For a logged-out user, disabled "Add comment" link no longer annotated

Question

Previously, when the "Add comment" link was disabled for a logged-out or low-rep user, it carried the notice "Requires an account with 50 reputation". There was some discussion on improving the aesthetics of that notice, but now it seems to have disappeared completely.

If I visit a Stack Exchange question when not logged in, I see the text "Add comment" below it, but it does not appear to be a link and carries no notice about why it is disabled.

This looks confusing for a new user. The "Add comment" text looks like it should be clickable, but there is no explanation why it doesn't work. When hovering, the cursor turns to a text-cursor, rather than a pointer-cursor, so it doesn't even appear to be a link that's nonfunctional, it just seems to be non-linked text.

Answer 1

This is sort of a mistake on our part (not a bug, exactly, just a partial oversight). We originally implemented this as a disabled link with an annotation that lets you know why you can't comment (in the case of an anonymous user, it's both because you aren't logged in and because you don't have 50 reputation).

I think this is great from a clarity perspective, but we realized once it was live that seeing the annotation, with its two blue links, underneath every post was a little...much.

We decided to remove it until we could design a better solution. We should have removed any mention of adding comments, not just the annotation; that will be fixed soon.

Removing the "add comment" link, along with its annotation, is a temporary measure. We're thinking that the next iteration will be an "add comment" link that contains a pop-up with the reason you can't comment (similar to what we do when anonymous users try to vote up or vote down), but we're still exploring some other options.

Sorry for the confusion; that was my bad.