sophie: A cartoon-like representation of a girl standing on a hill, with brown hair, blue eyes, a flowery top, and blue skirt. ☀ (Default)
Sophie ([personal profile] sophie) wrote in [site community profile] dw_suggestions2012-02-03 04:55 am

Allow permalinks to comments with added context

Title:
Allow permalinks to comments with added context

Area:
Commenting

Summary:
When linking to a comment, there are currently two ways of doing it - either linking directly to the comment itself, or linking to a parent or grandparent. The latter approach has problems though because it also shows other sibling comments which may not be relevant. I propose adding a new mode which shows the linked comment and several parent comments, with no siblings.

Description:
Right now, it's impossible to link to a particular comment with context without including other sibling comments in the output too, and if the comment you want to link to is further down the page, it's not easy to point attention to that comment specifically.

As well as being a Dreamwidth user, I'm also a user of Reddit, which also has threaded commenting. The way they solve this is by allowing the display of a number of levels above the linked comment, and highlighting the linked comment in particular. For example, http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/p6gza/im_dr_norman_rosenthal_psychiatrist_author_and/c3mwork?context=3 links to a comment of mine (Sophira) with two levels of parent comments, without any siblings. (The link would normally specify three levels, but as it happens there aren't three levels above mine.)

Reddit's implementation doesn't look accessible - it only distinguishes the linked comment by colour, and with a very subtle shade at that - so if we implemented this it would be necessary to make it more accessible, both by added text and by a more obvious shade of colour.

One problem with this is that I'm not sure how easy it would be to incorporate this into existing styles. It would be nice to try, though.

(Edit: In the comments, I've posted an example showing exactly what I mean.)


Poll #9489 Allow permalinks to comments with added context
Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 43


This suggestion:

View Answers

Should be implemented as-is.
9 (20.9%)

Should be implemented with changes. (please comment)
4 (9.3%)

Shouldn't be implemented.
4 (9.3%)

(I have no opinion)
26 (60.5%)

(Other: please comment)
0 (0.0%)

ninetydegrees: Art & Text: heart with aroace colors, "you are loved" (Default)

[personal profile] ninetydegrees 2012-02-12 08:48 pm (UTC)(link)
Thanks for the explanation.

How is that different from the 'parent', 'thread' and 'thread from start' links, though?

Edit: nevermind. I finally got it.
Edited 2012-02-12 20:49 (UTC)
deborah: the Library of Congress cataloging numbers for children's literature, technology, and library science (Default)

[personal profile] deborah 2012-02-12 09:33 pm (UTC)(link)
This is a behavior I have wondered for some time, although I agree with people that some clear indicator that there are collapsed siblings would be useful.
deborah: the Library of Congress cataloging numbers for children's literature, technology, and library science (Default)

[personal profile] deborah 2012-02-12 09:34 pm (UTC)(link)
Argh my paid account is expired so I can't edit. s/wondered/wanted/

/me wanders over to check book to stick check in mail
denise: Image: Me, facing away from camera, on top of the Castel Sant'Angelo in Rome (Default)

[staff profile] denise 2012-02-12 09:35 pm (UTC)(link)
:P
musyc: Silver flute resting diagonally across sheet music (Default)

[personal profile] musyc 2012-02-12 10:15 pm (UTC)(link)
This sort of linking behavior actually irritates me. When there's a clear "parent" or "thread from start" link as there is on DW, I want to go straight to the comment being linked, without a whole row of who knows how many parents having to load. I can see how this would be useful to people who come from blog/discussion sites where that's the norm, but it's always bothered me. I tend to use sites/read comments and thread less often if it's showing me a bunch of parent comments instead of the *one* that I want to read.
azurelunatic: Vivid pink Alaskan wild rose. (Default)

[personal profile] azurelunatic 2012-02-13 01:25 am (UTC)(link)
Agreed; as an option I can take this, but if someone proposed it as the default I would get cranky.