Ask HN: What do you think about HN's comment thread system?

[aerialcombat]

I'm talking about the tree structure and how it gets nested into certain depth.

Do you think it serves the purpose well, or do you think there's a better way?

[Udik]

I find deep threads that wander away from the topic distracting and sometimes frustrating. Especially on mobile, there's no easy way to collapse the thread you're currently on without scrolling back to the root comment, which might not be easy to find.

Maybe it would be nice (though hardly matching HN's spartan philosophy) to allow the community to assign titles to subthreads, for example: "subthread about housing costs in SF". That would allow me to skip it without having to read multiple comments before realizing I got into the rabbit hole of a topic I'm not interested in.

[aerialcombat]

Yeah it's a tough problem. Maybe it's a problem without a clear answer. I do think it's more intuitive when reading a tree structure until it breaks somewhere in the middle and starts again. Then I'm lost. But I think about a flat system where I have to connect all the dots myself in the head, and it's not so pleasant either. It'll probably have to be some type of hybrid system where it takes the best of both worlds and combine nicely into one. I have yet to see such system, personally.

[grawprog]

Yeah the deep threads that break in the middle get kind of confusing. Maybe something simple like a link to the parent comment or even a replying to would help a little bit. At least so you have something visual you can link it back to other than comment depth.