NASA Watch Service Update – New Commenting System
Marc’s note: Please note that from 11:00 pm ET tonight through 11:00 am ET tomorrow NASA Watch will be undergoing maintenance and may be unavailable at times during that time with commenting turned off. We’re implementing a new commenting system. All old comments will be archived and ported to the new system.
Marc’s update – 12:00 pm ET Dec. 26: As part of our ongoing plan to improve NASA Watch we’ve decided to implement a new comment system. The transition is ongoing and is taking a little longer than expected. This is due to the sheer number of comments that need to be migrated to our new system.
We’ll be using Disqus a third party comment service which we’ve already implemented on some of the other SpaceRef web sites. One of the benefits of the new comment system will be a faster system, an ability to whitelist more commenters and a more effective and time saving spam filtering system. If you already have a Disqus account you can start commenting right away. Otherwise it just takes a couple of minutes to create a new commenting account.
The new system is effective immediately for new posts as of today. Older posts will have their comments transitioned over the next day. If you have any questions please send your inquiry to [email protected].
Thanks for the update — this seems to work.
I just signed up for DISQUS — it seems to work fine.
Folks:
Once Marc told me that I might have to change my user name, the process was pretty painless. I would suggest to folks that have to do the same to sign their posts with their old user names for a while so that the rest of us can make the (re)connections over time.
My new user name is… justatinker, or, should I say, Just A. Tinker (kinda like ‘Wile E. Coyote’).
Let’s try some rich text here. I certainly couldn’t do without be typologically expressive. Yay! My spell checker works too (couldn’t do without that either).
Typologically is a real word?
OK, let’s see what happens…
tinker
Disqus also does nested threads. And lets readers collapse nested threads. (Minus sign that appears when you hover over a comment.)
Folks:
OK, italics and bold work, just add the markups per usual. When you click on ‘Post as XXXX’, it posts! Marc, is there a ‘Preview’ mode on the new system (another thing I really need). Answered my own question here. If you click on the ‘DISQUS’ box and choose ‘Dashboard’, it looks like you can edit any post, not just the current one. It seems that you can only edit posts from today onward though. It also seems like you can only edit after you click on ‘Post as…’. A bit counter-intuitive, that. Still, it is an improvement. I don’t know how many times I’ve gone “Duh!” after I’ve clicked ‘Submit’.
The ‘Image’ button is gonna come in handy. I can draw you all pictures of those crazy ideas of mine. Marc, I’d probably put an ‘always moderate’ rule on posts with images… just to be on the safe side.
Can anyone else add some tips on using the new system? We can use this thread as a Wiki.
[edit] you can also post edit by clicking on ‘Edit’ on the bottom right. I assume that ‘Reply’ will nest to the current post as Paul says.
tinker
We allow some HTML to be used and you can find a full list here: http://docs.disqus.com/help…
Don’t forget about mentions, so you can mention anyone in this thread, or elsewhere using their Disqus or Twitter usernames. Just start by typing ‘@’ and it looks like this: John Gardi
Marc,
Just a thought. Disqus threads get narrow very quickly and you’re starting out with a fairly narrow comment display width so it’ll be worse here.
Any chance you can mirror the page so that the double-column currently running down the right is moved to the far left, leaving the comments to default to the user’s display width?
Paul:
I use a pretty large font on a 4:3 monitor and I don’t even use the full width. My browsers of choice are Firefox 3 and 8. The comment area doesn’t seem narrow to me. I do have to scroll over to see the Nasawatch sidebar but it’s less cluttered that way. Could you explain a bit more what you mean?
[Edit] This is a nested post, Looks like you can collapse all replies to the above post by clicking on the ‘-‘ sign at the upper right too.
tinker
After a few iterations of comment and reply, thread-cascades quickly get down to
one
word
per
line,
whic
h
isn’t
fun
to
read.
It’s not hard to collapse and hide the errant thread if it’s just two regulars having a Rabbit Season/Duck Season argument, but it’s a bastard if you actually want to read them.
Mark:
I get it now. The nested replys get skinny as reply is made to reply. I can see how that could be a problem after a few iterations. The only solution I can think of would be to simply not put the sidebar on the comment pages and only have them on the main headline pages. Marc, it that a possibility?
tinker
The nested replies only go 4 deep. As to a web design change we’re always looking st ways to improve the site while balancing the needs of what needs to be on the page.
Folks:
Marc, thanks for chiming in.
As we can see in the post below, Marcs’ reply is nested 4 deep and the ‘Reply’ link does not appear. Mark451 may have had experience with other websites that allow a larger number of nested replies where squished text would be a problem.
[Edit] This post is nested 4 deep as well. If it’s your post all you’ll see is the ‘Edit’ link. If it’s someone else post, all you will see is a ‘Like’ link. The ‘F’ that appears in the bottom line when you hover over a post is for flagging inappropriate content.
tinker
Marc,
Four nested levels seems readable. Although as Tinker noticed it seems that after a nested discussion reaches the fourth level you lose the ability to reply directly to someone. However there is a workaround as Tinker discovered, you can reply to the “level 3” comment above the post that you are replying to. For example to reply to your message I had to reply to Tinker’s message above yours, as will anyone else who wants their comment to appear in this particular nested discussion. In fact Tinker had to reply to his own previous message in order for his new reply to appear underneath your message. Not a problem, just something we’ll need to get used to.
Also as Paul has pointed out it can be difficult to try and find new comments if they are popping up within different nested discussions. But that is the nature of nested replies, it has its pros and cons. I’m sure we’ll get used to it. So far it all seems to be a nice improvement.
Nice. I’ve really wanted the “edit” feature for my typos. Thank you.
Definitely is better. For some reason the old setup constantly screwed up my logins on certain Windows boxes.
All,
Something else you’ll need to get used to. “Liked” and replied-to comments change their order if you keep the default “Sort by popular now” option. However, switching to “Sort by Oldest/Newest first” doesn’t do what it says on the tin: It refers to the creation date of the top message in each thread-cascade. So on old-but-busy posts, it can be hard to find new comments since you last read it.
Can I also suggest that everyone, like tinker is, sign with their old login if they had to change it with Disqus, until people get used to where the regulars ended up.
If you’re logged in, replies to your comments are shown by the number next to the Disqus “dashboard” button. (Above the comment box at the top of the comments.) Click on the number and you get a drop down list of recent replies.
—
[Edit: Also, if anyone’s having trouble staying logged in, you may need to create an exception to the third-party-cookies “disqus.com” (and maybe “spaceref.net“) in your browser’s advanced settings.
And you can reverse any action by hitting the same button again. Hit “Liked” to un-“Like” a comment. Hit “Reply” to close an unwanted reply box, or “Edit” to abandon an edit without saving changes (or harming the original.)
Click on any “avatar” picture (even the grey default pic) to expand the persons profile. Click the “activities” tab on their profile to see their recent messages to find that specific one you wanted to reply to or quote from.
And since you can edit your posts, there’s a convention to mark significant [edits], to make it less confusing.]
Finding the newest comments is something we also plan to address in the near future!
Yes it works. No need for “test” messages folks. 🙂
Marc,
Thanks for all your hard work, specially during this holiday season.
Just a couple of comments on the new system:
1. Is it possible to make the Add New Comment box a little taller? Having only three lines to work with makes it a bit difficult to check and review what you’ve typed, and jumping to the DISQUS screen to get a big box is cumbersome.
2. I’m in the habit of pasting my comments to Word to do spell and sanity checks before posting. In DISQUS, when I paste back any corrections from Word, it automatically inserts a carriage return before and after my paste. Also when I paste to Word, it adds an extra CR before and after every paragraph. Is there a way to turn that off, so that no CRs are added?
3. When I tried to do an edit on the comment screen, without going to DISQUS, it let me change the text, but would not save it (just gave me a wait message for ever). I had to go to the DISQUS window, repeat the edit and save it there. Is this normal?
Thanks,
Steve
Unfortunately unless we create a custom Cascading Style Sheet (CSS) some of the formatting changes you want aren’t possible. As to other Disqus issues there is nothing we can do as it’s their system.
Thanks Marc.
Steve,
“1. Is it possible to make the Add New Comment box a little taller? Having only three lines to work with”
It resizes as you type. (The re-edit box doesn’t, which is annoying. But better than not having edit.)
“2. I’m in the habit of pasting my comments”
Disqus is notoriously flakky with cut’n’paste. Even when you move text around within your own comment. It can add random CRs, cut lines in half. Nothing NW/Marc can do about it. Tres tres annoying. But fixable in edit.
“3. When I tried to do an edit on the comment screen, without going to DISQUS, it let me change the text, but would not save it (just gave me a wait message for ever).”
Sometimes the JS that triggers the edit window doesn’t trigger, the button greys out but it doesn’t trigger the server. Just hit the same button again and it seems to “wake up”.
Thank Paul. I’m new to DISQUS, so I guess I’ll have to practice a bit.
Steve
Hey guys, thanks for your feedback, we’re doing some testing on the Save Edit functionality, but it should be addressed shortly.
As for the edit box not expanding, this is something we’re also aware of and will be improving it with the next version of our product. Stay tuned!
Steve W,
For short messages composed within Disqus if you use Chrome or Firefox they do automatic spell check with errors highlighted in red. If using Internet Explorer (including IE9) you have to download a third party spell checker, and then it’s not automatic you have to right-click to run it.
For longer messages composed outside of Disqus, a pretty good combo for this type of thing is Firefox and Notepad. You can compose in Notepad, then when you paste the message into Disqus Firefox will automatically spell check it (this method doesn’t work for Chrome because it doesn’t spell check pasted text)
Steve P,
Thanks Steve. I’m not stuck in the past, but I am running older software. My computers have to do several things at once, so I design and build them myself and load them with software that will do the job but isn’t bloated with bells and whistles that I’d never use. This way I also eliminate all of the “helpers” running in the background wasting my computing power and ram. So, unlike most people, I get most of the computer horsepower that I paid for, but it means that I run Windows XP and IE7. I tried IE8 and it was a bloated pig that took almost a full minute to load! So I went back to IE7 and will probably never try IE9 until the day that I can’t avoid it. As for Chrome, Firefox, etc., I figure better the devil you know, so I’ve never spent much time on them. The nice thing is that I get 5 years or more out of a computer instead of only 1½ or 2 years.
Despite helpful information like you’ve provided, I’ll probably always be a hostage to my own ingrained habits.
Thanks,
Steve
No one that ever used NASA Watch needs the edit more than me LOL
spaceace
PS Like the bold too since I never get excited 🙂
Just learned that if you do an edit your comment poofs till your edit is approved. i don’t think i’ll use that much so as not to be a bother.
Note: That as we recognize commenters who used the old system and if they follow our terms of service, in other words don’t attack people, start flame war etc., they will get whitelisted and their comments won’t be held for moderation.
The old system did not work on many library or school systems because of their chat blocking software. disqus seems to work on more machines 🙂
DTARS:
Good to see on board the Newship NasaWatch.
I didn’t realize that libraries and school networks were getting so picky. My favorite way to get around problems like this is to ‘VNC’ (Virtual Network Computing) to my home computer and use the web browser on my home machine’s desktop. A version of VNC called TightVNC works well for me.
This is pertinent to this thread because ‘tunneling’ to your home computer is one of the safest and secure ways to post (like on NasaWatch) from any computer anywhere. It leaves no traces on the host machine and anything that you can do on your home computer you can do anywhere. Almost anything, that is. Posting on NasaWatch through VNC will be pretty much realtime but, say, watching Youtube videos would be choppy. I never type in a password on a computer I don’t own.
tinker
So got a visaul of you now.
you have an acme box next to you and you are wearing a helmet and either have a jet pack on your back or you are trying to light a rocket strapped to your back lol
Ok Mr. Wile E. Coyote
got it.