Topics & Pages Database: Orphan/Separate Page Record Content From Its Associated Topic

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(Apologies for the incredibly long read/tons of images; this is a complicated request and I wanted to make everything as clear as I possibly could)
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Currently, using the "Copy to Database" feature in a forum topic will result in the Pages Record content overwriting the content in the associated topic's first post, unifying the topic's OP with the resulting article.

I think this needs to be changed.

The Pages Record content needs to be, for a lack of a better word, "orphaned" from the topic content, and displayed as a separate content block within the topic it is associated with. Or at the very least, there needs to be an option in AdminCP that allows us to change the 'Copy to Database' behaviour to act this way.

There are many reasons why this should be changed this way, but I'll just give you one very good visual (step by step) example:

^ User creates a topic of interest (called ‘Topic 1’, content here highlighted in yellow for visual purposes)

^ (Another) user creates a second, duplicate, topic about the same subject (called ‘Topic 2’, content here highlighted in red for visual purposes)

^ (A third) user creates a third, duplicate, topic about the same subject (called ‘Topic 3’, content here highlighted in blue for visual purposes)

^ At this point we have three topics existing, all about the same subject. At this point, a moderator would simply merge the topics, right?

^ Before that happens, another mod/admin decides to create a Page Record from one of the Topics (they have chosen to build upon ‘Topic 3’).

^ The mod in question build a new Page Record using the options and settings outlined above.

^ This is the resulting Page Record. Note that the Topic’s original post has not been displayed in the comments section, as that content has now been overwritten by the Page Record content and is now considered a unified content item.

^ Similarly, the topic title has been replaced with the title of the Page Record

^ At this point, a mod sees the duplicate topics and decides to merge. They merge the new Topic 3 with Topic 2.

^ As you can see, clicking through to the merged topic shows the OP from Topic 2 appearing above the Page Record/Topic 3 unified content. This makes sense as Topic 2 was created before Topic 3 was (and Topic 3 was created before the associated Page Record was made)

Now at this point, I’d like to say that it is NOT an issue for me for Topic 2’s content to appear above Topic 3’s content when merged this way. The slight issue for me is that the Page Record content (which is now what Topic 3’s content has become) is now sitting lower down the page. If the Topic 3 content was not overwritten with the Page Record content, this would not look so weird. 

But, this is just a small issue. The real problems come next.

^ Head back to the Topic’s associated Page Record, and you’ll see some issues. The Page Record content is duplicated in the page’s “first comment” because it is really the OP of Topic 3, which was overwritten with the Page Record content. Additionally, the OP of Topic 2 (which was displayed in the Topic view above the Topic 3 OP content, as previously mentioned) is not visible. This is because the IP Suite assumes that the Topic and Page Record are unified, and so Topic Post #1 = Page Record. But as we’ve demonstrated that is no longer the case, and now the Topic’s Post #1 is now Post #2, appearing as the Page Record’s first comment.

Now, what we will do next is go to “Actions” > “Edit” on the Page Record, and make an edit or two to the Page Record, then hit Save. We will see what happens to the Page Record’s associated Topic now.

^ The OP content of Topic 2 has been overwritten, again, with the content in the Page Record. This has happened because the first post of the thread is now assumed to be the “mirror” of the Page Record (even though it is no longer the case, since the topic merge) so it has taken over Topic 2 OP. However, this has also left the previous sync’d content from Topic 3’s OP intact, so what you now see are two duplicate posts and the removal of two forum posts to make this happen.

^ Wanted to note at this point that this situation does not seem to impact the comments/replies in the merged topics, thankfully they remain intact. It’s just an issue for whatever the system currently thinks is the Post #1 in the Topic at that given moment.

^ That’s what happens if there is only one topic merge, but let’s see what happens when a third duplicate topic is merged in by another mod/admin?

^ We merge the older Topic 1 with the already-merged Topic 2 and Topic 3.

^ So far, so good on the Forum View.

^ And just like before, because Topic 1 was created before Topics 2 and 3 before them, upon merge the Topic 1 OP content appears at the top of the chain. And the overwritten duped Topic 2 and Topic 3 OP content appears underneath that.

^ Similar to before, viewing the Page Record at this point shows three instances of the Page Record content: once in the Page Record itself, again in the Page’s “first comment” and a third time in the Page’s “second comment”. All while the OP content from the recently-merged Topic 1 is not displayed.

A mod needs to make an edit to the Page Record. Click “Actions” > “Edit”, make edits, hit “Save”. What happens?

^ I think you get the idea…

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So what should be done? Well, I think that it would be good to re-write the system so that Page Records made via ‘Copy to Database’ do not have the original Topic’s content overwritten or unified. Instead, the Page Record content should be placed in its own field in the database’s Topic table, and displayed outside of the Topic area as its own widget/content above the Topic area. You could use the “Feature First Post” mode to dedicate that spot to echo the Page Record content, while keeping the area underneath as an untouched ‘forum area’.

^ I did a little mockup of what that could look like. As you can see, the Page Record area includes the Page Record content, which lives independently from all of the Topic content (and so doesn’t overwrite any of the Topic content), and underneath the Topic area with the untouched OP content from Topic 1 (after merging with Topics 2 and 3)

^ This is the same mockup page but scrolled down for full visual; just to illustrate that the original Topic would remain intact in its entirety with this setup, with no OP content being unified or overwritten by the Page Record content. 

The Topic OP that is used as a base for the Page Record connection could be highlighted in the Topic area to indicate the relationship (which might be useful in the case where the Page Record content isn’t actually all that different from the Topic OP content; users might wonder why they are seeing content twice, and so highlighting the relevant Topic OP post would resolve any potential confusion). And then replies appear underneath, just as it would in the standard topic.

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I know this is a big request, so I appreciate that this might be more of a long-term thing to implement… Thanks to any IPS Staff reading this far - I know Matt has previously talked about wanting to solve some issues relating to Pages + Topics connectivity, and so I wanted to chip in. I think this might be a good step forward for the feature.