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Meta: Subjects are Good for You

posted by martyb on Thursday August 25 2016, @12:17PM   Printer-friendly
from the subject-to-review dept.

A 'pedantic Peter with a mobile meter' writes:

Are subjects passé in comments on the post-social media web? Or are they a valid feature to enable human eye-scanning and relevant search results?

It is the opinion of this anonymous submitter that putting "Subjects are an anachronism" [1] or "SubjectsinCommentsareStupid" [2] is unhelpful at best and spam at worst. SoylentNews has a long legacy going back to Chips & Dips, the predecessor site to Slashdot (from whose code SoylentNews was forked).

With that in mind, subjects are not a vestigial feature but a useful and defining one. It makes longer threads friendly to readers, and separates this site from Digg, Reddit, Voat, and so many other disposable social media sites. Just as email would be worse without subjects, so too would SoylentNews.

Taken from actual SoylentNews comments; cf: [1] and [2].

Ed Note: I'm of two minds as to running this story. This is presented as one person's opinion and makes a case for continuing to have a Subject for each comment. As noted, others do not feel the same way. As SoylentNews is a community, your input guides us. So, what say you? Should we continue as-is? Make subjects optional? Dispense with them entirely? Other? What benefits and/or problems are likely to result?

Original Submission

 
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  • (Score: 4, Insightful) by Anne Nonymous on Thursday August 25 2016, @01:43PM

    by Anne Nonymous (712) on Thursday August 25 2016, @01:43PM (#392985)

    Why not make them optional?

    Starting Score:    1  point
    Moderation   +2  
       Insightful=2, Total=2
    Extra 'Insightful' Modifier   0  
    Karma-Bonus Modifier   +1  
    Total Score:   4  

  • (Score: 5, Insightful) by FatPhil on Thursday August 25 2016, @01:49PM

    by FatPhil (863) <reversethis-{if.fdsa} {ta} {tnelyos-cp}> on Thursday August 25 2016, @01:49PM (#392988) Homepage
    For replies, yes, that could be an option, it would indicate "same subject as parent".

    For new top-level posts, definitely not. A post without a subject (inherited or not) is like a commit with no commit message. Laziness should not be encouraged.
    --
    Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves

    • (Score: 2) by JNCF on Thursday August 25 2016, @02:01PM

      by JNCF (4317) on Thursday August 25 2016, @02:01PM (#392996) Journal

      For replies, yes, that could be an option,

      It already is an option, and not just for replies. It will remain that way until the lameness filter starts parsing output instead of input. This not an opinion pro or con, simply a statement of fact. The title of this comment was input as follows: &nbsp;

      • (Score: 2) by FatPhil on Thursday August 25 2016, @02:16PM

        by FatPhil (863) <reversethis-{if.fdsa} {ta} {tnelyos-cp}> on Thursday August 25 2016, @02:16PM (#393004) Homepage
        That's a blank title, not no title. It still takes up the vertical space on the page. OK, the score would also do that, but were there to be a change to optionally actually remove the title, then the score would be moved, I'm sure, as the devs aren't stupid.
        --
        Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves