Question: Link to a topic/post that is topic-merge-safe

[Hares]

Hi there, fellow forum readers. I have a question regarding a topic-merge feature used by moderators.

As some of you already seen, I'm often provide links of format: "id: topic title" (interactive link with topic id). However, if two topic are merging, only the older of them wil "survive", and younger ones cease to exist, thus rendering links of kind forums.factorio.com/123456 returning 404. Thus, I raise two questions:

1. Is it possible to format a link to a topic, or topic opening post that will survive that merge operation?
2. Is it possible to define a server-side redirects from merged topics to the topics they are merged into? (This question is mostly addressed to the forum administration team)

Edit: It looks that for question one, the full links of format forums.factorio.com/viewtopic.php?t=123456&p=654321#p654321 are working correctly, so I might update my instant link button script (see: 123987: [Showcase] In-forum instant link button).

Note: In this post, example links are intentionally missing protocol so they are not parsed as active.

[Jap2.0]

I have not verified what you wrote, but that's interesting. It appears that links of the form forums.factorio.com/viewtopic.php?p=650448 are valid, so presumably post id but not topic id is maintained through a merge.

[Loewchen]

Topic was 124136

[Koub]

[...]

I'm afraid I'm the one merging every single suggestion post I find in several versions . As you have noticed, the oldest thread ID kind of disappears during a merge operation. That's why one gets 404 afterwards.
However the individual posts retain their post ID. So if you want a link to survive a thread merger, it must be a link to a post. Example :
- Link to this thread : viewtopic.php?f=55&t=124123 (or the shorter version : 124123). Notice the t=xxxxxx, that's the thread's ID
- Link to your post, centred on your post : viewtopic.php?p=651078#p651078. Notice the p=xxxxxx, that's the post ID. The #pxxxxxx is the part that centers the display on your post.
- Link to your post, not centred on your post : viewtopic.php?p=651078. Your post is somewhere on the page, but the web page is not centred at your post (works best on long threads, and on posts way below the top ot the page).

You may get also forum links with f=xxxxxx somewhere in the URL. That's the subforum' ID, and most of the time, it's totally redundant (you can spot it in the first link I provided and removing it changes nothing).

Concerning the necessity for you to point duplicate suggestions, it took me all this time to catch up the spike of posting on the forums after Space Age was released, spending every free moment I had. Usually, I spot the duplicate suggestions are they are posted, but I have lagged up to one week behind. Luckily, I'm almost done now, things have started settling. No doubt I have missed some duplicates, and I will merge them as I stumble on them. So apologies, and thank you for your patience .

[Hares]

[...]

Okay, instant link button updated to use `viewtopic` URLs.

Unfortunately, source code almost doubled.

Thanks for answers @Koub @Loewchen!

(Also, feel free to use one & provide feedback if needed)