There is a way to help avoid duplicate postings even after a well intended search to avoid such an event. It might even help pacify the ever-diligent slickdealer whose sole purpose in life is to point out that a duplicate posting has occurred. By simply enabling the search results to be sortable by post date instead of last post, it would be much easier to see if a similar posting has been made recently. Currently, even posts a day or two old can end up buried several pages back if more active posts cause them to occupy the first pages of a search whether they are weeks or even months old.

if i understand the way things work ( i could be horribly mistaken, it happens a lot), the sort by last post date is a vb default. so it would take a lot of work to recode that.

instead... we can teach people to do an advanced search, and change the option to sort threads by start date.

I thought that if you clicked on that heading (column) it DOES sort by post date... it does for me.

I thought that if you clicked on that heading (column) it DOES sort by post date... it does for me.
he's talking about after a search. for some reason you no longer can click on the sort by thread start date after performing a search.

he's talking about after a search. for some reason you no longer can click on the sort by thread start date after performing a search.
Correct. Thank u.

Click on post date link on the first blue row at the top of the forum. You can also sort the threads, views, replies, and last post.