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170

STOP MERGING until you get an Unmerge feature.

170 points posted to IdeaStorm by jmxz May 21

Wow - the merges get stranger and stranger. Today we see the idea
"Use Hardware with Open Sourced Drivers" merged with the idea "Have Ubuntu on Dell One". For whomever merged these, do you realize that the Dell One is a model of Dell computer, and as far as I can tell has nothing at all to do with Open Sourced Drivers?

That's perhaps even worse than the idea for a 20" laptop being merged with an idea for a desktop-with-built-in-printer, and even worse than the idea requesting packaged software sold on Dell's web site being merged with an idea requesting easier to find links to hardware on the web site

This Idea is to stop merging until IdeaStorm has a working Unmerge feature so the admins can undo the rather silly merges that seem to be happening more and more.

dawn_l
May 21		 JMXZ- Agree these are clear mistakes. I will look into the cause. I do believe that the bulk of the merges we have performed over the past weeks have been right on target. Here is the value of merging in my opinion. First, it improves the ability for new users to find ideas that already exist (in coordination with a new google search we hope to launch shortly). Second, the vote values carry a lot of weight within Dell. If you have an idea that has a couple of hundred votes but is duplicated 20 times, it is not getting the same visibility as it will if we merge them. We will not get an unmerge feature until at least October, and I would hate to see the state of the sight at that point with no merges.

Thanks, Dawn
jmxz
May 21		 Yes, the vast majority of the recent ones have been good.

Regarding your vote count point - I've had a number of times where I'd vote against one idea and for another only to see them merged later. If I remember right, this seems to happen pretty frequently when Ideas for specific versions of software are asked for -- for example many people vote against requests for some obscure Linux version, while favoring the more mainstream versions; and it's a shame when such merges distort people's opinions. I'd be much happier with merges if we could also change our votes.
aikiwolfie
May 22		 Does the SalesForce software have a split function at all? Normally with forum software that's all you get to un-merge a thread. It's also a fairly basic feature. Undoing mistakes on forums is a messy business. You need to be really careful before you merge anything.

While i understand what Dawn is getting at an actually agree with her. People shouldn't be merging threads when they are clearly not understanding what is being asked for in the thread. The Windows Home Server thread was merged with the Ubuntu Home Server thread. While both these products would essentially do the same job, they aren't the same.

Some people will object to using Microsoft software on technical grounds claiming it's not secure or stable enough. Some might even object on moral grounds if they don't like Microsofts business practices. other people will object to using Ubuntu because it won't integrate so closely with Windows or using certain codecs might present a legal question.

I think the moderation staff have to learn to take those sorts of issues into consideration. Pay a bit more attention to what the thread is actually asking for. I know that makes life much harder for the mods. I'm a mod my self. But at the end of the day it's the members that count. They make the forum a community.
jmxz
May 22		 @aikiwolfie: "The Windows Home Server thread was merged with the Ubuntu Home Server thread. While both these products would essentially do the same job, they aren't the same."

Interesting example. For 90+% of the people I think they are the same. They may care if it speaks SMB or NFS or both. They may care if it supports RAID. But it's an appliance and whatever the external APIs are matter far more than what's hidden internally.

On the other hand I've seen XP ideas merged with Vista ideas (specifically a "XP + Linux dual boot" with a "Vista + Linux dual boot" idea). While some people don't care here either (I don't - XP and Vista can both open the rare powerpoint that OOffice doesn't print the same as windows), I imagine most people do.

What matters in an idea is so different for so many people, I think it's hard to do any merge fairly without a change-your-vote option. Just curious how you've been voting on all the Xubuntu, Mepis, pclinuxos, gentoo, centos, opensuse, and other fringe linux ideas. I've been voting against them, and for
the more mainstream version requests. It seems rather odd to me when they all get merged into the idea specifically asking to offer the 3 top free Linux versions (which surely isn't even the best idea in this category anyway -- wouldn't it be better if they did one distro right, rather than 3 different ones).
jmxz
May 22		 Whoa - and this morning we see that a request for Dell hardware "that could run Mac." is getting merged into No OS preloaded ideas!?!
aikiwolfie
May 22		 Well jmxz it's interesting that you mention they may care if it speaks SMB. Now if you've ever tried to network Linux to Windows you know Linux can't speak SMB without Samba. One of the very few failings of Ubuntu is that there's a bug in the Ubuntu version of Samba that can stop Ubuntu accessing Windows network shares. So if you're running Ubuntu, Windows Home Server might just turn out to be useless and vice-versa.

So at least in some cases it really does matter.
jmxz
Jun 19		 Another obvious incorrect merge...

Two virtually opposite Ideas HP MediaVault like Linux Servers were merged into the Windows Home Server idea. I can't think of many people who voted the same way on the two.
aikiwolfie
Jun 20		 I think the non-techie mod team needs a bit more techie product awareness training.
jmxz
Jun 20		 It doesn't even need product awareness training - just a better moderation process.

Didn't many of the previous anonymous "dell_admin_N" moderators ask in the comments before merging Ideas when they weren't sure?

Re-instating that policy (or was it just good manners rather than a formal policy) seems like it would help.
aikiwolfie
Jun 20		 Maybe. But as a moderator on another forum I've never asked anybody if they would mind having their thread merged. I just go a head and do it. It's a judgment call. If I were to hang around and ask I could be waiting months. Sometimes even years!
jmxz
Jun 20		 Guess they really need an unmerge feature.
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