Post Comments

[Dani]

Option 1: The "Show Comments" link will be fixed and only visible when there actually are post comments to show.
Option 2: A post's comments will always be visible beneath a post (a la Stack Overflow and many other forums that have commenting systems). My concern is that this will clutter the page up a bit, and it will definitely increase the amount of scrolling required, but it would be nice to see everything without requiring any additional clicks.

[JorgeM]

I vote for option1

[Dani]

It should be noted that the big advantage to option 2 is that you would take more notice of all of the comments a post gets, which would significantly increase the activity, usability and usefulness of the reputation system.

[deceptikon]

Oddly enough, I think I'm in favor of option 2. Though there would definitely need to be a way to hide excess numbers of comments. It's rare currently, but if the reputation system is used more often because of this feature, that kind of thing might become more common.

[Dani]

I'm in favor of option 2 simply because option 1 would take a significant amount of coding effort, while option 2 is a 5 minute design change. :) Incidentally, a way to hide over X comments by default is very doable.

[deceptikon]

I'm in favor of option 2 simply because option 1 would take a significant amount of coding effort

Coding effort that's already been largely done? What you described in option 1 seems a lot like how comments work right now.

[Dani]

It's complicated. I'm PMing you :)

[WaltP]

I like option 1. I don't need to automatically see comments, but when I want to see them it would be nice to have "show comments" only when there are comments.

[Reverend Jim]

I prefer option 2. Most of the comments I've seen consist of one-liners and most posts do not have comments so it's not like the comments will overwhelm the other content. It's not an issue at home where my internet connection is fast and reliable but here at the cottage, clicking on "show comments", when there are no actual comments, can waste significant time.

And the fact that option 2 is easier to implement is a nice bonus (for you) ;-)

[Dani]

Hey guys,

Sorry! I REALLY didn't get much sleep yesterday and had no idea what I was saying.

Option 1 and option 2 both require the same amount of coding effort (which I just completed, BTW, and really wasn't that bad at all). Option 2, however, does require the additional database query to fetch all of the comments required at page load, instead of just the comments for a specific post upon request, so it's more db intensive.

Option 1 is currently implemented, so the Show Comments link will now only show when there actually are comments. If enough people do prefer option 2, we can move to that.