# A lot of weirdness caused by moving posts around
**URL:** https://meta.discourse.org/t/a-lot-of-weirdness-caused-by-moving-posts-around/24486
**Category:** Feature
**Created:** [27.Январь.2015 12:45:57 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/a-lot-of-weirdness-caused-by-moving-posts-around/24486 "2015-01-27T12:45:57Z")
**Posts on this page:** 4
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@erlend\_sh](https://meta.discourse.org/u/erlend_sh)
#### Post date: [27.Январь.2015 12:45:57 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/a-lot-of-weirdness-caused-by-moving-posts-around/24486/1 "2015-01-27T12:45:57Z")
I did a lot of weird, don’t-do-this-at-home moderation to make this happen, therefore I don’t feel right reporting it as a bug, but I figured I should at least try document my actions and let anyone interested have a look at the outcome:
1. I started out with [a thread that had 3 replies that I split off into a new thread](http://hub.jmonkeyengine.org/t/new-desktop-deployment-for-3-1/31351/9?u=erlend_sh).
2. I then realised that these 3 replies could have been merged into an _existing_ thread instead,
3. so I moved them again, this time all 3 posts comprising their own topic, into an existing one.
4. Lastly, it turned out a post had been made to the original topic while I was exercising my volatile moderation rights. The 3-replies series was actually 4-replies, so I moved that one as well.
Here’s the end result:
> **[Deployement with gradle-getdown-plugin](https://hub.jmonkeyengine.org/t/deployement-with-gradle-getdown-plugin/30562)**
>
> I released a gradle plugin to be able to distribute my jme application : with jre (eg jre 1.8) without jre but able to download the right jre to use (if current one is not right) without requesting installation of the jre as archive (vs...
Doesn’t look that weird at first but:
- [This is the first](http://hub.jmonkeyengine.org/t/gradle-getdown-plugin/30562/4?u=erlend_sh) of the 3 (eventually 4) posts that were moved. If you click to unfold its reply, it comes up empty.
- [The second one](http://hub.jmonkeyengine.org/t/gradle-getdown-plugin/30562/5?u=erlend_sh) is pointing to the 1st topic, which is wrong because it was originally a reply to the post directly before it.
- The third one is OK, followed by my reply.
- [The fourth](http://hub.jmonkeyengine.org/t/deployement-with-gradle-getdown-plugin/30562/8?u=erlend_sh) is replying to something that doesn’t exist.
---
### Author:  [@erlend\_sh](https://meta.discourse.org/u/erlend_sh)
#### Post date: [05.Март.2015 13:18:10 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/a-lot-of-weirdness-caused-by-moving-posts-around/24486/2 "2015-03-05T13:18:10Z")
Here’s another, simpler example I noticed on the new Jekyll forum:
[https://talk.jekyllrb.com/t/how-to-make-jekyll-easier-to-use/156/3?u=erlend\_sh](https://talk.jekyllrb.com/t/how-to-make-jekyll-easier-to-use/156/3?u=erlend_sh)
The reply to @opattison in that topic was originally made when both posts occupied the same topic.
* * *
I can’t help but think that the current design is a bit too fragile. One handy thing about bbPress is that every single post has a [unique ID](https://bbpress.org/forums/topic/this-is-why-we-cant-have-nice-things/#post-154935), so no matter how many times you move it in and out of parent topics, you’d still be able to pin-point that specific post.
You can’t do that in Discourse because post#15 inside topic#108 might not always be post#15 inside topic#108. It might become post#2 inside topic #712 tomorrow, and suddenly all the neat quote links and reply chains get all messed up.
If post#15 inside topic#108 was actually identified as post#84727, any connections to it wouldn’t get lost so easily.
Example:
```
[quote="opattison, post:84727"]
```
---
### Author:  [@codinghorror](https://meta.discourse.org/u/codinghorror)
#### Post date: [05.Март.2015 21:33:16 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/a-lot-of-weirdness-caused-by-moving-posts-around/24486/3 "2015-03-05T21:33:16Z")
It is kind of a hard problem, but there is more we can do post processing the moved posts for sure.
---
### Author:  [@chapoi](https://meta.discourse.org/u/chapoi)
#### Post date: [04.Декабрь.2025 11:33:30 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/a-lot-of-weirdness-caused-by-moving-posts-around/24486/6 "2025-12-04T11:33:30Z")