Threaded commenting systems encourage tangential conversations, so each comment becomes in essence the root of its own thread, and the deeper you go, the more the context deviates from the original topic.
Also, due to /comments, it's entirely possible to start a thread from somewhere in the middle rather than the top.
I feel like any online discussion forum without active moderation [to force comments to be on-topic] will inevitably have threads that stray off-topic. If a particular comment irks you, at least you have the downvote option.
I do think off-topic comments can still contribute valuable information and insight provided they're not unreasonably off-topic. Tangential conversations, as krapp mentioned... everyone is going to approach a topic from their own unique perspective.
I think (since this sort of thing is weirdly relevant to my interests) that the problem isn't the threads going off topic, but that there's no effort required to see those threads. Because the topics of threads are relevant to the people participating in that discussion, just not necessarily to people viewing the topic from the root, penalizing those comments, to me, seems counterproductive unless the comments are obviously trolling or completely unrelated to the point.
That said, I think dang has mentioned penalizing off-topic comments before so it does seem like something they can do.
This may be solved by folding the threads by default. Presumably, the root comments are addressing the original post directly, so they will be the most on topic. But requiring users to take the (minimal) effort of opening a subthread to view it means only people who are interested in reading further will ever read it. Currently, having to scroll past and ignore threads you're not interested in appears to be causing a lot of friction.
Since the staff has mentioned wanting to add thread folding anyway, mentioning this is kind of moot i suppose.
I wish they'd get rid of karma, or at least make it invisible. Voting on posts is useful for prioritizing comments in threads, but the overall comment score just creates motivation to farm for points.
If you assume they are so off topic what makes you think you'll get answers here on topic?
Sorry, that was off topic. I think one of the reasons is the points system. You can still get upvotes/karma for comments off topic. And it is easier to write something when you're not restricted to a topic.
11 comments
[ 3.3 ms ] story [ 30.7 ms ] threadAlso, due to /comments, it's entirely possible to start a thread from somewhere in the middle rather than the top.
I do think off-topic comments can still contribute valuable information and insight provided they're not unreasonably off-topic. Tangential conversations, as krapp mentioned... everyone is going to approach a topic from their own unique perspective.
That said, I think dang has mentioned penalizing off-topic comments before so it does seem like something they can do.
This may be solved by folding the threads by default. Presumably, the root comments are addressing the original post directly, so they will be the most on topic. But requiring users to take the (minimal) effort of opening a subthread to view it means only people who are interested in reading further will ever read it. Currently, having to scroll past and ignore threads you're not interested in appears to be causing a lot of friction.
Since the staff has mentioned wanting to add thread folding anyway, mentioning this is kind of moot i suppose.
Sorry, that was off topic. I think one of the reasons is the points system. You can still get upvotes/karma for comments off topic. And it is easier to write something when you're not restricted to a topic.
If that were the case, I'd still make the contribution. I don't blame those that do.