Find My Comments?

[MilesAhead]

The way the comments are nested after the articles makes it almost impossible to find your comment again after a few days have passed. I need to remember which article it was in, then manually search with the browser.

It would make it a lot easier to track what's happening if there was a "My Comments" button maybe in Quick Links or the Menu Bar.

I sign my comments with my user name so it should be doable.

Afaik, as it is now, even if I remember the particular article title, then I have to browser search on each page since a comment that's a reply will be tucked underneath its reference thereby killing off any chronological order. I have no real way to know which page to start the search.

I think that's likely the reason a lot of comments that start to thread end up hanging. After 2 days nobody can remember where they were talking about what.

[vasa1]

Originally Posted by MilesAhead

The way the comments are nested after the articles makes it almost impossible to find your comment again after a few days have passed. I need to remember which article it was in, then manually search with the browser.

It would make it a lot easier to track what's happening if there was a "My Comments" button maybe in Quick Links or the Menu Bar.

I sign my comments with my user name so it should be doable.

Afaik, as it is now, even if I remember the particular article title, then I have to browser search on each page since a comment that's a reply will be tucked underneath its reference thereby killing off any chronological order. I have no real way to know which page to start the search.

I think that's likely the reason a lot of comments that start to thread end up hanging. After 2 days nobody can remember where they were talking about what.

(I'm sure you know this but ...) I use the Advanced Search option under Search wherein one can search for posts by specific users. I find that adequate.

And choose Show Results as posts.

[MilesAhead]

I think you are talking about forum search. Just about every board has search by user id. I'm talking about comments that people append to articles about free software. As example, look at something like "best free email client" or something. Now look at the pages of comments with no logical way to search them all in one shot. It would be a lot easier if there was either a button to gather all my comments or a way to subscribe to comments related to an article.. or both.

[Sope]

This is the main reason I don't leave comments on the main site, they seem to me just too difficult to track and are confusing to follow.

[MilesAhead]

Originally Posted by Sope

This is the main reason I don't leave comments on the main site, they seem to me just too difficult to track and are confusing to follow.

It's a shame because often I get a tip on a software similar to the one in the article that I wasn't aware of. If it was easier to follow up more info would be exchanged.

Even if there was a way to set the page length to near infinite, so that all comments are on one long page, I could use the browser page search. I've had to resort to that on some boards. Not exactly elegant but sometimes it's all you have.

[Sope]

Originally Posted by MilesAhead

It's a shame because often I get a tip on a software similar to the one in the article that I wasn't aware of..................
..............Even if there was a way to set the page length to near infinite, so that all comments are on one long page, I could use the browser page search.

Yep, I would also find an option to "show all comments" useful. Like you, I use the browser page search but when there's numerous pages of comments it becomes a pain.

[MilesAhead]

I forget which forum it was, but they didn't even have a thread search mechanism. The only way to search without clicking on each page was to set your preferences to like 20000 posts per page or some silliness.

[vasa1]

Originally Posted by Sope

This is the main reason I don't leave comments on the main site, they seem to me just too difficult to track and are confusing to follow.

I wonder if it is possible to re-look at having two places where opinions can be voiced: one being the main site and the other being the forum.

Without thinking too deeply on the matter and without knowing how things have come about, I feel, like quite a few others, if I understand correctly, that posting in the forum only would do the job more efficiently.

[Anupam]

Originally Posted by vasa1

Without thinking too deeply on the matter and without knowing how things have come about, I feel, like quite a few others, if I understand correctly, that posting in the forum only would do the job more efficiently.

Elaborate more please. I did not get your point.

[vasa1]

Originally Posted by Anupam

Elaborate more please. I did not get your point.

Currently, a person has two options, to post in the main site or to post in the forum. A reader then has to go to two different places to find something new.

The main site doesn't offer the possibility to show all contributions since the last visit. The forum does.

The main site doesn't give the facility to search for all contributions by a particular person. The forum does. For example, I just used the search on the main site to search for vasa1 (just to see what happens). There was only one hit, in which the string was mentioned in a post by terrawarra. So posts/comments made by vasa1 weren't found even when I searched by user and not by content.

Anyway, in short, the most attractive feature of the forum section is the ability to get the new posts. In the main site one has to open each and every topic of interest to know if something new is posted.