Seperate forced merge posts

[DesignzShop]

This occurs when a user posts a reply immediately after they already replied. It would be nice to see a Horizontal rule applied here to separate the merging.

 

Thanks

[Jed Rosenzweig]

That's a nice idea.

[AutoItScript]

Yeah I agree. I did a few quick replies in succession to someone on here the other day (PM), and it looked a mess. Some subtle separator in the reply would have made it much better.

[chilihead]

That's a nice idea and you could add the new timestamp to the HR and preserve the original instead of updating it.

(In which case one could argue, just turn this setting off.)

[Adriano Faria]

It should also update the timestamp of the post.

[Charles]

So let me review...

You want:

1. A line between new posts
2. A new timestamp when a new post is made

So isn't that a lot like this?

If you change the date and add a line... that's like the exact definition of a new post

The point of the merge-post feature is a "whoops I forgot to mention this too" thing. That's why it has a time limit. Adding lines and changing dates is not something we will do - if you want that then just shut the feature off and the system will do it as normal.

 

[chilihead]

I basically said the same thing.

[Charles]

I basically said the same thing.

But you lacked screenshots and emoticons!

[chilihead]

I realized after I said that, oh hey, that's a new post.

[Adriano Faria]

If the user makes a new post it is merged, ok. I'm not totally sure, but it doesn't send a new notification if I'm following, right ? It also doesn't update the post date, which doesn't appear on VNC.

So I have NO WAY to know that the user made a new post, if I never go back to the topic.

[Charles]

If the user makes a new post it is merged, ok. I'm not totally sure, but it doesn't send a new notification if I'm following, right ? It also doesn't update the post date, which doesn't appear on VNC.

So I have NO WAY to know that the user made a new post, if I never go back to the topic.

Correct - in that way it works identical to how editing a post does. It does not re-notify you or anything like that if someone edits a post either.

[Adriano Faria]

Correct - in that way it works identical to how editing a post does. It does not re-notify you or anything like that if someone edits a post either.

Exacly, so it is a total useless feature. You wasted your time adding it.

Better to make it more usefull if it's there now.

[Charles]

We added it in the exact same way it was done in IPB 3.4 which is what people asked for

We are not going to turn it into the second coming of posting

 

[chilihead]

In 3.4 actually it marks the post unread and bumps it. 

I hadn't realized it doesn't now.

[Adriano Faria]

We added it in the exact same way it was done in IPB 3.4 which is what people asked for 

Nope. 3.4 updates the post date, which makes it easy 'cause it shows on VNC:

                    //-----------------------------------------
                    // Update post row
                    //-----------------------------------------
                    
                    $this->DB->setDataType( 'pid', 'int' );
                    $this->DB->setDataType( 'post', 'string' );

                    $_autoMergeData = array( 'post' => $new_post, 'post_date' => IPS_UNIX_TIME_NOW, 'pid' => $last_post['pid'] );
                    
					/* Data Hook Location */
					IPSLib::doDataHooks( $_autoMergeData, 'postAutoMerge' );

And a "plus": we had a datahook, which we could use to send a notification to those who follow the topic saying that a new post was merged or something.

[Charles]

Ah yes it should mark it unread - we can make it do that. But no lines

 

[Adriano Faria]

Ah yes it should mark it unread - we can make it do that. But no lines

That would help a lot.

[DesignzShop]

Actually, I didn't mean something elaborate, something like a half hr is more of what I meant. Like below

This is the end of my post
----------------------------------------
This starts the new post

Didn't mean to create such animosity towards lines with a simple suggestion... 

[AutoItScript]

I just tried to do a plugin for it, but unfortunately you can't hook into the right place. If you are comfortable editing source files each release you can do this by editing system/Content/Item.php around line 3030. The commented out line is the original.

/* Merge? */
if ( $lastComment = $this->mergeConcurrentComment() )
{
	$valueField = $lastComment::$databaseColumnMap['content'];		
	/* $newContent = $lastComment->$valueField . $values[ static::$formLangPrefix . 'comment' . '_' . $this->$idColumn ];	*/
	$newContent = $lastComment->$valueField . '<hr id="post_automerge_line">' . $values[ static::$formLangPrefix . 'comment' . '_' . $this->$idColumn ];			

Then in CSS you can style it up:

#post_automerge_line {
border: 0;
height: 1px;
background-image: linear-gradient(to right, rgba(0, 0, 0, 0), rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.75), rgba(0, 0, 0, 0));
}

 

Looks nice - I'm totally adding it to mine  

[ptprog]

So let me review...

You want:

1. A line between new posts
2. A new timestamp when a new post is made

So isn't that a lot like this?

If you change the date and add a line... that's like the exact definition of a new post

The point of the merge-post feature is a "whoops I forgot to mention this too" thing. That's why it has a time limit. Adding lines and changing dates is not something we will do - if you want that then just shut the feature off and the system will do it as normal.

 

No, it's not like a new post.  It takes much less space, particularly when the posts have one or two lines (which is likely to happen when two posts were created in a short period of time).  And I assume it does not send a new notification, it does not increase post count, it does not show two entries in the activity stream, etc.

Even though I think this is not a critical issue, a separator would be helpful to avoid some confusions.

[Vikestart]

I wholeheartedly disagree with this.

Adding a horizontal rule and a new timestamp would be bordering on treating them as new posts.

Auto-merging is supposed to.....merge.... the posts, not add new ones.

[Adriano Faria]

Auto-merging is supposed to.....merge.... the posts, not add new ones.

If the topic has no new reply after that, you probably won't go back to that topic. So if the last post (the merged one) has some vital information, you will lose it.

That's why it needs at least to work as it was on 3.4: update the post date to appears on VNC.

[Vikestart]

Yes, I don't have anything against marking the post as unread again.

But no horizontal rulers or extra timestamps!

[Hitori Bocchi]

So let me review...

You want:

1. A line between new posts
2. A new timestamp when a new post is made

So isn't that a lot like this?

If you change the date and add a line... that's like the exact definition of a new post

The point of the merge-post feature is a "whoops I forgot to mention this too" thing. That's why it has a time limit. Adding lines and changing dates is not something we will do - if you want that then just shut the feature off and the system will do it as normal.

 

Maybe more like this within the same post:

 

Original post content

----------------------------------------------------- Merged at 00:00 -----------------------------------------------------

Merged post content

[Lukeroge]

 

Maybe more like this within the same post:

 

Original post content

----------------------------------------------------- Merged at 00:00 -----------------------------------------------------

Merged post content

Yeah, something like this might be a good option.