Disable top-level comments (and only top-level comments) on a post

[helens78]

Title:
Disable top-level comments (and only top-level comments) on a post

Area:
comments

Summary:
When a journal owner or community mod wants to close down top-level comments to a post, but allow discussion to continue on already-started threads, they should have the ability to disable top-level comments only. (A possible addition: allow journal owners to disable top-level comments to a post after a certain length of time.)

Description:
Many discussions are started in journals but end up growing more broad than the journal owner might prefer; a solution that would allow a journal owner to disable top-level comments, but allow current discussion threads to continue unchanged, would give people the ability to essentially retire a topic without shutting down all communication between discussion members in ongoing threads.

Current workarounds to achieve functionality include screening all comments to a post (in which case individual threads must still be checked and unscreened one response at a time), or freezing or deleting all top-level comments (in which case the journal owner is still doing a great deal of work in a discussion they're no longer interested in, plus people may respond to those top-level comments before the journal owner has a chance to delete or freeze them).

This could also be useful for communities: writing challenge communities where a top-level comment is a prompt, and other members can reply to that comment to fulfill that prompt, are common, and many of them would appreciate an option to prevent members from posting additional prompts while still allowing members to fulfill already-standing prompts.

It would be a nice option for auction communities, such as auctions set up to benefit time-sensitive charities -- disabling top-level comments would allow community mods to prevent members from starting auctions after the official new auction close date, while still allowing members to bid on already-existing offers.

Possible drawback: people can still reply to previous replies in lieu of having the ability to reply at a top-comment level -- in other words, it isn't troll-proof or accident-proof, and some people may be confused by the fact that they can't comment at a top level but can still reply to posts. (For journals/communities where precisely this behavior is desirable, though, I think it would make perfect sense to members under normal use case conditions -- in other words, it would be beneficial to people who are <em>not</em> trying to break the system.)

Poll #4515 Disable top-level comments (and only top-level comments) on a post

Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 63

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This suggestion:

View Answers

Should be implemented as-is.
40 (63.5%)

Should be implemented with changes. (please comment)
3 (4.8%)

Shouldn't be implemented.
9 (14.3%)

(I have no opinion)
11 (17.5%)

(Other: please comment)
0 (0.0%)

Comments

[ratcreature]

I'd much rather first have the ability to just freeze a post for all comments without making existing comments vanish, like you can do on LJ. I don't think DW has even that ability yet?

[denise]

It's in Bugzilla, but nobody's picked it up yet.

[ninetydegrees]

+1

[jazzfish]

+1

[helens78]

I'd like that functionality, too, but that's a separate feature, not an either-or. There's no reason we can't have both.

[denise]

I'm pretty sure that's in Bugzilla already, too.

[turlough]

+1

[ratcreature]

I'd find it really illogical and disorienting to have the ability to freeze for top level but not for everything, while the reverse, i.e. just the ability to freeze everything can stand on its own for me. That's why I'd like that one first.

Also I'd never use this, so if the ability to freeze everything was in place, I'd give this "no opinion" because I wouldn't care either way, but without the plain ability to freeze I find having this worse than having nothing.

[timeasmymeasure]

+1

[instantramen]

I don't know that I'd ever personally have a use for this, but it sounds awesome for various commentfic situations, one-post friending memes, and other things like that.