I do not know if this is the right category for this, but here goes anyway.

So, I know that e621 has the handy parent/child relationship feature. I also know that it is primarily meant for connecting alternative variants of an image but is also often used to connect pictures via continuity/sequence of events. As well as the fact that it is possible for one parent post to have multiple child posts that fork and diverge. What I want to know is if it possible for the opposite to occur. For a child post to have multiple parent posts that converge to the one child post.

If yes, how do you do that?

If no, why is that the case?

Thank you to whomever answers.

foolysh said:
I also know that it is primarily meant for connecting alternative variants of an image but is also often used to connect pictures via continuity/sequence of events.

Only for two, maybe three, posts. Three or more posts should instead use a pool and not parent/child links (more than three should definitely use a pool, not parent/child links).

foolysh said:
As well as the fact that it is possible for one parent post to have multiple child posts that fork and diverge. What I want to know is if it possible for the opposite to occur. For a child post to have multiple parent posts that converge to the one child post.

Not normally. A post has a parent post ID field, so multiple posts can mark a particular post as their parent (making them all children to the specified parent), but not a child post ID field, so there's no way to make multiple posts parents to a given child.

The only way I've seen it happen is when a post already has a parent post, and is then flagged for being an inferior to another post, which makes the superior post a parent of the inferior along with it's original parent. I think I've seen that happen, anyway.

foolysh said:
I do not know if this is the right category for this, but here goes anyway.

So, I know that e621 has the handy parent/child relationship feature. I also know that it is primarily meant for connecting alternative variants of an image but is also often used to connect pictures via continuity/sequence of events. As well as the fact that it is possible for one parent post to have multiple child posts that fork and diverge. What I want to know is if it possible for the opposite to occur. For a child post to have multiple parent posts that converge to the one child post.

If yes, how do you do that?

If no, why is that the case?

Thank you to whomever answers.

A scenario where I can imagine a child post having two parents is when two (older, parent) posts are combined into one (newer, child) post, e.g.:

• Post A is a picture of a man.
• Post B is a picture of a woman.
• Post C is the merger of the picture of the man and woman.

In that case, you can just make Post C as the parent to both Post A & Post B, since it is essentially the same as a parent with two child posts.

In the rare occasion that a sequence is involved, such that:

• Post A being a "before perspective #1", such as a man walking down the street.
• Post B being a "before perspective #2", such as a woman walking down another street.
• Post C being the "convergence point", such as the man and woman bumping into each other.

You typically just make the first post (i.e., Post A) as the parent to all subsequent posts, but some people also chain parent posts together (such that A is parent to B who is parent to C). This is, however, often discouraged in lieu of using pools instead.

I have faced this problem when I tried to post a sequence of two images which have SFW and NSFW versions, so it's a total of 4 posts starting with post #3503111.

In short terns, we have page 1 SFW/NSFW and page 2 SFW/NSFW. I'm sure I have messed up the relationship of the posts because I was unable to set 2 parents to a single post.

bpedron said:
I have faced this problem when I tried to post a sequence of two images which have SFW and NSFW versions, so it's a total of 4 posts starting with post #3503111.

In short terns, we have page 1 SFW/NSFW and page 2 SFW/NSFW. I'm sure I have messed up the relationship of the posts because I was unable to set 2 parents to a single post.

You can follow what I did on post #3423517 for posts with multiple childs and alts, note the italicised navigation bar I included in the description to help people find their way around the posts.
Alternatively, you can simply make the first post as the parent to all subsequent childs and alts, keeping everything neatly linked together in one single post.