I get the impression most folks here use the "Recent Posts" button at the top left for the majority of their browsing. I know I do, I am here often enough (numerous times a day most days) that this is the best way for me to keep up with what is going on. Here's how it works for me:
Recent Posts shows all the recent threads in timeline order of when their most recent reply occurred - meaning someone typed in the box at the bottom of the topic and hit the "Post Reply" button. But this forum is unique in my experience online in that the 'other' way to respond to a post is by using the 'Comment' button directly under any post, and this allows a character-limited reply to appended directly to the post itself. I like this format, it helps keep things somewhat tied together and it's easier to keep track of multiple 'threads' of a conversation.
But, the problem I have noticed is that I don't THINK making a "Comment" on someone's individual post ends up bumping a thread up on the Recent Posts page the same way a "Reply" to the topic does?
If there's a new Reply on a thread, it gets bumped to the top of my Recent Posts page, and the topic title is in bold font. There's also the blue 'double down arrow' icon which, when clicked, takes one to the first new post of that thread - either a reply or a comment.
I like the emphasis with bold font on topics with new replies, and the jumping to the first new post. Actually, if I click the button OR the topic, it takes me to the same place. This is fine. I like this. It works well for me to keep up with ongoing additions.
The problem comes with Comments, instead of Replies. So, for instance, if I've posted a question or something I'm looking for some answers to and people answer with Comments instead of Replying, I can't really tell there's been any interaction with my topic or my own post within a topic. Most of us have learned to use the "@" symbol to bring up members' names to "tag" them to let them know we specifically want them to see our reply or post, but the prompt to choose a member name to tag doesn't pop up when typing in Comment like it does in a Reply (a separate issue), so most Comments don't have these tags for members' attention in them unless you specifically type out their whole name with any spaces or punctuation just right. This isn't too big of a deal, I've learned to do this - mostly.
But when I have a topic I'm trying to keep track of, sometimes I watch it for hours or days and never 'see' any kind of interaction, then for whatever reason I remember this issue and I go find the topic and it is not in bold, but I click on it anyways, and I see there have been Comments made, but no Replies, thus it didn't switch to the bold font or show the blue double arrow icon. So I've missed Comments for days sometimes, when Replies instead would have given me a visual cue that there had been an interaction with my post.
Does this make sense? I know the 'answer' may be to use the "Follow" function, but this is something I've never utilized much, because then it shows up under the "Notifications" section of the "Messages" at the top, and that usually only occurs if someone specifically mentions me by name. I like that, I don't want every Reply/Comment to a topic to generate a notification to me, I just like having a visual cue that there has been an interaction of some type to the topic I'm (mentally) keeping tabs on. Additionally, with the "Follow" button, I have to go and manually remove it from my list if I lose interest in a topic because it wandered off topic or I got the answer/information I needed and don't want to follow it as closely anymore, etc.
I guess I'm just wondering if we can make topics bump up or get 'tagged' some way for Comments the same way they do for Replies?
Also, Comments don't count toward our post count like Replies do, do they? I kinda wish they did, but, oh well.
Recent Posts shows all the recent threads in timeline order of when their most recent reply occurred - meaning someone typed in the box at the bottom of the topic and hit the "Post Reply" button. But this forum is unique in my experience online in that the 'other' way to respond to a post is by using the 'Comment' button directly under any post, and this allows a character-limited reply to appended directly to the post itself. I like this format, it helps keep things somewhat tied together and it's easier to keep track of multiple 'threads' of a conversation.
But, the problem I have noticed is that I don't THINK making a "Comment" on someone's individual post ends up bumping a thread up on the Recent Posts page the same way a "Reply" to the topic does?
If there's a new Reply on a thread, it gets bumped to the top of my Recent Posts page, and the topic title is in bold font. There's also the blue 'double down arrow' icon which, when clicked, takes one to the first new post of that thread - either a reply or a comment.
I like the emphasis with bold font on topics with new replies, and the jumping to the first new post. Actually, if I click the button OR the topic, it takes me to the same place. This is fine. I like this. It works well for me to keep up with ongoing additions.
The problem comes with Comments, instead of Replies. So, for instance, if I've posted a question or something I'm looking for some answers to and people answer with Comments instead of Replying, I can't really tell there's been any interaction with my topic or my own post within a topic. Most of us have learned to use the "@" symbol to bring up members' names to "tag" them to let them know we specifically want them to see our reply or post, but the prompt to choose a member name to tag doesn't pop up when typing in Comment like it does in a Reply (a separate issue), so most Comments don't have these tags for members' attention in them unless you specifically type out their whole name with any spaces or punctuation just right. This isn't too big of a deal, I've learned to do this - mostly.
But when I have a topic I'm trying to keep track of, sometimes I watch it for hours or days and never 'see' any kind of interaction, then for whatever reason I remember this issue and I go find the topic and it is not in bold, but I click on it anyways, and I see there have been Comments made, but no Replies, thus it didn't switch to the bold font or show the blue double arrow icon. So I've missed Comments for days sometimes, when Replies instead would have given me a visual cue that there had been an interaction with my post.
Does this make sense? I know the 'answer' may be to use the "Follow" function, but this is something I've never utilized much, because then it shows up under the "Notifications" section of the "Messages" at the top, and that usually only occurs if someone specifically mentions me by name. I like that, I don't want every Reply/Comment to a topic to generate a notification to me, I just like having a visual cue that there has been an interaction of some type to the topic I'm (mentally) keeping tabs on. Additionally, with the "Follow" button, I have to go and manually remove it from my list if I lose interest in a topic because it wandered off topic or I got the answer/information I needed and don't want to follow it as closely anymore, etc.
I guess I'm just wondering if we can make topics bump up or get 'tagged' some way for Comments the same way they do for Replies?
Also, Comments don't count toward our post count like Replies do, do they? I kinda wish they did, but, oh well.
Comment