For the first time ever (I think) in the 8 years I've been running my site, someone has posted a comment directly onto another Classmate's Profile. Nothing at all wrong with the comment (I or the recipient would have deleted it if there was) but the recipient has asked how best to reply to the comment. Unfortunately, the Classmate who posted it hasn't checked the box on his Profile allowing others to post comments on his own Profile so, although the comment is visible to everyone via my renamed Notice Board page, the recipient is unable to post a reply directly on the page but can only do so by sending a Personal Message to the member who posted on his Profile but this won't show up on our Notice Board as a response to the original post.

I don't want to have to remove the option of Classmates being allowed to post on another's Profile altogether but it all seems a little unfair and I was wondering how others have dealt with the same situation. What have they recommended the recipient do to respond?

The site administrator could explain the situation to the person who left the message - perhaps they are unaware that this option is blocked on their profile. The recipient can send a private message to the person who left the comment. I know this doesn't solve the problem of "unfairness" but I'm guessing it doesn't happen often.

Another option would be for Class Creator to set it up so that anyone who doesn't allow comments on their profile cannot make comments on another profile. That seems reasonable and fair.

And makes sense too

Rhonda McClellan wrote:

Another option would be for Class Creator to set it up so that anyone who doesn't allow comments on their profile cannot make comments on another profile. That seems reasonable and fair.

I think Rhonda has an excellent idea!
Brad & co., any chance that this will become a reality?

"Another option would be for Class Creator to set it up so that anyone who doesn't allow comments on their profile cannot make comments on another profile. That seems reasonable and fair."

Thanks, Rhonda.

I agree that your suggestion is a good one if it could be done.

I did say to the recipient Classmate that his only option was to send a Private Message to the sender but I will email the sender to say that it would be fairer if he allowed comments on his own Profile. I think it must have been a deliberate choice on his part as he's checked all the other options at the bottom of his Profile.

Even if this was implemented, wouldn't you still have the same problem if the classmate did the following?
The classmate could activate the "allow comments" option on his own profile, make the comments on the other classmate's profile, then turn off the "allow comments" on his own profile.

That is always going to be a possibility, Kyle. It would have to be made a condition of joining the website and if a Classmate broke that condition then he/she could be removed from the site. Alternatively, CC would have to remove posting comments as an option and either remove it altogether or make it possible for all Classmates to do it. In a sense it duplicates what is available under the Private Message option without the ability to share what has been said with everyone.

I've just noticed that the original comment posted by one Classmate on another's Profile that I've been talking about now has the Comment box underneath it on my Notice Board page to allow the recipient to respond via that page. It wasn't there originally. On checking the sender's Profile I now see that he has listened to advice and checked the 'Allow Classmates to enter comments on my Profile page'. As Rhonda thought earlier, he either neglected to check it before or has seen the light.

Do not think that's a realistic scenario

Kyle Erickson wrote:

When the classmate received the comment on his Profile, he should have simply clicked respond and respond to the comment right there in the comment thread. Going back to that person's Profile to respond there wouldn't make sense and would certainly create a disjointed conversation that would be hard to decipher for anyone else reading either of those two Profiles.

If the person who posted the original Profile comment had any responses to his/her comment, as long as they have not changed their Notify Me settings, then they will get an email alerting them that new comments have been added under their comment. Most people do not change this default setting.

If somebody wants to stop comments from happening on their own Profile, I don't think we should then block them from making comments on other Profiles. After all, if somebody has allowed comments, then I think they'd want anyone to be able to comment regardless of the commenter's Profile settings.

People have stated all kinds of reasons for not wanting comments on their own Profile. Most of those reasons I can think of would not warrant blocking their ability to comment elsewhere in the system. I don't think anything needs to be done here.

Brad, below is the original post. THAT is the issue here, not some configuration that is being cooked up.

This need to work without any special "rules" being devised. If a person disallows comments on their profiles (don't really the reasons given) then they simply can't post on anyone elses profile. It's a choice WE can make here too.

SIMPLE rules without confounding conditions

Mark Foulsham wrote:

Jack, sorry if I'm missing something here. Why can't they just add a comment to the comment? This site in question is set up for interactive Profile comment threads so I'm clearly still missing something. The assertion "the recipient is unable to post a reply directly on the page" is simply not the case.

Are you advocating that people who don't allow comments on their own Profile NOT be able to post on other Profiles? Why? It seems to me the simplest rule of all, i.e. I'm allowing comments on my Profile, would allow anyone to comment on my Profile regardless of how they set up their own Profile. Is the proposed restriction an attempt to encourage the person who disallowed commenting to reverse that decision and instead allow comments?

I'm assuming the original post is correct, that's all. It could be that the person wanted to post on the commentator's profile .. more probable according to everything so far.

At its heart, either one is the same issue. If a person believes that no comments should be allowed on their profile, then indeed they should be restricted from posting on other profiles to "encourage the person .. to allow comments".

The example that started this post is a clear indication that this is the desired result. It's sort of natural too to want to comment on that person's profile vs the alternate method.

I think it becomes obvious to a person that is restricting comments that this is a "fair" exchange for the option. (As I said already, don't care what their reasons are.)

It's pretty logical here besides being "fair".