Genealogy Chat

how you you close a thread you started
thanks

???

Once you have all the answers to your question(s) you can tick the Mark as Answered box.

This will let other members know that you do not require any further help.

The thread will stay on the boards until you actually delete it.

Is this what you mean?

Or you can put something in the title such as the word completed, by clicking on edit.

I believe that the option to tick the 'Answered' box only applies to the Find ancestors and Find living relatives boards.

Joy's suggestion to add the word 'Completed' to the title is simple and effective.

I do believe you are right IGP. My mistake.

I have never really considered actually closing a thread - if no one adds to it it just works its way down the list to the pages at the end...............

It is, perhaps, relevant on the odd occasion where a specific question has been answered, but otherwise, as you say, let it fall away naturally.

Thank you for all the suggestions.
Why close a thread?Well what happens if you ask a question and despite getting a lot of good advice and look ups , there is nothing that you learn from the answers. how long then must you wait before you perhaps take a different approach.? By the time there are 3 pages of comments and nothing has been learnt surely there comes a point where there is too much for a new entrant to read through evrything before joining in the thread.Perhaps better to leave the thread undeleted in case another looking for a similar person does a surname search of the posts.They might learn something from the messages. but have an end point where you can begin later on a different track without compromising the GR rules on one person family thread. comments on this welcome

you can always edit the opening post to say something in the first line like

'please see post of today's date on page 3 for update and new ideas'

or something like that, and then in a new post summarize briefly what is known and what has been tried and discarded ... give the new post a nice capital letters heading like 'what is known to date' saying what is known to be true and known not to fit for example

also edit the subject line to say something like 'Oct 15 new ideas' or whatever fits

it really is important that people know what has been tried and discarded already, otherwise new people may have the same old ideas

it would not be terrible ( in my own opinion ) to start a new thread in which, in the opening post, you give the link to the old thread and summarize what has been tried and discarded already, if the old thread really is unwieldy

doing anything else does risk people wasting time following the same dead end trails or having the same bright ideas that turned out not to be :-)

and you're right, leaving a thread on the board means that someone who does a surname search ( or even a google search for names ) can find the thread and contact you if they like

Thanks Chrissie
That is really useful and encouraging .I tried the forum 4 years ago and didn't really take to it.Now i have gone as far as I can with my tree without help I thought I would try again.I think if I post more I should say .I have 1841,1851,1871 census but am missing 1861 than it will help others not to spend time looking up what I have already discovered. really this time i have also turned to the forum to see how I can help others find out more.

just remember ... don't just say you have those censuses, post 'em up so everybody can see them without going hunting for them :-) ... or people will do just that anyway so everybody has the info at hand too because having all the info to use for searching is important ... and we all just grasp it easier if it's in census record form rather than narrative paragraph

do you want to put the link to your thread here to head people in that direction ?

if you have time once you start working on other people's threads of course .......... it is addictive !


edit, aha, it is done and dusted

http://www.genesreunited.co.uk/boards.page/board/ancestors/thread/1282735

or ...

http://www.genesreunited.co.za/boards.page/board/ancestors/thread/1281976

it says 'completed', is it now ? seems like there's still an open question ... off to have a poke around it ...

Thanks again for your comments
I agree with the addictive part. Unfortunately other things have to be done!!!