Question by Statement · Oct 24, 2015 at 06:26 PM · answers.unity3d.com

Converting answer reply into a comment

This is a user experience improvement suggestion.

My story:

I hang out a lot in the help space.
Often, new users unknowingly post an answer when they meant to reply to a comment. I tidy up the space and convert the answer into a comment. Some time later, they reply with an answer instead of a comment again. I don't want to pollute the comments with "how to use answers" and prefer to keep discussion on topic, clean and clear.

My suggestion:

It would be nice if users got an automated soft alert when an answer was converted to a comment and gently reminding them on how to reply to answers, questions or comments. I don't mean they should get email spam, but maybe a highlight somewhere on the site that catches their attention the next time they visit or load a page. To prevent this becoming an annoyance for experienced users, there should be a "dont show me this again" option next to the alert and possibly automatically be shut off after > 100 karma or so.

It would be nice if the user converting the answer to a comment got a notification that the user has been notified too, to ensure people aren't wasting efforts in trying to teach people this boilerplate rite of usage.

Add comment · Show 4

Statement · Oct 24, 2015 at 06:27 PM 0

I don't really know if I rather should give this feedback somewhere else. It's not really a question that I want an answer for. I just want someone who can make changes to the website to consider this as a task for improvement.

Dave-Carlile · Oct 26, 2015 at 12:52 PM 1

There's a dropdown when adding a comment that lets you control the comment visibility. I generally select "Viewable by moderators and original OP" when posting mod-type comments. The comments end up with a lock icon on them. I assume nobody else can see them so it helps keep the comments area clean of these types of messages.

But yes, those would be nice features.

Statement Dave-Carlile · Oct 26, 2015 at 01:02 PM 0

Thanks. If I got it right, you should have two comment replies from me (I chose advanced/only original poster). If you see nothing else than this reply, then it means I made it visible only for me since I am the original poster on the question. If you see my two replies, then it also works when replying to a comment.