I guess I'm a little ignorant when it comes to these things as i don't have any experience with forums other than as a user.
What I don’t understand is why the threads have to be merged so that the conversations within them become harder and harder to follow. Why does it matter that, instead of having 100 threads and 10,000 posts, you have 10 threads and 10,000 posts? It’s still the same number of posts isn’t it? Doesn't it still take up the same about of space?