edited comment notifications in the DW inbox

[ratcreature]

Title:
edited comment notifications in the DW inbox

Area:
comments

Summary:
When a comment is edited the original notification in the inbox changes and also shows the edited version, but you still get a new notification with the edited comment. So basically you get duplicates with no value. I think that should be changed, so that only one notification with the edited comment is there.

Description:
With the email version of the notifications it makes sense that you get two, because one shows the old comment, the second the edited one, so you can see the edit. But in the DW inbox the notification reflects the current state of the comment (or entry), so the first notification itself is edited and changed to say "edited comment by" exactly the same as the second one.

So if the first is already updated the second is superfluous clutter. I don't think there would be any drawbacks to not having two of the same.

Poll #5578 edited comment notifications in the DW inbox

Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 57

View Respondents

This suggestion:

View Answers

Should be implemented as-is.
22 (38.6%)

Should be implemented with changes. (please comment)
6 (10.5%)

Shouldn't be implemented.
6 (10.5%)

(I have no opinion)
22 (38.6%)

(Other: please comment)
1 (1.8%)

Comments

[thorfinn]

Perhaps the old notification should be unchanged in the inbox?

[ratcreature]

That would work for me too, but seemed a greater change to the system, since it seems the inbox just sort of points to content? Like when it's deleted it only shows as deleted, not the previous message, also when you are locked out of content later on and such. It doesn't store stuff like your email, I don't think. But I have no clue about the technical side.

[denise]

Yeah, it's not possible, alas!

[thorfinn]

*ponder* Maybe the old notification could be modified to contain a "diff" (just an indicator of what changed), whist the latest one points to the latest actual content?

[denise]

Unfortunately that is not possible! (Inbox displays the comment object. Once comment object is edited, old version is written over.)

[rebelsheart]

and now that I know more about databases thanks to my new job, i understand why!

[thorfinn]

Convert old notifications to diffs? Or store a comment diff separately and pointer to that instead?

Diff history could be useful for entry edits also.

Impact, of course, is database space required, retention periods, usefulness of diffs, increased complexity, etc. :-)

Benefit is this sort of thing, plus *much* better audit-trail if necessary, potentially a good way to store drafts and edits, etc.

If you store the diffs as reverse diff from the current state, it makes it easy to expire old/too-many diffs (i.e., keep only the last 5, or 10 or something).