How long is long enough?

[atco418]

I was about to start the grid for a theme I've been working on, when I discovered that someone had beaten me to it.  This idea was done back in 2012 and published in the Onion.  My themers are all different and it was over six years ago, but I still don't have a firm grasp on "long enough" when it comes to putting adequate time between iterations a theme.

I've already put time in, so I'll go ahead and finish it, but I'm interested to see how others have handled this kind of dilemma.

[XWordHobbyist]

I would imagine that if you submitted the puzzle to a different publication, and your interpretation of the theme differed from the Onion's, it wouldn't be too much of a problem. I'd like to hear from other constructor's on this, but I have a hard time believing a theme has never been repeated before!