What does it mean if a topic is "split"?

[Fossilized-Rubber]

What does it mean to split a topic, and if it means it's split into two threads, how do I see each side of the split?

Thanks and apologies for my ignorance.

[Blade-of-the-Moon]

When a thread or topic is split it's usually due to divergent lines of subject matter in a conversation. Say members are talking about new for 2024 figures and they start discussing shipping costs, a thread can be split where the moderator sees the divergence and made into a new thread.  Depending on the subject matter, that section is where you find the split, sometimes a link is provided in the origin thread.

[triceratops83]

Well, you spend time with one thread one weekend, then next weekend you spend with the other thread. A split thread can be so hard on forum users. They really should work to stay together... sad really.

[Fossilized-Rubber]

When a thread or topic is split it's usually due to divergent lines of subject matter in a conversation. Say members are talking about new for 2024 figures and they start discussing shipping costs, a thread can be split where the moderator sees the divergence and made into a new thread.  Depending on the subject matter, that section is where you find the split, sometimes a link is provided in the origin thread.

Thanks a lot, I'll go back and study the split thread

Well, you spend time with one thread one weekend, then next weekend you spend with the other thread. A split thread can be so hard on forum users. They really should work to stay together... sad really.

[DinoToyForum]

Yes, @Blade-of-the-Moon explained it well.

It's possible to 'split' off a single post, or multiple posts, from an existing topic (=thread) into a new topic (=thread). It's useful to do this when a discussion goes off-topic, so we can keep the new discussion in a separate new thread. But generally speaking we don't have to do this very often. Forum rule 5 states "Excessive off-topic or pointless posts are not allowed", so most members are pretty good at staying on topic or creating a new topic when appropriate, which saves the moderators a lot of chopping and changing! 

Splitting a topic is the opposite of merging a topic. That's when two or more identical or very similar topics are merged into a single topic. We do this more often because it's easy for members to duplicate topics accidentally, especially if the original topic hasn't been active in a while.

[Fossilized-Rubber]

Does the forum software always link to the split, or does that fall on the moderator to link the split? For clarity, I'm interested because this happened in Brontoscorpio's thread and I can't see how/where/why it's been split.

Thanks!

[DinoToyForum]

Does the forum software always link to the split, or does that fall on the moderator to link the split? For clarity, I'm interested because this happened in Brontoscorpio's thread and I can't see how/where/why it's been split.

Thanks!

The person who splits the post decides if they want to add a redirect link to the new topic. Generally we don't because it makes the forum messy, and the split part usually forms a new topic that is easy to see, or gets moved to an existing topic that gets 'bumped' by the new replies added to it. In the case of Brontoscorpio's thread here's what happened:

Someone commented on the ban decision. I split those replies into a temporary separate topic (which you may have seen), with the intention of merging it into the 'ban log' topic. However, as I was about to merge them, I decided that those replies really weren't worth keeping after all, so I deleted the split topic outright instead.

[Fossilized-Rubber]

Aha! Thanks for taking the time to explain. Sorry for making more work with my misunderstanding.

[DinoToyForum]

No problem!