[wp-hackers] Comment rating - a feature request

[Roy Schestowitz]

Quoting Chetan Kunte <ckunte at gmail.com>:

> Hi,
>
> I was wondering if a feature like comment rating is a good idea. I was
> reading across a few Indian bloggers where they have a unique problem:
> Comments are not spam, but flames, trolls or downright nasty to
> personal attacks.
>
> A few bloggers share their experiences followed by discussions on how
> to deal with such:
>
> http://indsight.org/blog/archives/2005/07/19/dealing-with-nasty-comments/
> http://www.ravikiran.com/2005/07/22/on-nasty-comments/
> http://radio.weblogs.com/0121664/2005/07/21.html#a661
>
> For the sake of conversation and transparency, and instead of
> deleting, I was wondering if marking nasty comments like Slashdot
> would be a good idea. Hence this request to look at an option like
> comment rating.
>
> Comment rating would be controlled by the author (from the admin
> area). For uncivilized comments, he/she will mark them as "below the
> threshold" or something to that effect.
>
> As an addition in comment moderation area, in addition to "Approved",
> "Spam", "Delete", .. there could be a radio like "Flame/Troll/Nasty".
> When the admin marks a comment as such, the comment is seen in a
> lighter color, italicized and/or a strikethrough is used with a note
> automatically appearing above the comment like:
>
> "This comment is below the threshold and is marked by the author as a
> flame/troll"
>
> Is this a good idea?

You introduce a lot of extra complexity if you incorporate comment moderation
that becomes visible beyond dashboard-level. I remember how long it took me to
become fully-acquainted with all the rules and practices in Slashdot
(PHP-Nuke-based). Imagine yourself what a burden this will be to 'hit-and-run'
blog visitors.

If it becomes a plug-in, as I believe it should, the small proportion 
of people
who practically _require_ it will be able to install it. This makes me wonder
if plug-ins for threading of comments already exist... I once saw something,
but it was shallow...

Roy

-- 
Roy S. Schestowitz
http://Schestowitz.com