>What can be done to bring the focus back on quality so everyone’s time can be spent on reading comments on topics on any given post?
I don't at all share your assumption that quality=strictly on topic.
>Doesn’t this render the value of comments useless?
Do you think it does? Well..I guess you're in a very small minority there.
Maybe start a new site where there's a penalty for commenting off-topic? You can be the judge of that - I suppose someone will have to be.
If someone comments more generally, philosophically, 'a level up', is that off-topic? If someone comments on one tiny part of the topic, is that off-topic? I suspect one person's off-topic is another's insightful comment.
As an OP, I'm engaged in this topic (you can look at my other comments on the primary thread).
I'd provide a comment back to your comment here but two of your first sentences fall into the category of ... not providing any direct value to my original comment. In your first comment you disagree with me. Fine. In your second comment, you are asking a question to a question, and then you judge me back. There's nothing I can say about this.
WRT to your third sentence/paragraph, about ..
> If someone comments more generally, philosophically, 'a level up', is that off-topic? If someone comments on one tiny part of the topic, is that off-topic? I suspect one person's off-topic is another's insightful comment.
I agree with you above. It is a subjective matter for sure. But you probably missed my point about this question asked as collective whole. If you look at things individually, then yes, it makes sense what you're saying. But I am asking this question from the collective-whole perspective. It isn't about one or two person. It is about everyone, looking at things from the platform's perspective. I tend to think, all comments (short form or long form) if they are on topic, provide value to the post at hand.
Well, I was saying "You are making an assumption here that I don't think is justified. Anecdata: I for one don't believe it." The way you were writing, you didn't seem to realize you were making that assumption, but that it was the plain truth, so I was letting you know.
>In your second comment, you are asking a question to a question
Your question seemed to be rhetorical, i.e. you were assuming that being off-topic renders comments valueless. If it wasn't rhetorical - No, I really don't think "off-topic" comments are valueless. (Besides that being not a clear-cut category, value on one side of the line, valueless on the other)
>all comments (short form or long form) if they are on topic, provide value to the post at hand.
Well, that's doesn't seem tru either - quite a few are downvoted and flagged for being abhorrent, or devoid of value etc. Maybe you get value from each and every on-topic comment. But that's different from what you were saying earlier, which is assuming that quality=on-topic and off-topic=valueless, and asking what to do about that problem. I was questioning your assumptions, because they don't sound right to me. (e.g. The only good response to "What do we do about the aliens making crop circles?" is to question the assumptions made.)
I don't at all share your assumption that quality=strictly on topic.
>Doesn’t this render the value of comments useless?
Do you think it does? Well..I guess you're in a very small minority there.
Maybe start a new site where there's a penalty for commenting off-topic? You can be the judge of that - I suppose someone will have to be.
If someone comments more generally, philosophically, 'a level up', is that off-topic? If someone comments on one tiny part of the topic, is that off-topic? I suspect one person's off-topic is another's insightful comment.