I’m starting another series on the old blog of whall, and that is Wouldn’t It Be Cool If, or WIBCI for short. I personally pronounce this “wib-see” but I’ve heard others pronounce it like “weeb-see”, “why bitchy” and “who are you and why are you asking me these stupid questions?”

In this installment, I want to brainstorm about a plugin for blogs (WordPress, drupal, typepad, Movable Type, etc) that would allow people not only to subscribe-by-email to ALL comments, but just the author’s comments.

[time passes]

Ok I’m done brainstorming.

Wouldn’t that be cool?

Yes. That would be very cool.

Dave2s last blog post..DaveGuard

I do like reading other people’s comments, too, though. I would like a plugin on the admin side that would allow you to reply to everyone’s comments easily, post the reply as one big comment and email everyone individually with their reply.

Avitables last blog post..Daycare and Avitable

I usually end up reading all comments on a post but if the option was available, I think I would probably only subscribe to the author’s comments. That way, I would know, without wading through all the comments again, if they commented on my comment, and if their comment required another comment from me. I currently don’t subscribe to comments on any blogs because I don’t like my inbox flooded with a trillion emails containing comments of everyone in the blogosphere. I don’t have that kind of spare time.

sourpusss last blog post..Is that a lot?

I promised myself that instead of not posting a comment when someone says what I was thinking, that I would just do this:

“Yeah. Ditto what Avitable said.”

Winters last blog post..Storieos

Having recently installed a couple of plugins for comment subscription and management, I think I would like to see a plugin that does the following:
- subscribes the person leaving the comment to future comments, but gives them options to a) subscribe to all comments b) subscribe to just people that reply to the comment I left and c) subscribe only to comments left by the admin and/or the blog post author.

If that plugin can be done and work without deleting all comments and blog posts, then I wouldn’t mind using something like that.

Anything extra like comment preview (both live and click-through) would be a bonus.

martymankinss last blog post..The Lazy MoFo Mosaic Meme

I would definitely see the benefit to a plug in like that. If I leave 3 or 4 comments, walk away from my e-mail for 6 hours, I can come back to over 100 e-mails. Another cool plug-in feature would be a Digest version of all the comments made after yours… maybe to go out at midnight the same way Twitter Tools posts a post of your tweets.

NYCWDs last blog post..Poppy Is In!

yea, that would be nice. there are some blogs where I only want to see the reply directed from the author to me, and others that I get just as big a kick out of reading the comments as I did the post and love to read those. I would love to be able to pick and choose like that…

bluepaintreds last blog post..Pointless Bullets*

Excellent idea. If there can be something that recognizes when someone addresses you in comments that would be good too.

Dave2, your vote means more than you know. Still not a whole lot, but more than “you know”.

Avi, There are some posts I want to read all the comments on, but I think that’s what RSS is for. Plus, in my vision, the comment box would have two checkboxes - [] subscribe to all comments [] subscribe to author’s comments. Maybe another [] subscribe to comments that look like they are directed to me; and that would look for @whall or something similar.

sourpuss, yup, it’s all about the spare time. I want to prioritize - and not require the author to go out of their way and do a direct reply

Winter, he has a knack for doing that. He also has a knack for (insert any semi-creepy blunt-with-honesty weird activity here).

martymankins, yeah, I think that’s where I was heading.

NYCWD, oooh, good idea!

bluepaintred, we are in agreement

BlondeBlogger, and we have a second, and a vote. Motion carried!