Modify disable comments function

[zvi]

Title:
Modify disable comments function

Area:
entries

Summary:
1) Let journal owner see comments on entry where comments are disabled.
2) Provide option for disallowing future comments, while allowing current posts to remain visible.

Description:
People sometimes disable comments on an entry after comments have already been posted to the entry. People sometimes disable comments to their entire journal after people have made comments in it. While this is sometimes an effort to erase the record, more often, it is a signal from the journal owner to their audience that they do not wish any future comments.

1) I propose that the disable comments function, instead of making comments already made 'disappear', allow the journal owner to continue to see those comments. However, these comments should be presented without replyto links, and the replyto for each comment should redirect to the thread link. This will prevent the journal owner from repeatedly commenting to those who are no longer able to respond.

For a journal entry which is originally posted with comments disabled, the current behavior is preserved. For those journal owners who prefer the current behavior to the suggested behavior (i.e., they want disabling comments to prevent <em>them</em> from seeing comments already made) they can add this line to their customized css.

div.comments {visibility: hidden; speak: none; }

2) As I said, often disabling comments is not an attempt to hide prior discussion, but to stop future discussion. In certain circles in LJ, disabling comments on a contentious post is viewed as a cowardly coverup. Allowing past comments to remain visible to everyone able to the view entry, while disabling the replyto function, would let the historical record remain clear. Of course, the account which posted a comment should still have the ability to delete the comment, but they should not have the ability to *edit* any comments, even if they are paid users and the comment was never replied to.

Poll #741

Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 50

View Respondents

This suggestion:

View Answers

Should be implemented as-is.
15 (30.0%)

Should be implemented with changes.
30 (60.0%)

Shouldn't be implemented.
2 (4.0%)

(Other: please comment)
3 (6.0%)

Comments

[denise]

In essence, what I vaguely have in mind is: 'disable comments" would be the existing behavior (all existing comments made invisible, no new comments can be made), and then there'd be a new setting, for "commenting closed" or whatever, which would show all the existing comments but prevent any new ones (whether top-level or replies to other comments).

I also want to make it so that people can choose to disable new comments on a post after X time, where X is what you choose, so you can say "only allow comments to my entries for two weeks" if you want, after which the old comments will still be visible but new comments or replies will be closed.

[charmian]

I agree. I think it would be better to create this as a new feature rather than replacing the current feature, because I am sure many people like it the old way.

[(Anonymous)]

This sounds much better than the behaviour being described in the post!

-C

[ratcreature]

Yes. I like this way better than the suggestion.

[the_shoshanna]

oooo yes please.

[kate_nepveu]

I like this.

For anti-spam/troll purposes, if this could be made journal-wide at the click of a button, it would be great.

[zvi]

Er, so you are disinterested in the option where only the journal can view the comments and new comments have been halted?

I mean, with your proposed split, this can be effectively achieved by going back and mass-screening after you've closed comments, I suppose, but if one's doing it to a very active entry or a large portion of a journal, it seems a lot of work...

[denise]

I'm not horribly disinterested in that option, but I'm not really all that interested in it, either, yanno?

[fairlight]

Agreed whole-heartedly.

[cleverthylacine]

I wholly endorse "only allow comments to my entries for two weeks" as I have had the following things happen:

1) trolls going through my journal looking for any public entry anywhere just so they can comment on as many different posts as possible before I ban them;

2) F_W doing one of their "historical retrospectives" about some dumbass old HP controversy and people coming into old posts trying to start wankery up again.

The only thing I'd ever leave permanent open comments on is fic (for obvious reasons I think).

[triadruid]

While that sounds very cool, it's also probably a separate suggestion.

[matgb]

A lot of other blogging platforms allow a freeze after X time--personally, I dislike it, but it has uses for spam and similar.

Some of my posts from a few years back still get occasional constructive comments, Google helps a lot more people out than the average journal author realises.

But overall, yes, I like this, but ZVI's idea of having the current comments disabled function still display them as screened to the author is a good one.

[ciaan]

Sounds good! Although it also makes sense to me for the journal owner to have a way to view the comments even after they are gone for everyone else.

[montanaharper]

I'm in favor of this version, though I'd like the option to have all the comments become screened rather than completely invisible. Also, when commenting is disabled, editing those comments should also be disabled, I think, for reasons that others have stated pretty clearly.

[archangelbeth]

Putting in a timer option sounds cool! (I'm cool with either way, I think.)