Add a "merge multiple responses" admin post selection action

[codinghorror]

For users that insist on posting multiple sequential replies, especially short ones, it would be nice to have a “merge posts” option appear when you use the admin wrench to begin selecting posts in a topic, and then select a few posts by the same user in sequence:

This does make it somewhat ambiguous what happens when 3 different replies “directed” at 3 different users are combined. Not sure exactly how to handle that, but for now I would just remove any explicit replies as part of the combining and come up with some kind of improvement later.

[BhaelOchon]

Perhaps check to see whether the reply starts with a quote from the topic being replied to. If not, insert a one-box of that topic above the reply text. It would look something like the following

---

Guppy rape is a crime of violence, not sex. For the females.

fuzzyfungus said
Something about guppies…

Guppies are not concerned with justice.

AshleyYakeley said
Something about guppies…

well, not “bluntly”

roseredshift said
Something about guppies…

Evolution gave them barbs. They didn’t ask to be rapists. Their dads made them that way.

[lightyear]

This does make it somewhat ambiguous what happens when 3 different replies “directed” at 3 different users are combined.

Would that be something we should encourage Admins/Mods to do? In a first version I’d simply block when you want to combine explicit replies. In a second step I’d then vote for prompting the admin what should happen: Select one it should reply to or drop reply in total.

Automatic Quotes are another option but I feel this will go wrong too often…

[codinghorror]

I do not have a high opinion of the pictured replies, so the admin / mod should be able to do as they see fit for the betterment of the site.

[jomaxro]

I know I am reviving an almost 2 year old topic, but…

Is this in the pipeline for Core at this point? The current way we accomplish this (more with new users who want to post more than one link/image for a support request) is to copy and paste between posts and then delete them. Would be very nice to have an automated option!

[meglio]

I too would need such a button. My use-case is described in details here:

"Join messages" button for admin

I noticed some users put a lot of small messages in a row in the same topic. I suspect different possible reasons: Some don’t understand that there might be multiple “quoted replies” in a single message Others just write messages bit by bit and feel better like this Others put one photo at a time and submit it (maybe after experiencing problems with really slow mobile connection?) Anyway, it would be useful if mods were able to select a few messages, then click the wrench button, and then ch…

[adrapereira]

I’m currently implementing this feature and so far I merge the content of all the posts and set the content of the last reply with that content, setting the others as deleted.

Example:

Post 1:

This is the first post

Post 2:

This is the second post

Post 3:

This is the third post

After the merge, Post 1 and Post 2 are set as deleted and Post 3 has the following content:

This is the first post

This is the second post

This is the third post

Does anyone have other suggestions about the way the merge is done? And what about when the posts are replies to other posts, how should we build the merged post in a way that shows that information?

[erlend_sh]

Very nice, your approach seems good.

And what about when the posts are replies to other posts, how should we build the merged post in a way that shows that information?

I think that’ll just have to be left up to the moderator to not mess up. The primary use of this feature is for those cases when someone has posted two replies in quick succession that could just as well be the same post.

[adrapereira]

I’ve made a Pull Request to add this feature.

[codinghorror]

We could add a maximum sequential reply limit. It would be harsh though.

[Mittineague]

There is

sequential replies threshold (default 2)
Number of posts a user has to make in a row in a topic before being reminded about too many sequential replies.

My guess is most just close the reminder without giving it much thought let alone reading it.

I think for some it’s because they don’t know how to edit a post.
And I guess it would depend on how soon the edit time window is, so maybe for some it’s simply they come back too late and feel compelled to add more to the topic.
At SitePoint the edit pencil icon isn’t hidden behind the ellipsis so I don’t know what more could be done short of personalized education when it’s certain that’s what the issue is.

We’ve had one or two members that do it routinely despite having been explicitly asked to not do it. Rather than quote and respond to the previous n replies in one post, they do so in n number of individual new posts instead.
Annoying, but not really crossing the line into needing disciplinary action IMHO.

a maximum sequential reply limit. It would be harsh though.

Yes, it could be. Unless there was a warning similar to the “almost out of Likes for the day” it would catch some by surprise if it just caught them unawares.

[tobiaseigen]

What if the previous post were to open up for editing instead of opening a new post, when a user selects reply and the last post in the topic is from them? With a popup message explaining why?

[tgxworld]

Just merged in @adrapereira’s PR

FEATURE: Allow staff users to merge posts.

[erlend_sh]