Listing # comments versus # replies

[flyingmoose]

Ok, this is a very minor suggestion -- but I'll make it just the same -- it seems to me it might be more useful to list "# of comments" on the various front pages, rather than the "# of replies" to a question. A question can have 3 direct replies but 15 comments. This is the way most other message boards work.

The rationale behind this is that it would be fairly easy to figure out if there were more responses to a thread you already read. Often all of the good stuff in a thread is a reply-to-a-reply, which doesn't show up in the main counts. So it's a little hard to tell if there is anything new on a thread without opening it up again...which would increase server load (marginally).

Ideas?

[PodMaster]

I vaguely recall this being suggested before (might be worth checking user settings to see that it's not an option already) and I think it's a fine idea.

Please don't refer to perlmonks as a message board, because it simply isn't, its so much more :)(I think the monks will agree with me here, including you).

[flyingmoose]

Yep, it's a Virtual Electronic Exchange for Perl Stuff. It's a VEEPS.

Please don't turn me into a newt.

[Aristotle]

The main difference to a regular messageboard is the availability of permanent links to almost all content, and the availability of markup for convenient linking. It's a bit like a cross between a messageboard and a wiki; the combination here is really quite unique.

[davido]

Without knowing much about the site's internals, I would have to speculate that such a feat would require recursively walking the database for each top-level node being displayed, to identify how many total replies and replies to replies have occurred. My guess is that would have an exponential effect on the amount of server load for page loads that contain many top-level nodes with many nth level followups.

[PodMaster]

Nope. If you can, see for yourself => newlistapproved ( the sql looks like "select count...").

update: It appears there is some support for this already, but the user setting is missing? I'll investigate.
update: And patch submitted (The dangerous Signature Settings had it, but User Settings didn't).

[flyingmoose]

Cool deal. As to the grandparent post, I considered that possibility , but I figured the PerlMonks gods were smarter than that given the relatively decent speed at which pages load today... :)

FYI -- I don't think we have permision to see the nodes you linked, so we will just pretend they had cool stuff on them :)