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automatic merging of posts

Some forum software can merge posts from the same user, if there is no other post between them, automatically. Between the two texts a small info appears that the following text is automatically merged from another post. Looks good and seems to work great. Here's an example post:

https://www.android-hilfe.de/forum/google-pixel-2-pixel-2-xl.3144/diskussionen-zum-display-des-pixel-2-xl.850718-page-46.html#post-10763571

Re: automatic merging of posts

Reply #1 –

That's interesting.
The only problem I see is with the "new posts" indication (everywhere).
There are several edge cases to deal with but it's doable.
For example I guess it would need options to:
1) enable/disable
2) define the "how old the two posts should be to be merged"
3) permissions/enabling by board?
4) give the user the ability to decide if the new post is actually a merged one or not (with permissions, of course, because I can see the case admins and moderators want to be able to post multiple messages one after the other, while not let normal members do the same).
One potentially "huge" problem is with notifications, because the merged post would not generate a "new post" notification (since it's just appending the content to an existing post) and this may make people miss new content.
This one, though, would be solved by a proposal I posted yesterday at github https://github.com/elkarte/Elkarte/issues/3060
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Re: automatic merging of posts

Reply #2 –

Quote from: emanuele – One potentially "huge" problem is with notifications, because the merged post would not generate a "new post" notification (since it's just appending the content to an existing post) and this may make people miss new content.

When I remember correctly, SMF marked edited posts as "new". ElkArte works different?

I think it should. The system should merge two posts the moment the second post is saved. As this second post is new, the "new" marking should be set to the merged post as the merged post has new content.

Re: automatic merging of posts

Reply #3 –

Let's say you have a topic in second page and you are the last poster.
You post again and the post, instead of being added, it is merged to the previous one.
The post (both in Elk and in SMF) will remain on the second page, will not appear in "recent posts", I doubt (but to be honest I'm not 100% sure) it will appear in new replies, a new post notification email will not be sent, etc.

To me, in a similar situation, the expectation of the poster is completely different from the current behaviour (at least the expectation I would have as poster in a similar situation).
Bugs creator.
Features destroyer.
Template killer.

Re: automatic merging of posts

Reply #4 –

The addon on that xenforo forum is this. Once it was free and I still use the free version, it works fine, merges post, attachments, I did not tested notifications  :P

I already asked here for a similar addon for elkarte. As an alternative on elkarte you can use the addon made by @live627‍ Double post stopper, it is a bit different from the XF addon, but works fine and no more double posts on my forum since I use it.

p.s. I think we can merge the two topics
sorry for my bad english