diff --git a/tildes/tildes/models/comment/comment_tree.py b/tildes/tildes/models/comment/comment_tree.py
index 011c925..ae3e0a7 100644
--- a/tildes/tildes/models/comment/comment_tree.py
+++ b/tildes/tildes/models/comment/comment_tree.py
@@ -198,11 +198,20 @@ class CommentTree:
 
     def finalize_collapsing_maximized(self) -> None:
         """Finish collapsing comments, collapsing as much as possible."""
+        # whether the collapsed state of all top-level comments starts out unknown
+        all_top_unknown_initially = all(
+            [comment.collapsed_state is None for comment in self.tree]
+        )
+
         for comment in self.tree:
             comment.recursively_collapse()
 
-        # if all the top-level comments end up fully collapsed, uncollapse instead
-        if all([comment.collapsed_state == "full" for comment in self.tree]):
+        # if all the top-level comments were initially uncertain but end up
+        # fully collapsed, uncollapse them all instead (so we don't have a
+        # comment page that's all collapsed comments)
+        if all_top_unknown_initially and all(
+            [comment.collapsed_state == "full" for comment in self.tree]
+        ):
             for comment in self.tree:
                 comment.collapsed_state = None