Argument comments

[Erol314]

Feature request: This may be out of scope of this project, but how about adding the ability comment under someone's else vote?

possible restrictions to avoid clutter:

• no nested comments, only 1 level .
• 1 comment per user for other user's argument.

[brendt]

I think it's an interesting idea. I was already thinking about it, but not for the v1 version. I agree that nested comments shouldn't be allowed, although I think it makes sense to allow for conversations, and thus also allow users to comment multiple times on the same argument.

We might also make commenting a feature that's only accessible when a certain reputation is reached so that people have to participate before being able to comment.

[olleharstedt]

At work we sometimes use google docs to continue arguments. There you can mark words and create a comment list from it, and also mark it as resolved later. One recent relevant example where this could be useful:

this proposal puts forward messy syntax that isn't clear

"messy syntax" here is not very precise. Is that objective or subjective or what? How messy on a scale? It would be nice to create a comment from those words and ask for clarification. :) Just my 2 cents. ^^

Another solution would be to add a feature to flag arguments for clarification. So instead of upvote or downvote, you give it a "needs clarification"-flag, and the author can then adjust or flesh out the argument.

[brendt]

Work in progress update:

• ArgumentComment is a thing now
• Comments are hidden by default, but can be shown on a per-argument basis
• I want to keep comments as plain as possible, that means no markdown support.
• There's a new concept "Message" that sends in-app notification. We could hook up mails in the future, but that out of scope for now

Todos

• [ ] Creating a comment
• [ ] Should comments always be shown?
• [ ] Styling
• [ ] Being able to edit or delete your comment (or as an admin)
• [ ] Add a way to visualise whether there are new comments? Or at least have a way that notifies users when there are new comments on their arguments, and when an argument you've commented on, received a new comment
• [ ] Also send notification to people who voted for an argument that receives a comment

[brendt]

Branch is here, btw: https://github.com/brendt/rfc-vote/tree/argument-comments

[ndossche]

FWIW, I think from the perspective of an RFC author, it's important to be able to comment on comments (and have them always shown). For example to clear up confusion/misunderstanding or notify that a certain concern has been addressed by an edit in the RFC text.

[brendt]

Makes sense to always show them. Though I'm afraid the list will grow way too big. Maybe there's a compromise where we show comments for argument you've voted on, or always show the first comment

[olleharstedt]

One idea:

• Show max 3 first comments per argument with a link-button to view more
• Add an option to always hide comments

Too much work?

[brendt]

No, sounds like a good idea 👍