Cross-referenced comments in long threads.

March 13, 2002 2:43 PM

I think it'd be handy---esp. within excessively long threads where many users post several times---to have something like this:

posted by username at 5:00 PM PST on March 13 [see also: 1,2,3...]

where the "see also: 1,2,3..." points to other posts by the same user within a given thread. Maybe this has been requested before, and maybe it's not worth the coding hassle -- but I think it'd be very useful.

posted by blackholebrain to Feature Requests at 2:43 PM (10 comments total)

Wow - cool idea.
posted by obiwanwasabi at 4:47 PM on March 13, 2002

Why such little response? This appears to be a great idea. Perhaps it could be a feature in pro MetaFilter.
posted by RobertLoch at 5:10 PM on March 13, 2002

I like the idea, but: Can't we do that by clicking on a username and checking his/her history anyway? Besides, wouldn't that also clutter the front page?
posted by BlueTrain at 5:13 PM on March 13, 2002

Why such little response?

I think everybody's still over at the angry mob party :)

Can't we do that by clicking on a username and checking his/her history anyway?

You can, but you need to keep the user details in one window / open 'jump to users comments' links in another (placing load on the db each time) / switch between the two, or keep using the good ol' back button in one window. This way, you could hop from bookmark to bookmark in the same window with a single db load.
posted by obiwanwasabi at 5:44 PM on March 13, 2002

I'm 'bout it 'bout it.
posted by mcsweetie at 7:11 PM on March 13, 2002

All roads lead to a law journal : (
posted by ParisParamus at 7:37 PM on March 13, 2002

For really long threads I use the edit feature on my IE browser; one of the options there is find on this page. I type in the name of the person whose comments I want to check on, and just bounce from comment to comment. Short and sweet and no extra strain on the server.
posted by iconomy at 1:38 AM on March 14, 2002

iconomy: since you're using IE, you can shortcut to this by pressing Ctrl-F ...
posted by walrus at 7:21 AM on March 14, 2002

pressing Ctrl-F

(which I've also just discovered works in Netscape and Opera)
posted by walrus at 7:24 AM on March 14, 2002

Awesome. Even quicker - thanks, walrus. I always forget about the keyboard shortcuts.
posted by iconomy at 7:29 AM on March 14, 2002