Allow permalinks to comments with added context

[sophie]

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

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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%)

Comments

[ninetydegrees]

Thanks for the explanation.

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

Edit: nevermind. I finally got it.

[sophie]

For others who have the same question: The answer is that only the direct ascendents of the comment are shown: Comment 1, comment 1c, and comment 1c1. It hides the other comments, such as comment 1b, and it also hides the siblings such as comment 1c1b.