Why limit traffic?

It seems a lot of websites are absolute Nazis about avoiding repeated conversations. Cries of "Use the berkeleying search function, newbie" seem to be more common than any other subject.

Thankfully, GRM doesn't do that.

But I am curious, Why? Why would they want to limit discussion and participation, even if it is repeated information? Isn't generating traffic part of the point? Are they not understanding how it works?

Or perhaps it is me...

Is there any good reason for a website to want to shut down reasonable conversation and force people to use the search function to find old (usually outdated) threads?

I don't get it either... And I really get annoyed when it happens because often times "The Thread" is years old. There may be new information since then--especially if asking for recommendations on a new product.

I don't get it, either. Maybe someone new has a question. Maybe someone new has a better answer. Talk, share ideas, have fun.

Strangely, it's usually the same forums that require a certain number of posts before you use the classified sections or see attachments. I never understood that either.

The worst I ever see here is, "This thread is 5 years old..." And then we pick up the thread like is brand new. Never seems to devolve into the nastiness that other forums tollerate.

Seems a lot of the bitching I see is from the members and not the mods. Garage journal is pretty bad, but Maxima.org was horrible. Then someone would post a picture of his newly washed car and they would have a circle jerk.

I rarely have any luck using a search feature.

It's mostly a problem at larger sites. When I was on staff at www.gtplanet.net we tried to have a reasonable policy towards it, but when you have literally hundreds of thousands of users and millions of topics, it gets annoying and wasteful when there are 10 nearly-identical threads on the same topic. I've seen hundreds of cases where the exact same question was posted while there were already several active threads within 2 or 3 screen inches on the first page of the forum.

It fragments the discussion and leads to the intelligent and conscientious posters getting burned out by repeating the same information over and over. But more characteristically, it demonstrates laziness and stupidity on the part of the repeat poster. In a forum on a popular topic, with millions of posts, do you really think no one has ever asked "what's the fastest way to earn money in Gran Turismo 6?" before? Why should we spoon feed someone who clearly isn't willing to take the 30 seconds required to search for their topic before barging in and posting their ever-so-important question?

Imagine if 2-3 "Learn me Miatas" threads appeared on the main board here every damn day. Wouldn't that get annoying after a while?

I hate "search n00b!" as a response. Especially when the answer you seek isn't well covered by any search you can do.

I will say that some sites have very helpful FAQ stickies in certain sections. It must be frustrating for people on those forums to have threads constantly started to ask some question well covered by that information.

I think part of what makes it better here is that the search function is a bit sketchy.

My new favorite are locked archives you need to be a member to see, but all registration requests get sent straight to a spam folder or dead account.

I get wanting to try to walk the line between good traffic, and people who don't read pay the first sentence on a page. It's frustrating to see the same topic fill up half a page. But it's much more frustrating(to me) to be pointed at a thread from the 90s. Even with cars they haven't made since the 80s, new ideas and technology are still arriving every year. And locking "uber"threads full of outdated info doesn't help anyone.

I can see both sides of this approach. I'm on a few other forums with one of them being one for German-speaking expats living in the US/Canada and also people from German speaking countries who are planning vacations in the US and Canada.

We get the same questions multiple times a day - I don't mean similar, I mean exactly the same - from people who often come across as being entitled to having their question answered because they "don't have the time to do research". We're generally reasonably polite about this, but we do point them at the search function. The general outcome of this approach is that if they actually do a little research and then come back with specific questions, we're more than happy to answer them and help them with their specific issues. We still end up with a lot of similar threads (for example, there are a ton of threads about visiting the Southwest, or how to move to the US or Germany with your US or German spouse), but they're all somewhat different and all add some value when other people browse them.

We still get people wandering off in a huff because we refuse to support their tightwadedness in not wanting to pay, say, a travel agent when they're too lazy to do the research themselves.

IMHO the value of a forum can degrade quickly when it's filled up with repeated questions over and over again that have no variations in their answers. We have a pretty broad spectrum of questions and answers here and I don't think they're as repetitive as on some other forums.

If this forum filled up with the question "I want to turbo my Miata for $500, please provide me with the parts list" being asked five times a day, I think we'd be going "here's the link" and "use the search, n00b" pretty quickly.

My favorites are the ones that make a passive-aggressive sticky at the top "NEW MEMBERS MUST READ!!!" that supposedly answers all questions anyone will ever ask linked to their relevant posts...that no longer exist or have all their images links broken.

Duke wrote: I've seen hundreds of cases where the exact same question was posted while there were already several active threads within 2 or 3 screen inches on the first page of the forum.

But that's different. That's abject laziness that pushes out legitimate threads.

Even when we get that here, it's usually only two threads on an identical topic (usually one of which has a clever title that makes the subject a bit ambiguous), and people respond by posting a link to the first thread and saying "someone already said this", and we all have a good laugh.

In reply to RevRico:

Sounds like you've tried yo regester with CrownVic.net.

In reply to BoxheadTim:

Exactly.

Because it clogs up sections with the same repeated info.

For instance, "Will X size wheel fit?"

Look at the top of the section, in the pinned post that details exactly what fits.

It's mainly a "quit being lazy and do a bit of research first"

In reply to Appleseed:

Managed to get in. Still not sure if it was thanks to someone here or because I sent an sort of angry email to every address I could find on the site. I'm actually really disappointed in their archives, 2003+ cars have almost no info in their archives.

Racepa.com is another one you need to know someone to join, then they complain about the lack of new members while admitting all applicants go to spam because they get 10,000 spam bots a week trying to join.

I'm a longtime Corner-Carvers member, so I'm familiar with this issue. Generally speaking, I'm in favor of people using the search and having similar topics under a single thread. That way if I want to find info on S197 Mustangs, I go to that thread. There's one for 996s, one for Miatas, etc. And let's face it, when a noob shows up to seek information, chances are it's already been discussed. I have memberships on many marque-specific forums from all the various cars I've owned, and I have only a handful of posts on most of them because I found the info I wanted by searching.

On the other hand, CC also has one single thread for all "What car?" discussions, so it's a giant jumble. They use vBulletin, so the search works well, but there are some threads that come up in almost every search, so then you have to go looking for individual posts. It's a balance that every forum has to find for itself.

I've encountered something similar along these lines. YOTAtech is fantastic site with tons of threads. You have to reply to 15 threads before you can post in the classifieds. It sucks, because I don't feel the need to senselessly reply to open threads, just to get the ability to post in the classifieds. I have cheap parts, that people could use, but I can't get rid of them.

I think a lot of it comes from the bandwagoning social trait in most humans. As soon as forum 'elders' do it once or twice, then new people on the forum try to act like the elders by doing it to even newer folks, and that's where most of the really a-hole posts come from.

I can see that it can get annoying when people post the same question over and over, but I actually think a 24 hr waiting period on account open before you can post would solve 99.8% of that. You get the same question over and over when people are not forced to look for their own answer first, and instead log in and post it because that is easier.

This topic has been discussed previously. Search, NOOB!

Here you don't see that because we all have different automotive interests but are interested in anything automotive. Someone wants to know something we will find the answer (not always Miata).

z31maniac wrote: Because it clogs up sections with the same repeated info.

The internet is not actually a series of tubes; you can't "clog" it with info. Unless you're a mobster in control of a botnet, I suppose. But at that point you're probably not posting to car forums.

Which oil do you guys use?

Worse case I've seen of it, is from a small suzuki forum maximum-suzuki.com

Great resource for Air/Oil cooled Suzuki bikes, but the forum owner refuses to accept Gmail address for registration and classifieds require something like 150+ posts.

Similar comments are common on the board about searching.

My issue with "search noob" threads, is some items change OFTEN (Tires, Oil, Lighting, etc)

Huckleberry wrote: Which oil do you guys use?

No, what's the best oil to use?

Or

How do I change my oil?