Comment format changes (part 2)

by clockwerks on Feb 17, 2008 3:11 PM PST

We're back with more changes!

After we released the last round of updates to the comment format, we've been listening to all of your feedback. A few of the things we changed were experiments and we've been learning how well those did and did not work out. We appreciate your patience and your responses as y'all help us improve the new commenting system.

Here is what we've done this time:

No longer automatically unmark new comments as you tab through them with the 'c' key
Added SHIFT-c keyboard shortcut which will tab you backwards through new comments
If you click on a name in the new comments pop-up during auto-refresh we'll drop you in that spot of the new comment tabbing cycle
Added the 'x' keyboard shortcut which allows you to manually unmark the new comments as you tab through them.
Added the 'r' keyboard shortcut which will open the reply form on a comment if you have tabbed to it with the 'c' key
Removed the flash and fade when unmark new comments
When you tab to a comment with the 'c' key you will know because the line at the top will get darker
There is a link just at the bottom of a post to jump down to the comment posting form
The comment posting form is open by default now
We show the FanPost list on the sidebar of all the FanPost detail pages
Only one or the other is required: comment subject or message, not just subject as before

There is some feedback we heard and think are good ideas, but just haven't implemented yet. We know there are some problems with the tab order on the Mac - we're trying to find a fix to that.

Also, kinda OT, but y'all may have noticed that we changed the FanPosts list on the homepage a bit, including how the recommended FanPosts list worked.

Please use this thread to continue giving us feedback, report bugs, etc.

[Update by clockwerks, 02/17/08 9:12 PM EST ] We figured out the tab order problem on the Mac. Turns out you have to change your system preferences to make your Mac tab to everything properly. Here is a blog post with some good background. But, if you're on a Mac and you want to solve your tabbing woes (like all of us on the SB Nation dev team), then do this:

Apple menu -> system preferences -> keyboard and mouse -> keyboard shortcuts

Then at the bottom of the window, under 'Full keyboard access', click the 'All controls' radio button. You'll have to restart your browser I think, but then proper tabbing glory awaits you. Now if you're in Firefox 2 / Mac OS you can tab to the preview button when you're posting a comment!

4 recs | Comment 164 comments

Read Related

Story-email Email Printer Print

Comments

Quick question

How come other blogs on the SBC nation that I am a member of, with the same user name and password that I use on AN, don't show up on my user profile?

"I Will Not Relent, I Am Driven"... Clutch
Bring Back The Bash!!!

by Shippee33 on Feb 17, 2008 3:59 PM PST 0 recs

they haven't been upgraded to the new platform yet

Also you have to make sure and claim those old blog account so that they're associated with your new SB Nation network account. You can do that by going to your profile -> Edit Account -> Claim old blog account. You may have already done that when you first signed up, but you can always do it later as well.

I'm one of the guys that built the new SB Nation

by clockwerks on Feb 17, 2008 4:05 PM PST up 0 recs

just a reply test

www.mavsmoneyball.com

by Wes Cox on Feb 17, 2008 4:07 PM PST up 0 recs

ccr

type tab enter enter

/posting without a mouse

AIM: SouthSideCheat

by The Cheat on Feb 17, 2008 4:29 PM PST up 0 recs

no subject needed? I like.

by Matthew on Feb 18, 2008 3:48 PM PST up 0 recs

Thanks for all your hard work, clockwerks.

After I click a link in a post, then hit the BACK button on my IE browser, I'm returned to the top of the post instead of the comment I was at previously. This requires me to scroll back down to where I was before so I can then resume reading the rest of the comments. Can that be remedied to how it was on AN 2.0, when hitting the BACK button always took me back to where I was in the body of that particular post?

Dark Chocolate Truffle

by Ice Cream on Feb 17, 2008 4:14 PM PST 1 recs

is that after using the 'c' keyboard shortcut?

or just anytime you've scrolled down the page yourself to read comments?

I'm one of the guys that built the new SB Nation

by clockwerks on Feb 17, 2008 4:20 PM PST up 0 recs

It's inconsistent.

It does happen after using the 'c' keyboard shortcut but will also happen on other links when the 'c' control isn't used. Yet it doesn't happen all the time. Will contiue to experiment...

Dark Chocolate Truffle

by Ice Cream on Feb 17, 2008 5:03 PM PST up 0 recs

A Lot of new directions.

Are you sure # 5 works?

by IM4Oakgal on Feb 17, 2008 4:33 PM PST 0 recs

you have to have a comment highlighted

for the r to open a new reply windo

AIM: SouthSideCheat

by The Cheat on Feb 17, 2008 4:36 PM PST up 0 recs

Still having trouble

but I will keep playing around with it. Thanks for the clue though ,The Cheat.

by IM4Oakgal on Feb 17, 2008 4:38 PM PST up 0 recs

Oh and # 4

You have to highlight it too? It was easier before just pushing the C button to erase them after reading.

by IM4Oakgal on Feb 17, 2008 4:41 PM PST up 0 recs

Oh

PS I like # 10. That is a good improvement.

by IM4Oakgal on Feb 17, 2008 4:35 PM PST 0 recs

agreed

There's no crying in baseball!

by gigglingone on Feb 17, 2008 4:36 PM PST up 0 recs

Good stuff

The A's colors are green and gold.

by mikeA on Feb 17, 2008 4:40 PM PST 0 recs

thanks for the report

we'll take a look

I'm one of the guys that built the new SB Nation

by clockwerks on Feb 17, 2008 5:28 PM PST up 0 recs

Continued improvements, thanks

I'm not getting the "When you tab to a comment with the 'c' key you will know because the line at the top will get darker." All the new comments look the same (and they stay yellow, which is great), but I can't tell which particular one I've c-tabbed to.

I'm in Firefox in Mac OSX; will try on the PC laptop later on.

Also, another bug: I'm playing with new avatars, and when I switch a second time, it seems to freak out the appearance of the avatar next to my diary on the rec'd list, and (for me at least) it just shows the file name of the one I just switched from. Tiny, not very significant bug.

There is an A in Whimsy.

by FreeSeatUpgrade on Feb 17, 2008 4:52 PM PST 0 recs

hmmm

it should show up as a thicker, darker line when you tab to a new comment. you might need to do a shift-refresh in firefox or clear your cache.

thanks for the avatar bug report - we're aware of that one and working on it.

I'm one of the guys that built the new SB Nation

by clockwerks on Feb 17, 2008 5:27 PM PST up 0 recs

Now on Firefox from Windows XP platform

and the thick line shows up exactly as described. But it's not working for me from Mac OSX (also Firefox).

There is an A in Whimsy.

by FreeSeatUpgrade on Feb 17, 2008 7:32 PM PST up 0 recs

It's working for me

on Mac OSX in Firefox.

by pam5981 on Feb 18, 2008 2:38 AM PST up 0 recs

Has now started working for me as well

Something y'all tweaked last night did the trick for the OSX+Firefox combo.

There is an A in Whimsy.

by FreeSeatUpgrade on Feb 18, 2008 1:57 PM PST up 0 recs

BTW

The most commented boxes don't really seem useful or necessary JMO.

by IM4Oakgal on Feb 17, 2008 4:53 PM PST 0 recs

LOVE the keyboard shortcuts.

"Glitter is the herpes of craft supplies."

by Jennifer on Feb 17, 2008 5:13 PM PST 0 recs

I still can't get them to work .

by IM4Oakgal on Feb 17, 2008 5:15 PM PST up 0 recs

ditto

by pam5981 on Feb 17, 2008 6:15 PM PST up 0 recs

I know it has been asked before...

but what was the answer again to these two questions?
1. Why do they show the record of our votes on polls? That seems like it should be kept private.
2. Will they be putting a list of people who have recommended diaries back as a feature?

by IM4Oakgal on Feb 17, 2008 5:17 PM PST 0 recs

answers

1) we didn't realize that people would want to keep their vote private. we'd often see people commenting after voting, explaining why they voted one way or the other. if a lot of people don't like the public votes, we can get rid of that.

2) yes

I'm one of the guys that built the new SB Nation

by clockwerks on Feb 17, 2008 5:24 PM PST up 0 recs

OK

I like those answers!

by IM4Oakgal on Feb 17, 2008 5:26 PM PST up 0 recs

I just posted a poll asking

for preferences on that. It's here.

formerly known as mdl

by iglew on Feb 17, 2008 6:41 PM PST up 0 recs

Any way I can get AN 3

to bring me some pizza and beer during games? KTHX

"Glitter is the herpes of craft supplies."

by Jennifer on Feb 17, 2008 5:25 PM PST 0 recs

that will be the 'p', then 'b' keyboard shortcuts

I'm one of the guys that built the new SB Nation

by clockwerks on Feb 17, 2008 5:28 PM PST up 0 recs

Not working for me.

I'm getting peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.

"Glitter is the herpes of craft supplies."

by Jennifer on Feb 17, 2008 6:14 PM PST up 2 recs

Actually that's a "p"

and a "c". Turns out that Trei is a fan of Mexican beers and programmed it to "cerveza" instead of beer.

by Blez on Feb 17, 2008 11:45 PM PST up 0 recs

I don't wanna tell you what comes out of my computer when I press "p"

Even if they're clever, they become stupid with repetition. @('.')@

by monkeyball on Feb 18, 2008 7:52 AM PST up 0 recs

I hope you have parental block

"Oakland has now increased its payroll to the point that it now ranks third in the Bay Area among all McDonald's franchises.”

-Sandy Alderson, former A’s general manager.

by 67MARQUEZ on Feb 18, 2008 8:01 AM PST up 0 recs

QOTAN3

Brainless Automaton #439

by rubin sierra on Feb 18, 2008 12:47 AM PST up 0 recs

Can I search the archives for comments

either by commenter or by content? We used to be able to search all of our own old comments by hand-entering numbers in the URL window at the top of the browser. Is there any equivalent planned for AN 3.0?

"And Julio Franco is batting right-handed!" -- Wayne Hagin, A's radio play-by-play, mid-80s

by Nick on Feb 17, 2008 5:40 PM PST 0 recs

can't search comments yet

but we are planning to add that

I'm one of the guys that built the new SB Nation

by clockwerks on Feb 17, 2008 5:52 PM PST up 0 recs

Cool! Keep up the great work!

"And Julio Franco is batting right-handed!" -- Wayne Hagin, A's radio play-by-play, mid-80s

by Nick on Feb 17, 2008 6:16 PM PST up 0 recs

I notice something else...

The list of fanposts is not updating how many new comments there are in a consistent fashion whn I refresh. For instance this thread showed no new posts but when I clicked on it it said one new post. I have noticed that in other threads too.

The comment type is smaller than I like too.

by IM4Oakgal on Feb 17, 2008 5:49 PM PST 0 recs

what browser/OS are you using?

I'm one of the guys that built the new SB Nation

by clockwerks on Feb 17, 2008 5:53 PM PST up 0 recs

Meant below as a reply to you.

by IM4Oakgal on Feb 17, 2008 6:01 PM PST up 0 recs

I am on AOL

Using windows.

by IM4Oakgal on Feb 17, 2008 6:00 PM PST 0 recs

#4

is working for me now ...but I don't like that when I use the X feature it then spins me to the top of the page...would prefer to have the comment delete and be left exactly where I am on the page.

by IM4Oakgal on Feb 17, 2008 6:06 PM PST 0 recs

New C and X behavior

is totally awesome! I'm very very happy with this.

For me (Safari v3.0.4) it works exactly as you describe it, and it's exactly what I wanted.

formerly known as mdl

by iglew on Feb 17, 2008 6:25 PM PST 0 recs

Same feedback as iglew -

The "c" and "x" features have me doing my happy dance non-stop. Kudos to the tech-meisters for these kinds of features.

I like Cindi. A. She never pretends to know more than she does. B. She has unbridled enthusiasm for her "Hotties," and isn't afraid to show it. -IM4Oakgal

by Nico on Feb 17, 2008 6:44 PM PST up 0 recs

It works very skittishly on my computer.

I know i am doing it correctly and yet sometimes it erases the yellow and sometimes it doesn't. Before , for me, the C button did it perfectly. I think it makes a difference if you have a mac or a PC. I have a PC.

by IM4Oakgal on Feb 17, 2008 11:29 PM PST up 0 recs

I, too, danced in my chair.

formerly known as mdl

by iglew on Feb 17, 2008 7:02 PM PST 0 recs

Strange behavior, maybe bug

I meant this comment as a reply to Nico, but I initially entered it in the main "post a comment" box on the bottom. After preview but before post, I realized my error, so I clicked "reply" on Nico's post. This caused a new reply box to open, indented with Nico's post, but the old reply box didn't go away, and the text I had typed remained in the old box.

So I cut-and-pasted it out of the old box and into the new box. When I previewed, it looked like a reply, but then when I posted, it came out as a new post anyway.

I think maybe this is unintended behavior?

formerly known as mdl

by iglew on Feb 17, 2008 7:07 PM PST up 0 recs

What, your incessant babbling?

I assume so.

I like Cindi. A. She never pretends to know more than she does. B. She has unbridled enthusiasm for her "Hotties," and isn't afraid to show it. -IM4Oakgal

by Nico on Feb 17, 2008 8:35 PM PST up 0 recs

This is great!

Thank you! I also like that when I view posts for the first time, all the comments are marked as new so that I can use the same UI throughout (open thread, hit 'c' key, get most recent comment).

I like the 'x' key to unmark but I expected it to "unmark and then move to the next comment" rather than just unmark because why would you want to unmark a comment and just stay there.

I just wanted to say that as a software engineer I am so impressed with your receptiveness and responsiveness to all of the comments, suggestions, and criticisms.

by indigo on Feb 18, 2008 1:11 AM PST 1 recs

Ditto on the expanded x functionality

if it can unmark and move (like c used to) I'll be a happy camper.

by green star oakland on Feb 19, 2008 4:51 PM PST up 0 recs

3rd

that's a great idea. and I just now noticed that my R doesn't do a reply in IE7. drat.

it's me, JP

by JP on Feb 20, 2008 11:13 AM PST up 0 recs

-1

This would reduce functionality, not increase it. With current behavior, if you want to unmark and advance, you can simply type X followed by C, which is trivially easy to do. If want to unmark and stay put, you can type just X.

With proposed new behavior, unmark and advance requires only X instead of X+C, but unmark and stay put becomes impossible.

That said, it's really not a big deal to me either way. I think my main objection would be I could no longer use X and shift-C to cycle through new comments from bottom to top, which I've done occasionally.

Is it really so hard for you to type X and C in quick succession? That's what I do most of the time. It doesn't seem like it's worth it to limit the unmark function only to advancing forward through the comments, just to turn a quick two-finger keystroke into a one-finger keystroke.

formerly known as mdl

by iglew on Feb 20, 2008 2:23 PM PST up 0 recs

One person's decreased functionality

is another's increased usability. The new controls provide a clumsier interface for a number of us - maybe a 3rd key can provide the unmark+move option.

by green star oakland on Feb 21, 2008 8:31 AM PST up 0 recs

it's working great

Just to give you another platform specific data point, everything works really well for me in Firefox 1.0.7 for Red Hat.

by colin on Feb 18, 2008 8:06 AM PST 0 recs

oh, wait

I am having one glitch. When I hit the preview button for that last comment (and it'll presumably happen for this comment too), my browser jumped up to the top of the page. Then I had to scroll all the way down to press the post button. The same thing happened when I hit reply to add this comment (I had to scroll down to get to the comment posting screen). My browser status bar still says “Transferring data from assets.sbnation.com…”, so maybe it will jump down here on its own once it finishes that.

Another confusing thing is that there are two comment posting panels here. I imagine that one is for replying to my previous comment (I did hit the reply button) and the other is for posting a brand new comment. Maybe it's just because I am replying to the last comment on the page, but these two comment posting panels are right in a row, so I can't really tell which is the one I should be typing in to post a reply.

by colin on Feb 18, 2008 8:14 AM PST up 0 recs

Ok, I'm able to reproduce this behavior

It looks like if you click REPLY or PREVIEW before the page has completely loaded, you will get booted to the top of the page. I think the X problem IM4Oakgal reported above is probably related.

I've logged a bug about this; we'll get working on a fix. Thanks for reporting these issues!

I'm one of the guys that built the new SB Nation

by lovitt on Feb 18, 2008 8:58 AM PST up 0 recs

TY Lovi

My X behavior is outta control!

by IM4Oakgal on Feb 18, 2008 1:00 PM PST up 0 recs

"Lovi"?

Aaaw! ;)

"There's no real reason why a flight in which one flies naked should be more expensive than any other."

by Poppy on Feb 18, 2008 2:02 PM PST up 0 recs

OMG!

Those tech guys are amazing !!! I complained about a "No Poppy feature" and Voila! They fixed it just like that!

by IM4Oakgal on Feb 18, 2008 2:09 PM PST up 0 recs

"Lovi"?

Aaaw! ;)

"There's no real reason why a flight in which one flies naked should be more expensive than any other."

by Poppy on Feb 18, 2008 2:12 PM PST up 0 recs

Shaddup!

LOL...can't I show the tech guys some love?

by IM4Oakgal on Feb 18, 2008 2:15 PM PST up 0 recs

IE 6 bug back again

the right sidebar on IE 6 is again below the screen. Possibly because a video has finally been posted.

by Zonis on Feb 18, 2008 8:53 AM PST 0 recs

Polls in old diaries/fanposts

No idea if this is a widespread problem or a one-off (or if someone's already called it out), but this old diary/fanpost seems to have lost the poll that was attached to it.

Even if they're clever, they become stupid with repetition. @('.')@

by monkeyball on Feb 18, 2008 9:07 AM PST 0 recs

links to other SB blogs

Not sure if this has been brought up before, but is it possible to bring back links to other SB blogs on the AN front page? I know one can go to the SB blog page to do this, but it's easier when it existed on AN, and it probably drives up traffic for the whole SB network.

by Deep Puddle on Feb 18, 2008 12:20 PM PST 0 recs

they'll be coming back soon

I'm one of the guys that built the new SB Nation

by clockwerks on Feb 18, 2008 12:35 PM PST up 0 recs

I still haven't seen you doing anything about...

getting the Poppy feature back to posting regularly. I miss it(her).

by IM4Oakgal on Feb 18, 2008 1:09 PM PST 0 recs

I'm on my way back from "If You Don't Have Anything Nice To Say..."-land

I've been reading, and the tech guys have been doing a great job of listening & responding & keeping everyone informed. Kudos to them :)

Something that may be a bug, I can't recall if anyone else has brought it up: When I clicked on "reply" to IM4Oakgal's 1:09 comment after I had posted my reply to her 1:00 comment, the subject line and new comment box contained the content of my earlier (2:02) reply ("Lovi? Aaaaw")... instead of being a blank slate for me to post a new reply to a different comment by her. And it also seems to have posted the "Lovi?" part twice. And this might post twice, too, because I cancelled while it was thinking, so I could edit to add these last two sentences.

"There's no real reason why a flight in which one flies naked should be more expensive than any other."

by Poppy on Feb 18, 2008 2:15 PM PST up 0 recs