Update Block: Latest Comments

[melchoyce]

Moved over from #1792.

Like Calendar and Archive, I looked at what a more dynamic Recent Comments block could include.

I focused on exploring the “what if’s” — what if you could approve pending comments in the Recent Comments block? What if you could reply to them?

View Prototype

Does this make sense? Should we try it out?

[karmatosed]

I love this idea. On one hand, it sits on the line whether it is an actual plugin/extending. On other, I love the idea that blocks become more dynamic.

[afercia]

Quickly discussed during today's accessibility bug-scrub and, besides the technical challenge (as far as I can tell this block is rendered server side, not sure it can be made dynamic) we have concerns about the overall proposal.

In terms of interaction, we don’t think the post content is the place to manage comments.

Also, with regards to approving comments, worth considering the widget-block by default displays only approved comments. That's its main purpose, as it's very unlikely authors want to display pending comments on the front end.

Same applies to replying: not sure the post content is the right place for a complex interaction that should display an additional form with additional controls etc. That would be an unexpected interaction, especially for users with accessibility needs.

[mapk]

In the spirit of everything is a block, I really like this idea. I see it working in the context of block templates which is yet to come in the near future.

Can we create a future label for this?

[paaljoachim]

A Latest Comments Block would be natural to include in a Query Block used in Full Site Editing.
It would likely not be included in the content of a page or post.

[paaljoachim]

We discussed this during the Gutenberg Design Triage, and agreed that this would be a part of Full Site Editing.
We need to circle around to this issue again sometime in the future.

[youknowriad]

I was checking old issues and came through this one now that we have FSE. Personally, I don't think like interacting with comments (managing them) in the editor is a good idea. Maybe in the frontend if you're an admin or things like that but I'm just tempted to just close this issue personally.