Comment screening in another user's entry

[elizabeth_rice]

Title:
Comment screening in another user's entry

Area:
entries, comments

Summary:
Ability to screen my own comment(s) in another user's entry in a personal journal and/or community.

Description:
Each user has the ability to delete his/her own comment in another user's entry. Only the entry poster can delete, screen and freeze comments made to their entry(ies).

If I wish to share personal information that I do not want others to view, what I can currently do is to delete the comment after posting it to ensure that only the entry poster can view it. Even if I were to ask the entry poster to screen my comment, s/he will only do so when s/he reads my comment.

My suggestion is to allow each user the ability to screen his/her own comment in another user's entry(ies) made in a personal journal/community, whether the entry/journal/community is public or restricted to that user's access list or community members. This way a user can share personal information with the entry poster that s/he does not wish for others to view.

Regarding communities, perhaps some users might feel hesitant to implement this in case it creates additional problems for maintainers/moderators in case of conflict between the entry poster and other members/users. However, I know that members/users with posting access already have the ability to delete, screen and freeze all comments made to their entries in a community. So I don't believe that it would cause additional problems if users have the ability to screen their own comments.

Poll #873

Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 38

View Respondents

This suggestion:

View Answers

Should be implemented as-is.
9 (23.7%)

Should be implemented with changes.
7 (18.4%)

Shouldn't be implemented.
22 (57.9%)

(Other: please comment)
0 (0.0%)

Comments

[ninetydegrees]

This way a user can share personal information with the entry poster that s/he does not wish for others to view.

Can you tell me what happens when you track an entry/a thread and someone screen their comment a posteriori? Do you get a notification? Is the content of the comment in the notification? I think you do and it is but I'm not sure.

[sofiaviolet]

In the current behaviors, this depends on where the notification is being viewed, and when the screening is applied.

If the comments posts as screened (for example, OP is screening all replies), no notification will appear in a third party's inbox, and nothing will be emailed to them.

If it is screened after posting, then the actual comment will appear in the inbox until it's screened. After screening, the inbox displays a note that there's a screened comment, but it doesn't provide any other information - not even which journal or entry the screened comment is in.

If it's screened after posting, and the person tracking comments is having them emailed, then the full text of the comment will be emailed.

(Or at least that's been my experience. Correct me if the behavior I described is wrong/has changed.)

[ninetydegrees]

If it's screened after posting, and the person tracking comments is having them emailed, then the full text of the comment will be emailed.

That's what I thought. Thank you.

To the OP, I'm not against your idea per se but not for the reasons you mention.

[7rin]

IANTOP, but think a change could be written in to make the comment post as screened (probably by click through on to the "more options" page for those who use quick reply) initially, which would get around people tracking by email still getting the message in their inbox.

Personally, much as I loath people thinking that posting a comment then deleting (or in this case, screening) is anything other than public posting (subject to locked posts, filters, etc.), I actually like the idea of being able to screen my own comments (not that I can think of any I'd screen, off-hand). PMing isn't the same (for those that're gonna say it) 'cause then you lose the threading.

[ninetydegrees]

Nice idea. If it worked like that, I would still like maintainers and owner to have the same control as they have now over these comments, though.

[ciaan]

I agree, if this were implemented it ought to include a "post comment as screened" option as well as the ability to screen/unscreen after posting.

[kyrielle]

I like this, it solves the email issue nicely.

[elizabeth_rice]

Oh. I had not considered notifications. I've read all the comments posted so far. I didn't even know that the full text of the comment can also be emailed to any user tracking entry/comment threads. So much for this idea. ;)

[zvi]

If the journal owner has the ability to unscreen comments screened by a commenter, then this provides a very false sense of private communication.

I do not want people to have the ability to make screened comments in my journal, which I, the journal owner, cannot unscreen.

[ciaan]

That sense of private communication is just as false (or rather dependent on trust) when comments are screened automatically by the OP, because the OP can still unscreen those.

(Though I agree that I wouldn't want people to be able to comment in my posts with me not having any ability to easily show others what they said, if they were trolls or whatnot.)

[zvi]

That sense of private communication is just as false (or rather dependent on trust) when comments are screened automatically by the OP, because the OP can still unscreen those.

Yeah, I think people who trust to screening for private communication are being foolish. I don't think we should make it easier for them to behave foolishly.

[cesy]

Putting your total trust in anything like screening for private communication may be foolish, in the same way as locked posts are only secure if the people viewing them are trustworthy, but there are still times when screening can be useful.

[7rin]

This is the only thing I was unsure on while concocting my reply above. I'm not sure how I'd want it to work. I mean, if it was me posting a personal story of mine in someone else's account, then I wouldn't want them to be able to unscreen it willy-nilly, but at the same time, I'd wanna be able to unscreen comments left in my own account if they were abusive or summat like.

[elizabeth_rice]

Oh, I hadn't thought of that. Good point, though.

[azurelunatic]

If someone is tracking replies to that entry and gets them emailed, post-and-delete sends them whatever private information you were trying to send. Please be aware of this.

[ciaan]

Yeah, I forget about that sometimes, as I rarely track entries and as it's a hold-over behavior from before tracking was instituted.

[azurelunatic]

I don't get the hold-over behavior part.

[ciaan]

There was a time way back in the day on LJ before you could track entries. Wasn't there? I seem to remember the feature being introduced. Or maybe I am confused. It is one of the things I think of as a spiff new feature, but possibly it just took me a bit to learn about it. Those days of ten icons for paid accounts are so ancient and fuzzy now.

[azurelunatic]

ahhhh, the "comment-and-delete" as holdover behavior, not the "tracking can also email". That makes much more sense.

[ciaan]

Yes, yes, apparently my "it" was ambiguous. :)

[sofiaviolet]

I assume that ciaan means that, before tracking and the possibility that someone other than the OP could receive comments via email, leaving a comment and then deleting it was considered quite safe, since it would only be emailed to the OP and wouldn't be visible for very long before the commenter deleted it.

[ciaan]

Yes, that is exactly what I meant. :)

[elizabeth_rice]

I did not know this. Did LJ mention this when they introduced the tracking feature?

[azurelunatic]

It got mentioned quite a bit in a number of places. I'm not sure if a caution against doing this was mentioned in a news post or something, because support has always recommended against this method of passing messages, but it is very much something many people are aware of and try to spread awareness of whenever possible.

[elizabeth_rice]

I see. They really ought to put that in the FAQ!

[adalger]

If a user wants to share personal information or communicate privately with another user, I feel the appropriate medium is through the messaging system rather than commenting. It already exists and it already does what the suggestion is intended to accomplish.

[the_shoshanna]

Yes, private message (or email) does what the OP is looking for. No need to mess around with comment screening options.

[7rin]

Disagree.

[7rin]

I disagree. If it's sharing things such as 'phone numbers, etc., then yes, take it to PM (although it'd help there if Saved Items in Inbox were implemented), but if it's sharing a personal story that's relative to the thread it's in, it'd be nice to be able to use this method so the the threading could be kept intact.

[azurelunatic]

I am cautiously in favor of allowing screening of the comment as part of the making-the-comment or editing process, but not past then, as I think that is the easiest way to make sure that the comment owner can't overrule the post owner's screening settings.

[kyrielle]

I think the ability to "post reply screened" should be added, and the entry poster should have the right to unscreen as normal. So if it's info you are truly unwilling to risk being opened to view, it should go via PM, but if it's something like a personal story that you'd rather share just with the OP, you can.

Of course, post-screened bypasses visibility when replying to a comment by another user than the OP of the post, so I am still not sure how useful this is. Borderline....

[cesy]

In the case of a top-level comment or a reply to the journal owner (not to another user), the ability for the commenter to post a screened comment could be useful, and the journal owner could unscreen it if they wished. The commenter shouldn't be able to change the screening later, as that leaves it open to abuse. Also, this way, commenters would be very aware that the journal owner can unscreen their comment, so there would be no false illusions about security.

I'm not so sure about how to make it work in communities or when replying to someone else, as you would then need the "screened" comment to be visible to more people (the person you're replying to as well as you and the journal owner, or the mods as well as the entry poster).

[charmian]

Wait, so then would the poster (of the post commented on) be able to unscreen that comment? I think this need would be better addressed by the messaging system.

[elizabeth_rice]

I don't know if you noticed this but this suggestion has been rejected. See the tags.

Anyway, when I made this suggestion they were plenty of things that I was unaware of at the time. Now I realise that this suggestion was pretty crappy to begin with. I was actually debating voting against my own suggestion. :)