Comment sorting: Oldest vs. Newest first, etc.
Hi everyone,
A few people have asked me to change the way that comments are sorted on this website. Currently, the default is to sort comments like this:
- Threaded list - expanded (so that replies are grouped under the message that they are attached to)
- Date - Oldest first (So they are displayed in the order posted. Newest posts at the bottom)
- 200 comments per page (Lots of comments, minimal page-changing except for really large threads)
Other people seem to like having comments sorted in reverse order, so that the newest ones are at the top. This is helpful when there are very many comments, and you just want to immediately see the newest ones at the top, especially if there's more than one page.
What do YOU prefer? Please comment below. I'm considering changing the defaults to make sure that most people are happy with the layout.
Please note that anyone can change how the comments are displayed. Just look down below where there's a "Comment Viewing Options" area. You can set this any way you like. It should save your preferences for the next time you visit the site, but it might forget them if you're not logged in with an account (that's a good reason to create an account on this site).
Comment sorting - updated
As requested by various people in-person, by email, and on this forum, I have changed the default comment sorting to "newest first". Don't forget, you can always change this to whatever you like by updating the "Comment viewing options".
The people have spoken. Now go vote too! ;-)
New first
This page is very good keeping me up to date. Thank you
Newest First Pleeeeese !!
Newest First Pleeeeese !!
I put newest first expanded
I put newest first expanded as I read the site every day its faster to get to what I have not read.
BTW DFTT !
Comment sorting
My personal preference is to use the defaults in most cases: Sort comments by thread, oldest to newest. This way makes the most sense for reading, because everything falls into a natural order. Don't have to do the whole "read down, scroll up, read down, scroll up" thing.
But when message threads get really huge, I sometimes switch to "newest first" so that those messages are at the top. I will also limit the number of comments per page to 50, so that it doesn't bother loading older comments. This is expecially useful if I'm reading on my Blackberry.