Questions

• Should we be showing these inline comments at all on the post list and comments screens?
• What should we name the new column / comments page? How about "Editorial Comments". "Block Comments" is another option.
• Should the language on the count headers change (from Pending/Approved to maybe Unresolved/Resolved?)
• Should we add a new submenu item under Comments for Editorial comments? Currently you can only reach this "screen" by clicking on a comment icon in the post list page in the new column.

Questions

• Should we be showing these inline comments at all on the post list and comments screens?

• A count/indicator on the Post List screen would be helpful so editors can quickly see where collaboration is happening. It would also be useful to add a filter on the Post List page that shows an exact list of posts containing block comments, separate from default comments.

• What should we name the new column / comments page? How about "Editorial Comments". "Block Comments" is another option.

• “Editorial Comments” is clearer for end users

• Should the language on the count headers change (from Pending/Approved to maybe Unresolved/Resolved?)

• For editorial comments, the workflow is task-oriented. Using “Unresolved / Resolved” better aligns with collaboration tools like Google Docs.

• Should we add a new submenu item under Comments for Editorial comments? Currently you can only reach this "screen" by clicking on a comment icon in the post list page in the new column.

• Right now, the only path is via the post list column, which isn’t intuitive. A dedicated submenu would allow editorial comments to be listed across posts, filtered by post, author, or status, while keeping visitor comments separate.

Thanks for the feedback @poojabhimani12 - I will update the PR.

• Right now, the only path is via the post list column, which isn’t intuitive. A dedicated submenu would allow editorial comments to be listed across posts, filtered by post, author, or status, while keeping visitor comments separate.

One other option would be adding the to the "Comment Type" Selector:

What do you think? This would avoid having to build out a separate page entirely and aligns more cloely to what these are - a new comment type.

Here is a screencast of the current status.

I noticed a few parts that still need fine tuning, for example the language when resolving a comment still says "Comment Approved", and the links that appear on hover are still incorrect (they include Spam and Trash).

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How about extending the WP_Posts_List_Table class and using the wp_list_table_class_name hook to use that extended class?

Great suggestion @t-hamano - I was looking for an approach like this.

I have updated the PR with this approach.

Thanks for sharing the visual. For me that looks pretty good, give or take the avatar fallbacks—but that's an entirely separate conversation 😅

Nice work.

I don't think the avatars communicate enough information to be helpful in indicating that they are related to discussions[1].

If I didn't know about this feature, my first thought on seeing the avatars is that these are authors or contributors of the post rather than people engaged in a discussion around it. I just did an ask someone around me test and they thought it was people who have the post open (similar to the top of a google doc).

Additionally, the avatars will be especially confusing when there are multiple people with default avatars (or with similar avatars).

Going back to the label idea, I think that gives more flexibility in addition to more clear communication. I'm thinking it can communicate state/status of discusisons such as a label for:

• New Discussions - This would require storing the most recently seen discussion, but would be helpful for someone scanning the list. Could also allow for a filter at the top for "Unseen Discussions"
• Open Discussions - This would show when there are open discussion threads but you have seen all of them.

[1] I'm using Discussions here for simplicity, the actual labels should depend on the outcome of #72014

Thanks for the feedback @aaronjorbin - I also share some concern over what the avatars visually indicate. I would think of them more as presence indicators (eg. these people are currently editing the document) and raised that concern earlier in the thread - #71743 (comment). @jasmussen suggestion was adding a tooltip for the avatars, but of course that only shows on hover.

Also, in case you missed it, I tried the label approach first, you can see what looks like here: #71743 (comment)

Regarding New vs. Open discussion, this would require tracking more data than we currently have. We know if a post has unresolved comments, but not whether a specific user has opened the post since those comments were added.

I don't think the avatars communicate enough information to be helpful in indicating that they are related to discussions[1].

To summarize the options for resolving this ticket:

• Show a label next to posts with unresolved comments
• Show avatar indicators for same
• Punt showing comments outside editor

I added the tooltip in the latest PR.

My other suggestion would be to treat unresolved comments as a kind of post status. This would mean introducing new logic into the get_post_states() function:

However, this may be confusing on the other hand 😅