I just read this topic, where the problem is solved in reply #4, but the user then goes on raising a new problem. Should we then ask the user to post that as a new question or just continue on the same topic?
Supporting within-topic is user-friendly for that one user but not for others. Supporting on a new topic is cumbersome for that one user, but helpful for others. I would tend to go for the latter since I think that we’re helping many others than just the one who asked the question. And that the list of topics serves as a kind of documentation. What do you think, @jon, @m-macaskill, @jeremygray?
Moderators/admins (sorry we’re only allowed to have 5, which we’ve reached) can move posts to a new topic so we can try to keep each topic as a single answer to a single question if at all possible.
Non-moderators can send a message to @staff so that someone can act on it (I think this doesn’t warrant the “flag” button which will hit the trust level of the poster significantly - that should be saved for foul language and bad behaviour).
It can be tricky knowing how much to move and also whether there’s a discrete separate post that can be. In the example above I answered one question in the same topic with a note to the OP and then moved a second one to new topic because it looked distinct enough that I could.
Instructions on how to move to a new topic here (surprisingly it’s done from the settings of the Topic and then selecting posts, rather than the settings of the individual post):
Aside: As it happens I saw the same thread as Jonas and had the same thoughts as him. I started writing the above as a new post but, when I did, the Discourse “This looks similar mechanism” kicked in and suggested I check out Jonas’ post! That is clever
