I’m not sure what in particular you went to look for, but there are actually a fair number of Wonderland related threads that are active and open, so maybe one of these will help:
Agree. I like to search forum by thread topic. If a thread topic have a specific problem/issue, I think mod shouldn’t merge it. It is easier to tackle a specific issue in smaller thread rather than searching it in a jungle.
I did a search on closed posts in the last month myself too, just to make sure. That would have been really bad. One of those rare cases where I’m really glad NOT to have found something while searching
Yes, and I (or someone) normally do in cases where it’s unclear — that was what I was referring to, from earlier when discussing post titles:
This was what I was getting at — post titles like that typically have to be edited for there to be much hope of someone guessing the topic, or even finding it via search.
And honestly, that title actually wasn’t that vague in the scheme of typical ones.
There are a lot of posts created every day with titles like “help,” “is this right?,” “have you seen this?,” etc. — you may not see them though, because moderators and forum regulars try to edit them for clarity, and are actually usually pretty on top of them.
FYI, There are currently approximately 75 forum users who can edit post titles or recategorize posts.
I too thing things get merged too quickly. Some clearly need to be merged (especially bugs), but many can work there way in peace. The ones that are mostly challenging are those that are merged with long ago posts. Sometimes it’s easier just to have a quick thread to discuss something. Hope this makes some sense.
You don’t need to list a lot right to explain the wrong. A lot right won’t cover uo how it can be abused. You can use money legally in tons of situstions. It however says none about whether you use them illegslly under the same anong of situations.
And, the majority of the work is first rate; however, as the number of posts has grown (will leave quality out of this), more things are being lumped together and pinned. How big does the font have to be for TL;DR. Let some of those merge-eligible threads die.
It seems like the Wonderland heroes thread is the sticking point in this discussion, and we’ve already had good insights above on how to handle that sort of thing better next time.
I’ll also reiterate that the messiness of that thread is nearly entirely not the result of mergers — it grew organically. The post title was updated to cover what people were actually already discussing.
Of the 230+ posts in that thread, something like 8 are from the merges that prompted this discussion.
So if the main complaint is that people talk about too many different things in some threads…I agree.
If you want to contribute to fixing that, start new, specific topics with clear titles when you see threads getting bulky. That way there are separate topics for people to go to.
And if a stray “good” topic with a single post and no responses was merged in — by me or someone else — I apologize.
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.
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.
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!
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):
Merge clear duplicates, leave separate topics alone
Don’t merge existing conversations into other ones, only single duplicates or a quick response or two
Everyone prefers shorter threads on narrower topics (me too!)
Titles that indicate what the thread is about are useful
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)
It’d be nice to have at least one thread about each hero
When a thread is merged, seeing the closed one listed is annoying (this is fixable going forward)
Real complaints should never be put into the Ridiculous Complaints Thread (they’re not, just reiterating that)
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.
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.
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!
