this post was submitted on 02 Jun 2024
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When responding to a comment with multiple points, should one create a new thread (new comment) for each point, or should one make a single large comment containing individual responses to all points? (sh.itjust.works)
submitted 3 weeks ago by [email protected] to c/general
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I encounter situations like this rather often where I am responding to a comment that contains many individual points/statements. I typically will respond with a single comment that contains a quote of each point that is being responded to with my response under neath the respective quote β€” and, sometimes, for added clarity, a horizontal line separating each response. For example:

Statement 1

My response to Statement 1

Statement 2

My response to Statement 2

etc.

I wonder if it would be better practice to have atomic responses to comments β€” create a single comment for each individual statement, i.e. spawn a new thread for each new atomic topic. This would allow scores to be representative of each specific response rather than an average of the total, and it may also help with clarity when reading through the comment section, as well as easing the creation of responses (not needing to rely on formatting so much). For example

Comment 1 in reply to comment with multiple points:

Statement 1.

My response to Statement 1.

Comment 2 in reply to the comment with multiple points:

Statement 2.

My response to Statement 2.

etc.

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[–] [email protected] 0 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) (6 children)

If the conversation is at the point where you are replying to replies, and you’ve sent me three rebuttals with each of them asking for clarification or verification from me, I’m now sending 3-6 replies back, which may require you to send 12 or more.

You are right that the amount of comments would grow rather quickly (exponentially, I think), but the threads, themselves, should be easier to follow β€” there wouldn't be multiple conversations happening within each comment.

I’d lose track of who said what and would end up referencing something from a conversation with someone else.

How come? The comments are all visually tied together in the thread hierarchy (well, assuming that one isn't reading Lemmy content from Mastodon, or with the Chat mode in the Lemmy UI)

[–] Rhynoplaz 2 points 3 weeks ago (5 children)

I never look at the threads. I get a notification on my phone that somebody responded. I read the response, I reply to it if necessary. I'm not opening up the entire thread and reading through a conversation from the beginning again.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 4 days ago (4 children)

If this is in reply to the second quote, then I'm not really sure what point you are trying to make. You appear to be opposed to atomic comments because you don't want to scroll for context, but the alternative, which I outlined, is a comment containing quotes for context β€” and to solve what you are describing, you would require the entire thread to be contained within the comment, which would still require scrolling. Neither option really addresses your complaint. Imo, atomic comments come the closest, as the scope is kept restricted per thread.

[–] Rhynoplaz 1 points 4 days ago (1 children)

The point is, replying in individual comments is stupid and more confusing. You seem to be trying to defend the idea, but no matter how much you think it makes sense, I would quit this platform in a heartbeat if everyone typed that way.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 4 days ago (1 children)

replying in individual comments is stupid and more confusing.

For clarity, would you mind explicitly stating why you believe that atomic comments are intrinsically more confusing?

[–] Rhynoplaz 1 points 4 days ago (1 children)

I've already told you how I interact with the site, and that might not be the same way as you.

I'm sure atomic comments make perfect sense to you. I'm also sure, that they make no sense to me. I can be right without making you wrong.

If you can't understand that different people have different preferences, that's a much bigger problem than anything we can solve here.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago)

I apologize if I've offended you, as that wasn't my intention β€” I'm only trying to understand your opinion. I'm aware that we have different opinions, I'm just curious what your rationale is for yours.

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