I’m trying out a bit of change here and would like to know what you think. The usual setting for comments is to go from oldest to newest as you scroll down, but I’ve been noticing more and more people changing this so that the most recent comment is at the top. At first I found this disconcerting, but lately it’s been making some sense to do it this way. So I have made the switch to try it out for a few days.
Which way do you prefer to have the comments?
casa azahar 
It means I don’t have to scroll to the bottom to see a new comment.
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Well, that’s what I use the Recent Comments widget for, as clicking there takes me directly to the new comment, no scrolling required. This is especially helpful with the new(ish) reply button, as new comments don’t always end up either at the top or bottom.
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Oooh, pros and cons for both. I suspect its one of those things (like which way you hang the loo roll) that is just down to a personal preference. For what its worth, I’m for keeping it oldest to newest running down, so the first comment is at the top.
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I think you’re right. Having the first comment get pushed down to the bottom does seem kind of backwards.
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I prefer top to bottom = oldest to newest, myself. It’s less disorienting if I read a post that’s been up long enough to have a string of comments.
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This is true. If I come across a post that already has several comments, it’s weird to have to scroll down to the bottom to see the first comment and then read up.
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Well – in e-mail, I prefer to have newest at the top, but I think in a blog situation, I prefer top down, oldest to newest, just seems to make more chronological sense to me that way.
Can’t see the Recent Comments widget you refer to though.
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You can’t? Are you using IE?
To the right you should see one wide side bar at the top with twitter links and below that two narrower side bars. Like in this pic below.
On the left is my “amigos” blogroll and on the right is the “comments” widget.
Here’s a bigger version.
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OK – now I understand – yes I see that.
I was looking for a button labelled “Recent Comments” {Blushes}
I do find that useful – however – when I come back from holiday as I did just before the weekend, and I am reading a post and responses for the first time, that’s when newest at the top feels odd.
Or if there have been more posts “recently” than will display on that bar since I last visited the blog.
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Oh same as email please – oldest on top. Following youtube and newspaper comments is weird. you come into the end of the arguments.
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You have your oldest emails on top, Archie?
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Yep. And within emails I have old on top so I can follow the conversation. That was one of the many “attributes” of OE which caused me to move to Thunderbird.
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Really? I thought threaded emails always went oldest to newest. Hmmm…
I’m always amazed that anyone still uses OE. Thunderbird rocks!
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I like the oldest comments first. Then again, I don’t like change unless I instigate it. And loo paper ALWAYS goes with the free bit hanging at the FRONT 😉
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Agreed. Except my loo paper actually has to sit on a shelf so the cats can’t get at it.
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No it doesn’t! Free bit to the wall!
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I definitely prefer oldest posts at the top. The other way round feels a bit like reading a page right to left, just odd and unnatural.
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Yeah, I’m actually finding this weird. I suppose it just takes some getting used to, but I’m not convinced it’s worth it.
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I prefer to see the oldest comment at the top (and do the same with email) as I tend to read the whole ‘thread’ of comments before I post. If the newest is at the top, I’d have to scroll down to the bottom, read my way up (which doesn’t entirely work because your answer to the comment comes below the comment) and then scroll back down again to comment.
Lot more scrolling. Fear I may wear out my page ^ key… :-p
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Heh, I think we are pretty much all in agreement here. Don’t think I’ll last even a few days with this… but it’s been an interesting experiment.
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So lets see. Even though almost everybody (including me) prefers the comments oldest at top, newest at bottom, you have yours arranged the other way.
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I definitely like oldest at the top, too. I often come in late in the conversation, and it’s awkward to wade through backwards to see where the conversation started.
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It does feel backwards, doesn’t it? I’ve noticed that when commenting on a couple other posts here today. Well, I reckon things will be back to normal tomorrow.
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Oldest on the top is more friendly to new commenters and has considerable advantages (due to scrolling) when reading a discussion in a chronological order. Those who just want to check for the last comment save a little time with newest first, but not very much—and they may be better off subscribing to comments in the first place.
There is one exception, however: If comments are so plentiful that they must be split onto multiple pages, it can pay to have the newest comments first, to avoid the several page changes needed to reach the bottom. (Note that very few people will even try to read all comments in such a case, so the advantages of oldest-first are diminished.)
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Hi Michael, and welcome.
It’s probably safe to say that I’ll never have the multiple comments page issue to deal with, so chronological order wins the day. Thanks for such a thoughtful comment.
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Hmmm? With the old method you can see the sequence of events, if you will, as sometimes commenters are responding to what came before them.
I’m pretty content with the first comment being the first comment readers see.
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Yeah, me too, as it turns out. I didn’t even last 24 hours with the new trial version.
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