Comment count not updating after rejecting

[czepan]

Expected behavior:
The comment count should only include comments that are visible to the user. Otherwise, it appears incorrect.

Actual behavior:
The comment count includes rejected (and possibly pending?) comments as well:

This is also reflected in the count.js API:

Additional Info:
I tried running FLUSHDB in Redis, but it didn’t change anything.

Related Issues:
This was mentioned in #2292, but that seems to refer to a very old version. I couldn't find anything related to talk-cache-expiry-comment-count in the current documentation.

Versions:
Coral Talk 9.5.3

[czepan]

Ohhh, I think I’ve found the reason.
We're using the tree structure, and in this case, there are actually 10 comments marked as APPROVED. However, all of these comments have a REJECTED root node, which means that visually, no comments appear, even though the count still shows 10.

As a general rule, it would probably make sense to only count comments if they are actually visible to the user—i.e., none of their parent nodes are REJECTED.

[losowsky]

hi there,

This is a known bug – it's in our backlog, it's just not high priority currently. It's complicated by the fact that the replies are still accessible via their direct URLs, so a number of zero would also be confusing to anyone who goes to one of those urls

[czepan]

hi there,

This is a known bug – it's in our backlog, it's just not high priority currently. It's complicated by the fact that the replies are still accessible via their direct URLs, so a number of zero would also be confusing to anyone who goes to one of those urls

Hey! Thanks for your response.

I already suspected that was the reason – at least I used the exact same rationale when the issue arose in our comment moderation. Therefore, I can understand that the problem is not easily resolved. One simple approach might be to completely hide the comment count in cases where a user with a direct link jumps into a conversation. The only alternative would be that if a root node is REJECTED, the entire subtree becomes inaccessible; however, that’s a significant change to the functionality and might not be liked by many - me included. The status quo, where for example 10 comments are displayed but the user can’t actually find them, is oviously confusing too and initially appears to the user as a bug.

Maybe you find another solution – I'm looking forward to it. Thanks!

[losowsky]

This should be merged soon! #4757

[czepan]

Oh wow - didn't expect that so fast :) Thank you very much!