Latest versions of plugin (with Reactions block) changes comments admin interface behavior

[cybeardjm]

Quick summary

My 2 blogs receive mentions via 2 origins: Webmentions and ActivityPub.

Before the latest versions of the plugin, that offers the "Reactions" block, in the "Comments" admin interface, all types of comments were counted and showed under the "in response to" column.
Since the update, only comments are counted, likes and reposts/boosts are not calculated anymore.

On this image: the value is 1 - should be 6 as it was in the past.

This change impacts ALL posts with comments/boosts/likes since the origins of the blogs and is independent of the protocol used. This means there's a rule somewhere to change the behavior of the admin interface for comments.

Luckily for users, all reactions still appear properly as Webmentions on posts [I don't use the Reactions block which was added without my knowledge in 3 places in the blogs' templates - and seems fairly broken when it encounters non-ActivityPub reactions, such as webmentions - Oh, if I'm not wrong, the Webmentions plugin is maintained by... nevermind... I digress]

Steps to reproduce

Own 2 blogs with plenty of posts, comments and webmentions (likes, boosts...).
Install the latest version of the plugin.
Check the comments page in the admin interface.
Weep...

What you expected to happen

The "Reactions" block and the change of behavior it seems to impose to the way reactions, being via ActivityPub or Webmentions protocols, are now calculated should have been an opt-in feature...

What actually happened

See above... nothing to add here...
One could consider this is a pure "cosmetic" bug, but this means there's code interfering with WordPress' default behavior for comments.
It's not breaking stuff... so far...

Impact

Most (> 50%)

Available workarounds?

No but the platform is still usable

Logs or notes

When your users/customers still complain to you, this means they still care about you.
The day you don't get any complaint, it means they're gone somewhere else...

[obenland]

Hey, thanks so much for the feedback!

The purpose of the change is for counts to reflect the number of comments in the comment list, instead of saying "6 responses" while only showing one:

It shouldn't effect the admin interface beyond these post-specific comment counts in the dark bubbles. The number of approved, pending, trashed, etc comments should remain the same. The overlap with Webmention comments is something that might need a second look in the future.

Can you share more about how the Reactions block breaks with non-Activitpub reactions? Is it missing avatars? It looks like the Webmention plugin stores them differently than Activitypub.

[cybeardjm]

Oh, you mean it's a "feature", not a bug...
Come on guys... Let's be serious one second.
Why break something that worked perfectly... oh, I know, entshittification on steroids!

I have 2 blogs 800+ posts / 2100+ posts with a lot of reactions behind comments.
I use them as reference to share or update content. Now what? I have to manually browse to check, where I could view instantly from the admin previously...

You know what? I'm about to ditch ActivityPub and post about it very soon. I'm sure you absolutely don't care. I do.
Ask @pfefferle for the rest, he knows full well what it's all about.

[cybeardjm]

BTW, 6 responses is a useful indicator for me, as I know what it means in reality.
You're just trying to justify your shitty AP block, with false pretense...
Been using the plugin for 4+ years. In 2025? Not so sure.

[pfefferle]

@cybeardjm I am sorry that this is another change that frustrates you, but it is no false pretend here. This was a real issue report and it was a change on purpose, because we thought it makes sense to have different numbers for different types of reactions: #1069

You could also argue that the number before was a bug, because it should show the number of comments and reposts and likes are no "comments". I am not saying you are wrong here, I just want to point out that this could be seen from different perspectives.

Our concern is not malicious but to improve the plugin. As I already wrote on Mastodon, it is hard to please everyone and we always have to take assumptions/decisions and if they were bad, we will rework or revert them.

We just released the email settings based on the feedback of users including you and we will find a solution for this issue too!