Integrating all this knowledge or better indexing

Going through the historical threads it appears to me that a great deal of hard work runs the risk of being wasted. Searches on most subjects are fruitful with many references but frustratingly tthere’s no integrated/processed story. Can’t the technology be use to help?

[MBAnderson]

retry,

Can you explain a little more about what you're envisioning, i.e., better indexing?

It seems to me, all the message boards have this problem. The same subject matter comes up repeatedly and the amount and quality of content varies considerably, i.e., Important comments on one thread and different, but equally important comments on another thread - so are you asking if there is a way to pull all that together?

[Hidden]

Yes. How about for example topic threads which instead of a nondescript cross reference to an existing thread,was filtered copies of the rich posts. They could be read only and be maintained by a topic editor. Easily has attempted this on Thiamine

[MBAnderson in reply to Hidden]

Been thinking about this problem and looking at other forums. They all have the same problem. If there’s a solution, it’s above my pay grade.

While many symptoms can be described in one word, some can’t and a lot of people (prefer to) describe their symptoms in phrases or even sentences. You would have to have software smart enough to understand every possible description of every symptom and then provide a link to the right thread. And, then there’s the problem of where in the thread it would be placed, because some of the threads have subsets of subjects, which would require the software to understand the whole thread.

Instead, message boards provide the search function for users to seek out existing threads rather than starting new threads, but often that’s not very appealing. Those who are really interested in drilling down on any particular issue will use the search window and/or click on the tag words they want to follow.

The only thing to be done on the hot topics is what easilly did and even that doesn’t confine all the discussion because late arrivals don't know about it.

We’re stuck with what we got - far as I can tell.

[HeartSong]

I don't have an answer to your question. However, I think your desire for better indexing would be a worthy goal for you or someone else take take on - in this or any other forum. Perhaps you could start with asking the admins on this forum if they have discussed or researched more thorough indexing. Then, just for grins, you could send an email straight to the top - to the Computer Science and Engineering Department at MIT. It would be interesting to hear what they had to say.

[Hidden]

Interesting but given the low response to this post and others I have posted recently I don’t think that there’s enough enthusiasm for doing anything new. The vast majority just want to be given the answer. Depressing but true

[MBAnderson]

What you think about my reply of 4 days ago?

I'm thinking your frustration is shared by many of us and the millions of other people who use message boards, so there would be a big market if there were a way to channel all content by subject to one location.

[Hidden]

Sorry for not replying. But I took the poor response from others to indicate low interest.Have you seen this yet?

subvertingparkinsons.com It’s not what you were envisioning but it is a start.