It will be interesting to see how it goes, but I see it more as a way to slow down conversations. I think perhaps we may find that it is best to exponentially delay replies in a thread from the same person. Most comment thread discussions go maybe 2 for each person before losing most value (from my observations) and so it may also find value in adding logic to slow or disable that sort of "noise" as well.
I'm thinking this would significantly affect the effectiveness of this new feature. Maybe we'd get some flamewar thread depth transferred into breadth but otherwise have about the same quantity of flame comments?
Let's say I'm really mad at your comment you just wrote. Really mad.
So the little "reply" button isn't showing up.
Do I a) stop being angry because a little button is disabled or b) find some other way to vent online?
I'm voting for b. And if you're going to vent anyway, I'd rather you nest it. That's what nested comments are for, anyway -- stuff that gets more and more detailed about a particular conversation.
Forget auto-collapsing, I'd like to be able to collapse period.
It happens quite often that I've already read a really long thread and just want to skip over it to the new stuff, or that the topic discussed in the thread is just not that interesting to me, but the topic of the post is.
Maybe we'd get some flamewar thread depth transferred into breadth
Ah, but replies to existing comments track the original comment as it moves up and down the screen. Brand-new comments sink or swim on their own merit.
I'm thinking that Original Insight A might get upmodded, but Insulting Name For The Commenter's Mother B'' will not get upmodded and will sink out of sight.
Of course, that might not actually help. It will be a fun experiment.
Having engaged in some flame wars, without wanting it to happen, it did cross my mind that they could be tracked using some sort of detection of the height of the tree and the time between the replies. Also I think that's how pg tracked them before, because he enganged almost instantly to stop one I was involved recently.
I think this is a fascinating idea.