No, your eyes aren’t deceiving you, nor is your computer upside down. We’re experimenting with reversing the order of comments so the most recent appears top of the list under each post rather than the oldest. That’s a popular choice on other sites though by no means universal. Do let us know what you think of our experiment.
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47 Comments
I think there should be a button so you can set it on the fly. Newest first is great if you’re just catching up on the latest comments but oldest first is best if you’re reading through them for the first time. If it has to be one or the other I prefer oldest first as reading through for the first and only time is what I do most.
I prefer oldest on top for the flow of the article. If one commenter refers to another it feels more natural to look above than below. I agree with John Richardson that maybe an option could be put in for people to set their own preference?
In the interim, might it not be best to clarify at the top of each comment thread that they are ordered Newest -> Oldest so that those who haven’t seen this entry don’t get confused?
Dont like it
May I join the many readers saying no…
Completely OT but can I reccomend the article “Progressive McCarthyism” on “Labour uncut”. The very unpleasant Dan Hodges wallowing in self-pity over Labour paralysis & division. It made me chuckle.
Terrible idea – totally counter-intuitive and nothing like the logical ordering of the blogs I frequent. Please get back to a chronological sequencing of comments – oldest first – asap!
!! aedi taerg a sti kniht I
Very bad – it’s simply bizarre, to scroll down to read through a comment, then up to the top of that and past it in order to get to the next one, then scroll down through that, then back up, down, up, down, up, with the oldest thing, the article that started it all, suddenly at the top above the newest comments. Please revert to simple reading order.
It’s rubbish. In our language we read from top to bottom. If there’s a comment that is longer than a screen’s depth (yes, Matthew Huntbach, I mean you! – but seriously, you are always worth reading) then you have to keep scrolling up and down to stay with the flow of the the discussion, which is daft. A return to sanity please.
It’s confusing, as you have to scroll to the bottom to start reading the comments….
You wouldn’t start a book at the last page………………………
Personally I’m just thankful the site had changed and it wasn’t the wine last night !!!
I think I probably prefer the old style but perhaps give it a week or two to see if we get used to it..
And unnatural.
Frankly, I think it is rather confusing.
What I think of the comments appearing in reverse other?
Madness. It makes it difficult to have any sort of debate if you have to read the comments backwards . Plus as mentioned above…er, below, you have to scroll to the bottom of the page to read the comments in the normal order.
If you’re set on this change could we at least have the option to change it to oldest first? A like/dislike button would be nice though.
Bloody silly IMO
I don’t read any other sites that have comments in reverse order so I don’t know how common it is.
Nope, don’t like it.
Cheers for trying to improve the site, but not this way ๐
I quite like it – but given the numbers of those who do not I think a user preference setting may be the best way forward.
I rather like it but think the idea of a button for people to set it how they like makes sense.
“Popular”? I’ve only ever seen it on media company owned sites that simply don’t want people talking to each other, and only want people responding to the article.
If that’s what you want, fine, but there’s no longer any point commenting, it’s only worth talking on here if people are responding. There are many many ways you could improve commenting on the blog.
This? Not one of them.
Very bad. It forces you to scroll down to the bottom of the comments, read your way to the top (which isn’t ergonomic) and then go back down to the bottom again to comment yourself.
Hate it.
It’ll only work if you move the comment box to the top as well…
It
Like
Don’t
I
I know I am only adding to the consensus but I don’t like it. I read (almost) every comment on this site and I like to read them in the order they were posted. Following the flow of a debate is not as easy and as others have said , it is too time consuming to scroll to the bottom to find out what someone above is actually replying to.
! egnahc sith esrever esaelP
Oh and whilst we are discussng the site comments, could you fix the ‘recent comments’ tab ? There is no better way to keep up with the most active debates on the site. It’s a lot easier than trying to remember how many comments were there before and finding myself having to favourite articles just to see if anyone has added to the debate, only to find that nobody has.
If you fix the recent comments tab then people can go straight to the newest comments without the need to turn the thread upside down.
Seems more logical to me…
It means you have to scroll to the bottom of the page and read upwards to read the comments in order. You lose the movement of debate otherwise. It makes more sense to order the comments chronologically.
Put them back the proper way! You can’t follow the arguments if you have to go to the bottom, scroll up, and then back to the bottom again to add your point.
I usually avoid posting just to say “I agree with everybody else”, but in this case:
I AGREE WITH EVERYBODY ELSE.
This is horrible and unhelpful and should be discontinued promptly!
I also particularly agree with Barry George (just had to scroll all the way to the top to remind myself who I was agreeing with, of course) about the Recent Comments tab. I could understand why it kept breaking down back when the site was being overrun by furious shouts of betrayal on every thread, but as that seems to have stopped (a result of active moderation or have they just got tired and gone away?) I don’t understand why it’s such a problem now.
I did wonder what you were up to yesterday! I really don’t like it; it makes it much harder to come in and follow the discussion. (Even better would be comment threading, but that seems very rare outside LiveJournal/Dreamwidth blogs).
The Economist allows users to choose between oldest-first and newest-first comments.
Please, change back. With newest comment at top, if I want to follow the flow of comments – and I usually do – I have to scroll to the bottom of the page and read back up. That goes against all logic.
Just because other sites do it this way doesn’t mean it’s right. Bit like mom’s old comeback of “if everyone put their head in an oven, doesn’t mean you should too!” ๐
In actual fact, it is exactly like Lib Dem ACT – I haven’t noticed any complaints about that. It’s really as broad as it is long, whether you read comments from the top down or the bottom up.
As Henry says – put the comment box at the top – if you do that then folk will know immediately to go to the bottom of the comments to start reading the thread.
Come on folks – those of you who are Twitter Tweeters and Facebook afficionados do it all the time – so what’s the problem?
At least we are not being asked to read it right to left which some languages do!
!od segaugnal emos hcihw tfel ot thgir ti daer ot deksa gnieb ton era ew tsael tA
!ืืคืืืช ืื ืื ื ืื ืืชืืงืฉืื ืืงืจืื ืืืชื ืืืืื ืืฉืืื ืืฉืจ ืืฉืคืืช ืืกืืืืืช ืืขืฉื
My apologies to Spanish speakers – there should be only one “f” in “aficionados” ๐
facebook COMMENTS go in chronological order. Unrelated status updates don’t. I agree with Mat – the only sites I have seen using this are ones that actively want to stifle debate.
Thankfully on the mobile version of the site the comments still run the right way.
I don’t like it either . .
Makes life much easier when you are using a mobile browser. Also allows you to dip into a thread to see if its active without having to go all the way to the bottom.
So – a thumbs up from me (but then clearly I like being a contrarian).
No thanks. Threads work best when successive posters build on previous contributions. Newest first just encourages off-the-top ranting without bothering to read what anyone else said (something I never do, honist!)
Not keen.
Please go back to the ‘oldest on top’ mode.
This site tries to foster good discussions – and these can only happen if peope actually engage with the other, earlier posts in a thread. So, the natural way of encouraging people to actually follow the discussion is to allow them to read the article, scroll further and follow the discussion, all the way to the posting window. As it is, I now have to scroll down to the end, scroll my way upwards through the comments, which feels rather unnatural, and then scroll back down to post.
I don’t see how this is supposed to be better!
Scroll down to read through original post.
Go to bottom to read first comment: up a bit to the start of the comment, then back down (if it’s a long comment).
Back up again to top of the 2nd comment… and down…
… and finally, all the way down to the bottom to add your own comment.
It’s like playing with a yo-yo!
Please go back to the old first post at the top and latter posts below method. That was you can read all the posts in order before adding your own which is IMHO the only logical way to do it.
wollof ot redrah snoitasrevnoc sekam ti tub ,od ot gniyrt er’uoy tahw teg I
This would have been a good idea as an April Fool. Outside of that context… yuck!
No don’t like it – It was better to be able to scroll down to follow the discussions, please can you revert back – O-oh could this be construed as ‘Traditional conservative thinking’ – You’ve made me feel dirty now! ๐
I agree with almost all the other comments.. I don’t like it. It is natural to follow discussions from top to bottom rather than scrolling down to the last comment and reading upwards.
Awful. Change it back, please.
Also, I second the call for restoring the “Recent Comments” feature. That was very useful.
please go back to the old, more natural way. also, i liked the look of the site on your april fools’ day spoof – any chance of using that smarter style/font??
This is awful. Please change it back.
Will Labour trolls prefer right to left?