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This topic has moved here: Subject: Thread merging
  • Subject: Thread merging
Subject: Thread merging

@spawn031

"So much of what we do is ephemeral and quickly forgotten, even by ourselves, so it's gratifying to have something you have done linger in people's memories." John Williams

It's obvious what this is. Halo.xbox.com does this right now. Basically if there is another thread posted about a previous topic, the new thread will literally be "merged" into the existing thread. There are pros and cons for doing this.

Pros:
Spam and reoccuring topics/repeat threads. It cleans up forums fairly nice. Ever see this posted? You probably have. It's very common among all message/forum boards. Mergin threads with a large community could be a very good thing with cutting down on spam and listing the same thing over and over again.

Cons:
This requires high maintinence. There are only so many ninjas around at one time. Who would be around to constanly pin thread materials into existing threads? I'm not sure how 343i does it, maybe through an automated system, or maybe they pay their moderators over there with more than just love. Who knows?

Also the fact that you can have one mass thread per topic, and a great idea about the topic could be found half way through the thread which no one would read, unless they literally spend all the time sifting their way through each post.

Perhaps an easier approach to do this through would be something previously mentioned called "thread tagging". The OP or other users could put "tags" on a thread that associate it with a certain subject, and it would be categorized into that mega thread. I know there is someone around here that mentioned this idea, I remember reading about it not a week ago. Anyway, they point is that it would working in something like this.

I'm not arguing for or against the idea of thread merging on bnet, however I feel that we should shed some light on this subject. Now post your feedback!

  • 12.12.2011 8:04 PM PDT
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  • Exalted Legendary Member

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I don't like it, we have enough problems from the topic mover.


Edit: The post below me by Tom T nailed it for me.

[Edited on 12.12.2011 8:08 PM PST]

  • 12.12.2011 8:06 PM PDT
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  • Exalted Mythic Member
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The End

‘The conscious is cancerous if allowed to linger’

"Even if you're on the right track, you'll get run over if you just sit there."

It is a terrible idea.

No matter how many times a thread is created it will develop differently. Merged threads lack focus or direction.

  • 12.12.2011 8:07 PM PDT

@spawn031

"So much of what we do is ephemeral and quickly forgotten, even by ourselves, so it's gratifying to have something you have done linger in people's memories." John Williams

Posted by: Tom T
I've looked through some of the mass threads over on Waypoint, and it seems to be a huge jumbled mess of the same topic thrown into one thread, which is exactly what it is.

Question is it better to have a huge jumbled mess of repeated threads all over the place, or throw them all into one burn pile?

  • 12.12.2011 8:11 PM PDT

We're concerned

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That would be... Difficult.


I mean, the mods would have to individually link each quote back to one another. It would prove much more time than it is worth.

[Edited on 12.12.2011 8:11 PM PST]

  • 12.12.2011 8:11 PM PDT

I hate that feature on their site. It makes it hard to navigate the forums with, and difficult/tedious to get an answer from.

Having threads with the same topic can be cluttersome to the first page, but it is more than tolerable.

[Edited on 12.12.2011 8:12 PM PST]

  • 12.12.2011 8:12 PM PDT
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  • Exalted Legendary Member

Exalted Unexplainable Member

Tom T basically already answered that for you in his post.
No matter how many times a thread is created it will develop differently. Merged threads lack focus or direction.
Posted by: spawn031
Question: is it better to have a huge jumbled mess of repeated threads all over the place, or throw them all into one burn pile?

  • 12.12.2011 8:14 PM PDT

I would prefer them to just delete highly repeated threads, like when the Swag bag crap was in full swing. The front page was one "official" swag thread and 45 locked threads about the same thing. Merging would just make it confusing, but I have no problem with deletion.

With that said, those "swag" instances are few and far between, so it shouldn't occur on a daily basis.

  • 12.12.2011 8:40 PM PDT

I spend too much time here.. too much time indeed.

I tweet?

I say we just merge every thread on the forums into one ultra-mega-thread.

Really though, no, I wouldn't like a jumbled mess to wad through. It's very inefficient to say the least and at most it's simply a pain in the ass. I guess what I'm saying is that I agree with Tom T.

  • 12.12.2011 9:18 PM PDT
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:)

God no.

What annoys me about Waypoint is if you write a lot and post it, the mods will fuse it with an old thread where the OP only managed to write a couple of words - regardless if you saw that old thread or not.

It's so irritating to know that all the thought you put in a well constructed OP is being hidden away on page 7 of a jumbled mess they call a thread.

  • 12.12.2011 9:37 PM PDT

"We live in a special time; the only time where we can observationally verify that we live in a very special time" - Lawrence Krauss.

I was a finalist :P

That would be a pain in the ass if you put a lot of effort into a thread, only to have it merged with something "similar" causing it to move down the Forum Topic list.

  • 12.13.2011 6:49 AM PDT
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  • Intrepid Mythic Member

For Carnage, Apply Within.

I have returned from the Untamed Lands. MOAP is dead.

If threads were to merge, a lot of the threads in the Septagon would be in the Flood (i'm referring to the personal question threads). i have been gone several years and i can tell you these topics are no different then from when i left. Topics get recycled all the time because members leave and new members replace them. And bigger threads are hard to jump into when you've missed the discussion going on in the first couple of pages.

  • 12.13.2011 7:07 AM PDT