Suggestion for the mods

[donrhummy]

I am a moderator on another web board and we've found that thread merging can be a very useful and organizing tool. I see on this board (and every board) a lot of the same topics posted numerous times. While it can be useful and sometimes evokes new/different responses and information, it can make the forum a bit of a mess, tough to search and full of information that's redundant.

Many times a thread will be a "repost" and will evoke, of course the usual sarcastic/snide posts, but also posts of :"you should see this thread." What would make this much cleaner and more useful would be to have a link in addition to the "reply" and "reply with quote" links which is "suggest merge with.." The user, who knows this topic has been discussed successfully before and knows where to find that thread, can send to a moderator this current thread and the suggested one it should merge with. The moderators would receive a message (or have it posted to a private moderator board as we do, I'll speak on this below) and could then determine if merging should occur and how. You can easily make a moderator-only page that automatically merges the threads (ours adds a "post" in between saying, "the following threads have been joined to the previous threads") and sends a private message to the original poster of the current "repost" thread that their thread is now merged and can be found there. You can merge them in whatever order you find best.

The reason we have the "merge request" sent to moderators as a post in a moderator-only board is because then we can make sure only one person handles it and then marks it as such by "replying" to that post in that "merge" board.

I believe that if you let users know you'll be doing this, after about a month you'll find the board becomes very clean and a lot more useful as a source of biking information. The searches become more useful and less frequent as well.

An example of where this might be useful:

In the "Long Distance Cycling" board, a user posted the thread Cars Cause Cancer? (http://bikeforums.net/showthread.php?t=276135) where they asked for information on car pollution and cyclists as well as cancer. This was very similar and dealt with in quite a bit of depth in the past thread Pollution: Any solutions for cyclists to minimize impact? Any studies? (http://bikeforums.net/showthread.php?t=165915). I posted a suggestion to the OP that they check out that thread, but it would have been more useful to suggest to a mod a possible merging of the threads. There are of course many more possibilities as well.

Let me know if you want more information on describing this and I hope it helps!

[donnamb]

We try to merge whenever we notice thread repeats, but this forum is so huge, no one group of moderators could possibly keep up. :) If you think 2 threads should be merged, you could "report a post" from a particular thread. Include the URLs for both threads and a mod will take a look at your suggestion for sure.

[Maelstrom]

One other point, a lot of members know they are duplicating but add caveats. If something in road is similar to something in mountain biking, merging them will frustrate both groups.

But interesting idea on creating a code page almost that would allow merging to occur based on textual input, it would make merging, at the very least, an interesting experience.

[donrhummy]

We try to merge whenever we notice thread repeats, but this forum is so huge, no one group of moderators could possibly keep up. :) If you think 2 threads should be merged, you could "report a post" from a particular thread. Include the URLs for both threads and a mod will take a look at your suggestion for sure.

Right but the problem is you'll never get suggestions for merging that way. No one will ever know that "report a thread" can mean for information/merging purposes.

[East Hill]

If you think 2 threads should be merged, you could "report a post" from a particular thread.

"This is ONLY to be used to report spam, advertising messages, and problematic (harassment, fighting, or rude) posts."

Doesn't say anything about using 'to merge threads'. That's what donrhummy is talking about.

East Hill

[snowy]

Even other issues besides harassment, fighting and rude posts are reported to the mods all the time. If someone would like a thread to be merged it wouldn't hurt to report that thread or just simple pm a mod. :)

Snowy

[East Hill]

True, but something like a thread merge isn't necessarily time dependent. Harassment, fighting, rude posts, and spam have a more immediate urgency, if you know what I mean. Call it a 'kinder, gentler" report this post.

As someone new, you may be quite hesitant to use a feature which sternly warns you that the report feature is for certain things, not necessarily the one you had in mind. Although, of course, most newcomers aren't likely to suggest a thread merge.

But just sayin',

East Hill

[donrhummy]

We try to merge whenever we notice thread repeats, but this forum is so huge, no one group of moderators could possibly keep up. :) If you think 2 threads should be merged, you could "report a post" from a particular thread. Include the URLs for both threads and a mod will take a look at your suggestion for sure.

Just so you know, the "report this post" link goes to a page that says (in bold):

Note: This is ONLY to be used to report spam, advertising messages, and problematic (harassment, fighting, or rude) posts.

[East Hill]

Just so you know, the "report this post" link goes to a page that says (in bold):

Note: This is ONLY to be used to report spam, advertising messages, and problematic (harassment, fighting, or rude) posts.

Hehehehe, I did point that out :p .

East Hill

[donrhummy]

Wow, that text came out way too big. Changing it...

[cuda2k]

Here's my two cents on this:

If I see two threads on the same page about very simular things, I'll likely merge them. But I'm not going to dig through or search for simular topics of every thread that gets started. There are way way way too many threads already started to do that, and the number of new threads would require a full time team of moderators to handle just that task. Additionally, the starter of a new thread comes back 20mins later to check on the responses to his new thread, only to find it gone, magically swallowed by an older one. Unless we leave the redirect of the old thread in the forum pointing to the thread it was merged to, the poster has no way of knowing where his thread went. Result, duplicate threads (redirect place holder plus merged thread) on the same page. On top of that, I've had more than one member PM me upset that I've merged and or moved their thread to a new location.

There are exceptions to every rule, but in general the forum is far to active of a place to try to merge every duplicate thread. If you see a thread that is about a question that has been asked and answered before, either suggest using the search feature, or if you're feeling generious do a quick search and post the link to a similar thread with the information that the poster may be seeking.

[East Hill]

...if you're feeling generous do a quick search and post the link to a similar thread with the information that the poster may be seeking.

My favourite tactic. Additionally, that way the person asking may be tempted to visit another forum he or she has not sampled before, and may very well become a regular poster. That's always (well, almost always) a happy outcome.

East Hill

[donrhummy]

Here's my two cents on this:

If I see two threads on the same page about very simular things, I'll likely merge them. But I'm not going to dig through or search for simular topics of every thread that gets started. There are way way way too many threads already started to do that...

yes but that's exactly my point! If you have a "request merge thread with..." link, then the work of finding the thread to merge with will be done with someone else. If just 10% of the users find ONE thread to merge, you'll basically have gotten rid of all duplicate threads. There will be ZERO searching required by mods.

[cuda2k]

donrhummy - not sure if the forum software is designed to do that, or if it would be possible to add such a feature.