Previously Discussed Topics, page 1

One thing I've noticed on ATS in my short amount of time is the speed at which people--myself included--jump to declare a thread invalid because it's already been discussed. I understand that much pretty well; if you've already contributed to 5 pages worth of a thread, you don't want to rehash what's already been covered for someone else. But is it something we really should be that harsh on? I'm not so sure; I'll state my reasoning here...

A lot of times, I know I personally will see a thread that covers one particular issue, let's say "Do aliens exist?" (strictly for example.) I'll scroll through the UFO board and there's already twenty of them, each of them 3+ pages. Right there I shoot myself down, regardless of whether I might have a different take on the idea or not, different reasoning, maybe even a little evidence or something. People have already discussed it and they're probably tired of it. And at the same time, I don't want to go through each of those threads and find one that might be close enough so I can post; I do most of my ATS'ing while I'm working in little snippets here and there in between projects, and the time it would take to go through a great many posts would get my boss on my back faster than you can say "Would you like fries with that?"

Another reason why I personally see a need for duplicates everyonce in a while is because often in longer threads, discussion gets slanted towards one angle or another. I know the general population of the forum is pretty much open, but once a thread has gotten going on a long stretch in one mindset it's hard to throw in a conflicting or alternate idea without disrupting the already ongoing conversation.

Also, even though a topic may have been discussed a month ago, people's opinions change. Or a new member may be able to shed a different light on the topic, and they wouldn't necessarily go through all of the old posts to see something that catches their eye. But I may post something that is quite similar to something posted a couple of months ago, already dead on the boards. Someone may have a new opinion or didn't catch it the first time around. Someone may be able to teach me something in a way I wouldn't have gotten from reading the first posting.

I know sometimes a duplicate thread isn't contributing at all. As an example, one of the threads I was looking at today was posting pictures that were already in a thread that I was posting to a couple of days ago. All the new poster said was essentially "what do you guys think of these?" No commentary, no thought, nothing. A situation like that, I can agree with shutting it down or at least prodding the OP for more info/thought.

Am I off base here with this? Just curious...