Let's make it easier to reply within comments!

Question

Here's my proposal. Every comment has a 'Reply' link after it. Clicking on this link adds the standard @UserName: to the comment edit box.

After posting, the @UserName: is converted into a javascript 'link'. By 'link' I mean that it appears to be a hyperlink, but is actually a span with the hyperlink style and javascript in its onmouseover event. When you hover over this link, the comment it references is highlighted in some fashion (background color changes, its outlined, whatever).

When the referenced comment is hidden, one of two things can happen:

1. The comments section is expanded and unshown comments are revealed, or
2. A hovering div appears next to the pointer containing the comment that is referenced.

No. 2 is probably easier to implement.

Answer 1

Normally, you only get notified of comments when you own the post.

You will now get notified of any comments that refer to you by @username in a comment, even if you do not own the post.

Rules:

1. Only applies to other people in the comments that you are commenting on, or editors of the current post.

2. Response must include @username that you are referring to, where "username" is a reasonable match to the user's current display name (as seen in the comments above yours).

3. There must be a starts-with, case insensitive match of at least THREE characters to the displayname. So @a and @ab will never match anyone or anything.

4. Spaces cannot be used to match, so if the person's display name is "Peter Smith" then just use @peter or @petersmith to match.

5. Matching is performed in reverse chronological order, so if there are five people named "John" in the comments, writing "hey @john, have you considered apples?" will match the most recent John to comment.

Answer 2

I would prefer it it used the user id instead.

@[1337] Hey, look I'm talking to myself.

**@[1337]** Now I'm yelling at myself!

That would completely prevent collisions.

---

This would be easy to do if there was a Reply to: link on every comment.

The @[1337] would get changed to:

@<a href="http://meta.stackoverflow.com/users/1337/brad-gilbert">Brad Gilbert</a>

based on the current name associated with the userid.

This could be done browser side, perhaps as a Grease Monkey script ( hint hint ).

Answer 3

I wrote this related post: Make recent activity and responses show new comments on questions/answers I have commented on (even if I don’t own them)

However, after thinking about it some more, I really think that Twitter-style @username replies would be a better option. Here are some of the potential problems, and my solutions to them.

1. Usernames are not unique. You should only show notifications to users with matching names who are either: a) the owner of the post; b) active in the current comment thread; or possibly c) the owner of the question (if this is a comment on an answer). Collisions should be rare enough that this is not a big deal.

2. Usernames can have spaces. I think this makes simple "@username" Twitter-style replies difficult, but we could easily do a sytax which is delimited on both ends. I'd suggest @username:, or possibly @[username]. A Twitter-style reply button (as suggested in this feature request) would fill in the comment box so the user doesn't even have to do this himself most of the time.

3. Usernames are not permanent. That's fine. If a user changes their name, they shouldn't expect a way of tracking old comment responses to their new name. Besides, I don't think active users change their name very often because they'd lose some of their name recognition. (Anyone want to diff usernames between July and August dumps to see how many name changes there actually were, and how much rep those users had on average?)

Answer 4

It'd be nice if it also alerted the first Comment's User, that a reply has been left. This can be part of the Responses section.

Answer 5

I'd suggest to make two simple things for starters:

1. Make a hyperlink next to each comment with a Reply written on it.

   Say, user named James Kilter made a comment: Oh, I really like your answer!.

2. Whenever I click on that hyperlink, two things happen:

   • The text field that allows me to type in a comment shows up (as if you clicked add comment)

   • Text **@James Kilter** appears in the beginning of the text field and I can write thanks! into that field.

That will allow James Kilter to see that the comment with the word thanks is addressed to him.

I'm not an expert in making web sites, but it appears to me this is quite an easy task to do.

And this will help a lot, as many of the users as for now have to make their comments addressed to certain people manually.

Answer 6

Here's great UserScript from balpha ♦ which does exactly the same you need

install / update script – view source

Answer 7

It would be nice if you could reply to a specific comment and it was threaded. For example:

This answer saved my marriage, career and $4.99 - mrX
  I'm glad I could help - BrianG
This is clearly the wrong answer, -1 and I'm not talking to you for 23 minutes - dave
  Infact, make that 26 minutes - dave

But do the number of questions that actually have large amounts of comments make it worth it?

Answer 8

Oh dear, don't let Jeff hear this...

Else he'll change those @username replies into Twitter messages.

But I like the idea

Answer 9

Are we losing the point of a Q & A site?

The comment system should be simple and not take anything away from the questions and answers.
If the comment system gets too complex, then it will be used instead.