I suppose many of you know that I've been adding cross-links to the first messages of some threads, hoping to make it easier for people to find related threads. I've also corrected the titles of many threads, correcting spellings or adding to thread titles to make them more clear. I try to add "BS" to the titles of most non-music thread, and remove the "BS" from the few music threads that have incorrectly received the "BS" designation.
A few weeks ago, Pene Azul gave me a new tool that allows me to transfer a message from one thread to another. I've been using it to combine threads, and I hope that's helpful. I can move only one message at a time, so it's not a lightning-fast process. When words of a song title have various possible spellings, I try to make sure that at least one message in each thread has an example of the alternate spelling. That way, the information should turn up in the Forum Search, no matter how it's spelled. Pene has also designed a "printer-friendly format" that I can use to copy an entire thread and paste it into another. I use that occasionally, but it has the disadvantage of removing individual messages from the Forum Search.
If a message has been moved and a thread deleted, the thread location reported in SuperSearch results will be incorrect until the SuperSearch index is updated - but you are still able to get to the individual message, and from the message you can get to the thread it's in (for an example, use the Digitrad and Forum Search to go to "Donegal Danny," a number of threads I'm in the process of combining).
Generally, I believe it's best if we have one or just a few cross-indexed threads for each song or music topic we discuss. I also think it's sometimes helpful to group several related songs into a single thread, like when we are covering songs by a particular songwriter. A week or two ago, somebody asked a specific question about the history of a song. Since there were already several existing threads on the song, I combined all of the threads. Somebody suggested that maybe that wasn't a good idea, since the new question got lost in the lengthy combined thread. I'll be more careful about that in the future, but I still think that it's generally a good idea to combine threads.
Somebody suggested that I should post an editing policy in the FAQ, so that people know what will be edited and what won't. I don't think I want to do that. Max said Jeff and I should use our judgment, and that's what we do. Generally, the policy is that Max and Joe and Jeff do what they think best, and that the JoeClones are limited to fixing technical errors and deleting duplicate messages. Max and Joe and Jeff are the ones who deal with offensive or problem messages and threads - if you see such a problem, contact Joe or Jeff (Pene Azul) by personal message. Generally, we don't allow personal attacks or threats on Mudcat, and we delete such messages and threads as soon as we see them. We would appreciate it if people would not publicly respond to such threads and messages in any way - tell us about them privately. We also delete Spam, although we do encourage people to advertise recordings and gigs (with moderation).
Generally, we ask that people NOT copy-paste large amounts of non-music information, and that they do NOT copy-paste lyrics from the Digital Tradition into threads. On the other hand, if you find another site has lyrics we don't have, please DO post the lyrics, AND a link to the site where you found the lyrics (this applies to lyrics that would be of interest to folk musicians, not to the top-40 stuff). Also, if you find music-related information that would be of interest, it's usually best to copy and post the information and a link to the source, instead of just posting a link. For music-related obituaries, I think it's a good idea for an obituary thread to have a copy of at least one newspaper obituary that gives the story of the deceased person. OK, so anyhow, I wanted to ask for advice about combining threads. I often come across messages that request songs and provide no other information, or messages that point people to the Digital Tradition or to another thread that has the information. When I combine threads, these messages become extraneous. Generally, I'm reluctant to delete or alter messages unless they're troublesome, but do you see any reason why I shouldn't delete these messages? I also delete "refresh" messages - I can't imagine anybody objecting to that.