The default comment settings for “Default display order” are “Date - newest first”, but this is just silly.

Every known language reads a page from top to bottom, so when reading a comment discussion, why do we show responses before the comment that generated the response?

This is a big usability error, IMO.

Here’s the patch to fix it.

CommentFileSizeAuthor
default-comment-display-order.patch1.58 KBjohnalbin

Comments

Susurrus’s picture

Susurrus commented
Category: bug » task

Not really a bug...

johnalbin’s picture

johnalbin
they/他
Primary language English
Location Taipei, Taiwan
commented
Category: task » feature

Fair enough…

catch’s picture

catch
he/him
Primary language English
commented
Category: feature » task

Definitely a bug. More drastic approach here: http://drupal.org/node/191499 but I like this one.

catch’s picture

catch
he/him
Primary language English
commented
Component: comment.module » usability
dman’s picture

dman commented
Component: usability » comment.module

Just to temper the hyperbole ...
Top-posted comments are totally useful in emails, mailing lists and even usenet. So there's a time-tested reason for that option to exist. There's probably even a few studies on it.

BUT I totally agree that when the primary interface is a web page (not push media) forum, it's not right.
Hm, it's probably do do with the way folk use similar but different 'forums' or BBs. In CMS's they don't quote each other nearly as much. ... which is almost certainly another factor. With the history available and threaded, there's not so much quoting going on. Maybe people just had to stop treating it like an email list.

And off the top of my head, YouTube does this, posting most recent comments at the top.
Oh yeah, OK, please please let's not be like YouTube!

I DO support the proposal, and think the default should be read down.
I'm just adding some context. Most decisions in history that look wrong now were a good idea at the time :-)

dries’s picture

dries commented

I agree that this is a bug. I'm also happy to go with the more aggressive approach at http://drupal.org/node/191499.

johnalbin’s picture

johnalbin
they/他
Primary language English
Location Taipei, Taiwan
commented
Status: Needs review » Closed (duplicate)

#191499: Remove "Display order" from comment settings was committed!