POLL - Thread merging - for or against?

[Gordinho]

very few threads are merged. If you don't think that there enough interesting, original, thought provoking, new threads on the board then you should try and start some.

Catch 22 sadly, someone will point out it should be in the xxx thread and a mod will merge it or markysimmo will say "there's already a thread on that mate" when his CDO* kicks in. That may not be what actually happens but that's the way it feels nowadays. I rarely click on superthreads for all the reasons others have mentioned but I'll click on every new thread if the title draws me in.




*That's not a personal attack, Marky has stated in the past he gets a bit obsessive about it.

 

[Spur of the moment]

very few threads are merged.If you don't think that there enough interesting, original, thought provoking, new threads on the board then you should try and start some.

Most have given up trying 'cos we know what would happen.
.

 

[Danners9]

Strongly against the thread merging.

Other teams results, for example, could be a weekly - Saturday morning - thread. Letting the old one drop down.
Transfer gossip, daily during the window. Bit late now, I guess.

If it's a megathread, where do you start? just go to the last page and miss out on other posts?

Smaller, repetitive threads can be.. say 2 or 3 are started on the same topic on the same day.

 

[Spursalot]

Strongly against the thread merging.

Other teams results, for example, could be a weekly - Saturday morning - thread. Letting the old one drop down.
Transfer gossip, daily during the window. Bit late now, I guess.

If it's a megathread, where do you start? just go to the last page and miss out on other posts?

Smaller, repetitive threads can be.. say 2 or 3 are started on the same topic on the same day.

You press the blue downward arrow and it takes you to the first unread post for your account.. 8-[

 

[Danners9]

You press the blue downward arrow and it takes you to the first unread post for your account.. 8-[

For me, most of those would be the first ever post. So I am not going to read it.

If the thread was smaller, I probably would.

Most of the time I press 'new posts' and then 'mark all as read' because the additions are to giant threads that hold zero interest. I wonder who else does this....

 

[southstand1882]

Agree with Danners9

The problem with the thread merging, and super threads in general

Is that you might have read 100 pages.

You come back and there are 300 pages.

Unbeknownst to you, on page 200, there is the "ball boy assaulted post"

A "ball boy assaulted thread" makes the forum far more useful

Thread merging has ruined SN&V

EDIT: I don't want to wade through 200 unread pages, just to find a single golden post. It works fine in random, because there a less posters. e.g. the betting thread. But SN&V is a different animal. SN&V is broken. Thread merging is the culprit.

 

[onlyme]

Thread merging is a good thing but can you imagine a newspaper with the same headline every day? How many copies would be sold?
It is absolutely essential for any chat site to have something to chat about. And every chat needs a starting point. At the moment therer are no new posters and the same old names running the same arguments.
The mods do a great job but they must remember what W.G. Grace said to the umpire who gave him out.
And for the umpteenth and oneth time-can a mod please explain why there are 2 Ade threads?

 

[Crawley]

Agree with Danners9

The problem with the thread merging, and super threads in general

Is that you might have read 100 pages.

You come back and there are 300 pages.

Unbeknownst to you, on page 200, there is the "ball boy assaulted post"

A "ball boy assaulted thread" makes the forum far more useful

Thread merging has ruined SN&V

EDIT: I don't want to wade through 200 unread pages, just to find a single golden post. It works fine in random, because there a less posters. e.g. the betting thread. But SN&V is a different animal. SN&V is broken. Thread merging is the culprit.

TBH, I think there is something of an over-reaction here.

MILO has already apologised regarding the ball boy, and admitted in hindsight it need not be done, but apart from that, seriously, how many other threads have been fully merged recently. Be honest.
It really isn't that many. AFAIK it is only done to proper duplicate threads 99% of the time.


And, once again, please don't forget, the mods are the same as you lot.............we work, we sleep, we have lives. We do not get paid for this, we are not here 24/7. We have never claimed to be perfect and can make mistakes as much as the next person.

 

[Crawley]

Thread merging is a good thing but can you imagine a newspaper with the same headline every day? How many copies would be sold?
It is absolutely essential for any chat site to have something to chat about. And every chat needs a starting point. At the moment therer are no new posters and the same old names running the same arguments.
The mods do a great job but they must remember what W.G. Grace said to the umpire who gave him out.
And for the umpteenth and oneth time-can a mod please explain why there are 2 Ade threads?

And thereby sits the greater problem.

Threads taken off topic by those who insist on carrying arguments across un-related threads.

The Harry/AVB argument crops up just about everywhere, and I know from PMs how fed up with this many posters are.

 

[diego_maradona]

And for the umpteenth and oneth time-can a mod please explain why there are 2 Ade threads?

Your question is very important to us and we will get back to you as soon as possible. You are currently in a queue, please be patient and we will be with you soon.

 

[7percent]

MILO has already apologised regarding the ball boy, and admitted in hindsight it need not be done, but apart from that, seriously, how many other threads have been fully merged recently. Be honest.

I don't blame Milo one bit - I think he did what 90% of mods would do - seen a new thread and tidied it away.

I think it's probably best that the mods discuss some guidelines for merging threads. I would suggest the most topical threads be given room to breathe. In a week (or less) the ball boy incident would be forgotten and the thread sinks.. that's how message boards work.

The ball-boy thread (as an example) might have had legs, it might have turned into the most hilarious thread by now with a photoshop contest and caption competitions and all sorts. It might be one click away from moving to the classics. It may also have been hijacked by people arguing over AVB v Redknapp and yet more people complaining "does this need it's own thread?"

I don't post too much on here either, one of the reasons is that I'm worried that if I start a thread with what I think is a worthwhile discussion topic then other posters will berate me as there's two other mega threads my discussion point could have been brought up in.

Then there's the mega thread themselves. It's like arriving really late for a dinner party, realising all the adults have gone to bed and it's just their teenage sons finishing all the booze, talking brick and vomiting everywhere. What should I do with the nice bottle I brought? I certainly don't wanna waste it on some teenage kids who are gonna vomit it everywhere. If I post it in a mega thread then it gets lost among infighting and off-topic posts.

I think what I'm trying to say is, within reason, leave a new thread be and see if something good comes from it.

Is there a way for mods to flag threads to each other? maybe if the first mod that thinks it should be merged marks it somehow and then a second mod, if he agrees, can merge it? then there's no one person taking responsibility.

 

[ringo]

How about a poll on whether we are for or against polls.

 

[Holsten76]

I don't like this whole merging business. As a poster said earlier, there was a time you logged on everyday to find new topics and interesting discussions, now I don't bother coming on us much and I'm sure I'm not the only one.

I vote get rid!

 

[Jordinho]

I tend to skip new threads if the title doesn't interest me, whereas I always check the long running ones. The lack of interesting discussion has IMO very little to do with merging and more to do with the quality of posts . There's far too much crap being posted.

This is just my personal opinion, but for me the problems are posters that...

care more about catching others being "wrong"

drag up old arguments to discredit newer posts

post unfunny quips and snide remarks instead of joining the discussion

will try and turn anything into a Harry discussion

need to brand others as 'pro' or 'anti' on various topics

don't bother reading what others post before posting themselves

can't accept other opinions than their own being remotely correct

are always sniping at other posters or groups of posters they don't agree with

 

[Spangran]

I understand the need for merging duplicate threads but it's done to the level where it makes the site look really stale. I had a previous account on here which I've lost the details to, haven't bothered to re-register until now exactly because of this.

If there are not many threads being merged as the admins say then it leads me to think that people will not start threads here anymore which is leading to the same cycle of posters which less frequent contributers can quickly feel excluded from. The arriving late at a party analogy is a good one. Perhaps a party where you don't really know anyone.

Keep feeling I might be doing something wrong if I was to post so I don't. Certainly wouldn't dream of doing something as message board like as starting a thread.

 

[Crawley]

I say again, the ball-boy one aside, I'd like those complaining to list when they've had a thread merged recently (that wasn't a direct duplicate of one already existing).

I honestly sense a bit of band-wagon jumping here.

Must be the annual "bash the mods week". :lol:

Once again, would never claim us to be faultless though.

 

[Jordinho]

There are few reasons given that I really don't get. You don't need to start a new thread every time you have a new thought. We've gone through phases with posters like that and they were not met with approval. When I first started out I found much easier to start posting in existing threads than starting new ones. Might just be me, but why is it so important to have your thoughts or opinions in a separate thread, if not for the attention? If it's a good post it will get noticed wherever you put it.

I go on opposition forums quite a bit to see what they're up to and I find the most organized ones to be the best ones. Those that have a first page littered with threads that have poor titles and few responses appear far staler and far less interesting. If I want to read about Gareth Bale or have something on my mind that I'd like to share I go to the thread titled Gareth Bale. Should I somehow come up with some ground breaking new idea I could even create a new thread about it. Say 'Classic wingers vs Inverted wingers'. I really don't see how the possibility of it getting merged with another thread should deter anyone else from doing so. Generally speaking , I feel that most complaints about merging come from thread starters that are unhappy about their thread not being "approved". Again we come to the need for attention. This is also manifested in the posters that respond to everything, regardless of whether they have anything to add, which they usually don't.

I do agree that some of the "mega threads" can appear a bit stale from time to time, but there isn't an endless supply of things to post. You will get circular arguments and old arguments popping up now and again. I do wish we could cut down on deliberately dragging up old stuff that's been done to death already.

 

[Seedy Ron]

I say again, the ball-boy one aside, I'd like those complaining to list when they've had a thread merged recently (that wasn't a direct duplicate of one already existing).

I honestly sense a bit of band-wagon jumping here.

Must be the annual "bash the mods week". :lol:

Once again, would never claim us to be faultless though.

Maybe people have learned the behaviour and just post in the general threads?

There are few reasons given that I really don't get. You don't need to start a new thread every time you have a new thought. We've gone through phases with posters like that and they were not met with approval. When I first started out I found much easier to start posting in existing threads than starting new ones. Might just be me, but why is it so important to have your thoughts or opinions in a separate thread, if not for the attention? If it's a good post it will get noticed wherever you put it.

I don't think anyone wants to see that, but as a lot of people have already said, I don't bother reading the mega threads anymore. If you're in the discussion from the off I can see how they work for you, but outside of that they're almost inaccessible.

The poll doesn't make much sense, because merging will be needed sometimes, I just think the remit of the mega threads is so wide (Other Teams & Games thread, for example) that there's not much that doesn't fall into those areas.

 

[Jordinho]

Maybe people have learned the behaviour and just post in the general threads?


I don't think anyone wants to see that, but as a lot of people have already said, I don't bother reading the mega threads anymore. If you're in the discussion from the off I can see how they work for you, but outside of that they're almost inaccessible.

The poll doesn't make much sense, because merging will be needed sometimes, I just think the remit of the mega threads is so wide (Other Teams & Games thread, for example) that there's not much that doesn't fall into those areas.

The whole point of the other teams and games thread is to post minor stuff about other teams and chat about games. None of the mega threads is one long discussion. Rather than start a new thread to proclaim to the world that Lloris played a great match, you just put it in the existing thread, It's still there for everyone to see. It's very rare that threads have more than one page of posts added in the space of one day.

 

[Crawley]

Maybe people have learned the behaviour and just post in the general threads?


I don't think anyone wants to see that, but as a lot of people have already said, I don't bother reading the mega threads anymore. If you're in the discussion from the off I can see how they work for you, but outside of that they're almost inaccessible.

The poll doesn't make much sense, because merging will be needed sometimes, I just think the remit of the mega threads is so wide (Other Teams & Games thread, for example) that there's not much that doesn't fall into those areas.

I think the "other teams" thread is badly titled. Originally (last season) it was purely to discuss other teams matches and results, which worked well, IMO, but this year, due to the title, it has become a bit too much all encompassing admittedly.

As for other "mega-threads".......well, currently, we have the AVB thread, and the Harry thread, which people continually post in, and indeed keep re-working the same arguments in, so you probably are not missing much.

What else, currently, could be deemed a "mega-thread"?