Disabling the automatic population of "re:" in comment subjects.

[waterbends]

Title:
Disabling the automatic population of "re:" in comment subjects.

Area:
comments

Summary:
Dreamwidth is a site heavily utilized by the online RP community. The "re:" that populates automatically in subject headers can be really annoying, and we would love the chance to disable them!

Description:
Is there any sort of option for us to turn off the automatic "re:" that appears in subject headers? If not -- is it possible at all to create that option for us?

Take a look at the RP-based post here: http://adstringendum.dreamwidth.org/414634.html

Every single one of the almost 300 comment replies has had to manually remove the "re:" that automatically populates in the subject header, and it's a pain in the butt to have to do it when you're replying via phone. It gets really, really tedious, especially when you're churning out dozens of tags in a sitting.. and the header itself is necessary, because the mode of communication is something that's important to keep track of. Having a way to disable that would be just plain AWESOME!

Thank you so much.

Poll #11270 Disabling the automatic population of "re:" in comment subjects.

Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 116

View Respondents

This suggestion:

View Answers

Should be implemented as-is.
66 (56.9%)

Should be implemented with changes. (please comment)
4 (3.4%)

Shouldn't be implemented.
23 (19.8%)

(I have no opinion)
23 (19.8%)

(Other: please comment)
0 (0.0%)

Comments

[the_shoshanna]

I like having the "Re:", because it makes comments (and email notifications) both thread like email and just plain look like email, and I already manage enough different systems of structuring information; I like the consistency. Also, in non-RP communities I follow that have long comment threads, the "Re:" does make it easier for me to scan collapsed comments for items of interest.

I'm not sure how removing the "Re:" would make things much easier for RPers? I don't roleplay myself, so I don't know what I'm missing, but looking at the entry you linked to, it looks as though players could just leave the "Re:" there and ignore it, while making whatever other changes they're already making to the subject line.

I get that that would still be kind of visually annoying (and remove four characters from your subject lines' length limits), so really what I'm saying here amounts to "I'd rather you were annoyed than me," I guess? I mean, I'm not going to pitch a fit if the change is made, or anything. I suspect that DW will not want to add another option -- excess options are generally a bad idea, though I can't at this moment point to Denise's explanation of why -- so I guess it comes down to, which behavior will annoy fewer people and annoy them less? Which is what polls are meant to investigate...

[inthetatras]

looking at the entry you linked to, it looks as though players could just leave the "Re:" there and ignore it, while making whatever other changes they're already making to the subject line.

I think the thing is that they would vastly prefer to remove the "re:". hence the auto "re:" in the subject of their replies gets annoying. I've been in games like that one, where you constantly are supposed to list the type of comment (action, text, voice, video, etc.) in the subject. However, I think that it's sort of their own mess, and I've always been the type to do "video until noted otherwise" and just use blank subjects from then on because I'd rather not bother with the "re:".

Denise's explanation about excess options being a bad idea was decision fatigue, if I recall correctly.