as a valid solution too although they themself weren't the one to write it. (Maybe so that if that solution is the one that worked the person doesn't look at them like they posted the wrong solutions). Kind of a personal outlock thing I guess.


I actually wrote a thread similar to this some years ago:

http://www.feral-heart.com/smf/index.php?topic=47194.0

So I understand what you mean.

[Kuri]

Yes many websites have redundant posts, this one is not the worse by a long shot but it happens.  T.B.H. most of mine are redundant.  Including this very post i'm making now..

[Kynvuu]

If the person simply just posts something to the extent of  "Yeah as the person above me already stated." Without adding on to their reply with other suggestions it does seem like they're just seeking a post count boost.

In the case that a person says "Yeah as the person above me already stated. (plus their own suggestions)" I see it as their way of just trying to acknowledge the previous posters suggestion without seeming like they're trying to overide what the previous poster suggested with their own suggestions.

Right, I totally agree. It seems more pointless than anything. It's almost as if, you were conversing and having a discussion and the same point kept coming up. Instead of just restarting a point, make it your own and further elaborate so you can add something valuable to the discussion. I'm glad I'm not the only one who has noticed this xD

Thanks for your feedback guys!

[Wyldercat]

I absolutely agree. I believe I addressed this or something similar in one of my old topics as well, so I believe my perspective is known and I'll keep this short.
I have been guilty of this in the past. Sometimes I just HAVE to add on to a previous point, but I can see how it may come off as hypocritical. And not only does this issue envelope rephrasing exactly what's already been said, but 90% of the time it's the same original suggestion from topic to topic. "Uninstall and reinstall" is becoming the #1 solution to every issue, regardless if easier and less disruptive suggestions have already been tried or even offered.