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Comments on How to convert an answer to comment and include the comments under the answer into the new comment thread?

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How to convert an answer to comment and include the comments under the answer into the new comment thread?

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Is there a way to convert an answer to a comment and include the existing comments under the answer into the new comment thread? There’s no option for it in the convert-to-comment dialog. Is there a workaround?

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3 comment threads

reparent comment thread (1 comment)
Multiple threads (6 comments)
Not currently possible. (Well, someone with direct DB access can do anything, but that's not what we... (1 comment)
Multiple threads

What to do in case the answer has several comment threads, and merging them all into one doesn't make sense (or makes them too confusing)? Merge them by comment date, or thread creation date? Or just delete some of the threads completely (no value in keeping their comments)? Or is it just a very good sign not to convert the answer in the first place?

Nick Alexeev‭ wrote 3 months ago

Andreas from the dark caverns‭ The 1st thought was to preserve threads, and add the answer converted to comment on top of each one. The answers which get converted into comments are usually short, so adding them to each thread shouldn’t clutter things too much. Maybe add an automatic explanation [apology for repeating] that this is an answer converted into a comment.

Nick Alexeev‭ wrote 3 months ago · edited 3 months ago

Andreas from the dark caverns‭ The 2nd thought was to flatten the thread structure, and combine all threads into one with the answer converted to comment on top. It would work for a majority of answer to comment conversions. Answers which get converted into comments rarely have multi-branched discussions where each branch is worth preserving. In most cases there at most one branch that discusses something technical that’s worth preserving, and maybe one more branch telling the author that he had posted a [worthwhile] comment as an answer.

I’m strongly opposed to duplicating comments, so if that’s the solution you’d suggest, I’d wanna see some examples. But the second one sounds better.

Nick Alexeev‭ wrote 3 months ago · edited 3 months ago

Andreas from the dark caverns‭ I haven’t got a preference for one approach over another. I haven’t got a real life example, because I haven’t seen an answer that needed converting into a comment, and itself had multiple comment threads. Maybe it’s a rare corner case.

Nick Alexeev‭ wrote 3 months ago · edited 3 months ago

Neither am I opposed to duplicating the comment (the converted answer) in these rare occasions. We are displaying one thread at a time. But it probably depends on the backend implementation too. I can make up an example, if you’re interested.