I don’t see myself looking at the “best comments” section much at all. If I’m interested in what people thought about a post, I want to see all comments in their full context. A handful of picked-out comments doesn’t seem to serve any purpose.
8 Likes
I decided to check how it works without JS, and yes you’re right - it doesn’t work. The 2 main things seem to be: A - you can’t interact (reply, etc.) and B - the relationships between posts for this thread are not displayed (except for one, which is weird).
That said, I have no idea how much of an issue that really is.
1 Like
I’m a (concept) album person. Listening to a “greatest hits” compilation is more likely to ruin my opinion of a band, not improve it.
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This thing has buggy backwards scrolling. To reproduce:
- open a big thread like this fresh, without any comments loaded (a new tab, browser session or whatever);
- jump straight to the end of the thread by clicking the down arrow in the reply counter thingy;
- scroll upwards, as you would if you wanted to read new comments in reverse order;
- when you hit the first “loading screen” after a few dozen comments, it triggers a cascade - as soon as one set of comments is loaded, it loads the next one, until you’re back at the top of the page.
2 Likes
The day has come: BBS is back!
Everything looks great at first glance. Discourse is a great choice: useful, clean. When mobile support comes completely I’ll be here 7/24.
Do we really want to give Jeff Atwood another successful product ? Soon he will be unstoppable.
‘Notable Replies’ is a TERRIBLE idea. It is the exact opposite of the ‘open culture’ that you guys and girls are - rightly - always advocating.
It privileges both personal “fame” and comment “popularity” over the inherent value of the comment.
It marginalises the occasional commenter, whose comment, by the very nature of its occasionality is actually more likely to have real value than the average comment of a regular.
It incentivises people to promote the party line in a conscious or unconscious attempt to get invited inside the velvet rope of the “real” BoingBoing site. This is not just an unwanted effect, but the opposite of what should be desired, namely the promotion of the dialectical method (basically, a ‘Royal Rumble’ of ideas, where the strongest ideas defeat the weaker).
Further, like Capitalism, it creates a feedback loop of the aforementioned marginalisation, where the popular people gain popularity due, in part, to their popularity, and contrarians like me eventually give up and leave because their thoughts never make the headlines.
It destroys (on the “real” BoingBoing) the context of the discussion, becoming a ‘clip-show’ version of the conversation; ie more laughs / no story; stripping the meaning from the conversation. (Please, don’t say “you’ve still got the BBS”. That’s like saying “you’ve still got free speech zones”). In my opinion, most BB visitors will usually only see the ‘Notable Replies’. I usually read about six to ten articles (and associated comments) a day. I’m guessing that I’ll usually be too busy to be bothered digging though forum, except in exceptional cases (and I’m not even especially busy), and that that’ll be the case for many, and that the BBS will tend towards being the preserve of the particularly dedicated types.
I’ve read BoingBoing every day for ten years and this is the first time since you guys required sign-in that I’ve really felt the need to comment.
Ironically, probably not too many will read this comment because:
A) I’m a “no-reputation” commenter, and
B) The “cool” kids won’t like it, because they are more likely to take their cue from the high council.
Still love you guys and think that the content is basically unparalleled, but this move makes as much sense as killing the goose that laid the golden eggs.
Thanks for reading!
17 Likes
Looks like deleting works as well.
1 Like
Having to press a button to see replies to a comment is seriously horrible and makes it impossible to read this as a conversation. Not only that, but the little button that indicates a comment even has replies vanishes when the cursor isn’t on top of the comment.
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Fancy new digs! I like it!
I love this comment so much. I agree with it wholeheartedly.
That’s it. I’ve tried reading the comments to this post and I’ve given up. I have no Idea how many of them I’ve read but I doubt it was more than 10%.
boingboing, you are my home. My favorite place on the internet. A place filled with Happy Mutants that share my train of thought and teach me new things through comments and conversations. It breaks my heart to think this won’t happen anymore.
Please reconsider this.
Sincerely yours,
your loyal reader for the last 10 years.
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I am so confused.
This is like BB commenting on steroids. I’ll put aside a few days next week to learn the ropes.
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I can’t really see this happening personally, unless I’m missing something.
Comments that get a lot of likes on BB are by no means from regulars - in fact us regulars are likely a major reason why BB decided to remove the standard comment system in the first place.
I think what you’re likely to see is the exact opposite of what you describe - which is awesome!
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This looks great. And looks like a big endorsement for a site like Boingboing to switch to Discourse. However if a site aims to serve also people with IE9 and lower Discourse is not really an option. Of course people should just upgrade…
Still, I am unsure if I can just click the Reply button anywhere or if I have to scroll absolutely down to comment on the trunk and not a branch.
So, basically it’s a comments version of DIGG. What could possibly be wrong with that?
Damn. When I saw “BBS”, I was hoping it’d be 300 baud…
5 Likes
Hi.
Pretty sure I read somewhere (but I now can’t find it), that “likes” from regular commenters are more heavily weighted in the calculation of “notability”.
Maybe someone will clarify.
Good: No longer need to unblock Disquis (or anything else) from Ghostery.
Good:I don’t have to reveal my ids on other social networks. Score +2 for privacy.
Bad: No mobile version (just a minor nit).
pgt
This is by design. :D
Hmpf. @daneel hit the nail:
but I don’t want to read half a thread, so now I have to open twice as many tabs […] It might be by design, but I think it’s a sucky design.
I say, I am going back to the fidonet. Yeah, Not. 
And while am at whining, what are these strange emoticons? I cant to without 
popping up. I don’t even know why anybody would really like to have an eightball in a comment. Why do they keep popping up? I’m so disoriented. Please, I hate change. I want my eye-hurting EGA 16 colour display back…
Also, no kittens. “Sorry, new users can’t put images in posts”, whuuuut?!
