ORIGINAL: RCadmin
Problem with merge is that posts can get interspersed based on date and then the flow of responses can make no sense. Think of it as blending to 100 post threads at the same time where posts are made during the same date range. One post may be from one thread then the next 2 from the other and so on. IT would potentially be difficult to follow
That's the part that makes things tough. The forums have a tree-style that would potentially make that sort of thread easier to read, but I doubt very many people use the tree-style. I know I don't.
Some things could be merged, but that's best done at the beginnings of a thread. The problem with very long-lived threads is that the subject often tends to drift. Is there really much difference between searching within a forum and searching within a thread?