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Comments on Comments improvements to indicate assent or dissent with previously posted comments
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Comments improvements to indicate assent or dissent with previously posted comments
Often I'm looking over a post and feel that I have what to add as a comment. But as soon as I look at the comments, I find that someone's already written exactly what I would have said. At that point, it would just be adding noise to write my own comment saying essentially the same thing, as it would be to write my own comment saying that "I agree with @NumericallyUnchallenged." Somewhere Else I might have upvoted the comment, but that's not an option here.
For contrast to the proposals below, here's an example of a user saying a comment (actual comment of mine), with two (fictitious) users responding — one in agreement, one in dissent:[1]
Proposal One: "Me Too!"
In lieu of having someone post a new comment just to say "me too," let's give them a button to click. In this example, SomeRandomUser no longer has to agree with me; he can instead click "me too!":
And if multiple people all give their agreement, let the system show simply "X other users," and clicking on that will expand out the user list:[2]
Proposal Two: Vote on Comments
We could always implement Somewhere Else's system of upvoting comments, but it's only right that if you can upvote a comment to indicate assent, you should be able to downvote to indicate displeasure. Sample mockup:
Notice that these options are not mutually exclusive. We can always implement the upvote/downvote system and add "me too!" votes; we can always add the proposed reactions feature to comments as well.
I believe comments need some sort of mechanism to allow 'good' comments to rise to the top. Some posts attract a lot …
4y ago
I like the idea of adding a way to "co-sign" a comment -- the "me too" part of this proposal. I don't think we should …
1y ago
Different comment categories I propose (arbitrarily) to define different categories of comments (but it is just a fir …
1y ago
I support the me-too feature, as it saves people from repeating existing comments (and others from reading them). I d …
4y ago
Post
I like the idea of adding a way to "co-sign" a comment -- the "me too" part of this proposal.
I don't think we should also add "disagree" using that mechanism, though. Disagreement should be explained, so instead of just clicking "I disagree", add a comment saying you disagree and explaining what the problem is. People who agree with you can then "me too" that comment.
This allows you to see, at a glance, which comments have support and which do not. It also reduces the confusion of "double voting"; if people could disagree with a comment and then agree with a contrary comment, that would look like more activity than it really is.
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