4 ms·

The best comment threads are on Slashdot, the ability to filter comments less than +2 makes it much easier to skim read all the good comments. On Reddit, if th

The best comment threads are on Slashdot, the ability to filter comments less than +2 makes it much easier to skim read all the good comments. On Reddit, if the top comment is a joke, you need to wade through a million other jokes before you get to the next top level comment (which may be interesting) Categorising (a la slashdot) comments is interesting, you can filter out 'funny' and keep 'informative' etc. But I guess it puts a burden on the users to select the right 'up vote' .... do you have a funny button, an informative button, etc? Facebook has solved this with their 'reaction' icons (like, funny, shock, heart) so user apatite is there for this kind of classification.

jedberg 9y ago
> On Reddit, if the top comment is a joke, you need to wade through a million other jokes before you get to the next top level comment (which may be interesting) You can just collapse it. I agree with you that the categorization on Slashdot was nice, as was the metamoderating. But when I find myself on Slashdot these days, I find it impossible to follow a conversation with so many collapsed comments.
- monk_e_boy 9y ago
  > You can just collapse it. Yeah, but I've usually swiped down and I don't know if its worth going back up to collapse it. Default sorting by category would be nice, push the funnies down and pull the interesting ones up.
  - btgeekboy 9y ago
    Some subreddits have custom CSS that extends the collapse element to the height of the container. /r/overwatch is a good example; I wish that style was the default.
- dredmorbius 9y ago
  There's often not much conversation to follow. I'll very occasionally pop over to Slashdot (I'd been there since before user accounts were a thing), and ... well, it's fallen greatly.
52-6F-62 9y ago
>>> Facebook has solved this with their 'reaction' icons The Globe and Mail (Canadian national newspaper and growing media company) has executed something similar. They actually have some pretty innovative work going on (at least with respect to the rest of Canadian media), and maintain a lab for this express purpose. example (scroll to the end of the article, comments are expandable): https://beta.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/recognizing-indigenous-nations-niigaan-sinclair/article36237415/ https://beta.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/recognizing-indigen... http://globeedge.ca/about/ http://globeedge.ca/about/ disclaimer: I work for a national media outfit in Canada that isn't the Globe
- ypeterholmes 9y ago
  That comment section looks terrible. For one thing- the fact you even needed to tell us how to find them? Second, what's innovative there? I can't even collapse threads.
  - 52-6F-62 9y ago
    Hm. I wanted to edit, turns out I can't. I was mistaken, the comment section is provided by: https://www.getcivil.com/ https://www.getcivil.com/ Their innovation labs have more to do with redesigning their end-user services and making them accessible. Anyway I'm not their salesman, I work for a competitor. I just have heard a talk from the head of their lab in the springtime and it was great. They're at least trying things on, whereas media (at least in my experience so far) has been largely resistant. Trust me, try pitching, or carrying out at a manager's request, a project that changes the working, production, and content delivery paradigms of media and media-design veterans at the pinnacle of their careers; they do not like it. The fact that the Globe, NYT, and WaPo are active in trying new things is great. Again if you doubt me, try managing 20+ WordPress multi-sites, each with differing and undocumented theme build processes, and every little component another undocumented patchworked plugin -- all because most of the group doesn't want to have to relearn something they figured was solved enough in 2005. Innovation like these things in media is well overdue in so many of the processes up to the front end. Further, the link above is a beta. At least they are trying on different comment systems that aren't Disqus or the 'same old thing'.
dredmorbius 9y ago
Reddit + RES and "collapse all child posts" is pretty awesome. All threads start off collapsed. You can individually expand them. https://www.reddit.com/r/GeoPolitics https://www.reddit.com/r/GeoPolitics has a very nice CSS in which the collapse toggle runs down the side of a thread. You can collapse, and set the level you want to collapse, from within the thread. It's genius, seriously. The bar appears on mouse-over, running vertically. See for example: https://www.reddit.com/r/geopolitics/comments/6z27gx/rgeopolitics_content_validity/ https://www.reddit.com/r/geopolitics/comments/6z27gx/rgeopol...

jedberg 9y ago

> On Reddit, if the top comment is a joke, you need to wade through a million other jokes before you get to the next top level comment (which may be interesting) You can just collapse it. I agree with you that the categorization on Slashdot was nice, as was the metamoderating. But when I find myself on Slashdot these days, I find it impossible to follow a conversation with so many collapsed comments.

monk_e_boy 9y ago
> You can just collapse it. Yeah, but I've usually swiped down and I don't know if its worth going back up to collapse it. Default sorting by category would be nice, push the funnies down and pull the interesting ones up.
- btgeekboy 9y ago
  Some subreddits have custom CSS that extends the collapse element to the height of the container. /r/overwatch is a good example; I wish that style was the default.
dredmorbius 9y ago
There's often not much conversation to follow. I'll very occasionally pop over to Slashdot (I'd been there since before user accounts were a thing), and ... well, it's fallen greatly.

52-6F-62 9y ago

>>> Facebook has solved this with their 'reaction' icons The Globe and Mail (Canadian national newspaper and growing media company) has executed something similar. They actually have some pretty innovative work going on (at least with respect to the rest of Canadian media), and maintain a lab for this express purpose. example (scroll to the end of the article, comments are expandable): https://beta.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/recognizing-indigenous-nations-niigaan-sinclair/article36237415/ https://beta.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/recognizing-indigen... http://globeedge.ca/about/ http://globeedge.ca/about/ disclaimer: I work for a national media outfit in Canada that isn't the Globe

ypeterholmes 9y ago
That comment section looks terrible. For one thing- the fact you even needed to tell us how to find them? Second, what's innovative there? I can't even collapse threads.
- 52-6F-62 9y ago
  Hm. I wanted to edit, turns out I can't. I was mistaken, the comment section is provided by: https://www.getcivil.com/ https://www.getcivil.com/ Their innovation labs have more to do with redesigning their end-user services and making them accessible. Anyway I'm not their salesman, I work for a competitor. I just have heard a talk from the head of their lab in the springtime and it was great. They're at least trying things on, whereas media (at least in my experience so far) has been largely resistant. Trust me, try pitching, or carrying out at a manager's request, a project that changes the working, production, and content delivery paradigms of media and media-design veterans at the pinnacle of their careers; they do not like it. The fact that the Globe, NYT, and WaPo are active in trying new things is great. Again if you doubt me, try managing 20+ WordPress multi-sites, each with differing and undocumented theme build processes, and every little component another undocumented patchworked plugin -- all because most of the group doesn't want to have to relearn something they figured was solved enough in 2005. Innovation like these things in media is well overdue in so many of the processes up to the front end. Further, the link above is a beta. At least they are trying on different comment systems that aren't Disqus or the 'same old thing'.

dredmorbius 9y ago

Reddit + RES and "collapse all child posts" is pretty awesome. All threads start off collapsed. You can individually expand them. https://www.reddit.com/r/GeoPolitics https://www.reddit.com/r/GeoPolitics has a very nice CSS in which the collapse toggle runs down the side of a thread. You can collapse, and set the level you want to collapse, from within the thread. It's genius, seriously. The bar appears on mouse-over, running vertically. See for example: https://www.reddit.com/r/geopolitics/comments/6z27gx/rgeopolitics_content_validity/ https://www.reddit.com/r/geopolitics/comments/6z27gx/rgeopol...