Allow nested replies in Q&A Threads

[arn]

Context:

XF 2.2 - Forum and thread types

Forums contain threads and threads contain posts. It's been the essential framework of forums on the Internet since the public migrated from usenet to the web. The structure is well known and well understood - though the origins of some of the terminology are lost in the mists of time. Who ever...

xenforo.com

The Q&A thread naturally lends itself to "post comments". Now, I never thought threaded conversations really worked well in the traditional forum setting -- I recall vBulletin's attempts at it. But, when you are talking about a Q&A where the A's are pieces of votable content itself. There is naturally going to be discussions around the A's.

The problem with the flat structure is what happens when someone replies to an Answer? That answer's reply gets its own Vote button, which doesn't make much sense. And what happens when people sort by Vote? These strange replies will be floating around with no context.

Since we're already being a little loose with post order anyway in these Q&A threads -- IMO, the best solution would be when someone replies to an Answer by hitting Reply or Quote on that Answer itself, that reply gets nested under the Answer, and not in the thread somewhere.

I'd like to suggest nested replies for Q&A threads. A single level of nesting would be sufficient with some way to "expand more" that hides excess replies after N replies.

This is how the other major Q&A forums works: StackOverflow, Quora.

Answers get their own independent thread of replies.
Example: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/13316966/css-checkboxes-radio-buttons-when-input-is-inside-label

 

[FTL]

The problem with that is when someone replies asa nested comment it is not necessary to quote what they are replying to. So if you then opt view as "flat" there will be orphan replies floating around with no quote of what the are actually replying to.

Or does the post being commented on turn into a quote in the reply?

That's a good question. I guess it would have to quote it in full for the proper context which might then have issues with formatting, database hits, page speed etc. One can just imagine a long post being quoted in full being a problem, especially if there are lots of them in a thread when users are having at it in the typical dispute.

 

[Seeker-Smith]

We have a live demo of this and it works nicely.

Topics

Select an index, join in or start a new topic. This is an experimental system. We hope it works as expected but there may be bugs. If you find one speak out so it can be addressed.

sneaker-groups.com

 

[Digital Doctor]

Allow nested replies in Q&A Threads everywhere​

 

[Suzanne O]

No thanks.
Go to https://www.proboards.com if you're after that.
I am not a fan of verticalscope.

 

[Digital Doctor]

No thanks.

we know

 

[frm]

Allow nested replies in Q&A Threads everywhere​

+1 if this can change the suggestion.

I never understood how bulletin boards went away from nested replies. I remember being a 'member' of some forums that were set up like this in a 'What's new' type list:

> Topic 1
>> RE: Topic 1
>> RE: Topic 1
>>> RE: Topic 1
>> RE: Topic 1
> Topic 2
>> RE: Topic 2
>>> RE: Topic 2

Nested replies can get out of hand by essentially creating new topics on their own, which you could then address by simply moving them to a new thread. However, they can also serve to discuss the nuances or get further clarity of a reply in one clean area as opposed to quoting it over and over throughout a flat thread.

 

[Mr Lucky]

I never understood how bulletin boards went away from nested replies.

Probably due to people not liking them. I did an experiment with them for a while and members did not like it. The prefer a constant timeline rather than jumping around within the thread.

 

[frm]

Probably due to people not liking them. I did an experiment with them for a while and members did not like it.

They were obviously phased out from the first iterations of forums (BBS), but there wasn't, to my knowledge, any platform that had picked it up when that type of conversation faded into obscurity. If it had become the norm from the beginning (the HTML for that might've looked disastrous with tables and tables, but the UI could be much improved on from how it would have probably looked bulky then), there probably wouldn't be any complaints about it now.

But, the option to have nesting is my suggestion. Admins could turn it on or leave it off (default).

So many platforms have gone back to the nesting days, even ones that didn't have it in the first place (Say, Facebook), and it's not even Reddit, for comments and replies. If you're going to attract new users, they may feel more comfortable with that setup, especially if you are using ad targeting from platforms that allow it.

 

[Mr Lucky]

But, the option to have nesting is my suggestion. Admins could turn it on or leave it off (default).

I think it would need to be a user preference. So when turned off the comments then show chronologically with a quote of the post they replied to.