Ancestor links on comment pages

[denise]

Title:
Ancestor links on comment pages

Area:
Comments

Summary:
To have a link that says Ancestor next to the Parent link, which goes to the top of the thread this comment is in.

Description:
When I follow a link to a specific comment (it could be on a post I'm tracking, or a reply to my comment, or a link in a post), I get the thread below that comment, but not the thread above, which is often more relevant. If I click "View comments", there might be dozens or hundreds; if I click Parent, I don't know how many levels I'll need to go up to get the context.

I think it would save bandwidth and possibly database load if there was a link that took you to the top of the current thread, or perhaps (in a long thread) to the point where the original comment collapses.

If it can only be done by looping round the Parent code, it could be database-heavy, but I guess most people who would use it, keep clicking Parent instead so you have the same load spread out over more time and you're drawing the intermediate pages which they don't want.


(Suggested by <user name=susanreads>, who was bitten by the free-user poll bug.)

Poll #726

Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 58

View Respondents

This suggestion:

View Answers

Should be implemented as-is.
32 (55.2%)

Should be implemented with changes.
25 (43.1%)

Shouldn't be implemented.
1 (1.7%)

(Other: please comment)
0 (0.0%)

Comments

[sky]

This would be extremely useful for me, but I'm not sure I like the name 'ancestor' -- maybe something more self-explanatory like 'top of thread' would work better.

[cesy]

+1

re. the name

[susanreads]

I put ancestor because it's the parent's [...] parent, but "top of thread" would be fine.

I'm impressed with how my whole failed post was recovered without me having to put the text back in!

Re: re. the name

[denise]

The magic of the suggestions generator includes a second post being posted to the comm, pre-filled to migrate it into Bugzilla (to make it easier to migrate positively-received suggestions), so I just yanked that. *g*

[zvi]

+1

[instantramen]

+1

[cheyinka]

"Top" or "Root" or "Origin" or something, yes. I like the idea a lot, just not the name so much. :)

[slybrarian]

"Root" would be my suggestion

[matgb]

Root has the same problem as ancestor, but adds more confusion as at least parent and ancestor have common usage similar meanings.

I'd suggest having ancestor as the default but have it changeable in layout customisation areas.

[triadruid]

That makes the most sense of all to me. I think people will grasp the 'Ancestor' link's meaning pretty quickly.

[melannen]

+1.

Awesome functionality, not sure I like the name. I like "top of thread", I think.

[musyc]

+1

[turlough]

+1

[phoenixsong]

+1 more

[kyrielle]

+1

[sofiaviolet]

Just the name change, and we're good to go. I don't know if ancestor would be immediately obvious to most users.

[afuna]

I want this! but since we're going to be calling it all the time, it would probably be better for us if we stored the root comment id explicitly in the database (implementation detail only, heh)

I agree with the general idea, and also with the comments suggesting that it be called "root" (though I thought that last one was only because I'm a programmer ;-))

[azurelunatic]

As long as it's in the email too (scour LJ for patch as long as it's in free)

[kerravonsen]

+1

[turlough]

Yes, yes, yes, please!!!

[kate_nepveu]

I really miss that.

[matgb]

Agreed, I really like that little tweak to LJ, and if the email can generate it then the base on site display should do so as well.

[sorchasilver]

Yeah, the name isn't intuitively obvious and probably needs changed (I liked the "root" suggestion someone made), but the idea is useful.

[triadruid]

"Root" has a whole different set of connotations for many tech-savvy users.

[sorchasilver]

Um, OK then?Just an idea! I don't really know anything about that, it just sounds a lot more useful and intuitive than the suggested "ancestor" option. I'm not sure "tech-savvy" users are going to get confused by it, but whatever. Just don't think it should be ancestor. *shrugs*

[cheyinka]

And here I was thinking of a different set of connotations.

[yvi]

(Randomly wandering in)

Well, the root directory (usually) belongs to... root :) Just like... /root, root's home directory. *huggles Linux*

I don't think calling it 'root' would be confusing, by the way. To make this on-topic.

[elizabeth_rice]

If this suggestion is implemented, keep the word 'ancestor'. I only read the subject of the post and I knew exactly what the suggestion was and it is something that I've also wanted. :) I think that 'parent' and 'ancestor' will be easy to understand since the links will be together.

[cesy]

Is this already covered by http://bugs.dwscoalition.org/show_bug.cgi?id=153 ?

[denise]

Yup. I'd forgotten about it when I let this through the suggestions queue.