Commenting Systems

I’ve been thinking about commenting systems for awhile now. Not even about solutions, but to just recognize the shape of the issues. 

The primary issue to me seems to be that a human conversation with many actors is inherently multi-threaded. However with a set group, say at a dinner party most everyone quickly negotiates a rhythm and cadence that people settle into. It’s dynamic but people move together like waves. In an asynchronous situation like a party, actors come-and-go, but most wait to catch the wave before contributing or removing themselves.

There’s a social pressure to pre-assess and adjust.

The inherent format of most comment systems provide none of the social pressure. Or if it does (voting/banning/etc.) it doesn’t acknowledge the vectors of “the wave,” or the dynamism,  or really the “multi-threadedness” of the situation.

A party has the benefit of spatial spacing. Different conversations happen at different locations of the venue. They may all relate to a theme or a subject, but noise and relevance is grouped by proximity.

But within a comment system, often many comments are all in the “same space.” And worse presented linearly as-if they were “one” conversation.

There’s a lack of dimensionality in the visual presentation when the interaction is very multi-dimensional. Something that reality has solved for with physicality, non-verbal language to  socially pressure, and real-time assessment of when to contribute.

There’s a real lack of nuance within the technological implementation when the entire act is an exercise in nuance itself.