Topic on Talk:Talk pages project/Usability/Prototype/Topic Containers

T306575: Make the last comment metadata within Topic Containers clickable/tappable

I just have some suggestions:

1. The "Last comment" metadata should instead show when the comment was posted relative to the current time. For "Last comment posted X minutes/hours/days ago". This is a lot more informative than a general date as it gives a good idea to the user how "old" the discussion is without requiring looking at a calendar or doing a bit of math.
2. The "Last comment" metadata should be clickable and clicking it should scroll you to and highlight the latest comment.
3. The number of people in the discussion label should be clickable and open a menu that lists everyone involved in the discussion and links to their userpage.

I appreciate you taking the time to review the prototype, @Lectrician1!

A couple of comments/questions in response to the suggestions you are making...

The "Last comment" metadata should instead show when the comment was posted relative to the current time. For "Last comment posted X minutes/hours/days ago".

Understood. Are there any scenarios you can think of where you would find seeing the exact date to be more valuable than seeing the relative date?

For context: the logic that controls when the "last comment" metadata transitions from "Last comment posted 4 minutes ago" to "Last comment posted on 20 April 2022" is set by en external library.

The "Last comment" metadata should be clickable and clicking it should scroll you to and highlight the latest comment.

Great idea. Here's a ticket for this: T306575.

Please let me know if you think there are changes/additions that could make that ticket better represent what you had in mind...

The number of people in the discussion label should be clickable and open a menu that lists everyone involved in the discussion and links to their userpage.

Can you share more about this idea? What would you find having the list you described above being useful for?

Are there any scenarios you can think of where you would find seeing the exact date to be more valuable than seeing the relative date?

I can't think of any. Whether it be a really new or a very old discussion, relative dates are going to be much easier to understand when a discussion took place. In fact, showing relative dates for all replies might be nice too! You might notice, even Structured Discussions here shows all replies and the last reply with relative times!

Can you share more about this idea? What would you find having the list you described above being useful for?

It would just be nice to see everyone who has engaged in a discussion. Also, say you want to bring up a prior discussion again with a new discussion and you need to ping everyone who participated, having a list you can easily copy to ping everyone would be nice (maybe this could even be made into a little script or something).

And just one other feature suggestion, I think you could look to Convenient Discussions to provide even more features regarding usability. For example, I really appreciate the "move section", "add a subsection", and "edit a reply" features and the colored highlighting of your own comments in discussions .