I’m not trying to criticize the moderators but respectfully what is the philosophy behind merging topics that are similar?
I get keeping the forum tidy, etc but Imo it’s easier to do a search and scan threw 50 or so topics with 40-100 reply’s over different time periods discussing similar topics than to finding what you’re looking for in the one thread with a thousands of reply’s.
With the current merging philosophy I find myself reading a few of the oldest and a few of the newest reply’s then loosing interest and moving on to another forum that is moderated more traditionally, albeit more messy.
I’m not a forum expert, and I have never taken the time to become a forum moderator, so please don’t take offense.
Sometimes I merge, sometimes I don’t. Depends on a range of factors on how similar or different the info is. Searching to find separate topics works (though it’s underutilized IMO), and it’s also possible to search within a topic (used even less often from what I see).
I tend to group repeat topics to make it easier to find existing answers vs having people regurgitate known info (sometimes incorrectly). This can lead to the long time gaps between them, but most of the time that older info is still valid and useful.
To your “scan separate topic searches” vs “scan within a topic”, I see a difference. With the separate topic results, you see a bit of info in the results list, but many times the detail of interest is buried deeper than that results screen and you need to opened the topic for proper review. I see scanning or searching within a potential topic as more rewarding, but that is my practice and I understand not everyone works the same way.
That said, there are really no hard and fast rules for my practice. Sometimes I don’t see the duplication and miss a good time to merge, other times I probably merge when it’s not appropriate. Win some, lose some and I try to learn with each change
I think based on your feedback that I need to learn how to search correctly and not just using google and putting TrainerRoad in the search bar.
I just know specifically I was thinking “hmm maybe I will try tubeless” (searches) 1000 reply’s in one topic - screw that I’m not reading through that…
Maybe you have seen this, but I wrote a guide long ago on searching the forum directly (vs google as you mention). It allows far more control and filtering than a G based search.
I don’t have a specific guide for searching within a topic, but using the search tool at the top, with the “… in this topic” option is useful. This is also mentioned in the one reply to my FAQ above, via the “Ctrl + F” search tool if on Win/Mac with a keyboard.
Additionally, the “Summarize This Topic” option filters the list to the most read, liked, replied to comments and can be a bit of a “Cliff’s Notes” version of longer topics. It’s not perfect, but I use that sometimes if I don’t know the search term of interest for the “within topic” search.
