[fChk]

(....)
As previously mentioned, there were really good arguments put forward in favour of auto-merging.  We are on auto-merging for now.

@fChk, if you want to re-open the thread for further discussion, please PM me.  For now I am closing the thread.

Thanks for reopening this!

As far as I can see (reading from where I've left this conversation), there is an instance where auto-merging seems to be a positive feature, ie:
> on mobiles generally, and specifically when responding to multiple posts in the same thread

Both instances can still be met if auto-merging is enabled but capped at a certain time limit. In my last post here, I did suggest a 24 hours cap beyond which auto-merging should no longer be triggered. If that still is too short for some people here then what time frame are you proposing?..

Keeping auto-merging without a time-cap is a really nasty feature, that will end up being counter-productive for my posting habits in the long run. Again, I've no problem with it being ON. But if it's ON, it should have a time limit and I'm not too picky about that either: any time-cap should do the trick as far as I'm concerned.

An all-OFF or all-ON isn't a solution as it seems, so, please guys, let's us agree on a time-cap to get everyone on-board with this!..

Thanks!