PostHeaderIcon Lost In The Comment Hierarchy

As a frequent contributor to this forum, I find an active dialogue on a subject of my own submission to be the best reward for the effort of composition. In a word, I love lots of comments!

However, the really popular articles, that is, those that generate a lot of comments, soon get such an extended comment hierarchy that it becomes nearly impossible to follow.

Therefore, might I suggest a possibility? OK, thanks – I will.

Whenever we find an article is generating multiple threads of comments, these comment threads are inevitably about some sub-topic within the original article. Naturally, the more provocative articles have many sub-topics.

Ergo, my suggestion: When we find ourselves creating multiple comment threads within a given article, let us start a whole new article, based on the sub-topic in question. Hopefully, this would make the comment hierarchies much easier to navigate.

Of course, it would be the responsibility of the original author of the article to originate the new sub-topic articles/threads.

Please let me know what you think. If there is general agreement, I will begin to act accordingly.

Troy L Robinson

3 Responses to “Lost In The Comment Hierarchy”

  • Agreed. I have done that a couple of times already. Please let’s make a habit of it. It could simply be a quick intro to the topic with a link to the original thread for context. â—„Daveâ–º

  • Daedalus says:

    I think I’m going to need a road map. I remember another forum where I would find several pages had been filled since my last visit. There would be many off topic threads and it would take a considerable amount of time for the more cautiously thoughtful to respond to a particular item. The result of that last being a reply to something again written pages before. Troy’s suggestion sounds reasonable, but will no doubt cause him considerable effort. Give it a try and see how it works. Oh my gosh are we back to pragmatism again!

    • Yes, John, it does resemble our old fireside chats a bit, you pragmatic little devil! 😛

      First, check in more often. You are missed, and we can certainly use your help sorting out this Greg fellow, and his Lefty friends if he ever manages to drag them over here, to help him pick on the dinosaurs.

      As to your road map, I’ve got just the thing. Bookmark the Comments RSS page. It is also available in the ‘Meta’ widget on the right of any page here. It is a digest of all the latest comments in reverse chronological order, which you can also subscribe to having dumped in your e-mail inbox. I usually try to put the name of the person I am replying to in the first line, so it should be easy to pick out my responses anyway, to your last visit. That way, one doesn’t have to scroll through a long comment section to see if there are any new entries.

      I hope this helps. â—„Daveâ–º

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