Compact Comment View

[facetofcathy]

Title:
Compact Comment View

Area:
Comments

Summary:
An even more compact view than the current top-level comments view, this version omits the comment text and the icon giving the reader a short list of the top level comments on a page.

Description:
Inspired by the Comment Indexing suggestion and green_knight's comment there, and by the new fully collapsed comment view on Livejournal.

Offer a comment view that shows top-level comments in a compact form.

Purpose:

The Compact Comments View would give readers a stripped-down view of all the top-level comments. This view omits the comment content and acts as an index for the page.

It provides a shorter list than the top-level comments view readers can quickly scan to find the comment they are looking for. This view shows who commented, the topic of a comment and how active the conversation is by including the number of replies.


The reader would see:

* the date and time
* the user name
* the subject line
* the number of replies
* an expand link

Not shown:

* the user icon
* the comment contents
* the track, reply, thread, parent or edit links

Format:

* Ideally, this information should take up one or two lines of text on the reader's screen for each comment

* The expand link should expand the top-level comment, revealing its content.

* Clicking the subject line should open the thread headed by that comment.

* The number of replies link should expand all the replies and the top-level comment, leaving the rest of the comments in compact view.


Of particular value to:

* Communities where subject lines are usually used--anon memes, prompt fests or kink memes, discussion communities
* Posts where top-level comments might be very long and readers want to read only some of them--comment fic fests, very active or structured discussion posts
* Readers who want to find comments by specific people, or only active discussions
* Readers with slow connections who want a faster browsing experience
* Readers with smaller screens or who use very large text

Poll #8900 Compact Comment View

Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 60

View Respondents

This suggestion:

View Answers

Should be implemented as-is.
18 (30.0%)

Should be implemented with changes. (please comment)
4 (6.7%)

Shouldn't be implemented.
4 (6.7%)

(I have no opinion)
30 (50.0%)

(Other: please comment)
4 (6.7%)