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If there are a large number of comments then when they are rolled up only (some of) the up-voted ones are shown until you hit the "Add comment" link. Therefore if we respond to a "more than 20 comments posted" flag by adding a comment along the lines:

Can any of these comments be usefully incorporated into the post? If not please take the discussion to [chat]

This comment is not immediately visible and only becomes so it it has a lot of up-votes.

For example - see this question on Programmers. The system generated the "more than 20 comments posted" message and I added a comment along the lines of the one above. Even though it's been upvoted it's still not visible on the default view. Having it visible would act as a deterrent to people adding more noise.

Initially I thought it would be really useful if we moderators could "pin" such comments so that they were always visible - but I don't think a general purpose solution which only has limited use is required. We already have the ability to add post notices, so:

I'd like to request a new post notice option for this situation.

Alternatively add the ability to prevent comments being added (time limited of course) with a system message telling people to either incorporate the comments into the post or take the conversation to chat.

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I like the idea, but I'm not sure of adding a feature when one that we have could suffice. How about just a post notice that says:

This post has received many constructive comments. Please be sure that all relevant information from the comment discussion is incorporated into this post. To help, you can edit the post as needed and refrain from adding unnecessary comments. If a comment below appears to be obsolete, please flag it as such.

I believe the current expiration settings for post notices would be fine for this as well. Additionally, the formality of a notice might be more effective.

I agree 100% that we need something.

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  • I was just adding a post notice as an alternative solution. This gets my vote.
    – ChrisF Mod
    Commented Aug 24, 2012 at 11:13
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    @ChrisF Probably our best bet, since it just requires them to add some text instead of a whole new feature. It's a good idea all around I think, and 'obsolete' is my favorite flag to see on a comment.
    – user50049
    Commented Aug 24, 2012 at 11:14
  • Why don't you replace that (question/answer) with... post, Tim? :P
    – Alenanno
    Commented Aug 24, 2012 at 11:32
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    @Alenanno Changed, which keeps it uniform with the rest of the post notices. I need more or less coffee, I'm not sure which. Sheesh, I tell ya, those Posts and their notices, enough to drive you batty.
    – user50049
    Commented Aug 24, 2012 at 11:37
  • When is this going to be implemented? :P
    – Alenanno
    Commented Sep 17, 2012 at 8:51

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