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Discussion

ago

Who gets commenting right?

All communities show discussions a little differently. We’d like you to tell us: who does it best?

Reddit can be a bit scroll-heavy, but you get a fuller view of the threads and most-upvoted replies. Twitter likes to collapse nested replies, which (IMO) is kinder on my scrolling digits while retaining the option to expand any rabbit holes I fancy jumping down. And Threads is, erm, ‘similar’ to Twitter. 😬 On the other hand, most forums list comments in the order they were posted, which can make things hard to follow as discussions get more complex.

So who does it best? What do you think about the way Just About features your discussions? What's the pea under your mattress when it comes to forum commenting (your answer can't be tortured metaphors)? Let us know!

Created at 1:33pm, 18th July, 2023. Page last updated at 2:43pm, 16th May, 2024.

Paul Younger 7/18/2023, 2:53:30 PM

Nested comments in forums were always the best in my opinion but most modern forum systems like Xenforo did away with the nesting part. About 20 years ago there was a script called DCForums that handled forum threads really well but sadly it is no more and no other forums followed its example.

The problem with Reddit is most of the comments are of little value so that makes it scroll heavy as conversations kick of in the comments almost like sub-topics themselves at times. That said Reddit is a complete mess so...

Twitter is OK-ish but not a massive fan of collapsing like twitter as it feels like it pulls you away, and like you say "rabbit holes".

I don't think there is a complete solution that will please everyone unless you could have an option to collapse nested comments at certain level set in your profile options. It should be easy enough to have an option of both nested or straight-up forum listings style that can be chosen by the user in their settings. Just a thought.

RupertStaff7/18/2023, 9:47:36 PM

Paul Younger

A traditional "forum view" is on the roadmap although probably a little way off. I think that'll be great for power users though, especially as we start to have multiple communities and the ability to opt in and out of topics as well.

Ultimately we want people to be able to customise their view as they see fit, so theoretically that could also include nesting preferences (collapsed or not, how many to nest) as well as ordering (newest/oldest or most reactions at the top) etc. I love the idea that we could build something incredibly powerful and customisable so users are always in complete control of their view, rather than having an algorithm (or us!) deciding what goes where!

Dave 7/18/2023, 3:23:58 PM

Always going to be personal preference but on Reddit often the top few comments are jokes or "funny" loosely related things with a long conversation that goes way off topic. I like to be able to collapse them to not scroll past loads of pointless replies and get to the more relevant content. So I guess already collapsed like twitter is my preference.

In terms of how Just About does it, I think there is a lot of scrolling on posts already and I do find it hard to find where the new comments are when there are a decent amount of comments. It looks nice but I think a compact mode or some user display preferences would be good so everyone can choose how they want it. For example a compact mode off/on, nested replies auto collapsed on/off. Everyone will have their own personal preference (which may also differ based on the device they are using), so have a default but then let users decide for themselves?

A good example of this is on hotukdeals for their front page, registered users (but not guests) can choose a compact view for a more forum like like list of deals if they wish, guests get the content of the deal/post on the front page. This encourages people to register to gain the customise settings, then once you have an account and logged in you are more likely to post your own deals and comment on others as that barrier to participation (signing up) is already crossed.

MrTomFTW 7/18/2023, 3:22:36 PM

Dave

Oh God, could you imagine an option to hide comments voted as "funny"? That'd actually be helpful when you're trying to find information haha

RupertStaff7/18/2023, 9:51:41 PM

MrTomFTW

Hiding/showing specific topics and tags (as defined by the author) is in the plan but I love the idea of being able to use community feedback/tagging as another signal as well! "Only show me posts that at least X other members have voted as Helpful." would be a lovely way of cutting through the noise when you're trying to find specific information in a long thread.

So much to do....!

Dave 7/18/2023, 3:28:56 PM

Dave

Just realised on hotukdeals you can customise the front page without registering now, but they do have some other customise stuff that is for registered users only I think.