Thanksfully, NI got their senses back together and restored the full screen layout of their forums...
Anyhow, isn't there a sticky somewhere about this very issue? At least when you try to post an idea, a list of potentiall related topics appears.
I personally try to use the principle explained in the link you provided (do a search first, pop-up all topics of possible relatedness in separate tab - and read them! - ,paste the link to them if they appear vaguely relevant, provide some background, illustrate with an example, etc).
Sometimes, I cut it short though and some others, I am way too verbose (or screenshot happy).
What might work is computer-review process: you want to post a question, prove that you have done your research and have provided enough information (that would be what you would expect of the non-existing bug report system for LabVIEW, for instance).
The forum engine would then format all this for you (link 1, link 2, VI 1, VI 2, captions, etc) and you could add some free-form comments to instill some personality in the post.