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History Originally, comments worked much as one may have seen Somewhere Else; but in mid-2021 the threaded comments feature was introduced. Each comment thread needs a title; by default, the softw...
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#2: Post edited
by
Karl Knechtel
·
2024-01-28T03:32:35Z (3 months ago)
Expand information and use some nicer formatting
- ## History
- Originally, comments worked much as one may have seen Somewhere Else; but in mid-2021 the [threaded comments feature](https://meta.codidact.com/posts/282342) was introduced. Each comment thread needs a title; by default, the software uses the first part of the first comment.
- It wouldn't make sense for existing comments to be all deleted, nor shown in their usual way side-by-side with the new comment threads; so as part of the rollout, existing comments for each post were converted to a thread. Since there is no way the software could automatically detect the "intended threading" of such old comments, they were just put (if there were any) into a single thread per post, titled "General Comments" so as not to mislead about which comments might have been "replying to" which other comments.
- Relatedly, there are also some threads titled "Post Feedback" that were [created by an older version of the flagging interface](https://meta.codidact.com/posts/289387) - "details" for a "Needs improvement" flag were converted into a comment, which would then go into a new thread with that title.
- ## Current practice
- The thread titles "General comments" and "Post Feedback" don't (appear to) have any special meaning to the system; of course, nothing *prevents* users from choosing such a title.
However, please keep in mind **that the purpose of a thread title is to communicate more clearly**. Aside from the actual thread listing, these titles appear in user notifications. If you comment on someone's post, it's courteous to give a general indication of what the comment is about. This also lets third parties avoid making a new thread when it would be better to open, read and contribute to an existing one. Finally, it can help curators distinguish comments that probably don't need to be kept around for a long time (e.g. lengthy discussions trying to figure out what information is actually needed in the question to make it answerable) from those that do (e.g. highlighting related questions that future readers might be interested in; or giving details on an Outdated reaction about when or where an answer would apply or have applied).
- ## History
- Originally, comments worked much as one may have seen Somewhere Else; but in mid-2021 the [threaded comments feature](https://meta.codidact.com/posts/282342) was introduced. Each comment thread needs a title; by default, the software uses the first part of the first comment.
- It wouldn't make sense for existing comments to be all deleted, nor shown in their usual way side-by-side with the new comment threads; so as part of the rollout, existing comments for each post were converted to a thread. Since there is no way the software could automatically detect the "intended threading" of such old comments, they were just put (if there were any) into a single thread per post, titled "General Comments" so as not to mislead about which comments might have been "replying to" which other comments.
- Relatedly, there are also some threads titled "Post Feedback" that were [created by an older version of the flagging interface](https://meta.codidact.com/posts/289387) - "details" for a "Needs improvement" flag were converted into a comment, which would then go into a new thread with that title.
- ## Current practice
- The thread titles "General comments" and "Post Feedback" don't (appear to) have any special meaning to the system; of course, nothing *prevents* users from choosing such a title.
- However, please keep in mind **that the purpose of a thread title is to communicate more clearly**:
- * Aside from the actual thread listing, these titles appear in user notifications. If you comment on someone's post, it's courteous to give a general indication of what the comment is about.
- * A good thread title lets third parties avoid making a new thread when it would be better to open, read and contribute to an existing one.
- * Curators should be able to distinguish comments that probably don't need to be kept around for a long time from those that do. For example, lengthy discussions trying to figure out what information is actually needed in the question to make it answerable should be cleaned up *once the matter is settled* and the question is appropriately edited. On the other hand, it makes sense to comment on a question to highlight specific related questions that future readers might be interested in - in most cases, that content wouldn't belong in either the question or an answer, but it should be preserved. Similarly, someone who reacts to a post as Outdated might want to explain when or where the content applies (or used to apply).
- ## Looking forward
- There is an open feature request to [extend the ability to edit thread titles](https://meta.codidact.com/posts/282459). Currently this is only possible for Curators; it's proposed that at least the author of the thread should be able to do this as well (whether anyone *else* should have this ability, is not settled).
#1: Initial revision
by
Karl Knechtel
·
2024-01-28T03:21:11Z (3 months ago)
## History Originally, comments worked much as one may have seen Somewhere Else; but in mid-2021 the [threaded comments feature](https://meta.codidact.com/posts/282342) was introduced. Each comment thread needs a title; by default, the software uses the first part of the first comment. It wouldn't make sense for existing comments to be all deleted, nor shown in their usual way side-by-side with the new comment threads; so as part of the rollout, existing comments for each post were converted to a thread. Since there is no way the software could automatically detect the "intended threading" of such old comments, they were just put (if there were any) into a single thread per post, titled "General Comments" so as not to mislead about which comments might have been "replying to" which other comments. Relatedly, there are also some threads titled "Post Feedback" that were [created by an older version of the flagging interface](https://meta.codidact.com/posts/289387) - "details" for a "Needs improvement" flag were converted into a comment, which would then go into a new thread with that title. ## Current practice The thread titles "General comments" and "Post Feedback" don't (appear to) have any special meaning to the system; of course, nothing *prevents* users from choosing such a title. However, please keep in mind **that the purpose of a thread title is to communicate more clearly**. Aside from the actual thread listing, these titles appear in user notifications. If you comment on someone's post, it's courteous to give a general indication of what the comment is about. This also lets third parties avoid making a new thread when it would be better to open, read and contribute to an existing one. Finally, it can help curators distinguish comments that probably don't need to be kept around for a long time (e.g. lengthy discussions trying to figure out what information is actually needed in the question to make it answerable) from those that do (e.g. highlighting related questions that future readers might be interested in; or giving details on an Outdated reaction about when or where an answer would apply or have applied).