Well, after thinking things over, I'm convinced that it's not a good idea to combine the longer existing threads. It sometimes makes sense to combine one or two solitary messages, but not when threads are longer.

If messages are moved from a thread and the thread deleted, the thread no longer shows up on the tracer. However, the messages show up in Forum Search by user name and message title, wherever those messages may be.

OK, but back to those hundreds of requests threads that we get all the time. They serve a purpose - somebody asks, we respond, and then the requestor (sometimes) comes back and thanks, and then a troll comes in and tells the requestor how stupid they were to ask in the first place. Threads like the Row On requests (click) - What do we do with these threads once they've served their purpose? I think maybe we could mark them "request only" and close them so no additional posts are allowed past a certain point, redirecting people to a more productive thread. I think it might be better to close, mark, and redirect - rather than deleting.

Indexing is OK - but an index is out of date as soon as a new thread is created on the same subject. If we use a Filter-based link like I tried on the Search for "tell her name" threads, the link doesn't get outdated - but it might make sense in that case to label the "request only" threads.

-Joe-