I don’t agree. That may have started it, but I’ve been feeling this way for a while. I think we’re too quick to merge. I feel shorter threads are easier to read and navigate. Yes, merge duplicates. Especially those from the same day. But when you really need to search out and find a match, it probably doesn’t need to be merged. The average user doesn’t do that and this could frustrate them when they come for help.
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It’s harder for me personally to speak to that then — it predates me being one of the mods and having any decision making in that.
I agree with this. This is definitely what I think should happen too.
I agree with this for discussions — less so for #ideas-feature-requests and #bugs-issues, which are actually what is more often merged. Those don’t get SG’s attention when there are a ton of duplicates with a single post each.
(Also, SG itself has said no duplicates allowed for that reason.)
The average user not searching before creating topics is what causes any of this in the first place. 
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I agree with most of what you said. Bugs and features are ideal for this feature. While you haven’t been a mod too long, you have flagged similar ones for merge. I was referring to items like that.
That said, I’m not gonna reply again here. I hope you don’t feel I’m attacking you. I think you do a good job. I’m just trying to give some constructive feedback. Keep making the forum a better place! 
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What’s Next?
So far, no one has really suggested anything that I personally disagree with.
(Obviously none of this is up to me personally, SG makes decisions on Forum Rules, there are multiple moderators, any forum Regular can help with posts titles/categories, and anyone in this thread who creates a topic can help make it clear in the title and top post what it is.)
That said, my main takeaways (which, again, I agree with all of):
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Merge clear duplicates, leave separate topics alone
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Don’t merge existing conversations into other ones, only single duplicates or a quick response or two
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Everyone prefers shorter threads on narrower topics (me too!)
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Titles that indicate what the thread is about are useful
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When there’s a thread that’s grown large organically, it can be useful to start a new one (e.g. pre-release Wonderland heroes vs. post-release)
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It’d be nice to have at least one thread about each hero
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When a thread is merged, seeing the closed one listed is annoying (this is fixable going forward)
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Real complaints should never be put into the Ridiculous Complaints Thread (they’re not, just reiterating that)
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As a reader, use your Likes, and the summarize button
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SG should perhaps consider more specific topic categories for the forum, so threads can stay separate while still not being a jumbled mess
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Common topics that people are looking for could be well served by clear guide topics that pointed people in the right direction
I read back through the whole thread to synopsize.
Did I miss anything?
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Start off by saying I too am finding it difficult to follow a thread that has too much merging.
I know that having x number of threads about the same thing is annoying. And have called the attention of the mods to such threads in the past.
And yes, it would be helpful if people searched the forum first, before starting a new topic. However - for this to function properly, old threads, that haven’t seen any activity in months, should be closed. Otherwise, the person that has searched, will add his post to a necro’d thread, which is also not very helpful. And merging threads into an old thread is also not helpful, because often the things being discussed are no longer relevant (changes made to war matchmaking; heroes that have been buffed/nerfed since OP; bugs that happened months ago…).
So, in short (TL;DR) old threads should be closed.
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A worthwhile observation, and someone on staff must have agreed with this too — threads now auto-close after 30 days of inactivity.
The problem is all the old threads from before whenever that was enabled don’t automatically close.
I’ve been closing a lot of old ones when I run into things that are outdated and inactive. But I’m not sure that there’s any way to deal with them in bulk without a lot of manual effort.
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I’d like to thank you for ignoring my attitude and focusing on the issue in a helpful way, you’re a great addition to the mod team. Every mod earned the position because they’re great members of the community who do their best to make it a better place and people who care about the community. I apologize for some of the language I used, full disclosure I’m quitting smoking and drinking so I’m super irritable. And yeah I’ve been annoyed about lots of merges in the past month or two and this wonderland thing kind of set me off. It’s too late to change the rude tone of my comments but I hope it doesn’t leave a lasting impression on any of the mod team as I generally appreciate the work you guys and gals put in. Thanks for your time!
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Sometime yes, it troubles people more then help.
But i do not bother too much. I guess mods have always good intentions and want to show (to us and the staff) they care for the forum and their role.
Just a suggest: don’t overdo it 
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I’m okay with merging for the most part, but my biggest issue is merging different heroes together. I really don’t want wonderland or any other calendar event heroes grouped together. For example, Hatter having his own thread compared to Alice is very appropriate. Anyone that pulled Alice probably could care less about QoH or hatter or cat discussions.
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I think its a learning experience for the moderators. I like having things neat and tidy and multiple threads about some topics - like a known topic about an obvious bug, etc., are tedious and drown out other topics.
I agree that topics about individual heroes are more helpful. I rarely get fancy five stars so I read a lot about vanilla heroes and their comparisons.
I’m sure it’s not an easy task for the moderators. I’m a speed reader and even I have a hard time slogging through some of those extra-long posts, not to mention threads with 400+ responses.
I try to find threads that match my question and I find I’m often reviving very outdated, long threads.
A clean up of some them would be helpful … maintaining any players guides within them, please.
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When you find outdated threads, you can tag moderators so we can close them and add a note that they’re outdated. 
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It wouldn’t be a terrible idea to have a discussion category specifically for events.
It would also be great to install a neural implant in every user that prevents them from ever typing the sentiment about how “they don’t get enough value for their dollar” maybe a little electrical zap now and then as they think about it.
these ideas (one plausible, the other never going to happen) could help clean up the threads.
But, in all seriousness, it feels like most of the new threads express some form of discontent over their draws, gems-to-hero conversion or some such thing. Those, I feel, are far more dangerously annoying than the merged threads for wonderland hero discussion.
Idea: Create a topic called “Black Hole: The Place for Gatcha understanding” and merge ALL of those complaints into it. barring that…
shrugs
walks away, whistling
No idea what I’m doing here
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Cross posting for future reference:
Absolutely agree. It’s ridiculous what moderators doing here.
Please merge 
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I strongly like merged topics. It’s already hard enough to find the threads I’m looking for without having a separate one for each rant, vent, or unoriginal idea!
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Not that many do get merged more obvious ones do, but on said hero that I’ll look at if I pull there alot of topics on them good bad should I give mats to etc
The search engine isn’t always as you think aswell as certain words aren’t used when you look sometimes have to think in e&p language which some people included me still getting to tasks with. The fourm is another language all on its own.
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I think it would be much easier to track large threads if those could be seen in a nested view.
Currently a given comment allows opening its associated responses, but responses to responses are not easily visible and you are forced to scroll to the “main instance” of the response.
Two more related issues:
- The same comment often appears twice: Once as response and once as a “main instance”. This clutters the thread. I would prefer a comment to appear only once, typically only as a response.
- Sometimes a comment appears only as a “main instance” and not as a response. I think it happens for example if the response came immediately after the comment it responds to. Anyway this feature further makes following the thread cumbersome. I would prefer a response to always appear as a response.
@CarryAll your feedback would be useful for the makers of the Forum software, which is called Discourse.
Feel free to share it on their feedback Forum:
Neither the moderators nor Small Giant have any control over implementing new Forum software features, unless there’s an existing plugin that can be utilized.
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Whether I strongly like or dislike merged topics is directly related to:
a. whether the merged topic is mine 
b. the definition of ‘similar’ threads (probably this point is the bane of all mods’ existence - how to tell if a thread is sufficiently different)
1 Like