Tell HN: Pending comments are now per thread (and off by default) | Hacker News Reader

Tell HN: Pending comments are now per thread (and off by default)

15 pointsnkurz5 comments

For those who missed the change of plan:

  pg 4 days ago | link | parent | flag

  Pending comments are now per thread, or more  
  precisely per item tree, rather than sitewide. 
  That was the original plan, and it turned out to 
  be only a little more code. The moderator (who 
  is not me) will turn pending comments on as 
  needed when conversations turn nasty.

  That doesn't happen on most threads, but it does 
  happen on some, and pending comments may help 
  fix the problem. I'm not sure it will. The 
  moderator will have to experiment to see what 
  works. But since the code was slightly 
  complicated I wanted at least to get the initial 
  version done before I left.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7449857

Clickable: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7449857

I was confused not to see any pending comments after all the lead-up last week, and also wondering who was endorsing the new crop of one-line zingers.

Indeed, it turns out the full rollout didn't happen. Were there issues that occurred when pending comments were tried, or was it just decided to try this approach first?

If you actually read the comments on this thread, you'll find that pg stated the current behavior was actually his original plan: The pending mechanism is enabled by moderators on a per thread or per comment tree basis.

Do you intend your phrasing to be insulting? I did try to read the comments, and I'm sure I read all those by Paul. While this may have the been the 'original intent', there was obviously a late-in-the-game change of plan. Given all the theorizing as to how well an endorsement system would work, I'd be interested in knowing what was learned during the brief window that 'universal pending' was enabled.

And for those of us who had no idea there are substantial changes afoot to the simple act of posting comments to a discussion board: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7445761

Thank you for posting this. I have been wondering and I am very relieved to see this.

Thanks!

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