Let's test threaded replies

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1

This is functionality I just enabled on our instance. Should help with PEP review.

6 Likes
Nested Replies feature released recently
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Let’s give a shot !

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And this is nested !!!

1 Like
4

Yes, let’s try it!

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5

And is this?

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6

Is there still a way to sort threads chronologically? I see some long threads with recent replies but it’s not easy to see where exactly the new content is. I used to just scroll to the bottom.

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I disabled this by default, because the sorting is very non-obvious.

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8

but there’s just 3 levels, later it won’t thread further

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This reply is nested, and was written about an hour after Nathan wrote this …

… and Łukasz responded with this …

As we can see, if a reply refers to content from multiple replies that were written earlier, and are nested, the flow of logic can become confusing.

3 Likes
10

Right, you replied to one comment, and copied other quotes in?

With threads, could you reply to each of the three people separately and directly?

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Right! And it’s not just that, the reply sorting doesn’t really seem to respect the “Sort by” setting at the top.

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This might be a reply to mine, which had been written six minutes earlier. However, mine appears later in the ordering.

So, yes, with this system, we need to quote strategically, so as not to create confusion. Still, if a user reads a long nested thread, thinks about the content, then opts to post a nested reply anywhere, the nested ordering might leave it nonobvious which content informed their thinking.

1 Like
13

And is this?

Yes, even for me. It’s nice to see that the feature preserves the existing threading functionality for mailing list mode, so no real change in my case.

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I just saw there was a new post here, opened the thread, and I’d never have been able to find the new post except for the fact that I noticed your user icon was against the thread in the “Unread items” view, and then I spotted your post.

In a complex discussion, I can guarantee I’d miss new posts.

Is there any way for unread messages to be highlighted? Because when I used a threaded mail reader (long ago!) it was the fact that unread messages were highlighted that made it possible to navigate.

1 Like
15

And what just happened? I replied to @fungi but my post is shown as a reply to @hugovk!!!

Edit: And this post, a reply to my previous one, is shown above my post and not as a reply to it. Is this the “maximum 3 levels of nesting” issue that was mentioned earlier?

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So far it doesn’t seem like an improvement. . .

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I don’t know if people are familiar with Reddit and the RES extension for it, but one must-have feature for long nested threads that it has is being able to toggle between seeing a full topic and only the new comments in it. So subthreads with no new replies don’t show at all in this mode, read parent replies show as grayed and trimmed, and new replies show normally.

I can’t imagine following a long-standing thread without a feature like that.

3 Likes
18

I can’t imagine following a long-standing thread without a feature like that.

Same, if my MUA didn’t indicate which messages are unread and allow me to easily jump to those within the thread, or toggle visibility for those I’ve already read, I’d be just as lost.

It’s a basic feature for E-mail clients (and Usenet newsreaders for that matter), so somewhat surprising to me that people designing a mail-like threading UI wouldn’t at least have a passing familiarity with prior art, an interaction model in this case which has evolved and been perfected over the course of a half-century if not longer.

5 Likes