Merging two different discussions can on rare occasions be a good thing, but if you’re tempted to do that, ask first, and get agreement from people on both discussions before you do it. Just because you think two discussions are covering the same topic does not mean that a merged comment thread with all the comments from both places would be productive; it’s usually weird and hard to follow. Also, people who were participating in one or the other, or both, will be disoriented. It’s especially so when the subject lines of the two are substantially different, and it also means people will look for a subject they think they remember seeing, and not find it.
When in doubt, don’t merge. Comment with a link.
When not in doubt – still don’t mere. But you could ask people on both threads if they think merging would be useful, and if it looks like consensus, then maybe merge.
As for closing discussions - that has no value whatsoever. If people have something more to say, they’ll be frustrated, but they’ll reopen the discussion anyway, and it’ll just be a different post. That makes things harder to follow. Just leave all discussions open, and they’ll quiet down when people don’t have more to say.
I have closed a few when they clearly relate to the same issue. So I would tend to disagree.
However I reflect on it and I usually put a post to say that I did. It will be such a jungle in some parts of this forum I disagree in keeping it wild and let people speak about the same topic/problem simultaneously and separately.
Visiting a few forums I have noticed that people have their needs to “own” their own discussions. I think this is the case here.
If you have an issue, a question, a problem, a feedback, suggestio its., look for a discussion with a similar thematic. There is really no need to open a new if we have a very similar one.
A forum does not function that way, that you have a problem, enter and click the new theme button. And after the moderators have to clean up.
There is a forum culture that we might follow, written or not.
sometimes it makes sense to open a thread, sometimes it does’t (read yourself through hundreds of messages?). @Cos is in the habit or writing walls of text; definitely not in the habit of opening threas for each little stupid thing that happened last evening . I am not “defending” him - he can do it that very well, even fiercely, if necesary - but defending the idea that one should really “read attentively / ponder/reflect” before merging deleting moving. Nothing more, nothing less.
Needs of users are what forums are made from. Business of moderators is to “clean” as appropriate
Yes, and it means that it is on You first to consider whether to open a new one or revive an old one.
To have a hundreds with the same theme or one with a lots of posts? Practice on one of the forums is to close the theme after a certain number of posts. For example 1000. And open a new one with the same name. And it functions. Also a good practice is to have a “waiting room” for the themes. By that time, the moderator reads it, and decides whether to leave it solo or to put it in the theme where it belongs. Cause the moderators know the forum best.
And the question : “If you have a right to have your own discussion, why can’t I?”
I moderated for a couple of years on another forum in the past, and I very rarely merged topics. So, like Arete_Hime, I’d say that I mostly agree with cos’s points.
I think the main idea behind my approach with ‘duplicate topics’ was to try to nip them in the bud. If they are really covering the exact same material as an earlier thread, then I’d provide a link to that thread and close the new one. The earlier you do this, the less of the conversation is lost or thrown off track.
Merging would only come in rare cases, like if a ‘duplicate topic’ was somehow missed for a long period of time, and it was later decided to be redundant. I wouldn’t want to close a topic with a lot of posts, so it’s at that point that I would consider merging (though not necessarily actually do it).
I feel that it’s important to consider the ‘conversation flow’ that the new merged topic would have. I’m generally reluctant to merge two topics that are/were going simultaneously, as (I think?) the posts would then get shuffled together, according to the posting dates within the two original topics. That, in my opinion, is just an unmanageable mess, and should be avoided, as it completely disrupts the flow of both conversations.
These are just my thoughts though. I think a very important part of being a moderator is to be open to listening to differing ideas from the community, and I plan to keep an ear open for that going forward.
I mostly agree with you. I’ve noticed sometimes things get merged and one of the original OPs don’t get answered because someone didn’t take the time to understand their question. This means questions go unanswered. Also, it is confusing to follow merged posts.
On the other hand some people don’t look before posting and the search function doesn’t always bring up the correct results when they do. I know in other forums I see the same exact question repeatedly. Certainly the Duolingo users on here know how many people want to be the “first” the post about a new course and ignore the dozens of other posts already making that announcement. That can be a waste of space. A lot of space. And it makes for a tiresome forum.
Commenting to bump this thread to recent, and repeat my plea:
Please stop merging topics!!!
It creates a mess. Even when it’s “right”, it makes it really hard to follow the conversation, and confuses people, and muddles the subject lines.
It’s worse when it’s wrong, which happens all too often, when people merge based on a quick skim or misunderstanding. Then you end up with similar yet subtly different things on the same thread, which is even more confusing, plus people can’t cleanly comment on one or the other, because everyone from both topics sees it.
Just don’t merge. Ever. It’s almost never a good thing. Just comment with a link to the thread you think someone might want to move to.
We have had that conversation openly and privately and we all have our opinion on that subject. I don’t agree with this generalized “don’t” I think we can use our sense to help us in making the right decision and must accept that we make mistakes.
I really got confused with all those tapping errors that have cropped up recently. Hydro has changed some titles and it helps, I did hesitate too.
But so many threads were created in the different language sections it was a nightmare.
I would just agree on a : “if you decide to … be VERY VERY careful.”
Moving threads to a more appropriate topic is totally fine.
And when you think a new post is really just a duplicate of some other post that has more discussion already, you can comment with a link and say something like “I think someone already mentioned that and they’re discussing it over there, want to go there and add your comments?” People are pretty good about doing that, when it turns out you’re right, or pointing out that their post is different when it is.
Bumping this thread, because it just happened to me yet again!
Someone asked a specific question about specific words in a course I maintain… and before I could answer, someone else merged it into a generic “course forum” post. DON’T DO THIS.
That is exactly my point, 3 threads for the same course now, each would require a thread? And the former two threads are still open.
Some courses have masses of anomalies, an English or Chinese section would be littered with threads of disambiguation with such approach.
The memrise courses are source of frequent flags, imagine if each case, among all 7 levels required a new thread every time.
It is unnecessary for all issues about the same course to be lumped into one never-ending one-dimensional comment stream on a single post. It may seem okay at first, when this forum is new and the list of comments is short, but in the long run it will make things unmanageable. Having a separate post for each individual issue has many advantages:
The post topic can specifically and accurately reflect what the discussion is about.
When you search for a particular issue, you’ll find that post, and quickly and easily see the discussion about that issue.
Problem reports, questions about words, and so on, won’t get lost, hidden in long threads about many different topics. If someone asked a question about a meaning of something, for example, and nobody answered it for many months, but later one someone searches for the same thing and answers it, the answer will be right there, right next to the question, where everyone else can understand what people are talking about.
What’s wrong with having 3 threads for the same course, other than offending someone’s personal sense of order? There’s no limit to how many threads are here, and older inactive threads will scroll off the lists and won’t get in anyone’s way, but people would still be able to find them by searching. Anyone who wants to report a new problem can just start a new post.
It would of course be much much better if we could have a separate forum for each course. But memrise took that away from us. However, we always had lots of different posts, each with their own comment thread, for every course, and we can and IMO should continue doing that.
In any case, don’t close or merge other people’s topics! You may think it’s better your way, but all you’ll do is pollute all the posts with extra meta-discussion and confusion because of your actions.
You are continuing to fight a battle that has already been lost.
Memrise management decided that all posts related to a single course should be grouped into one [Course Forum] thread, and explicitly directed us to do so. The moderators are simply doing as they were instructed.
Most of the people who have voiced an opinion on that decision agree that it is not ideal, and think that it will eventually prove to be unmanageable, but Memrise management does not see it that way as of now.
Although having a dedicated forum for each course would be ideal, the current forum is not structured that way.
The only thing worse than one long thread per course would be having a separate thread for each topic, issue, question or complaint, given the current forum structure that is not designed for it, which is what you are advocating.
Having multiple threads per course goes against the express instructions of management, and clutters up the forum home page. Complaining about the moderators who properly merge threads according to Memrise policy is unjustified.
