Poll: How to display a comment timeline

Are we to assume through the context provided, that this poll is for the specifically linked designs, or if the poll is meant to inform a general design aesthetic?

If the former, I'd say balloons, as there's very little other grouping indicators present in the individual comments (and the page design looks pretty flat in general).

If it's the later, we'd need to consider the design of the elements of the page and the relationship between various headers and text elements before a good decision could be reached. As well, more color/size/contrast elements in a potential design may force the balloon elements to be of a much higher contrast themselves, which could ultimately overload the page.

I think both are pretty awful (if conventional for contemporary UIs) -- way too little emphasis on the text (too hard to read as a conversation). That said, if you have to have that much whitespace, and ridiculously long lines, a box helps repair the damage done by the basic layout.

I never understood why the various variants of "phpBB"-style, table-like layouts became so popular. I much prefer something that looks like irssi (perhaps with some support for indenting blocks, with optional syntax colouring).

Or, if the goal is "long form" comments, something that reads more or less like properly quoted, properly re-flowed text emails:

    >>> Example line, but too short paragraph to
    >>> adequately illustrate superiority
    >>
    >> With a response that is similarly afflicted
    >
    > Another line -- you'd probably have to have sender
    > somewhere, maybe in the margins, if we're trying to
    > move beyond simple text?
    
    I think margins would work.

I'm not saying that one has to use brackets and only text, I'm fine with using fonts, colours and white space -- just make sure you're improving on the UIs from the 70s with the bling-bling.

It'S a Poll. Not a technial question. So good to be here, we all can learn from opinions that flow in.

I agree. I also think there are a couple of factors that might subjectively push people towards one of the answers, which will loose the OP's idea of this pool.

1) One of the provided design might be bad and so people will choose the other one. For example text balloons background is slightly grey and the space between the comments is bigger than the separation line on the minimal chrome. Also the separation line is the same color as the code example and the attached image border, which kinda makes a different perception of the whole content. So here I would choose balloons, because of this flaw.

2) The dummy content might look better in one of the two designs, which doesn't mean that the concept of the case is bad, but just the rendering. ( This can be solved by providing a design + content for the two cases that makes them look equally ( another subjectivism ) good. )

3) Misunderstandings about the question. What is being asked here : Which one of those two designs is better? or Which concept is better?

We discuss concept here. Balloons or not. In future we proceed with improving font-size/colours/margins etc for selected concept.