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I've found out that most people answer to my questions a few minutes / seconds after asking them, and sometimes something is not clear enough, so I post a comment to the answer for a clarification, but I get no answer. Now, I can swear the user is still somewhere in SO. Not usually in the chat, though.

What I was thinking first is that it would be nice is to have some Facebook style chat. But, since seems to me that SO aims to build a knowledge base, I think it would be even nicer if instead of a chat, a user gets notified on real time (perhaps with a sound alert) when a comment has been added to any of his questions / answers / comments or an answer have been given to any of his questions, with a link to jump to the question.

That would be close to a chat, but you'd only "chat" to the people you already answer / commented to, but at the same time we would be building the knowledge base. And of course, comments asking for clarification would get the desired clarification a lot more often.

What do you think?

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Check out this question, which details how @notifications function: meta.stackexchange.com/questions/43019/… –  George Marian Mar 1 '11 at 7:39
You know what, I actually never paid attention to that StackExchange icon on the top right. Well, then how about that sound alert? :) –  jsoldi Mar 1 '11 at 7:44
I don't think that I would want it, but (assuming you don't want it in real time) I don't think that would be huge issue to implement. Not that I have any say in that matter. –  George Marian Mar 1 '11 at 7:47
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1 Answer

up vote 1 down vote accepted

I don't see any way to abuse such a feature...

How is this different from the existing notification functionality?

(BTW, paragraphs are your friend, and proofreading is mine.)

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I'm not sure if you get notified when a comment is added to your question, but I'm pretty sure you don't get notified when a comment is added to your answer or comment, which is the very whole point of the feature I'm requesting. For example, you'd get notified about this comment. BTW, I'll add the paragraphs. –  jsoldi Mar 1 '11 at 7:32
@jsoldi You should get a notification when someone adds a comment to your question or your answer. –  George Marian Mar 1 '11 at 7:36
I don't. Where? Do you mean when the little mail icon next to my name turns orange? If that, I haven't noticed turning orange when comments are added. I think it's kinda delayed anyway, and I think I need to refresh the page. Unless I'm missing something. –  jsoldi Mar 1 '11 at 7:40
@jsoldi It does light up on comments. I can take pictures to prove it. :) Yes, you are correct that it does require a refresh; which can be mildly annoying. However, I don't see that changing. Heavily trafficked site, lots of polling from browsers, performance nightmare, yadda, yadda, yadda... –  George Marian Mar 1 '11 at 7:44
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