Auto merge duplicates doing more harm than good

[tamarian]

Originally Posted by Xenon

Ok we know that there is no perfect way, as each thing has it's advantages and disadvantages, but the way it is now has fit in our needs the best.

And what are your needs? And how does this auto-merge thing fit those needs?

If the needs of the moderators is to not be annoyed by bumps, does that need outweight the rugular operations of a discussion forum, where, by default, members expect to be notified of new replies, and see those threads when they click "new posts"?

This really does not fit the usual comparison of advantages vs. disadvantages. It just seems extremely selfish to disable those standard features and alter the behavious of the forum for everyone, just because a few are more annoyed by bumps than the average joe. We all run forums, and we all deal with those bumps.

[Xenon]

Well and on your forum you can handle bumps as YOU want it to be handled, on our forum we have to handle that.
And we ahve decided for a way that we think it's the best. You might agree or not agree, but our experience showes that our way fits in the best for our needs.

An no it's not because mods are annoyed of bumps.
User get annoyed of bumps as well, especially if someone is bumping his topics more often so that other topics go down fast, which are actually newer ones.

[tamarian]

Originally Posted by Xenon

Well and on your forum you can handle bumps as YOU want it to be handled, on our forum we have to handle that.
And we ahve decided for a way that we think it's the best. You might agree or not agree, but our experience showes that our way fits in the best for our needs.

"Your" forum is actually a Jelsoft forum and not a personal forum, this is something you guys told me more than once.

My feedback on this has nothing to do with how I might run my forums. I'm simply giving you feedback and showing you specific cases where you are preventing me and other members from being notified of important replies to support issues. This doesn't have to be another "us and them" issue.

An no it's not because mods are annoyed of bumps.
User get annoyed of bumps as well, especially if someone is bumping his topics more often so that other topics go down fast, which are actually newer ones.

Both are annoying. But you have a stated rule against bumping. Don't punish all of us just because a few don't follw the rules.

[Marco van Herwaarden]

Tamarian this has been discussed numerous times, also a few times recently, and if this has so much of your interest, i can't believe you have missed those discussions. In those discussions we always ended up with members who liked it how it is now, and others who where of the opinion that there where more negaitve then positive sides to this. In the end all those discussions ended with enough support by members to keep the system how it is now.

So i am really curious why you try to force this discussion again. I find it very hard to look at this as a positive attempt to make this place batter.

[tamarian]

Originally Posted by MarcoH64

Tamarian this has been discussed numerous times, also a few times recently, and if this has so much of your interest, i can't believe you have missed those discussions. In those discussions we always ended up with members who liked it how it is now, and others who where of the opinion that there where more negaitve then positive sides to this. In the end all those discussions ended with enough support by members to keep the system how it is now.

So i am really curious why you try to force this discussion again. I find it very hard to look at this as a positive attempt to make this place batter.

Sure, I'll tell you.

I never noticed it taking place. I type fast, reply to one question and go to the next, and it looked curious a few times why I didn't get any feedback on an issue. It's only recently I noticed that I don't see the replies, or get the notifications, and miss a whole lot of issues and feedback, fixes, debugs, etc.

If what you say is true, and the members who give support to others have found it a great idea to eliminate those features, then I'd be astonished. When something doesn't make sense, it usually doesn't make sense.

I suspect members agree that bumps are annoying. That is totally different, since I definitly agree thet they are annoying. And the rule posted against bumping should be there as it is.

But that is a different issue than eliminating updates and notifications, since that is not only annoying, but misleading. The ones who usually get caught in it are the ones who try to help and get engaged in discussions to help others. While usually the ones who violate the rule don't care. I don't see why I should be denied those basic standard vB features, just because of the few who don't respect the rules.

[Dream]

if I ever install "automerge doublepost" in my forum, it would be with a "merge post" checkbox...

is someone is bump happy, no biggie, I just ban them

[Erwin]

If this is already disabled in the hack support forums, I don't see what the issue is. I personally don't care one way or another but it does appear that most of the members and staff like this feature.

[Logikos]

Doesn't bother me any....

[tamarian]

Originally Posted by Erwin

If this is already disabled in the hack support forums, I don't see what the issue is. I personally don't care one way or another but it does appear that most of the members and staff like this feature.

Actually, only staff so far said they like it, 5 members don't like it (or how it's implemented), one neutral. If this means "members like this feature", you could've fooled me. If you really care what members think, open it for a vote.

And it is not disabled in hacks, as the problem I had was in premium hacks, and the other one was in how-to's and questions. Too extreme, if the stated reason was for bumps in requests and paid services.

[Dean C]

Well add my name to the hat. As a moderator dealing with repeated bumping, it's a pain. And whilst your points are valid about it occasionally having detrimental effects, the benefits outweight the costs tenfold. I don't know if you were aware of the bumping problem we had before, but it was out of control...