Automatic double post merging.

Berlyn

I've actually seen this on a number of other pieces of forum software, but to alleviate the ever painful double post debate, maybe we could make double posts automatically merge into the previously posted topic. You could even distinguish between the posts with a horizontal line, but even just paragraph merging is probably fine.

Fastidious

Doubt it can be done "automatically," but having the ability to move posts has always been part of forum "administrativia," no?

Toby

I like this idea. 👌

Fastidious brings up a good point too: The ability to move posts between discussions is something we want to get to eventually.

Toby

Just to clarify: I think @Berlyn is talking about merging double posts within a discussion, not two separate discussions. So if I made this post...

Toby

...And then posted again, it would be merged into my first post.

Berlyn

Like so...

Franz

What about just merging them visually? (Similar to Berlyn's screenshot; without the avatar and username, just with a new timestamp).

Solves the problem on the user interface level, but avoids the complexity of merging stuff like likes and so on.

(If we go for actually merging them, I'd propose simply showing a subtle merge button to admins on top of the separator line instead of doing it automatically.)

valgrid

The visual indicator should only separate text bodys like in Kulga example post. The indicator line should not reach into the avatar column. Like in Berlyn post. Because it only separates content, not users.

Dominion

I like the idea of merging posts, especially if a separator line is used.

But it would be a good idea to add a "x minutes ago" timestamp above each segment, even if the username is not added. There are occasions when the time at which information was posted becomes important.

Another thing to consider is what happens to likes on the first post when the second post is added. And of course there's the issue of max post length that Kulga mentioned...

Perhaps instead of merging the posts, you could just tweak the post formatting of both posts so there's less padding above and below the divider line?

Toby The ability to move posts between discussions is something we want to get to eventually.

Also the ability to split threads and merge one thread into another (which I think has been mentioned perviously elsewhere) could be done as special types of post moving.

Kulga

What about duplicate posts? Just merge those together?

Berlyn

Kulga You could even do a string comparison on the previous messagesubmitted, if they are an identical match then just don't add the reply because it's obviously a duplicate.

Kulga

I suppose my other concern is max post length. For example this discussion Dominion made is of significant length
So is there a max post length? Because if there is, automatic post merging shouldn't exist since that could create a limitation on total post length which does sometimes validly happen.

JesusIsGodAlmighty

Franz Would work fine as well, as long as you admins does not complain about it 😉 Then that could be a solution as well. A minor feature to decide from Flarum if you want this to happen or not. Then people can chose if they want or do not want double posting in there forum, or have it look like it does not or has.

poush

Merging a post is good but it should be added as unread to other users. Many forums merge posts but those posts which are merged aren't under unread post for others.

Pete

poush makes a good point if Flarum eventually goes down the route of merging posts at a DB level. It annoys me when I post something, then think of some important bit of detail I missed and I know people are reading my post (busy forums etc) and they're not notified that it has been edited. I would like the post time to change or at least for the topic to display that it has new posts - perhaps that might be a little confusing if you're taken to the same post you read but with minor differences, so perhaps an "updated" time might be handy?

Since the poster who is posting again in quick succession has no choice with this sort of feature over whether it's merged or not you could be adding something hugely important you forgot to mention a minute earlier and it just gets lost in with your previous post. If Flarum eventually merged posts that way that is.

The visual merging and not actually merging them behind the scenes solution works just as well for all this though, perhaps better the more I think about it, but thought this was worth mentioning.

JesusIsGodAlmighty

poush Ahhh, yea okay - that might become a problem if any new data is added it it does not tell people that it is updated. I don't know - i never been an admin and thereby I don't know the problem of double posting - a lot of admins seems to have a problem with it - although i don't see the big issue overall but maybe that's because I have not had a forum for myself to take care of, don't know. But as long as the things that is written is valid, I don't know.....

Toby

This is how it would look.

It doesn't actually save much room (we still need whitespace because each post still has Like/Reply controls that show on hover), but it does look a little nicer without the username/avatar. The timestamp wouldn't be necessary if we only merged posts that are less than a few hours apart. Thoughts?

wizgriz

Franz As far as merging posts is concerned, I think it's a nifty feature, as long as we keep it to posts made on the same day (or within a certain amount of hours).

This! Sometimes you want to double post.

Although...

Toby This makes me think that this merging could be purely visual (correct me if this is already the case), similar to how esotalk doesn't show the same avatar consecutively. Basically it's two posts made to look like one. For extensions that make use of post counts this might be an issue but honestly if people are spamming their posts should probably be deleted altogether.

Dominion

I dunno ... in some cases, that few hours could be really important.

As for the whitespace ...

... how 'bout putting the Like/Reply links on the same line as the "xxx likes this", but right-aligned at the right margin?

Toby

Dominion ... how 'bout putting the Like/Reply links on the same line as the "xxx likes this", but right-aligned at the right margin?

This makes sense, but I'm hesitant as it would take quite a bit of getting used to 😛

http://i.imgur.com/MQa3qAY.png

Keen to hear what people think.

Berlyn

Toby Nope, I personally prefer it being where it currently is.

Eldenroot

+1 - any progress on this feature?

Toby

Dominion

That was a quick mockup! I think it looks good.

My only concern would be whether it would fit on a smaller screen. (If the post already has a few likes, the list of user names could take up the whole screen width.) If that's going to cause trouble, perhaps you could hide the "xxx likes this" while the links are displayed?

Franz

I like @Dominion's idea; can't be sure without trying it out, though 😉

As far as merging posts is concerned, I think it's a nifty feature, as long as we keep it to posts made on the same day (or within a certain amount of hours).

Franz

wizgriz This makes me think that this merging could be purely visual (correct me if this is already the case), similar to how esotalk doesn't show the same avatar consecutively. Basically it's two posts made to look like one. For extensions that make use of post counts this might be an issue but honestly if people are spamming their posts should probably be deleted altogether.

It's only visual. Although I still like the idea of a button (or action link) between two merged posts offering to merge them together quickly.