Back in November, in response to numerous requests, we turned on the ‘threaded comments’ feature on the Village14 site as a test.
With threaded comments turned on, a comment made in response to someone else’s comment is displayed just below it – i.e. it attempts to keep related comments together as a group.
With threaded comments turned off, all comments are just displayed in strict chronological order that they were posted
You’ve now had plenty of time to see how they work and appreciate both the pros/cons, so let us know via this simple poll whether you would like us to keep this feature or revert back to strictly chronological comments.
I like it, it’s easier to scroll past a thread getting out of hand to something more relevant if one wants…it’s easier to understand if folks are replying or starting something new etc.
I dislike the threaded comments, and find myself posting fewer comments as a result. I prefer the way V14 used to stack comments chronologically.
Overall, an improvement, as it is easier to follow questions and answers on hot topics like development. Harder to read on a phone, though. It would be super cool to be able to flip the thread between the two views.
Lose it. I find that due to the formatting I skip over the threaded comments. They are just too taxing for me to read. . For my own comments I have have returned to posting them to the bottom of a post rather than replying to a particular thread . Just my two cents but since I am one of those troublemaking anonymous posters feel free to take my feedback with a grain of salt.
@Newton Highlands Mom
You mean one of our valued anonymous posters. The only reader suggestion that has come up more frequently than “nested comments” is “anonymous comments”. Every time we have considered not allowing them, the issue has always been decided based on not wanting to lose some of our favorite regulars who choose to remain anonymous … such as yourself ;-)
I like the nested comments!
Hi Jerry! I say lose them. Ever since it was switched over, V14 stopped working well on mobile for me. I can’t follow the threads, it puts the comment field above some comments but below others, and it scrolls without me scrolling. This is using Chrome on a newer Samsung device. I keep accidentally replying to people when I mean to leave a standalone comment.
I generally like nested comments but I don’t think they work well here.
I like them, but I agree that it makes things really difficult on mobile or tablets. when things get to heated/threaded I generally just skip reading that unless I’m really invested – and then I’ll open it on a desktop browser.
I think capping it at 1-2 levels in would make a big difference for readability, and still let me skip the argument threads (or weigh in, as the day and my mood determines).
Agree 100… threaded comments format jumps all over the place on my phone. Chronological worked just fine.
I tend to like the nested approach but I do wish there was a way to be alerted to unread comments in nests. Hard to scan on mobile phone. Suppose that would require a log-in. Hmmm – not practical. Still, tending to like the nests overall.
For just reading through a topic once threaded is better. But when coming back again it’s hard to figure out where all the new comments are, and flat was better. In short: there’s no good answer.
I wish there were a way for it to “do what I want it to do.” Sometimes I want nested comments, other times I prefer just straight chronological order. Depends on the thread topic and, more importantly, the number of comments on a topic. Once the comments get up there, it’s easier for me to review chronologically. Ultimately, I’d go for the earlier, flat ordering.
I look at more than 90 percent of my Village 14 stuff on a desktop. My main problem with the threads is that they appear in a squeezed format to the right of the comment itself and the thread becomes ever more truncated the longer it is. It gets to the point where each line may only contain one or two words. Maybe a solution would be to line up all the threads directly under the main comment. There would be identical text widths for both comment and threads, but the threads would have a different background color. I hope this doesn’t confuse anyone because it’s starting to confuse me; but I think you get my point.
Absolutely love the nested comments, and I think confusion/adapting to them is a short-term issue outweighed by long-term benefits from better conversations
Using a nested comment to add on to this, wow the convenience! There is a design flaw with the nested comments, where they don’t expand to the full screen. This then creates equally long replies – if nested comments could go full screen, I think they’d be a lot easier to use
I don’t find them confusing and I don’t need to “adapt”… They literally don’t work on my mobile device.
Hmm.
Both in these comments and in the poll results people seem to be pretty evenly divided – pro/con threaded comments. We may need to flip a coin.
What Bob Burke and Jim said. My desktop and mobile devices become unreadable with nested comments, sometimes only two or three letters per line. Since it wasn’t broke, please don’t “fix” it!!!!!!!
I like the nested comment but I am just from Newton and do not live here anymore so you may discount my opinion if you wish :)
On my computer, it is difficult to know under the recent comments which posts are new and which are nested. Personally, I like the chronological format. It was easier to follow. If I wasn’t interested in particular comments, I would just scroll down.