meta: Slashcomments implemented

Submitted by Brian on

You'll probably notice that the comments are completely different. They suck way, way less now.

1. Permalinks

2. New comment notification

3. Moderation revamp

4. No more awful pale blue

On #3: once you get 100 points you will be able to moderate by choosing a positive or negative descriptor (or "Normal," for whatever reason). Positive will add a point to the comment, negative will take one away. Anything less than one--the default starting point--will be automatically collapsed. Click to embiggen. Logged-in users can set a lower or higher threshold for collapsing.

Userpoints are not hooked up to this new system, but that is next on the list. I think I'm going to have to sponsor development for that so it might not be immediate. I'm also going to make some small usability tweaks (less date, more headline, for one).

It works for IE (I even checked this time!) but there is a bizarre and unfortunate CSS bug that makes the author pane scarlet and grey. I'll work on that but, as always, STOP USING INTERNET EXPLORER. WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU? Until I fix it just stare at that horrible color combination. Yeah.

UPDATE: I changed the setting so people participating in the thread can moderate it. Also I hacked out half of the admittedly-excessive options available in the dropdown.

kenfizzle

April 27th, 2011 at 7:19 AM ^

but I've been using IE 9 for the last week or so because I hate Chrome and I noticed Firefox 4 basically uses 400 MB of RAM at all times. It's actually not bad, and works great with the new comment module. I even gave you moderation for being funny

The Barwis Effect

April 27th, 2011 at 7:25 AM ^

...but, to me, a simple up/down vote still seems like the best way to go.

Appreciate the effort though on always trying to improve the site!  And I'm glad the "new" marker is back!!  I do miss the "top" button however.

Wolverine319

April 27th, 2011 at 7:25 AM ^

Cool beans. I am the webmaster for my research group's page. My advisor wanted a sleak and clean page. I could get the elements and scripts to work with every browser except IE for some odd reason. Heck I could even get it to work with FF4, Opera, and Chrome. Guess what browser my advisor uses for the oddest reason? Yep, IE. He is perhaps the only person I know who still uses that piece of crap browser. 

RowoneEndzone

April 27th, 2011 at 7:38 AM ^

This change is good.  The drop box moderation seems a bit cumbersome but I am sure we'll adjust. 

What is all this talk about IE??  Is there a new crappy browser out there called internet exploder?  How do I download it!  /s

go16blue

April 27th, 2011 at 8:10 AM ^

Agreed. its brian's blog, but if enough people object, it might be worth putting to a vote or something. also, im sure its just a bug, but i couldnt moderate you because i have already posted in this thread.

WFBlue

April 27th, 2011 at 7:59 AM ^

what is the little dollar shaped symbol in the top right corner?

 

EDIT;  Yup, your ability to "moderate" goes away once you post (at least in Chrome).

wile_e8

April 27th, 2011 at 10:39 AM ^

It might be useful to stop people from downvoting every reply that disagrees with them.  But it's probably more viable on Slashdot, which literally has millions of users.  I'm guessing that if people that comment on a thread here can't moderate it, there will be few other interested people left to moderate.

Waters Demos

April 27th, 2011 at 11:05 AM ^

But again, I assume the system is meant to encourage replies to upvoted or downvoted posts so as to be more specific as to why a post was treated a certain way.

Most of the time, though, people upvote and downvote with no explanation.

So I guess this system gives at least some idea as to why those people upvoted or downvoted, even if not very specific.  It's better than no explanation at all, and in that respect, it's better than before. 

M-Wolverine

April 27th, 2011 at 3:19 PM ^

Just means you'll get posts grayed out and called trolling when someone just disagrees with the opinion. It makes it look like more than it really is (with a downvote) - I don't like your post. Ideally that's not how voting/moderating goes...but come on, we all know better.

Waters Demos

April 27th, 2011 at 3:35 PM ^

that this system relies on intelligent and measured voting, well . . . I have my doubts for the reasons you articulate. 

The rationale is certainly reasonable, but it does seem better - in light of the reality that a lot of votes are either ad hominem, or based on some personal distaste for the comment - just to have numbers.  At least then such personal downvotes won't result in otherwise good posts having tags like "troll" attached to them, or being grayed out, as you noted.

Cope

April 27th, 2011 at 3:26 PM ^

I think I'm going to hate, not the trolling choice, but how people use it. Your comment was moderated as trolling which it clearly was not. The headaches comin on...
If we random Internet people are just honest this will work perfectly.
/fatalistic grin

pz

April 27th, 2011 at 8:58 AM ^

Can I set it to un-collapse comments that have been neg-bombed and might be worth reading (bombing) - maybe ones more than -5 or -10?

Collapsing prescient one word posts like "nice" would also be a good option...

MGoShoe

April 27th, 2011 at 9:18 AM ^

...is that as a post in the thread reaches -2 or -3 or whatever, your threshold options will change to match. You won't be able to test this until a post gets negbombed, so feel free to downvote this post to test out the theory.

MGlobules

April 27th, 2011 at 9:33 AM ^

theory might be that it's because the post sux, but often it's the lightning-rod stuff that the conversation builds AROUND. Someone care to explicamelo?

MichLove

April 27th, 2011 at 9:40 AM ^

love the new setup! the only problem I am encountering is the fact that I can't comment once I have posted in the thread - same issues that some have discussed below.

Is anyone able to comment after posting or is this something that needs to be fixed for the whole website?

CapedBlueSader

April 27th, 2011 at 9:54 AM ^

Does anyone else think the kid in the middle row all the way to the right looks like Shawn Hunwick in monuMental's wallpaper? Or do I just have serious problems with letting go Michigan Hockey right now?

BlockM

April 27th, 2011 at 10:00 AM ^

I'm going to agree with the general sentiment that options are not great in this case. I just want to say whether a post is good or bad and whether someone should get/lose points. I don't have a huge problem with this method, but I'd prefer simple up/down again.

Also, am I not able to show newest posts at the top anymore? That was great.

thisisme08

April 27th, 2011 at 10:21 AM ^

Dont hate the playa hate his employer who has not seen the light of day w/ Chrome and Firefox. 

Thing that pisses me off the most is that our IT uses FF BUT we peons who cannot install crap onto our machines have to use IE8 (full disclosure: IE9 really isnt that bad).

 

Edit: Ewww lil girl squeal I like how it highlights your post in yellow, sort of like the Chrome Extension but I'm not vain enough to have actually added myself to that list. 

MGoRob

April 27th, 2011 at 2:06 PM ^

Can someone help explain something.

I don't get this whole collapsing thing.  The lowest threshold I can choose is -1?  So once something goes to -2 we can no longer see it?  Am I interpretting that correctly?

edit: seriously, someone "negged" me for trolling?  This is a legitimate question.  Something that I also thought about, how are we to neg-bomb someone to Bolivia if the thread collapses after -2, or am I again still interpretting this wrongly.

BK-bloo

April 27th, 2011 at 10:59 AM ^

yay, and all that; but there's too much scarlet up in here.

damn work computer, and no control.  IE6 and nothing else. couldn't even get my flash player updated without opening a help-desk ticket and waiting two weeks.

think i'm gonna quit this job.

edit: it's IE7, but still...