[Audentio]

Works on 3.8.x.

However, I didnt like the height. Despite editing it in the acp, I added a dropdown fuction so staff who don't care to make comments or at least not at that time (in other words, they can call on it), I made this modification:

THREADCOMMENT:

<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="80%" align="center">
<tbody>
	<tr>
		<td class="thead" colspan="5">
			<a style="float:$stylevar[right]" href="#top" onclick="return toggle_collapse('threadcomment')"><img id="collapseimg_threadcomment" src="$stylevar[imgdir_button]/collapse_thead$vbcollapse[collapseimg_threadcomment].gif" alt="" border="0" /></a>
			Staff Comments
		</td>
	</tr>
</tbody>
<tbody id="collapseobj_threadcomment" style="$vbcollapse[collapseobj_threadcomment]">
<tr>
		<td>
			<if condition="$threadinfo[threadcomments] > 0">
				<if condition="$show['morethreadcomments']">
					<div align="center"><a href="showthread.php?$session[sessionurl]t=$threadinfo[threadid]&amp;showall=1">[$vbphrase[threadcomments_more]]</a></div>
				</if>
				<table class="tborder" cellpadding="$stylevar[cellpadding]" cellspacing="$stylevar[cellspacing]" border="0" width="100%">
					$commentbits
				</table>
			</if>
			<if condition="THIS_SCRIPT != 'postings'">
			<div align="center" style="margin-top: 10px;">
			<form name="threadcomment" action="showthread.php" method="post">
			<input type="hidden" name="s" value="$session[sessionhash]" />
			<input type="hidden" name="t" value="$threadinfo[threadid]" />
			<input type="hidden" name="addcomment" value="1" />
                        <input type="hidden" name="securitytoken" value="$bbuserinfo[securitytoken]" />
			<input type="hidden" name="page" value="$page" />
			<input name="threadcomment" size="80" class="bginput"></textarea><button type="submit" class="button">$vbphrase[add]</button>
			</form>
			</div>
			<else />
			<br />
			</if>
		</td>
	</tr>
</tbody>
</table>

threadcommentbit:

<tr>
<if condition="$vbulletin->options['threadcomments_time']">
	<td class="alt1">$comment[username]</td>
	<td class="alt2" width="15%">$comment[date]</td>
<else />
	<td class="alt2">$comment[username]</td>
</if>
	<td class="alt1" width="100%" <if condition="!$show['threadcommentdelete']">colspan="2"</if>>$comment[comment]</td>
	<if condition="$show['threadcommentdelete']">
	    <td class="alt2"><a href="showthread.php?$session[sessionurl]t=$threadinfo[threadid]&deletecomment=1&commentid=$comment[threadcommentid]">X</td>
	</if>
</tr>

threadcomment bit just took away the valign="top" as thats not necessary, it looks better centered, but if you use this I dont expect you to need to update that if you don't want to.

Toggling the menu hides the whole hack until you want to use it.