Moderators merging topics

[#1]

I started a thread relating to the recent email problems, rather than piggybacking onto an existing thread, because I was looking for an answer to a specific question about the potential loss of email messages sent to me whilst the problems were prevalent. However, the thread I started has been merged with others, and I haven't had the time to trawl through hundreds of posts to find if my question has been answered. 

Has any thought gone into the merging process or has a moderator simply decided that the title of the initial post is related to others of similar title without reading the content?

Should I add [Please do not merge] to the title of every post i make to avoid this happening again? 

[#2]

@maranello 

Lots of thought goes into the merging process as there is much to consider but, ultimately, it boils down to trying to keep support for an issue in one place.

Putting 'Do not merge' or 'Do not move' will not change a moderator's decision although its merits will be considered.

[#3]

@Mav 

Thanks for responding. I have since found a different topic which it would have been more appropriate to merge my topics with, but I suppose it is too late to do anything about it now.

I'm missing an email confirming a purchase made on 11th November. I guess I'll have to get in touch with the supplier.

[#4]

It’s very difficult to understand the rationale behind merging topics, especially when it ends up with a dozen and more pages which no one is likely to read through. The upshot is too often an interleaved muddle of emails about different things interspersed with questions and answers which are difficult (usually impossible) to relate to one another. I can understand the desire to keep related topics together but despite what @Mav has said I think often the moderators don’t think through the results of their merging.

You might have noticed this comment at the top of another thread:

”further to the following post which is buried deep amongst god knows how many merged and now almost unintelligible threads ...”

Which shows clearly the results and what people think of it.

[#5]

I actually recommended we merge all the similar email topics into a mega one and while that doesn’t automatically mean the mods will do it, I support the decision. 

I see your point of view but I’d say there’s pro’s and con’s either way, in this case the advantages of merging outweighs the disadvantages of doing so.

It’s a lot easier to keep track of 1 topic than several topics all about the same thing. If you’ve got a query unrelated to what’s discussed in the merged topic then there may be merits for keeping as a separate thread. 

Anyway that’s just my two cents.

[#6]

I'm afraid I disagree with the approach adopted. From reading many of the posts, customers were experiencing different issues. Some were unable to log on ( presumably using webmail), others were getting sporadic downloads of messages, some not at all. What has resulted from this is a massively long thread which has responses disjointed and is difficult to trace. It is extremely difficult to make sense of the information, some of which is misleading (i.e. Only accounts beginning with letters in the second half of the alphabet were affected.

I fully appreciate the valuable job the moderators do for the forum, and in making the comments above I was only asking them to consider the content in more detail before merging threads.