Upside-down comments

Microsoft’s Mike Torres,  who works on the Windows Live Spaces team, offers up some thoughts about the frustrations of being a technology enthusiast in a world where people expect dogmatic allegiance to companies and platforms:

I’m beginning to realize how hard it is to be a Microsoft blogger.  When you talk about stuff you love from Microsoft (Office 2007, Windows Vista, Windows Mobile/Motorola Q, Live Writer) it sounds like you’re cheerleading.  When you talk about stuff you love from the competition (MacBook Pro, iPod nano, iTunes, Flickr) you run the risk of pissing off co-workers/executives.  Ditto when you talk about stuff you totally loathe from Microsoft (no comment).  And when you talk about stuff you dislike from competitors, it looks like you’re being defensive (uhhh… didn’t we ship that already with Live Search Macros?)  Oh well, it’s still fun.

That’s true of people outside Microsoft as well, Mike. People get very confused when they read my reviews and reporting of Microsoft’s products and policies. The idea that someone could like some things and be critical of others is just alien.

In the middle of that post, Mike passes along this tidbit:

There are lots of totally subtle but totally cool Spaces enhancements on the way that I can’t talk about.

I hope that one of those changes is a way to flip the default order of comments on a Spaces site. On Mike’s site, the most recent comment appears at the top of the list below the main post. The first comment is at the very bottom of the list. So in a long comment thread you get to see all the the replies, usually without any context, before you see the comment or question that inspired the reply. That’s just wrong.