# Automatic title check



## AmEStudent

Wouldn't it be possible, to avoid reposting the same questions, for the forum to automatically analyze the thread's title or contents, do a keyword search and, before letting the user post the thread, display a list of suggestions (that contains threads with similar titles/contents)?


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## Nunty

Hi AEStudent. 

All you have to do is enter your keywords into the dictionary and thread title search box at the top of each forum page, with the dictionary set to the language or language pair you desire. Scroll down, and under the definitions you will find a list of forum threads whose titles include those keywords.

That, in fact, is why we are such fiends about proper titles in the first place. 

(It is also what we mean by Rule 1.)


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## AmEStudent

Yes of course , but the problem is that a simple title search is very superficial, whereas an automated analysis of of the _content_ of a thread would yield different, perhaps more accurate results, especially if you're not sure about what terms to use for your search. That goes for the one on the top of the page. As far as the forum's search function, again if there was some kind of analysis of what you were about to post, the system might be able to find related threads more easily. I mean you may express yourself differently when posting than when searching, leading to a more effective search. 

And it would help lazy people too.


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## Nunty

The forum search  function (as opposed to the dicitonary and title search) can also search post content.

(I'm afraid we are not here as a convenience to lazy people.)


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## AmEStudent

But don't less lazy people problems = less threads to be closed = less unnecessary work for you mods


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## Cagey

It may be possible, but setting it up strikes me as a problem of the magnitude of Google's setting up an internet translator.   They are expending a lot of money and resources on this, and the translations are still far from reliable. 

We are asked about words in particular contexts, and a human can do easily what it is a big deal to get computers to do: scan titles for relevance, find similarities in constructions that involve different words, etc.  When we ask you to look for threads, we expect you to read them and evaluate their relevance.  To get a computer to select out a reasonable number of possible threads from all apparent matches of words in the posts is quite a project.  To get a computer to pick out the three or four that may actually contain the answer would be even more difficult.

It takes a while to learn how to set up effective searches for various topics, but a reasonably willing person will be able to do it after a while.  It is not such a burden, and it's possible to find some satisfaction in locating a useful thread this way.


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## AmEStudent

I see. I just thought it'd make your job easier and the forum cleaner. It would be a nice extra if well implemented, and I wonder if such a technology does exist in some other forums, and if it's mature enough.


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## panjandrum

AmEStudent said:


> I see. I just thought it'd make your job easier and the forum cleaner. It would be a nice extra if well implemented, and I wonder if such a technology does exist in some other forums, and if it's mature enough.


The technology we deploy here is the most sophisticated available.  It is the human brain.
Members are expected to use their intelligence to search for previous threads on their topic.
Sadly, in many cases this technology is not mature enough


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## jann

Some years ago there was a software routine in place here on the forums that attempted to identify "similar" or "related" threads that might be of interest to people reading a particular discussion.  An automatically-generated list of these "related" topics appeared at the bottom of threads created while the routine was in place.  Indeed, if you refer to the archives with any frequency, you will eventually stumble on one of these old threads and notice the "related discussions" box at the bottom.  

A quick glance at what the software thought was "related" or "similar" will convince you that we did well to disable the feature (independent of any consideration of server loads!). 

As Panj has said, the human brain is much more efficient.  We moderators do our best to make sure that threads are titled appropriately.  This should facilitate your search process.  On the French-English forums where I moderate, we are also in the habit of closing duplicate discussions, merging them back in to older threads, or otherwise referring people to places where the information they seek has been discussed before.  To do so, we depend on dictionary titles searches, the advanced search feature... and our own memories.


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