[Child of the 7th Age]

There is also another issue. It is frowned upon, and with good reason, to open up a thread discussing issues that have been talked about already. But I’ve seen a few (and mind you, you can probably count them with the fingers of your hand) good looking new threads that were quickly referred to an old, existing, dead thread and died as well. I am not implying that we should open a new thread for every little idea that pops up in our collective minds, but…

I wanted to reply quickly to this one point in Farael's original post, even though the discussion is now addressing many other topics and ideas.

There actually is no policy that says a poster can not put up a new thread on any topic he or she wants, even when an older thread exists. When I first came to the Downs, the reverse was true. If a person put up a new thread on an already existing topic, then the new thread was closed down and they were directed to the older thread. A few years ago, the Barrow-wight changed his policy on that to encourage further discussions on topics. The only exception is if the new thread is an exact duplicate of another that people are actively posting on. Then the later one would be closed.

So feel free to put up new threads on topics of interest or, alternately, to bring up an older thread and continue posting on it. Either way works. You definitely don't have to wait until a thread is "archived" to post another thread on that same general topic.

I think the reason this misconception exists is that helpful posters, mod and non-mod alike, often put in a link to an older post on a similar topic if one exists. Perhaps that "kills" the discussion even though it's not intended to.

One other comment.... One of my concerns is actually not the Books forum but Novices and Newcomers. I can remember when I first came to the Downs that there were some pretty spirited discussions in that forum. In fact, I've never fully understood what's the precise distinction between topics in Books and N&N. There are some opinion questions that don't belong in Books, but some N & N posts definitely address more concrete book questions and can generate discussion. I do remember being hesitent to post in Books at first because I felt I didn't "know enough". N & N was a way for me to get my feet wet and feel comfortable with posting.

More recently, N & N is not used very much. I suspect the shift came about when Mirth became a more important forum. The old discussions in Novices and Newcomers kind of wilted away. Rather than starting a "new" forum, couldn't we try to do move with Novices and Newcomers in terms of lively book discussions, but ones where you don't have to prepare yourself by reading ten journal articles and doing five drafts of your post?

P.S. Great minds think alike....I've just cross posted with Formendacil who said the same thing in a lot fewer words.