Should comments be stories? I’m torn.
Someone made a comment about not being able to delete comments.
I’d say it was a comment on one of my stories, but it wasn’t, because there’s no comments. Just stories.
So it was a story in response to a story.
Which is kind of meta, but it got me thinking. Anyway…
I suppose there’s pros and cons both ways…
Pros of comments being stories…
1.If someone responds like a jerk, it’s on their feed too. They can’t just drop a nasty bomb as a comment. Nope. It’s their story, and they have to own it, too. Hopefully, that makes people think about how to respond.
2.If I have a great conversation with someone because of a story they wrote, my comment (oops, story) can bring me more visitors. I like this one, because conversations have brought me a lot of new faces!
3.If I comment on a popular story, and I’m not comment #500, it’s a nice way to get a little bump in visits. If people like the response, they might click over to see what else I have to say. Which is really awesome.
Cons of comments being stories…
1.If someone responds like a jerk, I can’t delete the comment because it’s their story. Sure, it’s on their feed, but it’s stapled to my story, too. I’m not so crazy about that. It makes me hesitate to read more comments.
2.It kind of messes up the feed. Fills it with short comments, and stuff like “hahahah — that was funny. Made my day!” Which really isn’t what I want my feed filled with. Friendly, but not my finest writing. You know?
3.One guy posted a comment (oops, story) and said his comments self destruct in 24 hours. He deletes them. Which makes me wonder if other people hesitate to comment because they don’t want it in their feed. Which is good if it inhibits rude stuff, but not if it inhibits conversation.
I’m not really sure what I think. I’m kind of torn.
Not that we get to decide. But I like to think the team here reads our thoughts, kind of like an anonymous suggestions box at the water cooler.
(P.S. Medium team, if you’re reading — thank you for this place!)
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