[wp-trac] [WordPress Trac] #34389: Comment pagination settings should discourage infinite comments-per-page

[WordPress Trac]

#34389: Comment pagination settings should discourage infinite comments-per-page
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 Reporter:  boonebgorges     |      Owner:
     Type:  enhancement      |     Status:  new
 Priority:  normal           |  Milestone:  Future Release
Component:  Comments         |    Version:
 Severity:  normal           |   Keywords:
  Focuses:  ui, performance  |
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 The default value for `page_comments` is `0`. See #12562. When a comment
 has hundreds or thousands or trillions of comments, the lack of pagination
 causes severe performance problems. Part of the spiritual journey
 described in #8071 involved forcing pagination. We tried a few things in
 #8071, but decided to leave the problem for a separate ticket.

 A couple of possible ways forward, some of which are mutually compatible:

 - Force comment pagination in all cases. This could be coupled with a bump
 in the default value of `comments_per_page`. Good: It's consistent, and it
 allows us to drop a checkbox from the UI. Bad: It breaks comment
 permalinks for many posts (though see #34106).
 - Force comment pagination only when the number of comments on a post is
 dangerously high. Good: It reduces permalink breakage. Bad: It's confusing
 for the user.
 - Do nothing for existing installations, but enable `page_comments` by
 default on new installs. This could be coupled with a bump in the default
 value of `comments_per_page`.
 - Add some sort of AYS message to options-discussion.php that discourages
 admins from disabling `page_comments`, or setting `comments_per_page` too
 high.

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Ticket URL: <https://core.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/34389>
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