Auto merge back-to-back comments

[libert19]

I have seen this feature somewhere where if you make several comments in faster session in same topic and no one has commented after you, posts get merged automatically.

For example, these should be auto merged,

https://talkimg.com/images/2023/05/14/blob51eb10730b408f43.png

Not necessary ofc but would be nice, what do you think?

[1715260658]

1715260658

[1715260658]

1715260658

[Charles-Tim]

Report the posts, it will all be merged. All the posts that I have reported before to be merged are usually merged, all of them. Mprep do not take that as a joke at all and do merge it.

Edit:
I have reported the post, soon it will be merged.

[PX-Z]

Report the posts, it will all be merged. All the posts that I have reported before to be merged are usually merged, all of them.

Depends on the report or the mods though, if it was reported to "multiple posting in a row" matic it will be removed, at least in my experienced. But maybe if the report is to merge, then it will be.

[Charles-Tim]

Depends on the report or the mods though, if it was reported to "multiple posting in a row" matic it will be removed, at least in my experienced. But maybe if the report is to merge, then it will be.

It depends on the post. There are some newbies or somewhat new members that can create a topic, or in another topic have some posts, some of the the posts can be consecutive posts but which may be meaningful and having no need to deletion but to merge, those can be merged. But someone posting consecutively and spamming this forum, the posts are best to be deleted. Also you may see some posts to be merged, while the moderator may see it worthless and useless which will be deleted.

[tranthidung]

You can report those posts and if they have zero value, they will be deleted. If they have engagement in that discussion, they will be merged by moderator.

It usually happens with newbies, spammers and representatives of projects.

• For newbies and company representatives, they don't know that they should reply some users in a single post and they don't know that posting multiple posts in a row is not allowed.
• For spammers, they simply don't care about that

32. Posting multiple posts in a row (excluding bumps and reserved posts by the thread starter) is not allowed.

[LoyceV]

I have seen this feature somewhere where if you make several comments in faster session in same topic and no one has commented after you, posts get merged automatically.

I expect this to be complicated to add: one of the reasons I make multiple posts in a row, is because they don't fit the 64kB post limit. I don't think they can be merged later on, and if they do, I can probably no longer edit the post.

[PX-Z]

It depends on the post. There are some newbies or somewhat new members that can create a topic or in another topic have some posts, some can be consecutive posts but which may be meaningful and having no need to delete it, those can be merged, but someone posting consecutively and spamming this forum, the posts are best to be deleted. You may see some posts to be merged, while the moderator may see it worthless and useless which will be deleted.

Ah yeah, it could be that way, i usually see newbie posts are commonly merged mostly in ANN threads and scam accusation boards as OP which is reasonable.

[uchegod-21]

I have seen this feature somewhere where if you make several comments in faster session in same topic and no one has commented after you, posts get merged automatically.

For example, these should be auto merged,

https://i.imgur.com/jiPRnqE.png

Not necessary ofc but would be nice, what do you think?

If I understand you, you want a feature which automatically merges successive comments. Just like a written code. But I think it will be difficult to be automated because some successive posts may be a post and a quoted post to give a reply which should not be deleted. But if automated, every comments successively by same poster would be deleted .
So this must be reported to a moderator who will merge the posts.

[Rikafip]

I have seen this feature somewhere where if you make several comments in faster session in same topic and no one has commented after you, posts get merged automatically.

Hah, I've used probably dozens of various forums and I never saw something like that. It must be some type of modern forum software that does stuff like that.

Not necessary ofc but would be nice, what do you think?

I don't think that consecutive posts are such a problem that we would need something like that, and I doubt its so trivial to implement. After all, there are far more important features that would make this forum betetr so I don't expect theymos would waste his time on this.

Report the posts, it will all be merged. All the posts that I have reported before to be merged are usually merged, all of them. Mprep do not take that as a joke at all and do merge it.

OP is not a noob so he probably knows that mods can sort that out, but point of his suggestion is to make it automatic.

[jeraldskie11]

Not necessary ofc but would be nice, what do you think?

I agree; it's great to see whether the forum has any additional features for that but I think there's nothing to worry cause we can just easily reported it to be merged.

However, there's one thing I need to think about:
Will it be considered spam if they reply three times in a row?

[Charles-Tim]

OP is not a noob so he probably knows that mods can sort that out, but point of his suggestion is to make it automatic.

Which simply means that bumps and reserved posts also are going to be automatically merged. All I can think for now is that consecutive posts should be reported and will be merged. Consecutive posts are not problem that need amendment when there is report link that we can use all the time to report anyone that we see.

32. Posting multiple posts in a row (excluding bumps and reserved posts by the thread starter) is not allowed.

[Rizzrack]

The idea at face value is good.

But there are lots of IFs and corner cases to consider.

Just a few off the top of my head:
- OP when he wants/needs one or two reserved posts right after OP
- too much text to fit in a single post (as LoyceV said)
- when OP decides to lock the thread and adds one more post mentioning the reason and sometimes the link for the new thread.

Not sure how to treat each of these situations so probably that's the main reason things are still done manually.

There can be many partial solutions... like the "reply" button becoming inactive if you are the last one who posted, or merge the posts, or many more. But pretty hard to come up with complete solutions.

Nice initiative though...

[Little Mouse]

Updates after 24 hours should be 2 different posts I think. Also, there are lots of reasons which will be disrupted if this is applied.

I have seen this feature somewhere where if you make several comments in faster session in same topic and no one has commented after you, posts get merged automatically.

There are a few forum software I have seen which allows such feature if I'm correct. One of them is Xenforo forum software. This forum software allows merging posts automatically in form of "Double post merged". But I don't think it helps a lot.

[libert19]

This add-on for xenforo answer almost all questions put here, nonetheless, I'll refer to them individually.

I expect this to be complicated to add: one of the reasons I make multiple posts in a row, is because they don't fit the 64kB post limit. I don't think they can be merged later on, and if they do, I can probably no longer edit the post.

Well then merge only if combined data turns out to be within limit of 64kb.

If I understand you, you want a feature which automatically merges successive comments. Just like a written code. But I think it will be difficult to be automated because some successive posts may be a post and a quoted post to give a reply which should not be deleted. But if automated, every comments successively by same poster would be deleted .

Not sure if i get you correctly but no post would be deleted, they will only be merged.

Hah, I've used probably dozens of various forums and I never saw something like that. It must be some type of modern forum software that does stuff like that.

It's not new. Look at example 1, example 2.

However, there's one thing I need to think about:

Will it be considered spam if they reply three times in a row?

Depends how mod perceives content, posts shown in op are merged, sometimes they could be deleted.

Dunno how long gonna mod put-up with consecutive posting tho.

OP when he wants/needs one or two reserved posts right after OP

Exempt thread authors from auto merge.

Updates after 24 hours should be 2 different posts I think.

There are a few forum software I have seen which allows such feature if I'm correct. One of them is Xenforo forum software. This forum software allows merging posts automatically in form of "Double post merged". But I don't think it helps a lot.

Two pros I can think of this feature:

1) Would save mods time from merge reports.

2) Multi-quotes are pain on mobile devices, it's easier to just click quote and reply. This could make mobile users lives bit easier, if implemented.

And yes, I agree with timelimit, would probably do better with less than 24 hrs tho.

[Pmalek]

It has its pros and cons if implemented. But the thing is, can it even work on an outdated forum software as the one Bitcointalk is using?

You would get rid of consecutive posts where someone replies to 2 or 3 people without quoting all replies in the same post. But at the same time, you create problems for people who start a new thread but want to reserve the second and third post for themselves. That would no longer work. I know I have used it a few times and other members do it as well.

Another thing. Mods are paid by handled reports. One of their tasks is merging consecutive posts. No reports to merge points = less pay. I hope for their sake that things stay the way they are.

[libert19]

You would get rid of consecutive posts where someone replies to 2 or 3 people without quoting all replies in the same post. But at the same time, you create problems for people who start a new thread but want to reserve the second and third post for themselves. That would no longer work. I know I have used it a few times and other members do it as well.

OP when he wants/needs one or two reserved posts right after OP

Exempt thread authors from auto merge.

[LoyceV]

Another idea: instead of merging 2 separate posts into one post, how about just removing the signature from the first post, and removing the title, username, avatar and empty space from the second post? That negates the drawbacks of merging posts, and takes away the (advertising) benefit of making more than one post.

So instead of this:


We'd see this something like this:


This will mess up all kinds of data scraping though

[Rizzrack]

Most of the times the intention is good but the implementation is lacking.
What are the exact problems you want to solve with this ? And we can take it from there.

[Pmalek]

What are the exact problems you want to solve with this ? And we can take it from there.

He touched upon that with his second post in this thread. Mods would no longer have to merge the posts themselves. I don't think it's an issue for them since, like I said, they get paid for it. He also wants to make posting from a phone easier. Instead of multiquoting and having to copy/paste and arrange the text using your phone, you just reply to several posts in a row, and the forum merges your comments into a single one. 

[Rizzrack]

Sorry, must have missed that part.
The mobile issue is annoying. The best option I see for that is to quote only selected text. So if you have some text selected the quote button or the "insert quote" from the reply page would add only selected text.

That would mean a fair bit of coding from theymos though and unfortunately I don't see it happening too soon.

The auto merge feature might need some tweaks in the activity, merit and pagination "modules" so actually might be more of a hassle.

That's just my two cents...