r/changelog • u/xiong_as_admin • Apr 14 '15

[reddit change] Improved comment sort preference

For a long time, reddit has had a hidden comment sort preference - when you changed your sort using the menu, it would stick and stay as the default. This has lead to a lot of confusion, as people will change their sort for one thread, then not realize that's used for all the rest (and so wonder why, say, all the comments they're viewing have pretty low scores, because they don't realize they're sorting by new now instead of best). Even if you know this is the behavior, it's still annoying: you have to either remember to change your sort back afterwards, or know to use the ?sort=new URL parameter.

Now we're getting rid of that behavior and replacing it with an explicit preference.

You can find this new menu in the "comment options" section of your preferences.

[Screenshot]

Upon viewing a comment thread, your previous sort option will be migrated over to the new preference.

Remember that you can always send us suggestions and bug reports via /r/IdeasForTheAdmins and /r/bugs, respectively.

Happy redditing!

See the code behind this change on GitHub.

134 Upvotes

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5

u/Mispelling Apr 14 '15

I really kind of hate this change.

4

u/xiong_as_admin Apr 15 '15

Ok. Can you expand a bit on why?

9

u/Mispelling Apr 15 '15

It's just way more clicks for me (I go back and forth a lot). I moderate a baseball subreddit where Game Threads need to be sorted by new to keep up with all the action, but it's 2 clicks to sort it back to top. This new way, it's a minimum of 4 clicks (if I open prefs in a new tab), plus the click to re-load the thread I am on (or the clicks to get back to the thread). And then if I want to change back to go look at other threads, it's all those again.

It's just not what I wanted.

I can't wait until the mods can set the default sort for specific threads. That will save a lot of trouble.

5

u/xiongchiamiov Apr 15 '15

Yeah, we started discussing these changes in the context of default sorts for threads, but figured it'd be good to push it out separately first.

Since you're a mod there, you should be able to set the default sort (and then use it yourself) on the threads now by using https://beta.reddit.com. In fact, we'd really appreciate it if you do - that usage in the wild can produce valuable feedback. And if nothing else, your subreddit will be primed for the general release of the feature.

Edit: sorry for the user switch; I jumped on the train home and am using my unprivileged account.

3

u/substarter Apr 15 '15

Oh huh. How many admins make a separate account for their... admin-ning?

Think you're the first I've seen; any reason for the choice?

8

u/xiong_as_admin Apr 15 '15

/u/largenocream does because he handles lots of sketchy things when doing security work.

Mine is the result of two aspects. First, I use my public account for my normal reddit activities (I'm not really an alt type of person). Secondly, I live reasonably far away and so do lots of my redditing on my phone. As a general policy, we don't allow employees to use privileged accounts on mobile apps, and I also don't feel comfortable transmitting those credentials over mobile networks, anyways.

I try to keep things all on one or the other, but sometimes circumstances force a switch. :/

3

u/nandhp Apr 15 '15

As a general policy, we don't allow employees to use privileged accounts on mobile apps

With this kind of incentive to improve the mobile website, I'm surprised it hasn't happened yet. Or does Firefox count as a mobile app?

4

u/xiong_as_admin Apr 15 '15

There are things happening with mobile web that you'll probably hear about soon.

As I said, though, I don't really trust mobile networks with that kind of data, even when transmitting over TLS, and I'm also rather a fan of whatever Reddit News retitled as, and Reddit Sync.

2

u/MannoSlimmins Apr 17 '15

Sorry for posting this 2 days later, but have the admins considered allowing moderators or submitters to determine the way a thread is sorted?

For instance, /r/hockey has several Game Day Threads each day. These threads are best viewed when sorted by New. Having mods override the default sort would be great for these types of threads

2

u/xiong_as_admin Apr 20 '15

Sorry for posting this 2 days later, but have the admins considered allowing moderators or submitters to determine the way a thread is sorted?

Yes.

0

u/raldi Apr 15 '15

I think it's a bot.