As I said, I don't want to judge the work done, I just want to share the idea that it didn't make sense to merge the 4 posts.
If there are 24h+ gaps between posts, it's fine to post them consecutively as they become bumps. However, once those bumps are no longer new, they will be merged together - no action required on your part.
And you're free to do so once every 24 hours. Once more posts have been made, the old posts serve little to no purpose notification-wise.
Okay, so merging the last 2 posts mentioned made sense. Especially because they were made days after the previous one. It doesn't make sense to put together the 2 posts + 2 posts made several days later.
As consecutive posts and bumps generally should not be considered stable (as in they might be merged with previous posts), my suggestion would be to have a single dedicated post where you collect historical statistics with the bumps / update-type posts serving as merely updates with new stats to those actively keeping track of the thread. Either that or when you want post a new stats post that would become a consecutive post, simply edit in the stats at the end of your first post in a row and simply post a quick "heads up" post that new stats are available with a link to the edited post.
In fact I cannot agree with this point. One thing is dynamic statistics, which always refer to the same element and have to be updated. This is what already happens in OP, where the total value of the uploaded images appears.
Now I was talking about specific statistics, which only refer to a certain period of time. Having a single post gathering all these statistics over time would make it difficult to read, in addition to the technical limits on the number of characters.
The statistics post of the month is specific and not an aggregate, which makes no sense to be mixed with other posts.
While I'm generally not against the concept of exceptions to the consecutive post rule for topics where it especially makes sense, IMO the seemingly small inconvenience of simply editing in the stats or whatever info you want to regularly post at the first of several consecutive posts (that is if the stats you wanted to post would become a consecutive post instead of already being sandwiched by other users' posts) warrants an exception.
That's the point. If no one posts on the topic, after I create the statistics post, the following month I will come back with a new post with the statistics. It would have everything in sequence.
The problem is not that I have to edit the OP, it just ends up changing the dynamics of the topic that has been working like this for 2 years. I don't think that makes sense. Only merged the "status update" posts, wouldn't have even made this post, because it makes perfect sense. I think what wasn't right was just combining the statistics post (something that is done every month in the same way) with other posts.
But, well, it's done, it's done, nothing to do and we remain friends as before. I thought this reflection was good and that it should be done.
EDIT:
@mprep As a web developer, you know how annoying it can be when aesthetic sequences don't match the "vision" of a company/service. If you're like me, down to the pixel... you know what I'm saying.
