While replying to a couple of posts in the same topic on a recent install, I got a pop-up asking me to use the edit button to combine them into one jumbled post covering several unrelated subthreads. Can that be switched off with configuration?
And is it a sensible default? In other words, do many people really prefer unrelated points to be combined into one post?
This is controlled by the sequential replies threshold site setting. The default value for that setting allows you to create 3 replies in a row. After you’ve created 3 replies, you will be prevented from creating more replies until another user creates a post in the topic. The setting cannot be disabled, but it could be set to a very high number.
Discourse doesn’t have any concept of threading, the expected behavior when responding to several users is to quote and reply within a single response. Multiple back-to-back responses is usually regarded as being pretty spammy, hence the setting.
Yes, because topics are flat, so there’s a degree of relevance between them. If a topic branches off too wildly, it’s for the moderators to split out into separate discussions.
Plugins such as no-bump take that concept one step further, preventing the topic from being pushed back up to the top of /latest until another user replies.
Regarded by whom?
Doesn’t encouraging people to reply to several unrelated matters in one post make it more difficult for moderators to split discussions up?
I also doubt that moderators on many sites actually do this, but that’s a different problem.