"Promote" comment to top-level entry

[denise]

Title:
"Promote" comment to top-level entry

Area:
commenting, posting, centralizing all your stuff

Summary:
Since DW has extended comment length, I often find myself writing a mini-novella in comments (whether fiction or just me running off at the keyboard again). When the comments are in someone else's journal, I will frequently c&p that comment into a top-level entry in my own journal, so as to have all of my stuff together in one place. It would be nice to be able to do that automatically.

Description:
(I feel the need to say HEAR ME OUT BEFORE YOU MAKE A DECISION, based on goings-on Elsewhere. Heh.)

What I am envisioning for this feature is a checkbox on a comment, probably right after the "Check spelling and preview" checkbox: "Repost my comment to my journal as a new entry". Checking it would bring you to an update page, with the text of the comment pre-filled in the update box. You'd then be able to review the entry-to-be, in order to remove anything that doesn't make sense out of context, add a <cut> tag if necessary, choose your security level option, add metadata on the entry like current mood/music/tags/etc, and finally post the entry.

The commenter would be able to review the text of the entry-to-be before posting it, and there would be no 'official' indicator (ie, no "This comment reposted from the entry "Entry Title" made by username" or whatever). Because of that, there'd be fundamentally no difference than copying and pasting from the comment box, so I wouldn't see the need to remove the checkbox on locked entries or allow people to block others from using it in their journal. It would just be a shortcut for people who write extensive comments that wind up being worthy of a top-level entry of their own.

Poll #4520 "Promote" comment to top-level entry

Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 94

View Respondents

This suggestion:

View Answers

Should be implemented as-is.
56 (59.6%)

Should be implemented with changes. (please comment)
7 (7.4%)

Shouldn't be implemented.
10 (10.6%)

(I have no opinion)
20 (21.3%)

(Other: please comment)
1 (1.1%)

Comments

[white_aster]

I...I never knew I wanted this, but I do!

Comment redirect instead?

[adalger]

I usually find that my comment has grown to gargantuan proportions, decide I shouldn't hijack someone else's journal with my rant, and figure it would be better to post it as my own entry. So I edit my comment down to a summary, then never find time to go post it.

I would love an option to click a button that posts, instead of a comment, an entry in my journal, and then posts a comment where I was saying "My super-duper-mega-long comment turned into this entry."

Re: Comment redirect instead?

[denise]

Hm, I think that's sufficiently different than the parent suggestion that it deserves its own suggestion!

Re: Comment redirect instead?

[senmut]

+1

Re: Comment redirect instead?

[goodbyebird]

+1

Re: Comment redirect instead?

[lorem_ipsum]

+1

Re: Comment redirect instead?

[matgb]

Agreed, I'd like both as anoption.

Re: Comment redirect instead?

[quillori]

Yes, that would be so very helpful - I sometimes find myself in just the same position. I feel it's a different suggestion though, and we could quite happily have both options.

Re: Comment redirect instead?

[pauamma]

Yet another alternative: automagically posting it as an entry (in the user's journal or in any comm the user can post in) while leaving the comment form open unsubmitted (so you can submit it unchanged, comment with a summary and a link to the entry instead, or cancel it.

Re: Comment redirect instead?

[lorem_ipsum]

+1 ...sometimes you'll want to post the entry first, other times the comment first.

[matgb]

K,onthelonglong list of"featuresMatwouldlike to see but can'tfigure thewordingfor the suggestion"This is fairlyhigh.

Asisa working spacebaron this keyboard. This isn't good.

I'd like to see the ability to linkback within the post, I fairly regularly do a "in response to this post" style post, and if it's public, letting me automatethat linkback slightly would be good.

Definitely wouldn't want to post links to locked posts, that's Just Wrong, but I regularly link to public posts and frequently respond to them. (well, I used to when I was posting a lot but...).

[azurelunatic]

I think this could be accomplished by having the location of the comment (for public comments) plainly and simply pasted up top of the comment. One could then leave it as is, delete it, or dress it up if one wanted.

[matgb]

Link plus hopefully post title. I have an addon installed that lets me right click and copy all as a preformatted link, and that's dead useful, especially as I can programme it to get the title attribute done right.

But yes, doesn't have to be exactly as per my spec, but it needs to be available as an option. My output from my addon is:
[a href="http://dw-suggestions.dreamwidth.org/443539.html?thread=2690707#cmt2690707" title="dw_suggestions: "Promote" comment to top-level entry">dw_suggestions: "Promote" comment to top-level entry[/a>

I really like that it gives me the title twice, it ought to be in the title attribute regardless, and I sometimes keep it there for the actual anchor text, but frequently edit it.

[zvi]

I kind of think it might be best to have it as a property of the entry, you know Re: Example Entry, a property that gets yanked when the entry goes private.

[matgb]

Hmm, would that be technically possible? And even if it was, would it be desirable?

If you post something, it's public, extant, and linkable to. If I write a post linking to something, if someone wants to lockdown or delete the entry afterwards, that's up to them, but I don't really want my entry, my content, to change based on someone else's later decision.

I can, and do, code links manually, and would want to automate it if possible, but if automating it takes control of the content of part of my entry away from me, I'd not be happy.

(generally, if someone wants me to remove a link, they can ask and I normally will, but I reserve the right to make that decision myself)

[zvi]

I agree with you that things that are public can be linked to and people should expect that other people will link to them in order to comment upon them.

On the other hand, I think we should consider what behavior the site wants to habitualize for users. And, given that there are plenty of users who use the site for more personal stuff they don't particularly want publicized, I don't know if that should be the default affordance. Maybe if it were a check where you had to enable the link?

[azurelunatic]

Liked this idea when it came up in LJ suggestions, like it here.

[azurelunatic]

And, in the department of "I knew I wanted this already", I would still like a private autopost of all the places I have commented/made an entry in the past 24 hours, because that's what I use LJ's Twitter hookup for the moment it came out, because some random previous LJ suggestion mentioned the idea, and I was charmed.

[arethinn]

TBH I don't think I would ever use such a feature.

[zvi]

I'm actually voting for the as-is vote to be AS IS. I think an automatic linkback to the original entry is, at least, momentarily, tainted.

[pauamma]

How about the other way? Comment linking to entry in own journal?

[zvi]

that seems fine

[green_knight]

I will iterate one of the concerns about LJs feature: allowing this on locked and filtered entries makes it easier for people to inadvertedly quote material that the public has no business seeing. Yes, people can copy-and-paste anyway, if they so desire, but handy crossposting autofill features make slips of the mouse more likely.

As you're not proposing to automate the process, my personal concerns would be alleviated if the update form sported a warning: This comment was written in response to a protected entry. Please ensure you are not quoting sensitive material'.
*However,* I can see people - individuals and communities - have concerns over this, so 'disable comment reposting' and 'disable comment reposting for protected entries' settings would be a really awesome way of proving that you take those concerns seriously. Many people use DW for intensely personal (and highly filtered) posts; and there are precious few places on the net where you get the feeling that your privacy is respected.


In accordance with adalger, I'd also like to extend it to 'post to my journal instead', because I've had that feeling of writing a very long comment and thinking 'that's a post' more than once.

[dzurlady]

I agree with this - I think it sounds interesting, but would feel more comfortable if it were disabled from protected posts.

[reddragdiva]

I do this all the damn time. Yes please.

I'm not entirely convinced a ticky-box is the way to go, but if it goes to the "post a new entry" page rather than just posting it, that seems reasonable.

[pauamma]

Hmm. I'm not sure which (the entry and the comment) should post automagically and which should just be left in a (prefilled, unsubmitted) form.

Cons of autoposting the comment: the "I may want to make the comment a summary instead, with maybe a link to the entry" variant becomes harder (if you can edit comments) and impossible (if you can't).

Cons of autoposting the entry: no tagging or security on posting, which may mess with others' subscriptions, reading filters, and or tracking.

[attie]

I personally would have no use whatsoever for this, thus my gut reaction would be "ohnoez not more clutter!" But all of you seem to find this really useful, so I feel bad shouting it down for such a superficial reason. (It certainly seems like it would get used more often than the "Don't auto-format" button...)

Maybe if it were only in the full reply/"more options" screen and not the quick reply?

[archangelbeth]

(ie, no "This comment reposted from the entry "Entry Title" made by username" or whatever)

That sells it for me, really. If it can do what cut-and-paste can do -- and no more -- then it's no more able to create drama (or pain) than someone making up a "I replied to X with this..." drama/pain post.

I would also support a comment redirect, as suggested below. O:D

[solitarywalker]

Alright, I heard you out. This makes me sad. Crossposting comments (especially on protected entries) nonsence is exactly why I left livejournal. The fact that peoples' trust can already be violated with copy/paste does not justify simplifying (and thereby encouraging) the practice.

[sophie]

I think "copy-and-paste" in this sense means copying and pasting *your comment*, not the original post.

[vanessagalore]

After reading some of the comments and thinking a bit, I changed my vote to "should be implemented with changes". I think an ability to change a comment into a post is okay (a button saying "Post as an entry instead" is okay) but if you want to link to the original entry, I think the onus should be on the commenter to add that html themselves (in other words, what you already have the right to do and what people expect you to be able to do). So the new behavior would just eliminate a couple mouseclicks, thereby sending you, along with your already entered text, to your "post an entry" page **without identifying the original source**, rather than potentially enable an identifiable crossposted comment that violates someone else's expectation of privacy.

Once you start thinking about this stuff, you encounter a slippery slope of privacy erosion, and even some hypocrisy, that you don't want someone to have the ability to crosspost the intensely personal thing YOU wrote, but you do want the ability to easily crosspost your own pithy commentary on someone else's private thought.

Maybe this is really just a can of worms. I think you should tread lightly, with great caution. Especially right now, when people are obsessed about their concerns and even slightly paranoid (me included).

Sorry, this was a little ramble-y written.

[denise]

No, no, my original suggestion absolutely doesn't involve any kind of official link back to the entry in question, don't worry!