Would you find a "Questions Like This" algorithm handy when writing new questions on Mahalo Answers?

I think it would be useful, yes. Twice yesterday I answered a question that was nearly identical. For the first one my answer was chosen as the best answer, but for the second I gave just an abbreviated version and it hasn't been chosen yet.

I can see as an answerer that you could both do a little more research on the topic before answering; or you could go on with your good knowledge and rapidly answer a few more. Or as an asker you could save yourself a little egg on the face if you knew that someone asked exactly that question yesterday but you missed it.

In short, yes. This would potentially provide a way for people to get their question answered quickly. It may however lead people to "settle" for a similar answer thus stifling more specific questions/answers.

Actually, it is. When you pose the question, there are "related questions" on the bottom of the screen.

Yes but only if its ajaxed, like what kayako uses in thier helpdesks, in real time as the user is typing his questions, it searches the db and views the relative questions :D.

It would be handy. I don't have a preference for having such an algorithm or not, though. I moderate a forum, and probably 80%+ of the questions asked from people starting threads in it could be responded to with a link... to a post made a week ago.It might also reduce the number of questions asked, and potentially make the site less active, and my above experience would imply that that effect isn't that big.

Definitely handy. Repeats do get annoying. As the site grows and more questions are being asked, having a function to see if your question already exists would be useful for everyone.

I agree that it already exists, although there might be plenty of room for improvement.

I think its essential to Mahlo answers success as well as being useful. I am not a regular reader of forums, largely because of the high volume of repetitive questions. This is not a new concept.

Most of the high volume usenet mailing lists featured a FAQ that was designed to keep newbies from asking the same question over and over. It seems pretty clear that the Mahalo creators are going to harvest the anwers here to enhance their FAQ-like search pages on the classic Mahalo site.

I cant really gove you an answer,but what I can give you is a way to a solution, that is you have to find the anglde that you relate to or peaks your interest. A good paper is one that people get drawn into because it reaches them ln some way.As for me WW11 to me, I think of the holocaust and the effect it had on the survivors, their families and those who stood by and did nothing until it was too late.