It’s one of the most basic functions in comment threads but it has never been possible on Facebook until now. The company announced today that ‘replies’ will soon be possible on user comments.
Facebook announced today that it will soon allow users to reply directly to comments that are left on their wall. Apparently the function has been undergoing a testing a phase up until now and Facebook is finally ready to release the update. Normally users would have to just post to the comment-thread the same as anyone else would. Users could tag the person they were replying to in the new comment but this was less than ideal when you wanted to adress a certain person in a long thread. Users could tag the person’s name (but usually just wrote something to the effect of “@Cindy ha ha good one”, as comment number 16 to the person that commented as number 4 in the thread.
With the new comment system, replies will go directly under the comment that the user is replying to. Making it easier to read, and easier to follow. Other changes include an ‘activity-setting’, this is done behind the scenes at Facebook, and will show more engaged comments higher in the thread. On the announcement blog post Facebook outlined a few factors of this activity-setting stating:
Positive Feedback: the amount of positive feedback based on the total number of Likes and Replies in a conversation thread, which includes Likes or Replies by the Page owner.
Connections: connections to participants in a thread may move the conversation higher. For example, conversations with Comments left by friends may appear at the top.
Negative Feedback: the total number of spam reports in a thread, as well as marks-as-spam made by the Page owner. We also may down-rank comments made by frequent spammers.
This should make it easier for pages with thousands of readers to organize conversations on photos, videos and story updates, while making it easier for others to engage other users.
more info: facebook
