Should You Search Before Suggesting?

As the topic says, should you search for an existing topic before making a suggestion?

Surely the mods would prefer searching and posting "support" in an existing thread to starting a new thread?

But one person did this and the topic got locked: here

Edit: this one was locked for doing the opposite!

immibis, on 10 October 2013 - 05:23 PM said:

But one person did this and the topic got locked: here

I think it was because the post didn't add anything meaningful to conversation, not sure though.

Both very bad examples…

immibis, on 10 October 2013 - 05:23 PM said:

But one person did this and the topic got locked: here

When posting they prefer if you add content or something meaningful to the post. Not to necro it for the sake of "I like it". This person did not add meaningful information.

immibis, on 10 October 2013 - 05:23 PM said:

Edit: this one was locked for doing the opposite!

This one is yet another suggestion that's been asked for several times, but its also a suggestion to remove an existing feature and add a useless easter egg.

Both of the above I support Lyqyd in his actions!

To answer the question in the title of the post: Yes, but you should have useful content to add if you're posting at all.

Symmetryc and theoriginalbit nailed the reason for the first example being locked. Adding no content when posting to old threads is likely to get your post removed, the topic locked, or both. The second suggestion has been made repeatedly. If they had searched first, they could have read through the topics that came up. They likely at that point wouldn't have had anything useful to add, and might have refrained from posting.

If you were going to post the exact same suggestion but don't have anything else to add, which is better: a duplicate thread, or a post saying "support" to revive the old thread?

immibis, on 11 October 2013 - 01:37 AM said:

If you were going to post the exact same suggestion but don't have anything else to add, which is better: a duplicate thread, or a post saying "support" to revive the old thread?

neither. there is no need to show support, it doesn't influence the decision if it will be implemented or not.

I guess you could also 1+ the posts that you agree with in the thread, but they might not be seen…

Symmetryc, on 11 October 2013 - 07:56 PM said:

I guess you could also 1+ the posts that you agree with in the thread, but they might not be seen…

Again I feel I have to point out this

theoriginalbit, on 11 October 2013 - 02:38 AM said:

there is no need to show support, it doesn't influence the decision if it will be implemented or not.

theoriginalbit, on 11 October 2013 - 09:36 PM said:

Symmetryc, on 11 October 2013 - 07:56 PM said:

I guess you could also 1+ the posts that you agree with in the thread, but they might not be seen…

Again I feel I have to point out this

theoriginalbit, on 11 October 2013 - 02:38 AM said:

there is no need to show support, it doesn't influence the decision if it will be implemented or not.

Yeah, I was just saying that because immibis said that if you wanted to (despite it having no effect), what would you do.

theoriginalbit, on 11 October 2013 - 02:38 AM said:

immibis, on 11 October 2013 - 01:37 AM said:

If you were going to post the exact same suggestion but don't have anything else to add, which is better: a duplicate thread, or a post saying "support" to revive the old thread?

neither. there is no need to show support, it doesn't influence the decision if it will be implemented or not.

It reminds people that the suggestion exists, by bringing it back to the front page.

I definitely don't like seeing suggestion posts getting locked unless it's a duplicate. There's always ways to improve an idea so these threads should be left open so that anyone can possibly post those improvements.

ElvishJerricco, on 12 October 2013 - 02:48 PM said:

I definitely don't like seeing suggestion posts getting locked unless it's a duplicate. There's always ways to improve an idea so these threads should be left open so that anyone can possibly post those improvements.

And that is called useful content, which is something lacking on these forums, especially in the suggestions section…

theoriginalbit, on 12 October 2013 - 04:25 PM said:

And that is called useful content, which is something lacking on these forums, especially in the suggestions section…

Well my point is that just because a suggestion is originally declined, or it doesn't seem like a good idea, or some jerk necromances it to post his "support", doesn't mean it should be locked. There's still potential for someone to come along with a really good way to improve the idea.

If there's genuinely good new content, it can be merged and re-opened, or the new topic allowed to stand for a while.

Generally, in the suggestions forum, when a topic is 'revived' with nothing but "I support this idea, it would be good to add to the mod!", then it gets locked, because even though it's been revived, there is no new content. All actual discussion has finished, and is no longer bringing anything new. If the suggestion hasn't been implemented or agreed upon by devs by that point in the discussion, it's not going to be added.
Conversely, if a person adds new content, with a very well thought out post, the topic is left open for more discussion upon that new idea. For example, this post.