Is there something that can be done to the code that Splits Topics to fix all the broken links it leaves behind?
I see this in the list of notifications when I hover my avatar. If someone quoted me or liked my reply and then that was part of some entries that got split to another topic, then the link in my notifications takes me to the original thread where it says “Split to xxxx”.
I don’t like topics being split at all, especially if the reply was long and took awhile to construct (taking into account all the context of the conversation). It is very disorienting for both halves of the conversation. It is hard to continue either half. It is especially difficult if you don’t come back very often.
What if the Split didn’t actually delete from the original? Maybe make them disabled, but still there?
Or maybe don’t ever split topics?
Splitting threads is a tough decision to make. Ensuring everything flows correctly is even tougher.
Leaving posts that are clearly off-topic makes for a confusing thread for users who were not originally involved and it leads to “clutter” and long threads that no one reads.
While I understand it is frustrating, I do think it would be much easier, and lead to less split topics, if users used the “Reply as Linked Topic”.
The way I use this feature is if part of my post is directly related I will post that half in the original thread, and the other half (often times I had thought I wanted to share) I use the linked topics to start a new thread. This ensures all threads stay on topic, but allows me to share my thoughts with others, hopefully inviting discussion on both threads.
This is a good idea, I would suggest you take this specific part up with the fine folks at https://meta.discourse.org . I’ve started doing light development for Discourse add-ons already, but this particular change is likely beyond my skill level.
On the flip side, threads that get off-topic and begin to have 100 posts that are not related to the original topic (yes, it has happened many times) need to be cleaned up a bit. A split is currently the best way we have to address this.
Moderators should also make a good effort to preserve both parts of the context of the thread. The way I usually try to do this is to leave any posts that are about both topics in the original thread, and for the parts that are relevant to the new topic, quote them in the new thread.