Perhaps instead of a tree it would be better to have a directed acyclic graph, since IME even if the discussion splits off into branches one often wants at some point to respond to multiple endpoints with one single comment. But I don’t know if there’s really a better UI for that shape of discussion than a simple flat thread with free linking/quoting of earlier parts of discussions. I don’t think I have ever seen a better UI for this than 4chan’s.
yeah definitely, there could be a possibility for quoting/linking answers from other branches—i haven’t seen any UI that would support something like it, but also my guess is that it wouldn’t be too difficult to make one. my thinking about it was that there would be one main branch and several other smaller branches that could connect to the main one, so that some points can be discussed in greater depth. also, the branching should probably not happen always, but just when both participants occasionally agree on them.
Perhaps instead of a tree it would be better to have a directed acyclic graph, since IME even if the discussion splits off into branches one often wants at some point to respond to multiple endpoints with one single comment. But I don’t know if there’s really a better UI for that shape of discussion than a simple flat thread with free linking/quoting of earlier parts of discussions. I don’t think I have ever seen a better UI for this than 4chan’s.
yeah definitely, there could be a possibility for quoting/linking answers from other branches—i haven’t seen any UI that would support something like it, but also my guess is that it wouldn’t be too difficult to make one. my thinking about it was that there would be one main branch and several other smaller branches that could connect to the main one, so that some points can be discussed in greater depth. also, the branching should probably not happen always, but just when both participants occasionally agree on them.