Aurora: Merge content types

In active communities, it's common for standalone discussions to overlap with existing knowledge base content. Sometimes, a question or conversation in the forum is better positioned as a follow-up to an article that already addresses the topic. 

To streamline content and avoid duplication, you can merge a discussion into a knowledge base article as a reply. This keeps related information together, helps future readers find complete context in one place, and makes the knowledge base more dynamic and community-informed.

This article covers how to merge content and metadata lost after the merge.

Note: You can merge only discussions and ideas as a reply or comment to posts of any other content type post. Blog posts, knowledge base articles, and events cannot be merged as comments or replies to posts of another content type.

Merge content

Let’s see an example of how a discussion is merged as a comment on a knowledge base article.

The following screenshot shows a discussion in a forum called “UX writers Forum” with 2 replies.

The following screenshot shows an article in a knowledge base called “UX writer KB” with 2 comments.

To merge the discussion to the knowledge base article:

1. On the discussion page, open the Options menu.
2. Select Move.
   A window opens where you can select to move or merge.
   
   
3. Select Merge as a reply to an existing post of any content type.
4. Select Continue.
   A window opens where you can choose the destination of this discussion.

   You receive a prompt informing you of the metadata lost after you merge this content. 

   
5. (Optional) If you want to notify the author of the discussion about moving it, select Author of this post checkbox.
6. (Optional) If you want to notify the members who replied to this discussion about moving it, select Members who replied to this post checkbox.
7. (Optional) If you want to notify the author of the destination post, select Author of the destination post checkbox.
8. (Optional) If you want to notify all members who participated (replied or gave Likes) to the destination post, select All participants in the destination post checkbox.
9. Select Move.

The discussion has been added as comments under the article. There are now 5 comments in total—2 were already part of the article, and 3 come from the moved discussion, including 2 of its replies.

 

Metadata loss after merge

Below are the details of what metadata is lost when a content type is merged to a board of a different content type.