I’m busy with other things today, so an open thread is called for. I’m also asking readers to consider a question.
Topics from previous open threads are fair game, such as the poll on a climate skeptic society.
Some people have asked about threaded comments again. We’ve tried them before, and they weren’t popular…but maybe now that some other blogs have tried them (notably Judith Curry’s) perhaps people are more comfortable with the idea here.
The advantage of threaded comments is that replies to specific comments appear in context with them and it makes discussions easier because there is less scrolling involved. The disadvantage of threaded comments is that not everyone follows that convention, and some comments become orphans, way down at the bottom of the pile.
The difference is nested comments in context vs. one long linear string of comments.
I vote for status quo, one long list of comments. If I am replying to another comment, I identify the writer and the sentence for context, but WUWT ought not to be a forum for private conversations between two persons both of whom have strayed far from the topic.
George Will on warmunism…
http://youtu.be/UPV_cQKGe-0
Thanks Jim.
L.
Lesson learned: people resisting change are more vocal 🙂
The advantage of threaded comments is that replies to specific comments appear in context with them and it makes discussions easier because there is less scrolling involved.
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Seems to me that would make more scrolling? You would be missing all of the other conversations if you didn’t…….
We copy and paste….and include that in the new post….MUCH EASIER
The only feature I’d really like to see is the ability to reply directly to a comment. I visit another site where when you reply to a comment a link to the comment you are replying to appears in your post and when you hover your curser over that link it pops up so you can read that comment as well if you wish to.
I see that a few people have anticipated my main reservation about threaded comments. It concentrates the power of trolls to hijack the discussion. The troll does not have to scroll through the more interesting posts to see the reactions to his bomb-throwing. I think threaded posts would have to go hand-in-hand with much heavier moderation than the current fairly laissez-faire regime. Perhaps only those who are specially approved should be allowed post more than once per day, to prevent the inevitable “Is NOT!” … “Is TOO!” death spiral.
One long list of comments because each list is a thread for that article, and less mouse clicking to read comments.
We’re number one! we’re number one! What’s that, we’re number two?
The latest numbers now show that China will overtake the US as world’s largest economy by the end of this year, this is five years ahead of schedule. Despite the constant bleating from the Right over the last 30 years predicting China’s inevitable collapse, China continues to push ahead with policies that we haven’t seen in this country since the Eisenhower administration.
China engages in massive infrastructure projects, pro growth trade policies and the development of all types of industry. They are utilizing everything that the US had learned about economic development all the way back to the Hamilton plan of 1792. China learned from Lincoln’s expansion of the railroads and land grant colleges, and from everything FDR did with the New Deal. Basically China is doing everything that America had done in the past but no longer does because billionaire Conservatives say that we cannot afford it. The Liberals (in name only) just go along with it fearing the environmental impact boogymen of expansion?
It’s a bipartisan boondoggle that’s cost us plenty and made things difficult. Like for the Millennials. Those Millennials that everyone is so unpopular with.
They just keep cranking out the boondoggles, like the farm bill. Joining the Gramm Leach Bliley Act, Commodity Futures Modernization Act (Gramm).
Ed, coming to grips with what it means to be number two, at least until we fall to number three
No Thanks.
The continuing flood of Climate Hurbis:
Scientists race to develop farm animals to survive climate change
http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-climate-chickens-20140504,0,2628316.story#ixzz30mqKSLWn
http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-climate-chickens-20140504,0,2628316.story#axzz30mpYZCoj
Although I rarely venture to add a comment on WUWT, if a post has particularly caught my interest I normally read most/all the related comments over time.
Not so with Climate Etc.
I invariably read JC’s posts but have pretty well abandoned the comments, often in the hundreds by the time I get there, and as others have already said often veering completely off course with pointless nit-picking/squabbles which destroy thread continuity.
I like JoNova’s layout/numbering system where if the original comment catches the eye one can choose to read responses or not, but I imagine this is a totally different blog system to WordPress.
I would prefer WUWT to stay just as it is !
Johan says: May 4, 2014 at 2:44 pm “Lesson learned: people resisting change are more vocal:”
The conservative anti-progressive majority silent no more! Hoo rah!
@ur momisugly Leigh says: May 4, 2014 at 2:29 pm “the amount of CO2 that is already in the atmosphere has already reached it max heat trapping potential. Is that correct?”
– Dr. David Kear
I really love this place, and the commenters, and come here to learn. If I come with that frame of mind, and patiently read the article, and each comment, I am always richly rewarded. The people who write here in the comments seem to be perfectly capable of making stand-alone comments, even when it involves a to-and-fro. This means the format here works, because quotes are taken, italicized, and then a comment follows. It makes for clarity and posts that are complete in themselves. It is a compliment to the posters.
There are times when I know that several acres of texts are going to be added to the thread by certain people on certain subjects. But they know who they are. It does dominate threads, but I do not think the format should be changed, because that is already against the policy. We usually can trust each other’s self-restraint. If a person has posted more than a certain fraction of the total posts, and many posts also contain that person’s name in response, then it could be pointed out to him, eg. “You now have 25 posts out of the 75 on the thread.” So I voted no for those reasons. Jo Nova has a good nested format though, for the abundance of those nutty Aussie one-liners, and that works over there.
I wonder how many trolls are hitting “YES”…………
the problem I have had with threaded, or nested, comments is the levels of nesting allowed. You have a threaded comment, and then comments become threads of their own, and then subthreads of those and soon you run out of thread and it goes flat. So — my suggestion would be either unthreaded or only 1 layer of nesting.
Since this is an open thread, two things:
1. The Labor Party in Australia is considering a debate of dropping their official desire to institute democratic socialism. http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/bill-shorten-willing-to-cut-labor-ties-to-socialism/story-fn59niix-1226905286140#
2. The new North Pole web cams are in place. You can substitute 2014 for 2013 in the links in the sea ice page to see them.
Irrespective of causation what is wrong with moderate ( + 3 to 5 Centigrade) global warming ?
Comsider the greatest biomass and diversity of life lies within the tropics. There are no deserts on the equator (barring the Horn of Africa).
Meanwile the poles are nealry devoid of life. Warmth good, cold bad. And CO2 is the basis of photosynthesis
Ed Murtin says:
“Despite the constant bleating from the Right over the last 30 years predicting China’s inevitable collapse”
Excuse me? I haven’t heard that from anyone on the right, just the opposite in fact.
If you do implement nested comments, it would be a good idea to move the recent comments widget to the top. The two work in combination.
Whether threaded comments result in more scrolling may depend on individual practices. I happen to follow TonyB’s practice, when returning to an extended thread, of starting with the last comment and scrolling up to where I left off previously. That gives me complete coverage of where the conversation has gone, without scrolling over previously read material. Doesn’t work with (threaded) CA, though, where I have to scroll all the way back to the top to make sure I haven’t missed anything.
As crosspatch suggests, the worst feature of threading is infinite bifurcation. I think one nested layer only is the ideal compromise — particularly if the replies may be folded or unfolded at will. that allows more efficient scanning for topics of special interest to the reader.
Commenters can (and should) learn to reference an idea from another thread in starting a new branch discussing what was previously a detail or subtopic by moving it back up to the top level, even quoting some or all of the earlier post to start the “new” or less directly related thread.
That’s why I voted for (minimalist) threading. I am not a troll (nor a witch for that matter).
I much prefer the arrangement here to the ones at Climate Etc or JoNova. As an original proposition, I would have chosen theirs, but, for reasons I haven’t been able to pin down, I find theirs annoying in practice.
Unthreaded comments mean you have to work a little harder to follow an argument. That’s ok.
Threaded comments mean that bickering, snide people can have a big long tirade right before your very eyes.
Part of the ‘dignity’ which WUWT possesses is due to the way comments always seem so rational and cool in tone…don’t throw that away.