And somehow, they didn't mention the incredibly *important* change

[jducoeur]

There I am today, skimming through my friends list as usual. I click on one of the posts that has new comments since I last looked. (I always set up my flist so that I can tell at a glance when there are new comments -- that's an old feature, but is a client-side cheat). And there, in the comments, next to each comment I haven't read yet, is a tiny "New Comment" token.

Whoa.

I mean, this looks minor to most people, but from a usability perspective it is big. It means that LJ is actually tracking when you last read a thread, and which comments came in since then. And *that*, in turn, means that it's a very small step to implement "Show me all of the flist entries *that are actively being discussed*." It allows you to do client-side stuff to de-emphasize the bits I've already read, so that I can quickly focus on the new material. It's basically the poor man's version of a key feature of CommYou, the ability to track where the interesting conversations are happening.

I wonder if they have any clue how important this one is, or what to do with it? (And now I wonder whether DW already has this feature -- I haven't been paying much attention over there...)

Comments

[etherial.livejournal.com]

That one got drowned out by them removing comment titles a couple of months ago.

[laurion]

Oh. Wow. Yes. I scan everything new through RSS, but that only gets me new posts. If they get to the point where I can be made aware of where any significant volume (quantity or frequency) of commenting is happening, I will be very happy.