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Impossible at the moment, as one of the merged questions (the source) is literally destroyed -- it doesn't exist any more.

  A merge record is recorded in the history of the target question, but it's not in any kind of reasonably queryable format.

It sounds to me like you're arguing for keeping the duplicates, closing as duplicate, and just shuffling the answers around, which is a different request.

Merge is for PERFECT duplicates.

edit: we now handle question merging in a much more sane way -- both questions are retained, one is a stub, and all answers are migrated into the merged question. If the stub is deleted, we 301 redirect to the merge target.

https://blog.stackoverflow.com/2010/06/improved-question-merging/

(nothing can be done about old merges, sadly, due to our poor choice to destroy the other question in the merge)

Previously this was impossible, as one of the merged questions (the source) was literally destroyed. A merge record is recorded in the history of the target question, but it's not in any kind of reasonably queryable format.

We now handle question merging in a much more sane way -- both questions are retained, one is a stub, and all answers are migrated into the merged question. If the stub is deleted, we 301 redirect to the merge target.

https://blog.stackoverflow.com/2010/06/improved-question-merging/

Nothing can be done about old merges, sadly, due to our poor choice to destroy the other question in the merge

Impossible at the moment, as one of the merged questions (the source) is literally destroyed -- it doesn't exist any more.

A merge record is recorded in the history of the target question, but it's not in any kind of reasonably queryable format.

It sounds to me like you're arguing for keeping the duplicates, closing as duplicate, and just shuffling the answers around, which is a different request.

Merge is for PERFECT duplicates.

edit: we now handle question merging in a much more sane way -- both questions are retained, one is a stub, and all answers are migrated into the merged question. If the stub is deleted, we 301 redirect to the merge target.

http://blog.stackoverflow.com/2010/06/improved-question-merging/

(nothing can be done about old merges, sadly, due to our poor choice to destroy the other question in the merge)

Impossible at the moment, as one of the merged questions (the source) is literally destroyed -- it doesn't exist any more.

A merge record is recorded in the history of the target question, but it's not in any kind of reasonably queryable format.

It sounds to me like you're arguing for keeping the duplicates, closing as duplicate, and just shuffling the answers around, which is a different request.

Merge is for PERFECT duplicates.

edit: we now handle question merging in a much more sane way -- both questions are retained, one is a stub, and all answers are migrated into the merged question. If the stub is deleted, we 301 redirect to the merge target.

https://blog.stackoverflow.com/2010/06/improved-question-merging/

(nothing can be done about old merges, sadly, due to our poor choice to destroy the other question in the merge)

Impossible at the moment, as one of the merged questions (the source) is literally destroyed -- it doesn't exist any more.

A merge record is recorded in the history of the target question, but it's not in any kind of reasonably queryable format.

It sounds to me like you're arguing for keeping the duplicates, closing as duplicate, and just shuffling the answers around, which is a different request.

Merge is for PERFECT duplicates.

edit: we now handle question merging in a much more sane way -- both questions are retained, one is a stub, and all answers are migrated into the merged question. If the stub is deleted, we 301 redirect to the merge target.

(nothing can be done about old merges, sadly, due to our poor choice to destroy the other question in the merge)

Impossible at the moment, as one of the merged questions (the source) is literally destroyed -- it doesn't exist any more.

A merge record is recorded in the history of the target question, but it's not in any kind of reasonably queryable format.

It sounds to me like you're arguing for keeping the duplicates, closing as duplicate, and just shuffling the answers around, which is a different request.

Merge is for PERFECT duplicates.

edit: we now handle question merging in a much more sane way -- both questions are retained, one is a stub, and all answers are migrated into the merged question. If the stub is deleted, we 301 redirect to the merge target.

http://blog.stackoverflow.com/2010/06/improved-question-merging/

(nothing can be done about old merges, sadly, due to our poor choice to destroy the other question in the merge)