This sounds like a module with great potential. Here's one usecase for which I have been begging for a long time. Students submit an essay and the teacher simply writes in with comments to evaluate their work, just like on a piece of paper. Ideally, the interface would use something like the GPL3.0 discussion page: http://gplv3.fsf.org/comments/gplv3-draft-3.html.

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techczech’s picture

techczech commented

Another similar example is Linebuzz http://www.problogger.net/archives/2007/05/15/linebuzz-inline-comments or the Yahoo UI: http://www.jackslocum.com/blog/2006/10/09/my-wordpress-comments-system-b....

markfoodyburton’s picture

markfoodyburton commented
Status: Active » Postponed

The GNU interface is so nice, and much more elegant that the thing I had come up with... Your other links show how that basic idea could be made even more attractive.

My system was initially supposed to make email threads look nicer, and then to allow people to "compose" email threads. I think the end result (as the casual reader would see it) from what I have done is nice.
But I should be clear, my mechanism is about "collaboratively" editing, in an e-mail style, a piece of content, it's not really about leaving comments (though that is one way of interpreting an e-mail thread, so it's a valid use case)

But I really like the idea of being able to place a comment into the text without having to edit the whole thing and see lots of ">"'s.... In the end, maybe I would prefer that concept more than the one I have, I dont know...

Is my module a good place to start?
Maybe not... If the intent is to provide a better commenting mechanism - there is already a comment system in Drupal, which I think would be a better place to start.

If on the other hand, you would like to treat documents (like students work) as an email thread, then my system might be just what you want :-)

Cheers

Mark.