AJAX-ify comments and a @mention feature

[Bohtty 1,775]

The first one is that commenting stops the music and causes a page refresh which causes the music to reset. I'd be cool if we could comment without this happening.

 

 

The other suggestion is having something that would allow you to "quote" a user's comment. I put quote in the quotations because it's not really quoting. Most forum members will use quoting so that the other person knows that they are talking to them. Similarly it might be helpful to have something similar to the @user feature that this forum has now. It'd notify the user that they were responded to without having to clutter the comments with quote boxes or worse yet, nested quote boxes.

 

I don't know why since most video and media websites have comments with newest at the top, but I find it weird. I think I would prefer to have newest comment go to the bottom. Anyone else feel similarly?

Edited January 20, 2013 by Bohtty

[Twilight Sparkle ✨ 8,520]

The first one is that commenting stops the music and causes a page refresh which causes the music to reset. I'd be cool if we could comment without this happening.

 

 

I approve this: http://mlpforums.com/tracdown/issue/56-ajax-ify-comments/

 

 

It will require significant changes to the front-end code, but it's a great idea.

 

 

The other suggestion is having something that would allow you to "quote" a user's comment. I put quote in the quotations because it's not really quoting. Most forum members will use quoting so that the other person knows that they are talking to them. Similarly it might be helpful to have something similar to the @user feature that this forum has now. It'd notify the user that they were responded to without having to clutter the comments with quote boxes or worse yet, nested quote boxes.

 

 

So... a feature that:

• notifies a user that a comment they left has been replied to
• indicates, in the reply, the original comment that the reply is addressing

There are several ideas that come to mind as ways to tackle this.

• Threaded Comments
  • Clicking a "reply" button on a comment will let you post a direct reply to it.
  • Replies to a comment will show up directly underneath it, indented to the right to separate them from the topmost level of comments (ones that are not made as direct replies to any others).
  • Essentially, leaving a reply will turn a top-level comment into the OP of a discussion thread. The maximum depth of nested comments can be limited, or not. Personally, I'm inclined to set a limit of 1 level, to avoid "sub-threads".
  • Notifications of replies to their "thread" can be sent to the author of the aforementioned "OP".
    • Should notifications be sent to the authors of replies to a thread as well?
• Twitter-style @username mentions
  • Typing @AuralBrony into a comment will send AuralBrony a notification with a link to your comment when you post it.
  • There is no concept of replying to a specific comment 
• Quote Blocks
  • You can include the text of another comment in yours. The other comment will be encapsulated in a so-called quote block within your comment.
  • Alternatively, a chan-like approach could be used where the ID number of the quoted comment is inserted into your comment instead of a quote block. Hovering over the ID number will display the corresponding comment beside your cursor.
  • A notification can be sent to the author of the quoted comment.
  • Allows a user to reply to multiple comments in one comment. Not sure if that's really necessary or even beneficial 

Thoughts on these? Any one or all of them could feasibly be implemented. Personally, I'm leaning toward the idea of threading as it encourages concise, focused comments (ie. replies to a thread revolve around what's brought up in the OP; anyone can create a new OP to start a discussion about another point).

 

 

I don't know why since most video and media websites have comments with newest at the top, but I find it weird. I think I would prefer to have newest comment go to the bottom. Anyone else feel similarly?

 

I think this is largely a matter of personal preference. Sorting comments from newest to oldest draws more attention to newer comments, allowing them to "push out" the older ones. Sorting comments from first to last virtually guarantees that the older a comment is, the more attention it will get. For people interested in reading comments in chronological order as if they were a discussion thread, however, oldest-to-newest makes a lot more sense as humans read from the top down.

 

I'm inclined to believe that large sites put newer comments first as a means of preventing abuse. Think of the "FIRST!!!!!" problem on Equestria Daily or other popular blogs. The newest-to-oldest approach virtually eliminates this problem, but breaks the ability to hold a multi-comment discussion if no threading is possible.

 

Personally, I'm leaning toward implementing threaded comments (described above) with a combination of both approaches. Top-level comments sorted from newest to oldest (to give every comment an equal opportunity for attention), and replies to a thread sorted from oldest to newest (to make a conversation easy to read through).

[Bohtty 1,775]

So... a feature that:

• notifies a user that a comment they left has been replied to
• indicates, in the reply, the original comment that the reply is addressing

There are several ideas that come to mind as ways to tackle this.

• Threaded Comments
  • Clicking a "reply" button on a comment will let you post a direct reply to it.
  • Replies to a comment will show up directly underneath it, indented to the right to separate them from the topmost level of comments (ones that are not made as direct replies to any others).
  • Essentially, leaving a reply will turn a top-level comment into the OP of a discussion thread. The maximum depth of nested comments can be limited, or not. Personally, I'm inclined to set a limit of 1 level, to avoid "sub-threads".
  • Notifications of replies to their "thread" can be sent to the author of the aforementioned "OP".
    • Should notifications be sent to the authors of replies to a thread as well?
• Twitter-style @username mentions
  • Typing @AuralBrony into a comment will send AuralBrony a notification with a link to your comment when you post it.
  • There is no concept of replying to a specific comment 
• Quote Blocks
  • You can include the text of another comment in yours. The other comment will be encapsulated in a so-called quote block within your comment.
  • Alternatively, a chan-like approach could be used where the ID number of the quoted comment is inserted into your comment instead of a quote block. Hovering over the ID number will display the corresponding comment beside your cursor.
  • A notification can be sent to the author of the quoted comment.
  • Allows a user to reply to multiple comments in one comment. Not sure if that's really necessary or even beneficial 

Thoughts on these? Any one or all of them could feasibly be implemented. Personally, I'm leaning toward the idea of threading as it encourages concise, focused comments (ie. replies to a thread revolve around what's brought up in the OP; anyone can create a new OP to start a discussion about another point).

 

Personally, I'm leaning toward implementing threaded comments (described above) with a combination of both approaches. Top-level comments sorted from newest to oldest (to give every comment an equal opportunity for attention), and replies to a thread sorted from oldest to newest (to make a conversation easy to read through).

 

I personally favor the twitter style because it'll keep the comments nice and clean, but clean comments isn't necessarily the best thing to aim for.

 

The twitter style would discourage less concise conversations, but at the same time I feel that comments aren't really meant for full blow conversations. I feel like that would be the jobs of forums or personal messages.

 

I guess it really depends on how much importance you'd want to place on comment's role in communicating between users. I feel that it is one of the primary means in Deviant art with their forums being rather useless/ignored. 

 

Hmm tough decisions. I'd be happy with either implementation