Is there a built in function in vBullitin for merging threads or do you do it manually? Is it a real PITA to do cos I don’t see merged threads that often so I assume that some mods just cant be bothered doing it.
It’s possible to merge threads automatically. But I imagine if the mods went around merging threads willy-nilly it would be very time consuming.
Heh. I’m still planning to merge MPSIMS into one giant thread. Wouldn’t that be fun?
Have the mods ever merged a thread?
I know that bibliophage has merged a few threads, in cases where it got accidentally double-posted and both copies got replies. But I don’t think I’ve ever seen it done by any other mod, and bib seemed to be on an insane-amount-of-free-time-available-for-modding kick at the time.
I’ve merged a couple in MPSIMS when it seemed appropriate - two front page threads on the same topic started by different members (usually a breaking news item), or in instances of double-posted threads with replies to both.
The merge function inserts all posts from the object thread (including the OP) in chronological order into the target thread. That sounds nifty, but if a conversation has gone on too long it can look kinda weird when a second conversation is dropped into it at odd places. Makes both conversations a bit disjointed.
So why don’t the mods make a mention that the threads were merged to give people a heads up and an explanation for why parts of the combined thread may seem disjointed? Maybe you do, but I’ve never seen it. Of course with as wacky as some threads get around here I probably assumed any disjointedness was just par for the course.
Every merged thread I’ve seen (and it was done to one of mine, buy UncaB, I believe) has both had a note from the mod to the effect that it’s the product of a merge and had that disjointed conversation feel.
I’ve done it a number of times over on the Pizza Parlor, most recently with a thread started by cjhoworth on an issue that fit into a series of threads that we were doing up on a month-by-month basis. There is a vBB option for doing it, but it’s just a mite tricky, and it does consume significant server resources to do it. Also, and this was important in the case I cited, there’s no way to supersede the in-chronological-order-by-date-stamp sequence of posts – which meant that the new thread I started and incorporated cj’s thread into claimed to have been started by her – I e-mailed her with apologies and an explanation! 
This is probably true far more often than merged threads go unnoted. As stated right here, it’s something we only do rarely.
Here’s an excellent example:
http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=104128
You wound me.
It doesn’t happen too often, partly because if the boards are weird enough people are double-posting or multi-posting threads (and at least two of the threads have gotten actual replies), the board may be too weird to allow for a process as evidently hamster-intensive as merging threads. But yeah, we do it from time to time, generally with a quick note to that effect in the new Frankenthread.
Heh.
This little phrase makes me think there’s potentially a whole lot of “hamster” derivations waiting to be coined. Mega-hamsters, hamster-bytes, hamster cycles, hamsterbase…
“Your post count sometimes doesn’t update because we’re having a hamster stack overflow.”
Heh.
Curse you, Cervaise!! Your comment just above jarred from the recesses of my memory where it was deservedly buried the day I was babysitting Jordan and he insisted on watching Hamtaro, where the hamsters were attempting to get a very pretty star overhead, and climbed up on each other’s backs…
Aaaiieiiieeeeee!!!
May a hundred tortures harvested at random from particularly invective-filled Pit posts descend upon you!!
Hey, I didn’t know that the Mod-bots were wind-up! Let’s see if this works…
turns the big metal key in MEBuckner’s side a few times, and watches him run around the room
Cool!
But seriously, I presume that most of the cases where you’ve done this are in GD, and I spend a vanishingly small amount of time there. My having only seen this done by bib is mostly a selection effect from hanging out in GQ.
Mod-er-a-tor’s Note: Please re-view the fo-rum de-scrip-tions lo-ca-ted on the in-dex page. Al…so please re…view… our… Fre… quent… ly… Asked… Ques… tions… threads… lo… ca… ted… in…
our…
A…
Bout…
This…
Mes…
sage…
Board…
fo…
rum.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
You have just witnessed a Moderator Meltdown.
So, are we gonna let the dog bury it now?