[buddypress-trac] [BuddyPress] #1713: Reply to Activity Comments can be Unclear

Wed Jan 27 20:49:19 UTC 2010

#1713: Reply to Activity Comments can be Unclear
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Reporter:  junsuijin                    |       Owner:     
    Type:  enhancement                  |      Status:  new
Priority:  major                        |   Milestone:  1.2
Keywords:  needs-patch, needs-feedback  |  
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 Pasting the #buddypress-dev discussion:

 (2:28:39 PM) junsuijin: apeatling: on a related note, i was checking out
 testbp.org yesterday when fixing some css for one of the minor tickets and
 i thought the interface for activity shown on apeatling's profile for
 example, that is in reply to someone else's activity, is a little non-
 intuitive
 (2:28:46 PM) apeatling: that should be okay though, since that occurs far
 less often
 (2:28:58 PM) junsuijin: i didn't think of any better way, but it's a
 little odd to click view on the in re posts before you can reply
 (2:29:22 PM) junsuijin: maybe they should show direct replies to that
 item, and also allow replying from the current page
 (2:29:54 PM) junsuijin: it just seems like a forum item otherwise, where
 replies are not possible, but then if you know better you click view or #
 and you can actually reply
 (2:31:28 PM) apeatling: junsuijin: you mean activity comments showing on
 the profile?
 (2:31:36 PM) junsuijin: yes
 (2:31:41 PM) junsuijin: like if i'm looking at your profile
 (2:32:02 PM) junsuijin: anything i could reply to, which did not originate
 from your profile, i have to click view or # before i know i can reply
 (2:33:04 PM) apeatling: It's only comments though
 (2:33:18 PM) junsuijin: true, it just struck me as a bit odd
 (2:33:21 PM) apeatling: I thought if you allow people to reply to a
 comment without looking at the entire thread, it would get pretty messy
 (2:33:30 PM) junsuijin: i was trying to think of more intuitive ways of
 handling it but didn't yesterday
 (2:33:40 PM) junsuijin: yeah i figured that was the logic
 (2:33:48 PM) apeatling: the action is also missing actually
 (2:34:00 PM) apeatling: it should say "In reply to: John posted an update:
 blah blah"
 (2:34:04 PM) junsuijin: i was just now contemplating showing any replies
 to the comment, and then allowing replies from there
 (2:34:05 PM) apeatling: but right now it's just saying
 (2:34:09 PM) apeatling: "in reply to: blah blah"
 (2:34:11 PM) junsuijin: ah
 (2:34:37 PM) junsuijin: also, another thing i contemplated was using ajax
 to unfold the previous posts in the activity back to the first, right on
 the page
 (2:34:38 PM) apeatling: yeh I thought about that, but I think that's even
 more confusing
 (2:34:51 PM) apeatling: you're going to get a bunch of fragmented
 conversations all based on the same thread then
 (2:35:03 PM) junsuijin: that's true
 (2:35:10 PM) apeatling: yes, that was actually what I did first of all
 (2:35:22 PM) junsuijin: maybe just making a 'participate' or similar
 button or making view more prominent somehow
 (2:35:27 PM) apeatling: you could click "show thread" and it would load
 the thread in place of the comment, and the highlight the comment
 (2:35:40 PM) apeatling: that would probably make a nice plugin thogh
 (2:35:50 PM) junsuijin: yeah, why did you ditch that way?
 (2:36:00 PM) windhamdavid: you could just change # to <view>
 (2:36:06 PM) apeatling: it was a bit clunky
 (2:36:08 PM) junsuijin: yeah there are 2 links there
 (2:36:21 PM) junsuijin: but like forum activity items, you can't reply to
 (2:36:26 PM) junsuijin: so it gets a little confusing for a new user
 (2:36:40 PM) junsuijin: they would think they can't reply to the other
 items either unless they knew to click view or #
 (2:37:00 PM) apeatling: I think on the items that you can't comment on
 (2:37:06 PM) apeatling: there should be a "View" link in place of
 "comment"
 (2:37:09 PM) apeatling: "reply"
 (2:37:21 PM) apeatling: maybe
 (2:37:58 PM) junsuijin: looking at your profile quick
 (2:38:16 PM) windhamdavid: i think "reply" is more intuitive for the user
 (2:38:57 PM) junsuijin: yeah you're right about the "posted a new activity
 comment" and then it's not exactly clear that it's coming from some other
 thread aside from the reply to
 (2:40:20 PM) junsuijin: i'm not sur about view vs reply, because you can
 reply on forums too just not the same way of course
 (2:41:20 PM) junsuijin: the different avatar sizes do provide a bit more
 of a clue too i suppose
 (2:42:24 PM) junsuijin: maybe if "In reply to" was a link as well and also
 a pill that would be enough of a clue
 (2:42:47 PM) apeatling: yeh that's not a bad idea
 (2:42:55 PM) apeatling: can you put this in an enhancement ticket and link
 me?
 (2:42:59 PM) junsuijin: yeah sure
 (2:43:00 PM) apeatling: otherwise this stuff is going to get lost
 (2:43:02 PM) apeatling: thanks
 (2:44:38 PM) jjj: Hm
 http://testbp.org/members/johnjamesjacoby/activity/62968/
 (2:44:59 PM) jjj: Interesting side effect; you can't post replies, but you
 can still narrow down the activity to a single event.
 (2:45:26 PM) jjj: I had to type the URL though, since the # is hidden.
 (2:45:47 PM) apeatling: anything that hits the activity stream has a
 permalink
 (2:46:00 PM) apeatling: but for forum replies and other items, they are
 not that useful
 (2:46:07 PM) jjj: Right
 (2:46:45 PM) jjj: I think we should ditch the :
 (2:46:45 PM) apeatling: with a forum reply, you want to see the topic, so
 you can reply
 (2:47:00 PM) apeatling: at the end of the action?
 (2:47:08 PM) jjj: Yeah
 (2:47:16 PM) apeatling: yeh good call
 (2:47:27 PM) jjj: The time-since should probably have a nowrap too

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Ticket URL: <https://trac.buddypress.org/ticket/1713>
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