You’re right, and this was a tough design choice I made when I built the first prototype. Loading only first level of child comments should (correct me if I miscalculated this) be the most cost-efficient way as not every user is (hopefully) ever going to read all child comments in all levels in the hierarchy.
back
1 comments
I wanted to make sure I understood the design decisions.
I actually have no idea what the right choice is. I only know how I use these types of sites and I usually go depth first. So I'd start with one thread, read it until I get bored, then continue. Not great for your current architecture, but I could be a weird user.
I had to design comment systems quite a few times, so I'm always curious how other people do it. I don't think there's a perfect solution, always trade offs to be made.