Comment Threads
Hey everybody... I was just thinking that it might be nice to work on making the comment system a little easier to use.
At the moment, I'm experimenting with a threadless layout.
This means that you're not going to get any comments crunched up on the side anymore, but it may be more difficult to discern context and things.
Please let me know what you think.
UPDATE: I'm backpedaling on this one, guys. See here for more information.
ttyl
--Alex
With the new system...
All comments are ordered by the time when they were posted, instead of who is replying to what.
This would be great (when you post a comment, it goes to the bottom without fail) except it mixes up all of our previous comments.
*sigh* I guess nothing can ever be easy...
ttyl!
--Alex Markley
And with that, the chubby one became illiterate with excitement.
Alex Markley
“Objects in mirror seem closer than they appear.”
Uh oh
That means I'm out of a job!
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"It is an old maxim of mine that when you have excluded the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth." - Sherlock Holmes in The Adventure of the Beryl Coronet
You know how to raspberry, don't you Steve? You just put your tongue out and blow.
What I Think
I don't like it. I greatly preferred the tree structure layout.
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"O Death, where is your sting? O Grave, where is your victory?" 1 Corinthians 15:55
“[Jesus said,] ‘Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.’” –Matthew 24:35 (ESV)
I knew you wouldn't...
"I don't like it. I greatly preferred the tree structure layout."
I knew you wouldn't like it. The tree structure allows for more "things" to be going on at once without being confusing - but only if you already understand how it works.
I feel like it's missing something too, but methinks this setup will be easier for people to understand, which is what we need to get people more engaged.
Since there will be less chance of having multiple conversations at once, I expect this to lead to more forum topics (and thus, more individual threads) and more direct quoting of parent messages.
At least, I hope that's how it works out...
ttyl
--Alex Markley
And with that, the chubby one became illiterate with excitement.
Alex Markley
“Objects in mirror seem closer than they appear.”
Problems
"That means I'm out of a job!
"
The problem with "fixing the comment string [sic]" is that it breaks the whole idea of a tree structure. (Imagine ripping off branches of a real tree, then putting them on the ground and expecting them to stay alive...)
Such nonsense should never be necessary.
ttyl
--Alex Markley
And with that, the chubby one became illiterate with excitement.
Alex Markley
“Objects in mirror seem closer than they appear.”
We have a tree like that in the backyard!
See, Grandpa ripped it offa tree in Rhode Island, shoved it in a bag with some dirt, threwit in the back of his truck, and drove here. When i first saw it i thought it was a stick that got caught on his truck, so... i snapped off part of the top.
Now it is planted in our backyard. But, its not doin so well...
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I have found that one of the hardest things, is walking when all you want to do is swim.
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“Yeah,” Ilor said, beginning to laugh, “they'd kill us because they're pirates!”
Comment Stacks
I know it crushes comments to the side, but at least that makes sense. Maybe we could make the indentation a little more subtle...? As it is, there isn't even any point to being specific on what you're replying to, unless we were ever going to switch the formatting back. I wouldn't sacrifice that continuity and order for simplicity.
It fixes the problem of removing comments from context after they're posted, but the problem we've more commonly encountered is comments being removed from context upon creation, and this layout doesn't fix that.
I wish I could come up with better suggestions to fix the problem instead of just criticizing your current attempt...
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"O Death, where is your sting? O Grave, where is your victory?" 1 Corinthians 15:55
“[Jesus said,] ‘Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.’” –Matthew 24:35 (ESV)
Subtle
Well, I've come to agree with Quartz. There's a lot of chaos here that I don't think we need.
So I've switched us back the way it was, and I've made the indentations more subtle. (Additionally, the indentations are based on font size instead of pixels, so they will scale with different screen sizes.)
This change won't completely fix the "comment stack" problem, but it might just make it bearable.
--Alex Markley
And with that, the chubby one became illiterate with excitement.
Alex Markley
“Objects in mirror seem closer than they appear.”
PHPBB
I like it how it is, but if you wanted something simple, why don't you use something like PHPBB? I use it and it's great.
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Posted from GFG's laptop at the BEACH!
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Gone
Because
We don't just want something simple. When Malex had them sorted by time stamps just now that was simple.
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"O Death, where is your sting? O Grave, where is your victory?" 1 Corinthians 15:55
“[Jesus said,] ‘Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.’” –Matthew 24:35 (ESV)
:-\
"I like it how it is, but if you wanted something simple, why don't you use something like PHPBB?"
PHPBB, ah, what terrible memories that name brings up.
I do not use PHPBB because it has a number of very serious design flaws, and because cross-program integration is basically impossible.
Yes, I want a good forum, and PHPBB has a number of "neat" features that haven't been implemented in Drupal, but Drupal has a number of very important things that PHPBB does not.
Specifically, Drupal is extendable. It's designed to be whatever you want it to be. (If you're a programmer and can write good code.) Without Drupal, the Malex Media Network would not be possible in its current form, and that's the truth.
ttyl
--Alex Markley
And with that, the chubby one became illiterate with excitement.
Alex Markley
“Objects in mirror seem closer than they appear.”
Ahh.. drupal.
Drupal is responsible for messing up my noblivion website -_-
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Posted from GFG's laptop at the BEACH!
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Gone
heh...
Drupal is not for the faint of heart... It's a very powerful tool, but that can be bad sometimes, too...
--Alex Markley
And with that, the chubby one became illiterate with excitement.
Alex Markley
“Objects in mirror seem closer than they appear.”