Repeat Topic Warning

OK, I don't know if this would be possible, but here it goes...

When someone starts a new topic, by hitting the "submit new topic" button maybe that could trigger a search of just the topic names, in that forum (instead of all the replys, and all forums) and come up with possible topics already covering the newly submitted one. It could say something like "We have found a few topic titles that may be discussing your topic already. Please take a moment to look at these and ensure that yours is not a repeat."

If this could be done, repeat topics would be virtually eliminated.

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"X" marks the spot in 2001!

What if your post had words like 'a', 'the', or 'coasters'? Wouldn't it bring up EVERY post that had one of those words in the topic?

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-Glitchey
Now bringing you Cornball Express exclusive information & pictures - http://coasterarchive.cjb.net *** This post was edited by Glitch01 on 3/12/2001. ***

How aboot for some of the newer members, you could add a list of topics that are repeated, therefore there will be less repeats.

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"The KKK took my baby away, took her away, away from me!"
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I like APForce's idea, but I don't think repeats are really a problem. All they do is cut down on the number of "original" topics on the first screen, and if I see a repeat I often just skip it.

Also, the repeat threads don't always have the same topic titles or even similar topic titles. So I think a search could happen but it'd be very hard and would take lots of refining.

I don't think that you would have a problem returning too many topics. If a certain word ('coasters', for example) caused the search to return too many topics, then it could be disregarded. I also don't think that repeat topics are too bad, but I still like Soggy's idea.