Fully expand a comment thread in-page

[cellio]

The most frequent request we've heard for our new threaded comment system is the ability to expand a comment thread in the post page, rather than having to navigate to the thread page (and lose the context of the post, other posts on the page, and other comment threads).

We still want the thread pages, but we should also have a way to access the entire thread from the post, including leaving a new comment. Currently if you expand a thread you see the first five comments and then a link to the thread. I'd like to add an option: along with a link to the thread page, add a "show all comments" link. If you click that you get all of them, whether that's six or sixty. Having to click through twice (once to see the thread at all, once to see all of it) adds the friction that we were looking for even without going to a new page.

I think it's ok to follow the Toyota principle here ("you asked for it, you got it") and just load all the comments in place, rather than wrapping the thread in a scrollable container. Make sure that "collapse" link stays available and people can recover.

Finally, because you'll get the textbox to add a comment if you expand the whole thread, either you should get it "for free" if you expand a thread with fewer than five comments, or in the case where there are no more comments to show, the link should be "add comment", not "show all comments", because you're already looking at all of them and that could be confusing.

[b-Istiak-s]

I said in my earlier comment a thread comment might have 50 comments also. If we allow to expand in post page. Than, chrome might crash in low quality's mobile. Instead of expanding whole thread I think it would be better if we expand 10 comments per click... :thinking:

[cellio]

I didn't realize that expanding comments could crash a browser. Can you say more about what the issue is? Does your browser crash if you expand a long Reddit thread or SE comment pile? Options to expand "next 10" and "all" could work. I don't want to force people to keep clicking if they want everything (maybe because their next step is going to be ctrl-F for that thing they remembered somewhere in that pile), but if loading a big pile is a usability issue on a phone, I do want to account for that.

[b-Istiak-s]

I didn't realize that expanding comments could crash a browser. Can you say more about what the issue is? Does your browser crash if you expand a long Reddit thread or SE comment pile? Options to expand "next 10" and "all" could work. I don't want to force people to keep clicking if they want everything (maybe because their next step is going to be ctrl-F for that thing they remembered somewhere in that pile), but if loading a big pile is a usability issue on a phone, I do want to account for that.

Actually, I was trying to say that when low performance mobile fetch huge amount of data, It starts lagging. Some time, chrome crashes also. It happens to me now also. When I use mobile for 15-20 minutes than, write an answer or, question my mobile starts lagging. Cause, it checks to save data to drafts every whole sec. I can type fastly that's why saving data crashes my chrome. Even, when 4-5 people starts messaging in WhatsApp at a time, sometime my mobile lags that moment also. That's why I said to fetch 10 more comments per clicks(20 comments is also ok).

[b-Istiak-s]

There's actually 2 way to add the feature.

1. Just show the whole thread in post page. (few comments won't show)
2. have to add a new button to show the whole thread. If user want to show the whole thread than, he have click on that. Otherwise, he can see only 5 comments.

2nd one will be little bit harder to do.

[cellio]

Since there's a "collapse" button, I don't mind showing the whole thread in-page when the user asks for it, if you're not concerned about performance. Does anyone else have opinions?

[cellio]

I know you're also working on something else right now, so wanted to check: any progress on this one? Do you want it, or would it be ok if I asked around to see if anyone else is available?

[b-Istiak-s]

Sorry! I got some problem while working on it. So, i will say let someone else take a look at it

[b-Istiak-s]

There's actually 2 way to add the feature.

1. Just show the whole thread in post page. (few comments won't show)
2. have to add a new button to show the whole thread. If user want to show the whole thread than, he have click on that. Otherwise, he can see only 5 comments.

2nd one will be little bit harder to do.

As I said above, it will be easier to do 1st one. I have completed similar work. I have added picture below. This way the whole thread will only show in post page. It won't show 5 comments. There's three problems available which given below (delete, edit, copy-link works fine) :

1. When user add a reply it directs him to thread page.
2. Flag dialog isn't showing.
3. Show it anyway isn't working (It's only for mods).

I think that my method isn't correct for solving it also.

Picture


What I had done :

In the line, I changed parameters of inline which means, params[:inline]=false. That's why collapse and show thread button were fetched not other inline features

[cellio]

This is looking good. A few comments:

I'm not sure what you mean by "Show it anyway isn't working (It's only for mods)."

If a thread is fully expanded, then "show thread" is probably not what we want that link to say. "Go to thread page"? (Feels too long.) We do still want thread pages -- as permalinks, and because sometimes that's the easier way to read stuff. So we need a clear link, but I'm not sure what the text should be.

On a thread page, comments can have the following links (some depend on abilities): copy link, edit, delete, flag. These should show up in the in-page view too.

A thread page has controls for follow/unfollow and tools. (Tools might be mod-only, or maybe curate.) Where can we put these? As a moderator, I'd like to be able to moderate a comment thread without having to go to another page if I can already see all the comments. (I acknowledge that I can't do this today for short threads either. It's frustrating.)

Does the full expansion replace the current behavior, or is it another option? If there are 67 comments, are my choices to see all of them or to not open it at all? We talked earlier (in the context of your crashing browser) about progressive expansion, where we show the first five and then you can expand all in-page from there, or the next 10, or something like that. This seems like something we should get more input on: what do people want to do with super-long threads?

[cellio]

Relevant: https://meta.codidact.com/posts/283984

[b-Istiak-s]

Thread before expanding


Thread after expanding


Completed the above thing now.. will make a PR and, stating current available issue.

I'm not sure what you mean by "Show it anyway isn't working (It's only for mods)."

If you remember of moderating, than you may notice something just like this

Only mod can see deleted comments. But, It's not working properly for inline.

If a thread is fully expanded, then "show thread" is probably not what we want that link to say.....

Currently, I am showing an expand button on header but I am thinking to show expand button in footer rather than header (will think later). Usually, I am hiding the expand button and footer altogether when expanded completely. Show thread button is still available on header (not thinking to change something of it).

A thread page has controls for follow/unfollow and tools.....

I was rechecking these things again since, there's mod who don't like to visit lots of pages. Sorry to say, the tools button isn't working either (same problem as flag).

Does the full expansion replace the current behavior, or is it another option?

Earlier, it wasn't but it is now. They can expand if they want they can also visit thread page either.

We talked earlier (in the context of your crashing browser) about progressive expansion

Currently, I will say I don't care. Cause I believe there's no one who uses 1 GB ram mobile (excluding me :D ) cause, as far as I know user with low mobile doesn't use lot of things. Saying to me, usually I can't use lots of application in my mobile. So, I don't care if I have to work little bit more. (Maybe we could take a look at it later)

Since, there's no one who uses 1 GB ram mobile so ignoring it now.

---

Currently working and not working;

1. Flag (not working)
2. Copy Link (same as earlier)
3. edit (no issue with this one)
4. delete (working properly)
5. Follow/Unfollow (working)
6. Tools (not working)
7. Add Reply (working partially; When you click on Add Reply then it directs you to thread page but it successfully add data to database (I meant your comment will be added))

Is there something left I forgot to mention?

Oops! tools and flag is in CoDesign.

[cellio]

Currently, I am showing an expand button on header but I am thinking to show expand button in footer rather than header (will think later).

Do you mean where, at the bottom, it currently says (for example): "Showing 5 of 8 comments. (See the whole thread)" (latter is a link)? Maybe what we want is:

"Showing 5 of 8 comments. (show all) (go to thread page)" -- "show all" is what you're calling expand, and if you instead want to go to the separate page (or capture its link), it's right there.

I agree with you that the bottom of the initial batch of comments is the better place to put the "show me more" control. Don't make people scroll back up to the top (might not still be visible).

(Progressive expansion:) Currently, I will say I don't care.

Works for me. So we have some number of comments that are shown initially, and a "show all" option that loads all of them even if that's a lot, and we don't need anything in between. This sounds good.

Your to-do list looks right to me. We want people to perform all actions in the expanded view that they would be able to perform on the thread page; the thread page is a convenience but wouldn't be required after this change. So we want flag to work and the tools menu to be available. I can't think of anything else.

[b-Istiak-s]

UI

 

not updating my code. Since, it requires little bit suggestion. I was earlier calling it expand. But, expand and show all is literally same. But, the problem arise when a thread doesn't have more than 5 comments. Then, only 5 comments will be shown. If anyone clicks on Show me more, Expand or Show all then it will only show him some tools and comment field (textarea). So, expand, show all or show me more isn't meaningful for those kind of thread.

UI

 meaningless :|

And, the Go to thread page button is only visible for inline. And, current UI isn't looking bad for android either.

UI


Go to thread page is shorter than See the whole thread. And, See the whole thread represent something else after adding the feature.

[cellio]

First, can we only show the "show me more" or "expand" or whatever we call it link when there's something to show? Since we know how many we're showing and how many there are, we should be able to compare those, right?

As for what to call it, what about "show all comments", since we're not doing a progressive thing?

I think I would swap the two links, so it's "showing 5 of 10", then "show all comments" (here), then "go to thread page", since that last is the more "extreme" action.

[b-Istiak-s]

Another observation on lagging device :

Actually the lagging happens when I fetch huge amount of data. Like as : fetching 1000 contact list.

For the thread comment, we are only fetching 200 data in average. That's why the threaded option may not affect my device :) (I don't have experience of using 512 MB ram even I don't think it's in market now).

[cellio]

@ArtOfCode- says we should approach this a different way (which Art can expand on).