I’ve seen some edits where someone was removing a release which was merged from several others that shouldn’t have been merged in the first place.
Example: https://musicbrainz.org/edit/56954372 - each disc should actually be a separate release with its own catalog number, but here it was one 3-disc release.
Another example: https://musicbrainz.org/edit/60019740 - two variants of the same single form a bogus two-disc release (again both should be separate releases with their own catalog numbers, these were never sold together as a set).
I was wondering if there is a way to handle such operation is a non-destructive way?
In this case, while the 3CD release was still existing we could have checked if recordings were the same as stand alone releases (was probably the case) and, if not, merge them.
That the release should be removed like it did.
Thank you both for your answers. So there is a way to do it. But…
Does it actually make sense to split a release like @anon18945670 described only to merge it to a another release? Seems to me that it would only make sense if we really wanted to preserve the editing history.
No, if the correct, split releases already exist I’d probably just remove the wrong, merged release too.
If the merged release has the oldest MBID, then one could simply remove one medium and then merge it with the newer release.