Yeah, there’s a ton of zig-zag clicking forward and back which seems excessive, and (again) takes forever on slow internet connections. My habits on the disqus system used to be read BB and open everything interesting up in a separate window. And then when my attention span for scanning today’s BB wore thin, I’d read one of the posts, usually clicking through to RTFA, then cicking back to read all the comments. Sometimes clicking forward again to check something in the article, etc, as @Elliott mentioned. Now, it’s double clicks and the extra time for every page to load frustrates me and I only get halfway through the blog in a night’s reading. The option of having the same post open in two or three different windows at once to make up for how the link to the artice is no longer allowed on the same page as the comments is possible, but why? For those of us who know that we’re as interested in what people are saying as what the authors said, and know that we’re going to go to the bbs site, can’t there just be a direct link to full article and full discussion? Is that really anathema with this format?
I believe @beschizza has mentioned that he wants full(er) BB post excerpts in the first post of the associated BBS topic. I can understand why.
I also opened a topic about the technical details of that in the meta category if you are interested.
Thanks, man! Someone commented once that having the comments so removed from the content was more secure for readers (in terms of being spied upon by government agencies), but so far my laziness and impatience wins.
I for one am glad to waste their time. Anyone snooping on me is going to get bored fast.
Anyone snooping on me is going to get bored fast.
If, with my history of consorting with members of the WUO, FALN, etc., I’m not in jail, I don’t think that people commenting on BB are in much danger of government persecution.
it’s great that the new system is more BBS than just comments, but please read the BBS threads on recent articles. The few I’ve read so far have weird layout, i.e. replies are hidden with a “3 Replies” type indicator, but the replies also show further down the thread. Is this a BBS convention I’m ignorant of? Overall very confusing and unreadable compared to the old system. Perhaps there is tweaking that needs to be done on layout conventions?
Ok, I take it all back. Now that I’ve had time to adjust, I regret my knee-jerk reaction. I’m actually liking the new format quite a bit.
And the “Are you sure you want to abandon your post?” when I hit cancel totally made me laugh. It’s the little things.
I’m still adjusting to the new comments system. I’ve found that I’m commenting a lot less on articles than previously. However I do like that conversations can continue after the original post has dropped away.
Can’t you embed the conversations at the bottom of the article so that we get the best of both worlds?
Part of me wants to start at boingboing.net. That way I’m one or two clicks away from the main story on another site, and one click away from the BBS comments.
The other part of me wants to start at the BBS, where we have an improved commenting platform, but I’m 2 clicks away from the blog post content and 3 clicks away from the off-site article.
The two combined could be great.
Here’s the thing with that. A) They don’t appear to like many comments because i rarely see any at the bottom of blog posts. B) We loose context in discussions. C) Doesn’t this go against the free spirited nature of boingboing and sharing opinions?
Boingboing comments were one of my favourite things with intelligent, quick witted people. Having that tucked away on BBS takes something away from boingboing.net.
I must add i do the majority of my browsing on my iPhone during a train commute with spotty coverage. Clicking away to another site is undesirable.
I say open up the comments and give us the best of both worlds! Who’s with me!?!
Dear BoingLeadersAdminsAlphanerdsThoseInCommand:
Please regard this post with the utmost respect from a lurker of great renown. I have been happily, merrily, and rewardingly visiting BoingBoing for many years. I love what you do, the things you expose me to, the thoughts and conversations you spur. Most (in fact probably all of those I am concerned with) of these conversations take place off-line, with my peers family and friends. Alas, as a mostly private person, I don’t partake much of social media, feeling no need to inform anyone else about my whereabouts or doings and thinkings. This lack of digital mastication (or at least the evidence thereof) does not in any way diminish my enjoyment of your content, and this extends and was especially true regarding the comments that used to appear at the bottom of your articles/postings/findings. I have discovered that I miss them, and I believe that their absence at the bottom of your postings detracts from your overall offering. (Yes I understand that a more comprehensive and shiny system is but a click and a login away, but I must wonder how many, just like me, never make the jump._
While I completely understand your choice for redesigning/redeveloping/rethinking your comments/postings, I would be remiss if I did not register with your new system, if only to post this single critique.
I am curious however about one thing: Have you detected a drop-off in either viewership or participation now that you have implemented the new system?
Personally, my own boingboing habits have changed, and towards visiting less and spending less time when I do.
Rock on, and take my critique in stride. I am just a neo-luddite who had his cheese moved and is a little put-off. You guys do a great job, and I think that what you do is actually quite important. Didn’t want you to think that I don’t appreciate the efforts and neatness that is required to do what you all do.
A sincere and heart-felt
Thank you.
- NOoC
Thanks. I wish I could have said it as nicely as you did.
I moved 5 posts to a new topic: How do I search for things I have posted?
I’m sure I’m not covering new ground here and no I didn’t backread to see if this has been said already.
I applaud the new approach however not pinning article comments to the bottom of, well the article and forcing me to enter the BBS to read or participate in a discussion is annoying and I wind up participating a lot less. Maybe you’re trying to reduce snarky one-liners, not sure but I would vote for a return to pinning the comments.
On to glory!
Hey BoingBoing overlords! Any acknowledgement yet on pinning all comments to the article and giving us the best of both?
Also it would be interesting to know if there’s been a change in traffic to boingboing or commenting in general since the change. Hello??
Just a gentle nudge 
I am beginning to notice some trolls arriving in some threads. The Amanda Palmer thread. The Zimmerman thread. Feminist threads. Lets all see how they’re handled.
One aspect of the old system that was superior was the not amazingly long leash discussions were given when they started getting toxic. I rather enjoyed the curated aspect of those discussions, where those presenting fallacious arguments and “dropping turds in the punchbowl” were weeded out after a bit of knocking around.
But I miss disemvoweling.
Flag them please!
I hope this is the right place to post this request for investigation into two possible features:
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How about an indented conversation view of each topic, like an outline with expand/contract (I guess using the usual plus sign or triangle icons). See Dave Winer’s new Javascript-based outliner Fargo (http://fargo.io) for a possible example and/or possible tool.
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Exposure of discussions as RSS/XML so I can subscribe to them? Am I missing this somewhere?
on #1 you may wish to review a few other topics in the meta category.
on #2, yes you are missing something. View source on this very topic and you’ll find:
<link href="http://bbs.boingboing.net/t/welcome-to-bbs-our-new-discussion-boards/31.rss" rel="alternate" title="RSS feed of 'Welcome to BBS, our new discussion boards'" type="application/rss+xml" />
It may have been mentioned somewhere before but the BBS does not play nice with Safari on iOS in several ways. Besides sizing and scrolling issues, some things are unclickable and the back button does not work right at all with this site.
