Auto merge duplicates doing more harm than good

[Chris M]

It doesn't ever cause any hassle for me...

Satan

[bigcurt]

As long as its not enabled for hack support forum, all the other forums its fine. Doesnt really seem to bother me any, but I don't know about others.

~curt

[tamarian]

Originally Posted by 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.

It doesn't outweight the benefit of being able to support a member, or have them read the update to the issue. One can easily ignore members who bump, and not have to disable these standard features for everyone.

I don't know if you were aware of the bumping problem we had before, but it was out of control...

No, I was not aware of that. But surely temporary problems can be solved by temporary measures. No need for such extreme measures.

This features installs a permanent bug, that considers every second post a duplicate, regardless of the content or context. I've presented 2 real cases, and there's a lot more, where the action taken is a bug, since the posts where neither bumps, nor duplicates.

You don't need to punish everyone for the annoyance of the few. Punish members who bump, since the forum rules clearly stated that they should not do it.

[Zachery]

Originally Posted by hellsatan

It doesn't ever cause any hassle for me...

Satan

Not everyone reads these threads, but the issue has come up time and time again.

I like the system and I have no want or need for it to be changed. 5 members is not alot, look at the other threads here.

[tamarian]

Originally Posted by Zachery

I like the system and I have no want or need for it to be changed. 5 members is not alot, look at the other threads here.

I did. Staff obviously wants it, members either don't want it, or don't care either way.

The members who don't want it are usually the ones giving support and try to help newbies with their issues or invistigate problems.

[Zachery]

Whats your problem with it when its disabled in the forums where most of the support is going on?

[Dean C]

Ok then how do you suppose we combat this bug tamarian?

[tamarian]

Originally Posted by Zachery

Whats your problem with it when its disabled in the forums where most of the support is going on?

Some forums are support forums as well.

How about enabling it only in the problem forums, say hack requests and paid services. (Hack requests still contain some interesting discussions about requirements or enhancements)

Or at least disabling in how-to's, premium hacks and hack questions.

Originally Posted by Dean C

Ok then how do you suppose we combat this bug tamarian?

Pattern matching for usual keywords used for bumps.
Checking for short one liners

[Wayne Luke]

Originally Posted by Dean C

Ok then how do you suppose we combat this bug tamarian?

Intelligent filtering.

I will go on record as saying I don't like the feature as it is implemented and it can be improved. It creates detrimental effects on the purpose of running a discussion board which is discussion.

Simple merging based on time is wrong and disrupts conversations and their flow. To much of this and they become meaningless. In my opinion, anything that uses technology to limit human interaction is wrong and shouldn't be done. The whole point of a site like this is human interaction.

[Brad]

While I agree, on the other hand it allows the mods to spend more time watching over the community and less time removing and warning people for bumping. Just having a 'no bump' rule doesn't work, lets be honest how often does someone check the rules page anyway?

I think we need to look into changing this hack some as you guys have already mentioned. I do like the idea of a filter to check for common 'bump' posts, but keep in mind this won't catch everything and people that really want to bump will eventally figure out how to get around it.

Email notification can be improved (al la 'a reply was posted but was merged with a pior post due to auto bumping' in the email).