> This boils down to an implementation choice. The thr attributes provide > a way for UI's to display something before fetching the feed, which is > often useful for an individual to decide whether or not it is even > worthwhile to fetch to the comments feed in the first place. > > Also, consider that comment feeds may span multiple pages (using the > paging link rels). With your algorithm (which, yes, is the only > authoritative way of determining *exactly* how many comments have been > received), you would have to retrieve every page and count up the > comments. Considering also that feeds do not necessarily have to be > ordered chronologically (tho most are) and that the feed may contain > comments to multiple entries, getting a precise count of the total > number of comments can be a time and resource consuming process that > involves examining every individual entry in the feed for the presence > of a matching in-reply-to link. Alternatively, you could decide to trust > that the feed publisher may have already done all this work and has > provided a reasonably accurate count in the form of the thr:count > attribute. It's your choice.
Fair enough. It sounds reasonable but I'm still not fully convinced. I'm happy we discussed it anyway. Thanks, - Sylvain
