The comment function is not helpful

[public hermit]

The comment function is not helpful. Individual exchanges should have the same functions. Moreover, even for those who have it, the comment function hinders conversation because we can't reply to comments.

The reply function is sufficient because it is conducive to something like actual dialog. Apparently, reply is also necessary in terms of ease of exchange. The reply function is both necessary and sufficient, the comment function is counter-productive and should be discarded.

 

[Rajni]

The comment function is not helpful. Individual exchanges should have the same functions. Moreover, even for those who have it, the comment function hinders conversation because we can't reply to comments.

The reply function is sufficient because it is conducive to something like actual dialog. Apparently, reply is also necessary in terms of ease of exchange. The reply function is both necessary and sufficient, the comment function is counter-productive and should be discarded.

I was just noticing the comment thing today and came over here to see if it was being discussed.
A few minutes ago, I saw an OP with two mini-posts under it, and then the rest of the thread. At first, I wondered if those two comments were part of the OP, in the form of quoted text from other posts, but it turns out they're responses to the OP.

If the comments had permalinks, the way regular posts do, they might be easier to handle because then one could redirect folks to where they appear, for context, if one were to decide to address them. In the meantime, I guess a workaround would be that if someone wants to address a comment, but do so as a regular post, they could maybe provide the permalink of the regular post to which the comment was originally in response, so people can see what’s being addressed and to whom (if that makes sense).

 

[Rajni]

So what I did in order to present my comment under your OP as a post that I'm quoting and responding to, is I simply clicked "Reply" to your OP, and then in the BBCode mode, I replaced "public hermit" with my name, and your OP's text with my comment text.

This way, it presents like a regular quoted-post and readers can be redirected to where the comment originally appeared if need be without searching around for it:

I'm commenting here to try a little experiment with quoting comments specifically in a regular post. This comment is part of my experiment.

 

[David's Harp]

The comment function is not helpful. Individual exchanges should have the same functions. Moreover, even for those who have it, the comment function hinders conversation because we can't reply to comments.

The reply function is sufficient because it is conducive to something like actual dialog. Apparently, reply is also necessary in terms of ease of exchange. The reply function is both necessary and sufficient, the comment function is counter-productive and should be discarded.

I was going to comment on your post PH, but I thought I'd better not.
I have a tendency to agree with you in this. I've been using the comment feature quite a lot, but what I'm discovering is that it is becoming a little bit of a distraction. Also, as you rightly say, the inability to easily reply to comments isn't helpful. If you want to reply to someone's comment, you have to make another comment in that post.
Perhaps if we had the ability to quote comments and start a new reply that would help?

 

[Rajni]

Hi Rajni, that's really helpful. I was looking at such a workaround for this. But it's a little bit of work to do this each time, is it not?

It is a bit more labor-intensive than if comments had a permalink of their own, for sure.

 

[Rajni]

If one wanted to be even more specific about from whence the comment came, one could add something like "[username] (in the comments under the OP)", so it looks like this:

I'm commenting here to try a little experiment with quoting comments specifically in a regular post. This comment is part of my experiment.

 

[Rajni]

sorry... i'm having too much fun with this, lol!

 

[zippy2006]

My question is: What is the purpose of the comment function?

It also seems unhelpful to me. Is there some intended purpose? Is there an ideal way it is supposed to be used?

I've always thought it would be nice for forums to implement a "replied to" list. For example, each post would have a link, "replied to," and when that link is clicked a drop-down would reveal a list with links to all of the posts where a user has directly replied to this post. I think folks are trying to use the comment function as a stand-in for this feature, such that readers have immediate access to their response. Still, that seems unhelpful and counterproductive. The "replied to" list would be a better way to do this.