What is the most elegant way to overload a constructor/method?

Question

Overloading constructors and methods seems messy, i.e. simply differentiating them by the order and number of parameters. Isn't there a way, perhaps with generics, to do this cleanly so that, even if you just have one parameter (e.g. string idCode / string status) you could still differentiate them?

using System;

namespace ConsoleApplication1
{
    class Program
    {
        static void Main(string[] args)
        {
            TheForm tf1 = new TheForm("online", DateTime.Now);
            TheForm tf2 = new TheForm(DateTime.Now, "form1");
        }
    }

    public class TheForm
    {
        public TheForm(string status, DateTime startTime)
        {
           //...
        }

        public TheForm(DateTime startTime, string idCode)
        {
           //...
        }
    }
}

Answer 1

If you need that many overloads, perhaps your types are handling too much (see Single Responsibility Principle). Personally I rarely need more than one or a few constructors.