Reply button on main site

[Anupam]

The reply button to comments on the main site is not working properly? I clicked on reply to a comment, but it appeared on the top of the comments as a new comment, and not in reply to the comment, for which it was intended.

[Jojoyee]

Drupal at the main site offers two viewing options: Flat or Threaded list.

The one you mentioned is threaded list. Flat list is like this forum, listing posts in chronological order.

Chris has commented to change the comments ordering so that new comments appear at the top of page and that is much more important than the correct threading.

Are you able to view "Comments" shortcut at the left panel of the main site after logging in?

[Anupam]

So the flat comment view has been enabled on the main site instead of the threaded one?

But, it does not look right.. that the reply to a comment should appear at the top of the page.. and not where it should be. How are people going to make out that the comment posted, is in reply to which comment?
If a reply is posted to a comment that is in the middle of the page... the comment would still appear on the top of the page. Would that comment then hold its value? Probably not.

And I had seen the links posted by you earlier Jojoyee, but as I am not a site admin, I am not able to access those links... it just takes me to the main page... and also, I can't see any "Comments" link in the left. It must be available to the site admins only.

[Jojoyee]

You should be able to access this thread Comment URL for moderators for the comments link. But as you say, the link is probably restricted to admin.

[Anupam]

Yep Jojoyee, I have seen that thread, and the link ... and it is for site admins... does not work for me.

[chris.p]

OK, this is what happened

We have been debating the issue of main site despamming, and just at the moment we are short of personnel. Because it is hard to despam comments going back 6 pages, over hundreds (maybe thousands now) of site pages, I suggested changing the comments from threaded to flat, so that all comments come up at the top of page 1, and are therefore very easy to despam.

One of the admins then changed it, to see what the result was like (not me though, I don't generally touch site configs unless it's an emergency). However nobody liked it at all, and someone just changed it back (Mr Anonymous again). A good experiment anyway, I think.

So here's the debate:

- Flat comments, new posts come up on page 1, easy to despam, everyone hates it though

- Threaded comments, people love it, hard to despam though - who will volunteer so we get a 24/7 team??

[Jojoyee]

Originally Posted by chris.p

So here's the debate:

- Flat comments, new posts come up on page 1, easy to despam, everyone hates it though

- Threaded comments, people love it, hard to despam though - who will volunteer so we get a 24/7 team??

I note that the Flat comments in Drupal do not equip with Permalink and Quote button. In this way, you can't trace the reply is to which post, as Anupam has commented.

So IMHO, Threaded comments are still better even though at the expense of new posts not presented at top.

[Anupam]

I had noticed, the change was for a short time, and had a feeling, things were being experimented.

Threaded comments are definitely better... the advantages are more than flat comments. But yes, they come at an expense.

[chris.p]

I think it's mainly Gizmo and MC who are despamming the main site, plus of course anyone who sees something that needs to be zapped.

We need more main site despammers but I guess that will happen eventually.

The price of having an excellent, free comments system, with no registration, and threaded comments - that is better than anything else on the Net probably in terms of user involvement - is extra work despamming. But anything good has a price.