When to fork off a new topic

[Tony Gravagno]

I just saw Grant's JSON via JavaScript response in the thread "Where to now".

I suggest that this fine material would be best shared in a new post, and I encourage everyone to consider whether their contribution lends itself to a new discussion post.

I think the decision for such things is : Might my new content contain valuable content that might be lost under a seemingly unrelated subject? Or in this example : If someone were looking for a solution to JSON from MV, would they expect to find it in a long thread titled "Where to now"?

There's nothing wrong with breaking off a new post from a discussion. I believe it's better for all of us, especially when we find threads in discussing going more than 3 levels deep. Obviously something more nuanced is being discussed there.

A new post:

• allows us to give a topic a proper subject, better than changing the subject of a sub-thread within another post.
• allows us to tag that discussion separately.
• facilitates rapid searching
  
• helps to keep the main discussion focused for those who are interested in the original topic.
• keeps a thread from becoming one of those infinite digressions that many people don't want to read.

This isn't a directive, it's just a suggestion for improving our content for a wide variety of preferences and temperaments.

Thanks.

T