It's beating me to death...
¿ªÔÆÌåÓýOkay, I know. RTFM ¨C Read The Full Manual. And I did, and again. And then again. And it¡¯s not working for me. ? I have a thread of 18 messages that I merged into one ¨C and it worked just like it always has. I¡¯ve done this before. Then I figured out that I wanted a different message within this thread to be the ¡®lead¡¯ message. So I figured ¡®this is easy, I¡¯ll just Split out the one I want as the ¡®new lead¡¯, then Merge the remaining 17 back with it¡but I cannot get the Split Option to show in the hamburger menu. I¡¯ve played with multiple combinations (followed the instructions ¡°to a T¡± at least a few times, then tried other combinations) and no been able to get the hamburger to allow the Split option. ? Obviously, unless I take a video of what I¡¯m doing, or amass a bunch of screen shots, I can¡¯t show you what I¡¯m doing, when, and how. But I can at least ask for help in someone confirming that I should be able to Split one message out of an 18 message Topic. ? I¡¯ve thought far enough out that if no one can figure out what I¡¯m doing wrong, or that it really won¡¯t work for them either, or there¡¯s another way that I haven¡¯t figured out, I can go in and play with the Message Topics and alter them to attempt to achieve my objective. ? Thanks. ? -- Dan Tucker, Groups.io ?AFDRetiree¡¯s Group and AFSMA Group Founder/Owner/Moderator (907) 863-1313 |
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Hi Dan,
I had a look at this problem, using the APP on iOS (iPad). There I found that the ?Split¡° option doesn¡®t appear in the Hamburger menu if you select the lead message (normally the oldest one of a topic) - it is only visible in the subsequent messages. Which makes sense of course, as the oldest message defines the topic.? How this works if the Topic has been created by manually merging multiple messages I don¡®t know, I¡®ve never done that. I can only suspect that you¡®re trying to split the message from the topic that GIO takes as the lead message already.
Kind regards Thomas |
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On Mon, Feb 3, 2025 at 01:35 AM, Dan Tucker wrote:
Then I figured out that I wanted a different message within this thread to be the ¡®lead¡¯ message. The 'lead' message will always be the oldest.? You don't get a choice on the order that they're presented.? I believe Thomas has found your 'problem'.
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Duane
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Lots of detailed information can be found in the Owners Manual and Members Manual. |
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Hi Duane, Dan,
I understand the splitting part of the problem I believe. You select one of the messages in a topic, then after selecting ?split¡° give it a new subject, which starts a new topic. But how do you merge multiple messages into one topic? I don¡®t see an option to change the subject of an existing message, did I overlook that?
Kind regards ?Thomas? |
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On Sun, Feb 2, 2025 at 11:35 PM, Dan Tucker wrote:
But I can at least ask for help in someone confirming that I should be able to Split one message out of an 18 message Topic.How about this. If splitting is not working, then maybe copying and pasting that one message into a new topic would work, then delete that one message from the other topic it was in. ?
Don G |
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On Mon, Feb 3, 2025 at 10:25 AM, Thomas Gruber wrote:
But how do you merge multiple messages into one topic? To be clear, messages cannot be merged, only topics. If there is a message buried within a topic that you want to move, you have to split it out of that topic first.
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To merge, you have to begin in Topics view. Then follow the instructions at /helpcenter/ownersmanual/1/managing-group-topics-and-messages/merging-topics?
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You can only merge two topics at a time. To do more than that, you have to sequentially pair them up and repeat.
I don¡®t see an option to change the subject of an existing message, did I overlook that? Again, the subject line is a property of a topic, not a message.?
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If you split a topic, you will be prompted for a new subject line. Failing that, select Topic Properties from the More hamburger menu. Any changes you make will affect all the messages in that topic.
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Hope this helps,
Bruce
Check out the groups.io Help Center?and?groups.io Owners Manual |
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Thanks Bruce,
this does indeed help! I wasn¡®t even aware that such an option exists (merging topics).?
This generates a new question, which may be related to the Dan¡¯s original question: If you merge 2 topics, which will be the ?anchor point¡° that defines the topic, and which cannot be split? Duane said that this is always the oldest message, but by merging you might merge an older message into the topic - will that one become the new ?anchor point¡° (I hope you know what I mean)? And will the previous one then loose that status, and have a ?split¡° option? And if this really happens, is some sort of refresh necessary before the new status is visible (in app and browser, which may behave differently)?
I would test that, but I don¡®t want to generate test messages in a live group.? This is a slightly exotic question I believe, but the question made me curious - sorry! :-) Kind regards Thomas |
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On Mon, Feb 3, 2025 at 11:52 AM, Thomas Gruber wrote:
If you merge 2 topics, which will be the ?anchor point¡° that defines the topic, and which cannot be split?From the viewpoint of where a topic can be split, you won't be allowed to split a topic before its oldest message. Doing so would create a topic with zero messages in it. [For awhile, there was a bug in the system that allowed this, but thankfully it has been fixed.] ?
Duane said that this is always the oldest message, but by merging you might merge an older message into the topic - will that one become the new ?anchor point¡° (I hope you know what I mean)? Once a topic has been created, it is a collection of messages that share the same topic properties (subject line, reply-to setting, etc). This concept of an "anchor point" has no real meaning.?
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When you click open a topic in the message archive, either the oldest message will be displayed first, or the most recent, depending on which sort order you have chosen.?
And will the previous one then loose that status, and have a ?split¡° option? And if this really happens, is some sort of refresh necessary before the new status is visible (in app and browser, which may behave differently)? I'm struggling to understand what "status" you might be referring to.
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Fair warning, though... the messages you just got done splitting-and-merging have already gone out as emails. Because of this, emailed replies often get misdirected into the wrong topic, requiring another split-and-mergefest. You can put both topics on moderation to redirect such replies as they come in, but the whole process soon becomes very tedious.
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This discussion is becoming more and more hypothetical. To get back on track, please let us know what you might be trying to accomplish.
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Regards,
Bruce
Check out the groups.io Help Center?and?groups.io Owners Manual |
¿ªÔÆÌåÓýThanks to all! First, My bad for making the ¡°message¡± versus ¡°Topic¡± part so confusing. I erred by intermingling them. There only happen to be two Topics in this transaction; 17 messages in one, six in the other. Then, in Thomas¡¯ second Reply to this he mentions ¡°¡then after selecting ?split¡°?¡¡±, which is the foundation of my ¡®problem.¡¯ In my thrashing about on this I have not been able to get ¡°Split¡± to show up in the pulldown no matter which instructions I followed¡or didn¡¯t. I didn¡¯t have any trouble with ¡°Merging¡±. ? I went through, and through, and through this: /helpcenter/ownersmanual/1/managing-group-topics-and-messages/splitting-topics and was not able to get ¡°Split¡± to show up. ? I really appreciate the help. I think Thomas third message, where he uses the term ¡°anchor¡± is an exact description of what I¡¯m dealing with. ? When one of our members dies (we¡¯re a brother/sisterhood of firefighters that have worked together over more than 75 years now) we ¨C the Mods ¨C send out a specifically formatted ¡°Last Alarm (hashtag)¡± message, with the intention of all of the ¡®discussion/responses¡¯ about that individual will be nested under that Topic/thread. Then, knowing that THAT initial notice (Topic) is the ¡®parent¡¯ to all further (yeah, right) we create a Folder in the Files for ¡®all things¡¯ (messages, pictures, tributes, obits, etc.) relative to that member, and then copy/paste the link to the ¡®anchor/parent¡¯ Topic/message into that File/Folder. That way, if someone is looking up a friend, they don¡¯t have to look around/search for anything ¨C it¡¯s all linked together. But we all know how things get truncated and outside the lines after that. And, as we find the ¡®stragglers and outliers¡¯, we Merge them into the Topic that has been directly linked. ? Summary: We like to keep the ¡®anchor¡¯ message for the entire Topic ¨C even if it gets contaminated ¨C the same, and identical format. ? Again, THANKS!!! --
? From:
"[email protected]" <[email protected]> on behalf of "Thomas Gruber via groups.io" <computerhusky@...> ? Thanks Bruce, this does indeed help! I wasn¡®t even aware that such an option exists (merging topics).? This generates a new question, which may be related to the Dan¡¯s original question: If you merge 2 topics, which will be the ?anchor point¡° that defines the topic, and which cannot be split? Duane said that this is always the oldest message,
but by merging you might merge an older message into the topic - will that one become the new ?anchor point¡° (I hope you know what I mean)? And will the previous one then loose that status, and have a ?split¡° option? And if this really happens, is some sort
of refresh necessary before the new status is visible (in app and browser, which may behave differently)?
Thomas |
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On Mon, Feb 3, 2025 at 01:38 PM, Dan Tucker wrote:
Click open the topic, so that all of the messages within are displayed. There should be a blue button at upper left saying "Topic Properties." ?
Having reached this point, you should be able to find "Split" in the More menu, except for the oldest message. As explained previously you cannot split there because it would create a topic with zero messages.
I think I know what you're getting at. ?
Online web forums often provide a "tree structure" for a topic, displaying all the messages and their interrelationships (who replied to what), with the message that started it all at its "root." Groups.io does not operate that way... and cannot, since many of the posts come in as emails, and there's no way to definitively determine what an email might be replying to. All it can do is assume that the oldest message in the topic (i.e.: the message with the lowest message number) corresponds to when everything started, and that all the responses are related to that.
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Generally, that strikes me as a logical assumption.?
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On that basis I have to go back to what Duane said... there is no provision to alter history and insert a later message into this position (and in fact, there is no such position). The best you can do is remove earlier messages, such that they no longer appear in the topic.
You can create a link that opens a topic and "points to" one of the messages. Open the message in question, scroll down, and click the "View all xx messages" link. You can then copy that URL from the browser's address bar and paste it wherever you need to.
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For example, I'd consider this URL to be the "root" of the current discussion:? /g/GroupManagersForum/topic/110967242#msg48735?
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I hope this helps, 'cause I still don't fully understand your use case, and am ready to let someone else give it a shot.? :-)?
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Regards,
Bruce
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Check out the groups.io Help Center?and?groups.io Owners Manual |
Dan Tucker
Thomas Gruber
Duane
Don Grass
Bruce Bowman