Do You Prefer To Read The Latest Comments First Or Last?
March 10th, 2008 • Related • Filed Under
As part of his work to speedup my site and server, my techie Chris inadvertently changed the way my site displays comments. Now rather than displaying the oldest comment first the site is showing the newest comment first.
I was about to change the configuration file so that the oldest comment was displayed first, but I thought I’d ask first to see what the readers prefer. Personally I prefer to read the oldest comment first and then follow the timeline of the discussion before I add my two pennies worth. But some people prefer to read the latest comment first, which is handy if you’ve already read the old comments and are maybe leaving your second or third comment.
Which do you prefer?
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Comment by Everton on 13 March 2008:
@Dave
The posts are coming soon. Chris is just writing up his notes while we wait for the theme updates to finish, then he’s going to start work on the theme. We’ve decided to rebuild the theme as the code is such a mess, rather than tweak it - a preview can be seen here. It’s early days so far, but it’s going to look a lot better
Comment by nishv@live.com on 13 March 2008:
Latest coment does make sense…
Comment by Dave Starr on 12 March 2008:
Oldest to newest is certainly my preference … but actually you hit upon something here … since, by fortuitous circmstance Chris found a way to show the comments in either order, why not a button that lets each reader select the order s/he wants?
BTW, it’s time for an updates on Chris’ optimisation efforts … I’ve been waiitng to fin dout more about those great server load reduction results you ‘teased’ on ;-).
Thanks, Everton.
Comment by Syahid A. on 12 March 2008:
I read the first and the last one.
Comment by Joseph Plazo on 12 March 2008:
I rarely look at when a comment is posted- just which ever shows up on my viewscreen first.
If there are over 15 comments….I skip em altogether
Comment by mobilejgames on 12 March 2008:
my vote is for recent posts on top…
Comment by Cindy on 11 March 2008:
I agree with “Sevierville Real Estate”. I would prefer to see the oldest to the newest. It’s confusing when you catch the end of a conversation. Look into the “Threaded Comments” WP plugin. That offers a good way for authors and readers respond to each other without muddling up the page.
Comment by Shashank on 11 March 2008:
Oldest to newest is the best but for some posts its good to read reversly.
Comment by Sevierville Real Estate on 11 March 2008:
I personaly would rather read comments from oldest to newest. The natural flow of the page as you scroll down will allow you to read comments in order and in response to each other. The other way would suggest that you scroll to the bottom of the screen and read up. Just doesn’t seem right.
Comment by Chris at LG on 11 March 2008:
Newest first makes more sense - as blogs are newest post first, so it makes sense to be consistent. That said nearly all blogs display oldest first (including ours). Hmm, interesting - worth a think about