I have mixed feelings about including this functionality in the default wordpress install. If it weren’t for feeds I would say yah go ahead and leave it as a plugin. The reason I say this is that it’s not obvious how you would sanely change the theme API to support both options without breaking many themes or making it too tough to support both options. If most users are going to have to edit their theme anyway it seems reasonable to release as a plugin.

The reason I’m now leaning towards including the option in the base system is the fact that ideally threaded comments should be reflected as such in atom feeds and this kind of integration seems better done at the base system level.

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Of course if I was rewriting wordpress from scratch I would build this in from the ground up with a themeing API that was built with this in mind but then again if I was doing this I certainly wouldn’t write it in PHP (please at least perl if not python or ruby).

Anyway the obvious (and perhaps only) significant difference between forums and blog posts is the ability of readers to start entirely new threads. Optimally this allows sub-issues and off-topic discussions to spin off into their own conversations.

I, however, usually prefer to read blog comments to forum posts for precisely this reason. Forums end up migrating all over the place the fact that users can’t create new discussion threads willy nilly helps keep the issue focused on a blog. Ultimately though this may just be a disguised preference for smaller communities.

By encouraging conversations to branch off forums are a better fit for larger communities whose primary worry is cluttering discussions with too many posts. For small communities where failure to reach critical mass is the bigger worry comments are the better choice.

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I’m doubtful that there is much that can be down to improve the situation except perhaps by providing better blog/forum integration. Aside from that it seems that every possible configuration in this space is occupied. This isn’t a presentation issue and no clever programming hack can change the fundamental dynamics of comments and forums.

I find that the reverse order works well in that it feels fresh.. with the latest comment at the top.. and the threading remains in sequential order, so it’s easy to follow the threads of the conversation.

It seems to be working really well for me.. as I have people spending hours on my website having conversations with each other. What you would only normally get with a forum.

Here is a post from 2 days ago with 773 comments: http://www.hotforwords.com/2008/05/12/roger/

I would still like an option to be able to allow the user to view comments in the format they prefer.. but so far this seems to be working really well for me. There was some hesitation and complaints at first for the reverse order and the pagination.. but my comment numbers quintupled after the change and people really seem to be spending a LOT of time on my website talking to EACH OTHER.

Marina

1) Comments are closed.
2) All comments already made are posted into a thread on bbPress.
3) Users are sent to the bbPress forum thread to make additional comments.

Threaded comments are also a good thing, but not crucial in my view.

Pagination is a must, as is sort options (newest, oldest etc), and threaded comments certainly need to be a default option. Subscribing to posts / follow up comment notification may also fit into the core functionality well.

The final thing I’d like would be a keyword search just above the comment area, which would filter comments, in case I wanted to look for something more specific. I’d also prefer it to be javascript driven (ie. no submit button needed), with a regular form backup.

I’ve seen some comment systems attempt to give commentators a central profile, along with comment history across all blogs using the system. Not sure if I’m sold on the idea, but could be another use for the Wordpress API key…? (or maybe not)