Nested comments (Userscript)

Work in progress:

This article is a work in progress, it may contain incomplete or inaccurate information. There may be additional information on the talk page.

Example of a nested comment discussion in the stream-view.

Nested Comments is an userscript by Deus Figendi that allows to create and view nested comments in diaspora-discussions.

Functionality

Nested Comments allows the user to answer direct to a single comment instead just to a post. If the Script is used these comments are shown as a tree like subcomment.

A little Tech

What technicly happens is this: The Script creates a link at the beginning of and comment that shows to another comment. The text the link shows doesn't matter just its target. If the target is found on the current page the comment containing the link is considered and shown as a subcomment of that one that is linked.

This way the script works totally transparent, also for those who do not use it, they can just click the link and will get to the comment this one is the answer to.

Usage

Usage is simple, whenever you'd like to comment a comment and not the post move your cursor to the upper right corner of that comment, where you can usually delete your own comments or abuse others. There you will find a little plus (+) symbol, click on it and the comment-area will be prefilled with the code for a link.

You can just write your comment behind that link and you're done.

Little advanced users can also slightly edit the link. The links target itself should keep untouched otherwise the script will not be able to recognize it. But you can change the text the link shows (even to a nearly not visible single dot) and edit or add the title-text (that is the text shown when you hover a link).

Usage

Tentative plan; could include screenshots; it is a bit verbose at this point

Explain the basics : text selection, ...

Then :

Respond to a comment without context

a screenshot goes here

This will only provide the name of the user you're responding to.

Respond with context

This is especially useful in the case when a commenter says a lot of different things and you wish to focus on one (or some) of those. You may answer to a complex comment with comments targeting different aspects of it.

If you choose to provide context, there are two possibilities:

• If the quote you use is long (more than XX characters), it will appear as an hover effect on the name of the commentator which appears at the beginning of your response. (It can be rather long, but carriage returns bla blah blah : Carriage returns are okay at this point, DF?)

a screenshot goes here

• If the quote is short, it will appear as is, where the commenter's name would be.

a screenshot goes here

NOTE : In any case, the username or context you provide are clickable and link to the comment you're responding to, which allows those who don't use the script to know what you're doing. This being said, you should avoid "me too" or "yes"/"no" comments, which may cause misunderstandings: remember that some will see your response in the usual stacked mode and will tend, if you provide no context, to interpret your response as a response to the last commenter.

Installation

Requirements

As with other scripts for Diaspora, you will need Greasemonkey (Firefox), Tampermonkey (Chrome) or the equivalent for Safari.

Troubleshooting

• Remarks about the defective notifications system and the fact that it causes the user not to know how many new messages there are?