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I have a Windows 8 tablet with a touch screen (Surface pro) using IE10, I do not like to use the mouse a lot since it is touch, SE sites are not really touch friendly and the mobile version looks ugly on devices other than mobile devices, anyhow I still can manage to navigate SE sites with no much complains except for comments. To upvote a comment, flag it or to delete it you need to hover the mouse to see the buttons for these controls which has no alternative way for touch screens and you will have no choice but to use the mouse to hover the comment. If no mouse available there is only one way, go to the mobile site and upvote then get back to the full website, just boring! and the mobile version does not have a flag button anyway!

Can SE team solve this? Facebook solved a similar issue for posts, if you touch (or tap) a single touch on the post's div the control buttons will show and stay there just like you're hovering the mouse and disappears when selecting another post (the hover effect still there for mouse users). Can something like this be done? it will make SE sites more touch friendly.

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    So this makes it harder for us mouse users? We have to click first to make the magical symbols appear before we can use them? No thanks.
    – Cody Gray - on strike
    Apr 1, 2013 at 22:16
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    Dear @CodyGray, the hover will also work.. just like in facebook
    – user189175
    Apr 1, 2013 at 22:17
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    I don't use Facebook, so I have no idea how it works. All I could go off of was your description. In general and on principle, I resist the Facebookization of Stack Overflow.
    – Cody Gray - on strike
    Apr 1, 2013 at 22:19
  • It's a pain on iOS. @CodyGray you can use JS to detect a touch device, and if so, set it to double click. But that wouldn't work well with tablets that you can plug a mouse into...
    – Cole Tobin
    Apr 1, 2013 at 22:20
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    @CodyGray facebookization! it isn't facbookization nor twitterization, it is a basic feature that has to be available since many people are using windows 8 with touch screens. IMHO following your logic then SE should not use buttons because facebook is using buttons as well...
    – user189175
    Apr 1, 2013 at 22:27
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    Don't misunderstand me. I'm not saying I oppose this if it's properly implemented. I only had your initial description to go off of, and I didn't like the sound of it. More to the point, this has been discussed before. According to Manisheart's answer, what you describe to me should already work for you. You should be able to tap on the comment to access the controls. Does that not work for you?
    – Cody Gray - on strike
    Apr 2, 2013 at 0:14
  • @CodyGray Manisheart explicitly mentioned iPad, I do not know about iPad. Anyway that does not work in windows 8 with IE10 as I mentioned. Maybe there is already a script that works for touch based OSs but not yet activated for windows based touch devices, or maybe Apple is too smart and figured that out and added the tapping thing to act like hover, who knows, but since facebook works fine in the same device then perhaps SE can do it as well. Waiting for the SE guys.
    – user189175
    Apr 2, 2013 at 0:22
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    Any status update from SE team?
    – user189175
    Apr 4, 2013 at 15:09
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    It's a shame I cannot vote up the comment from HaLaBi, as I'm using a tablet, but can confirm that I'm seeing the same behaviour using Windows 8 on a Samsung device.
    – Rowland Shaw
    Apr 8, 2013 at 21:08
  • Nope, I can't either, but enjoy the fact that the term facebookization is being used in meta comments with gusto!
    – nickhar
    Apr 25, 2013 at 1:54
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    I was going to post the same question. Typing this out on my surface rt right now - tapping a comment just selects the text.
    – JDB
    Jul 12, 2013 at 0:40
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    Same problem here , I would simply have up-voted some of the previous comments instead of adding my own but.... P.S. this is also a win 8 tablet.
    – AlSki
    Jul 15, 2013 at 20:26
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    Actually Microsoft solved this. In the new version of IE available in Windows 8.1 is possible to do all those "hover" actions. Just long press where you usually hover your mouse and it will hold the comment in the "hover" mode. Is far from perfect but solved the problem for me.
    – Vitor Canova
    Sep 25, 2013 at 11:02
  • For me the comment upvotes on the full site on mobile work exactly as described. Tapping the comment shows the flag and upvote icons. Does that mean status complete
    – Richard Tingle
    Jan 27, 2014 at 8:23
  • The long press also works in WP8.1 on the full site
    – DaveShaw
    May 22, 2014 at 22:45

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