Slashdot Firefox Extension

christopherfinke writes "I've been working on Slashdotter Firefox extension for Slashdot users, and version 1.2 has been approved by the Mozilla admins. Features include the ability to auto-add cache links after story links (from any of Coral Cache, Google Cache, or Mirrordot), a quick-reply feature that adds a 'Reply' option to the right-click menu when you select text in a comment, the option of styling all of Slashdot's pages like a chosen Slashdot section, links in the comment sections that allow you to toggle open/closed all of a comments replies, and more. All of Slashdotter's features are optional, and the extension is compatible with Firefox, the Mozilla Suite, Seamonkey, and Flock."

Comments

Features

[donnyspi]

Does the extension automatically remove dupes and fix typos in the titles of submitted stories???

Re:Features

[michaelmoran]

No, but it does automoderate trolls.

Re:Features

[MyLongNickName]

Yes. Click this link for a sample of the dupe free Slashdot link

Re:Features

[Jugalator]

If it parsed the story tag "dupe" (which actually are in DIV's using the CSS class "tags", so they should be identifiable), and could associate these tags with their detailed story (DIV's with CSS class "details"), these DIV's can then be hidden by applying the appropriate collapsing "display:none" style, and if you've got this far, possibly also add a link to expand these collapsed stories if you're still interested.

Re:Features

[Yst]

Or, for that matter, would the plugin author consider providing functionality which would systematically add dupes and typos to other sites using Slash, so as to bring them into closer conformity with Slashdot's standards and make them more familiar in appearance and function to a Slashdot-acclimatised audience?

Re:Features

[Perl-Pusher]

Does the extension automatically remove dupes and fix typos in the titles of submitted stories???

I think an auto reply "this is a dupe" might be in order. Along the same lines as "reply to selected text", which seems to be working fine here.

Re:Features

[Wannabe Code Monkey]

Does the extension automatically remove dupes and fix typos in the titles of submitted stories???

No, but I just used it to reply to your post, and it works pretty well. In the quick reply section of the preferences, I put this in for my format:

<p><i>%s</i></p>

And it works great.

Re:Features

[networkBoy]

Does the extension automatically remove dupes and fix typos in the titles of submitted stories???

No, but I just used it to reply to your post, and it works pretty well. In the quick reply section of the preferences, I put this in for my format:

       

%s

And it works great.

Now if it would auto-escape HTML tags . . . ;)

Re:Features

[TheSpoom]

I honestly don't think that trolls of that nature make up the majority of the Slashdot readership and certainly not the majority of subscribers, who are the only ones who can currently tag. The point is moot.

Re:Features

[Rebelgecko]

You don't have to be a subscriber to tag. I don't know how many regular users can use tags, but you no longer are required to be a subscriber to tag.

Re:Features

[i.of.the.storm]

As sibling post said, I'm not a subscriber. I can tag.

Re:Features

[just_another_sean]

Yes! :-)

I'd *pay* for open source software that did that!

Re:Features

[mrchaotica]

Nah, he's using <i> for good reason -- just to italicize the text to visually differentiate it from the rest of his post, because Slashdot doesn't support doing it with CSS like it ought to. He should only use <em> if it's actually emphasized, which it isn't.

On the other hand, he really should use <blockquote> instead of <p> because it is a quote, which was what I was going to point out until I saw your post. ; )

Personally, what I use for quotes (manually, until I install the extension) is <blockquote><i>%s</i></blockquote>.

(I just hope he notices and reads this post, since I replied to a reply instead of replying to his post directly.)

Re:Features

[Speare]

Try my typoxy web proxy for any English blog or forum. No, I'm not running the proxy service, you run it on your localhost.

http://halley.cc/typoxy

http://halley.cc/typoxy.png

http://halley.cc/dot-typo (~/.typo)

Requires HTTP::Proxy (e.g., apt-get libhttp-proxy-perl).

Re:Features

[Matilda the Hun]

Actually, I'd be worried if dupes were tagged as such when they're put up; if the editor realizes it's a dupe, why's it up in the first place?

Re:Features

[zootm]

You still need the <p> if you're using <blockquote>, since it's meant for multiple-paragraph quotes. The thing you wrote could be <blockquote><p><i>%s</i></p></blockquote>.

:)

Re:Features

[mrchaotica]

Touché, mon Slashdotteur, touché.

What about IE?

[skynare]

Too bad that use IE. T.T

Re:What about IE?

[WebHostingGuy]

It will be available as soon as Vista ships . . . around 2Q 2010.

Re:What about IE?

[Neeex]

90% of people online may use IE, but ~0% of people capable of writing such a plug-in are using IE.

Re:What about IE?

[christopherfinke]

where is the extension manager in mozilla 1.7.5?

There isn't one. But there is an extension (Extension Manager) that adds one. :-)

Re:What about IE?

[christopherfinke]

But where do I configure the extension, like to turn on/off various features like you can do it firefox?

The options dialog for the Slashdotter uses some XUL tags that weren't supported until Firefox 1.5, and not supported at all in Mozilla or Seamonkey. This isn't necessarily a problem, since you can't get to the options dialog in those browsers anyway.

If you want to change the options for Slashdotter without the dialog, call up the page about:config. Slashdotter's options all start with extensions.slashdotter. The boolean ones are pretty straight-forward, and the stylesheet one is the subdomain of the section that you want to style Slashdot as (e.g. apple, it, games, etc.) or blank to disable it.

Re:What about IE?

[vwjeff]

Too bad that use IE. T.T

Perhaps you should check out the Firefox toolbar. It's available from: http://www.mozilla.org/ I've found that it makes my IE sessions much faster with fewer crashes. Kudos to Microsoft!!

Re:What about IE?

[slapout]

I wonder what all the people that write the malware plugins for explore run on their personal machines...

Re:What about IE?

[caudron]

Aren't you going to make one for IE? How about IE7?

Yes. You can get the plug-in at http://www.ubuntu.com./ Install the software you find at that site and your IE will work with all those great Firefox scripts. Trust in me. Would a stranger on slashdot lie?

Tom Caudron
http://tom.digitalelite.com

Awesome

[Zardus]

This is awesome. The greasemonkey script that adds mirror links keeps bugging out. I hope this will work better.

Also, I think the replies are AJAX. Woo

Re:trolly troll troll

[Anonymous Coward]

There's no error in what you highlighted.

Re:awesome

[liliafan]

That sounds pretty cool, I will go and download it right now, hmmm with all the extensions I am running my firefox is becoming bloatware :op time to remove a few I think.

Well I just did download it and this actually seems really useful for regular posters.

At First Glance

[Dante Shamest]

I thought this extension allowed me to slashdot sites while I browse. :O)

Seriously though, I like this feature:

* You can choose to have all Slashdot pages styled like one of Slashdot's sections. For example, if you're a fan of the Games section's hideous purple and black color scheme, you can have every Slashdot page look just as horrifying!

Re:At First Glance

[Yst]

yeah its pretty nice, i just used the reply to text feature as well. i just wanted to see how this work.

[right-click]
[Reply to Selected Text]

Seemingly it funtions, ideally, by turning Slashdot into a sea of superfluous blockquotes.

Not that I'd ever be guilty of such indulgences mind you.

Re:At First Glance

[AugstWest]

i just used the reply to text feature as well

Hey, me too.

Re:At First Glance

[utlemming]

Seriously though, I like this feature:

Well I think that this section is going to be lost to people using the reply to selected text feature. But I am a big fan of the styling. I got really tired of the green look. But it could have been easier by just making it a user preference, since many of us are probably auto-logged in.

Re:At First Glance

[christopherfinke]

Seemingly it funtions, ideally, by turning Slashdot into a sea of superfluous blockquotes.

If blockquotes aren't your thing, you can change the default quoting style in the options dialog.

Re:At First Glance

[maxwell demon]

I thought this extension allowed me to slashdot sites while I browse. :O)

I first decoded the headline as request to slashdot his Firefox extension (i.e. the page which provides it) :-)

Re:Awesome

[Zardus]

Hmm... Looks like the select-text replies aren't AJAX, but it turns the reply to this link into an AJAX-enabled thingy.

Now we just have to wait for the VCs to come along and dump millions on the poor guy for using the word AJAX.

Opera?

[Poromenos1]

Why doesn't anyone make any Opera js scripts? :(

Re:Opera?

[Poromenos1]

Because I don't have the necessary skills, obviously. Why don't you plant your own corn?

Re:Opera?

[cow ninja]

Why doesn't anyone make any Opera js scripts? :(

Because selecting your text and clicking 'Reply to Selected text' is easier :)

Oh yea, those darn Opera js scripts don't work with firefox :) I kid.. I kid...

Re:Opera?

[Dorothy 86]

Because I don't have the necessary skills, obviously. Why don't you plant your own corn?

Because, I am the great cornholio!

/just wanted to use the reply to selected feature
//this isnt' Fark.

Re:Opera?

[Gulthek]

Because, I am the great cornholio!

You need what for your what-hole? /also wanted to use reply to selected

Re:Opera?

[appavi]

Opera 9 Beta supports greasemonkey scripts. Greasemonkey scripts should work in opera as is or with some minor modifications.

Re:Opera?

[mac123]

Err...you mean like these ones? They work fine in both Opera and Greasemonkey

Re:Opera?

[wolf369T]

Opera (9 technological preview) have some very nice widgets with slashdot posts.

Re:Opera?

[pembo13]

Feeling left out are we?

Re:Opera?

[pAnkRat]

I wrote a bookmarklet, which I personaly use in Galeon, but it should work in all Moz* browsers.
If you hover over the comment Link (#15013415) it will pull the moderation results for this post with xmlHttp, and display the result table in a DIV tag, beside the current post.
The bookmark name is "slash mod"
The URL is:
(AFAIK this should all be in one single line.)

javascript:(function(){ var currentUrl =''; function h(event){ var url = 'http://' + this.host + '/comments.pl' + this.search; if(currentUrl == url){ var theDiv = document.getElementById('kwsmodding'); if (theDiv != null) { theDiv.style.display='block'; } } else { var req = new XMLHttpRequest(); req.open("GET", url, false); req.send(""); var resultText = req.responseText; var tableText = '' + resultText.split('data_head">')[1].split('')[0] + ''; var theDiv = document.getElementById('kwsmodding'); if (theDiv == null) { var theDiv = document.createElement('DIV'); var mybody=document.getElementsByTagName('body').item( 0); mybody.appendChild(theDiv); theDiv.style.zIndex=100; theDiv.style.backgroundColor='grey'; theDiv.id='kwsmodding'; theDiv.style.position='absolute'; theDiv.style.backgroundColor='grey'; theDiv.style.display='block'; } theDiv.innerHTML=tableText; theDiv.style.right='30px'; theDiv.style.top=(event.pageY - 20 ) + 'px'; theDiv.style.display='block'; currentUrl = url; } event.preventDefault(); } function hout(event){ var theDiv = document.getElementById('kwsmodding'); if (theDiv != null) { theDiv.style.display='none'; } } var xpe = new XPathEvaluator(); var nsResolver = xpe.createNSResolver(document); var result = xpe.evaluate('//li/div/div/a[contains( @href , "comments" )]', document, nsResolver, 0, null); while (res = result.iterateNext()) { res.addEventListener('mouseover', h, false); res.addEventListener('mouseout', hout, false); } })();

Once this is added to the bookmarks you can use it in the following way.

• go to slashdot
• pick story
• click "read more"
• after the page has finished loading, klick the Bookmark
• mouse hover over a Comment Url (normaly the last part of: " by Poromenos1 (830658) Alter Relationship on 23:26 28 March 2006 (#15013415)" in the Comment header)
• wait a sec.
• read result
• mouseOut the let the table dissapear again.

The code does some cacheing, if the users hovers/mOuts the same link a few times, the URL request is done only once.

Re:Opera?

[vigilology]

Slashdot Expandable Comment Tree, Slashdot: Expand Threaded Comments, and Slashdot - comment tree don't work in Opera.

Re:Opera?

[Ken_g6]

Hey, just stick a header on there, delete the "javascript:", save that as some_file_name.user.js, and that's a Greasemonkey script!

Not that it seems to work for me, Greasemonkey or otherwise. Did /. munge some characters?

Example header:

// ==UserScript==
// @name Slashdot View Moderation
// @namespace http://your-web-site/
// @description If you hover over the comment Link (#15013415) it will pull the moderation results for this post with xmlHttp, and display the result table in a DIV tag, beside the current post.
// @include http://slashdot.org/*
// ==/UserScript==

Re:Opera?

[bobzieruncle]

I have Opera 8, and it supports greasemonkey scripts too. But, I was trying out unembed which parses your html page as an XML document and Opera didn't support that. Is Opera 9 any better?

Re:Opera?

[pAnkRat]

Another try at the code, this time without any Bookmarklet spezifiks:

var currentUrl ='';
function h(event){
var url = 'http://' + this.host + '/comments.pl' + this.search;
if(currentUrl == url){
var theDiv = document.getElementById('kwsmodding');
if (theDiv != null) {
theDiv.style.display='block';
}
} else {
var req = new XMLHttpRequest();
req.open("GET", url, false);
req.send("");
var resultText = req.responseText;
var tableText = '' + resultText.split('data_head">')[1].split('')[0] + '';
var theDiv = document.getElementById('kwsmodding');
if (theDiv == null) {
var theDiv = document.createElement('DIV');
var mybody=document.getElementsByTagName('body').item( 0);
mybody.appendChild(theDiv);
theDiv.style.zIndex=100;
theDiv.style.backgroundColor='grey';
theDiv.id='kwsmodding';
theDiv.style.position='absolute';
theDiv.style.backgroundColor='grey';
theDiv.style.display='block';
}
theDiv.innerHTML=tableText;
theDiv.style.right='30px';
theDiv.style.top=(event.pageY - 20 ) + 'px';
theDiv.style.display='block';
currentUrl = url;
}
event.preventDefault();
}


function hout(event){
var theDiv = document.getElementById('kwsmodding');
if (theDiv != null) {
theDiv.style.display='none';
}
}
var xpe = new XPathEvaluator();
var nsResolver = xpe.createNSResolver(document);
var result = xpe.evaluate('//li/div/div/a[contains( @href , "comments" )]', document, nsResolver, 0, null);
while (res = result.iterateNext()) {
res.addEventListener('mouseover', h, false);
res.addEventListener('mouseout', hout, false);
}


Hope it helps.

Re:Opera?

[IntergalacticWalrus]

Because not enough people give a flying shit about Opera?

Maybe if Opera were to become free (as in free speech), it could become as popular as Firefox, and then we'll see many interesting Opera scripts.

using 1.1

[kv9]

very nice, i've been using 1.1 since last week. helped a couple of times with dead links.

Re:trolly troll troll

[Anonymous Coward]

I think you'll find that the grammatically correct version would have been "All your Slashdotter feature are belong to optional". HTH

What about IE?

[aw232]

Aren't you going to make one for IE? How about IE7?

Re:Awesome

[LiquidCoooled]

X replies under your current threshhold can be expanded with ajax now and are displayed in a much cleaner manner (the background is a slightly different colour and you don't lose your place in the page).
This is a really nice extension, however it would be better if slash could impliment the modifications on site(apart from the quoted replies).

I mean, however do Internet Explorer users survive without the niceness :P

Re:Awesome

[christopherfinke]

Looks like the select-text replies aren't AJAX, but it turns the reply to this link into an AJAX-enabled thingy.

The AJAX replies feature isn't for replying to comments, it's for those links that say "X Replies below your threshold." It makes it so you don't have to load a new page to see those replies.

Now we just have to wait for the VCs to come along and dump millions on the poor guy for using the word AJAX.

Woohoo!

Extra "Slashdotted Firefox" Modifier...

[Illbay]

...that gets added to your posts whenever you use the contraption.

Great idea

[shawn(at)fsu]

links in the comment sections that allow you to toggle open/closed all of a comments replies, and more.

Thank you. Sometimes I don't even want to see the flames the come after a person makes an unpopular comment. Nice job.

Re:Great idea

[Atzanteol]

Thank you. Sometimes I don't even want to see the flames the come after a person makes an unpopular comment. Nice job.

Hear hear. An entire story can just be wasted because of some moron trolling sucessfully near the top. This is far and away my favorite feature...

Looks good!

[SheeEttin]

it looks good, but one question before I install it--can you style just one section to use another's? I would find this infinitely useful in the IT section, as I can barely tell where one comment ends and another begins.

Re:Looks good!

[christopherfinke]

can you style just one section to use another's?

No. Or more accurately, not yet. I'll add it to the list of possible features for upcoming versions.

Yay!.. Taco did you see that?

[CptnHarlock]

I've been hoping for Taco to include the "colapse thread" feature for a long time. I still think it should be native instead as in the form of a plugin - then everyone could (and probably would) use it.

It would make it a lot easier to find the next real comment after a comment tree created by some Troll post... Another positive thing is that we'd get rid of the "high positioning" replies that normaly end up in the first tree. Are you listening Taco?.. :)

Cheers!..

Re:Yay!.. Taco did you see that?

[Quarters]

There's been a few Greasemonkey scripts available for quite some time that do most of the stuff this extenstion does, including adding cache links after hyperlinks and allowing for the collapsing of discussion trees.

Re:Yay!.. Taco did you see that?

[jambarama]

There are greasemonkey scripts to allow collapsing threads. And scripts to collapse stories and remove sidebars and figure out how much time you waste on /. and add mirrors and whatever else you want on slashdot.

I'd give them a look before I demanded the slashcode writers add features you want (or write the code yourself and submit it to slashcode), unlike other news sites this is an OSS project.

Re:Yay!.. Taco did you see that?

[ocelotbob]

More importantly, taco needs to pull out the retarded limit of 50 responses per page. Either that, or fix the overload page to be smart enough that if a thread has more than 50 responses, requesting the next page doesn't pull up the same responses.

Re:Yay!.. Taco did you see that?

[jZnat]

*points to "Bugs" link on the left side of the page*

I know exactly what you're complaining about here; I think I submitted a bug regarding this already, so go support it.

It's really quite nice

[A Dafa Disciple]

This was the first I had heard about this exstension. I've been using it for the last half hour or so and I'm very pleased. It really does make browsing /. here a more enjoyable experience.

I find some of the additions of the extension to be things that really should have be built into /. anyways, such as things that you find at Digg like AJAX comment retrieval - things that are not at all hard to implement that can dramatically increase the user experience. Nevertheless, I'm not really too surprised by /.'s apparent slowness in embracing new web technologies considering how long it took them to simply make this site fully standardized in CSS

One negative aspect of the extension, however, is that it seems to me that, depending on the feature set you have enabled, /. pages in general now take a bit longer to load, but not so long that it makes the plug-in not worthwhile, especially since it facilitates the speed of navigation in other ways.

All of you should check this out for sure!

Re:It's really quite nice

[Catbeller]

I watched a digitallife episode a week or so ago with a Slashdot god who said that they were almost ready with the new SuperSlashdot. It's a-comin'.

Feature Request

[OnlineAlias]

I for one would welcome an insert "imagine a beowolf cluster" or "welcome our evil overlords" or "netcraft confirms" or "all your base are" or "in soviet russia" button. That would be great.

Re:Feature Request

[mattwarden]

I'm waiting for the extension to include a "Moderate Funny/Flamebait" button, which would automate the task of randomly deciding to moderate a comment funny (75% of the time) or flamebait (25% of the time). I currently have to generate the randomness myself, which is annoying.

Re:Feature Request

[just_another_sean]

In Korea only old people would use this feature.

Re:Feature Request

[Geoffreyerffoeg]

Netcraft's Beowulf cluster confirms that all your base are welcoming YOUR evil Soviet overlords.

Re:Feature Request

[From A Far Away Land]

Don't forget the hot grits, or development might become petrified.

Re:Feature Request

[maxwell demon]

And of course:

1. [selected text]
2. ???
3. Profit!

Re:Wow

[christopherfinke]

This dude needs a job!

I've got a job. What I need is a life.

Aw nuts

[Crimsane]

Now i have to think up some witty comment just so i can test this thing out... *cough*

Re:Aw nuts

[jrockway]

> *cough*

Cover your mouth when you cough!

(Comment posting works. But now I can't see tags anymore, even though I unchecked "hide tags".)

Re:Aw nuts

[christopherfinke]

But now I can't see tags anymore, even though I unchecked "hide tags"

Whoops. That'll be fixed as soon as 1.2.1 is approved by a Mozilla admin; in the meantime, if you like Slashdotter and want to show tagging, you can download the new version from my site.

Re:Aw nuts

[jrockway]

> Whoops. That'll be fixed as soon as 1.2.1 is approved by a Mozilla admin

Thanks! But it looks like your site is slashdotted :)

Re:Aw nuts

[jonadab]

Now i have to think up some witty comment just so i can test this thing out... *cough*

Indeed.

However, I've discovered that this feature, in making replies too easy, can cause us to inadvertently run into slashdot's anti-spam features.

mozilla.org ignored for cache link insert?

[Toba82]

I'm using it right now and this story is the only one whose link is not paired with a set of cache links. Odd.

Re:mozilla.org ignored for cache link insert?

[J0nne]

it's because the coral cache doesn't work with https (for obvious reasons).

Re:trolly troll troll

[amliebsch]

The features belong to "Slashdotter," the name of the extension given in TFS.

LEARN TO READ! HTH HAND.

Wow!

[Otter]

...links in the comment sections that allow you to toggle open/closed all of a comments replies...

That's a feature I've long wanted -- every time some early bird gets a +5 for some offtopic spraying about Iraq or creationism that pulls 200 responses, I wish for it yet again. Thanks, developers!!!!

Nice will give it a try

[r3zurector]

Thanks Dude I will give this extension a try.

Does it have First Post button?

[chia_monkey]

Does it have a First Post button? Imagine the millions of man-hours per day saved by people hitting that button rather than typing all that manually.

Re:Does it have First Post button?

[alexhs]

Does it have a First Post button? Imagine the millions of man-hours per day saved by people hitting that button rather than typing all that manually.

But what would do people with that saved time then ?

Re:trolly troll troll

[Potor]

I'm pretty sure that's right, so the sentece should be "All of Slashdot's features" if the features belong to the site, or "All of a Slashdotter's features", if the features belong to the individual who uses the site

Nope. The software is called Slashdotter, and all of its (i.e., Slashdotter's) functions are optional. BTW: I used it to respond to this post. It works brilliantly! Thanks, dude.

Re:Awesome

[liliafan]

Seriously nice extension I am already enjoying the benefits. Now if you can just add a feature to ignore all comments by userX my life will be complete :p

I feel a great disturbance in the force...

[Mr. Flibble]

I feel a great disturbance in the force, as if millions of slashdotters cried out as the restarted firefox at once...

Missing one...

[__aaclcg7560]

All of Slashdotter's features are optional, and the extension is compatible with Firefox, the Mozilla Suite, Seamonkey, and Flock.

What about Camino? Don't forget the Mac fanatics!

Re:Missing one...

[christopherfinke]

What about Camino?

Depending on how big the differences between Camino and Firefox are, it may work already, but I'll have to find someone with a Mac who will either test it for me or let me test it before I can list Camino as a supported browser on the Mozilla Addons site.

Re:Missing one...

[appavi]

Camino doesnt support extensions.

From Camino FAQ

Q. Does Camino support Firefox extensions?
A. No, and it never will. Firefox extensions rely on XUL (a user interface toolkit made by the Mozilla Foundation) to interact with the user and draw their interface. Camino uses Cocoa (an interface toolkit made by Apple) and does not support XUL.

Also from the interview with Camino Project lead Mike Pinkerton

We recognize this is a problem for our users, but extensions only exist because of the cross-platform UI layer upon which Firefox is built. It's that same cross-platform UI layer that makes Firefox feel "wrong" on Mac OS X. Camino's use of Cocoa for the user interface makes it fit in with the rest of the platform, but prohibits us from using extensions. We feel this is a trade-off worth making. That said, we are investigating ways to allow non-user-interface extensions to register and work correctly.

Re:Missing one...

[__aaclcg7560]

I'll try it out when I get home from work. Camino has the Firefox engine underneath and using the Cocoa framework for the user interface. Beyond that I'm not sure since I'm starting to get into Mac programming myself.

Re:Missing one...

[ChrisC1234]

What about Camino [caminobrowser.org]? Don't forget the Mac fanatics!

How about a slight mod to make it compatible with MacSlash too

Re:FP!

[Gertlex]

Probably not...

How do you think it was tested?

Firewall this...

[radiotyler]

Funny, funny. I'm blocked by Websense from downloading this extension - or any Firefox extension from addons.mozilla.org here in the bowels of Iraq.

But obviously I can still post to /. Someone has some incredibly skewed priorities.

Re:Firewall this...

[christopherfinke]

I'm blocked by Websense from downloading this extension

If my site (efinke.com) isn't blocked, you can download the extension from there.

Re:Firewall this...

[radiotyler]

You sir, are the wind beneath my wings.

Thanks man!

Re:Wow

[Scherf]

I've got a job. What I need is a life.

Uh... looking at your Website, you seem to have quite the live.

That extension rocks by the way. Good work!

Re:FP!

[christopherfinke]

FP using Slashdotter-Firefox Extension's "Reply to Selected Text" option.

Nope; this was.

Most important feature is missing!

[roman_mir]

Where is the 'First Post' button, that guarantees a First Post in the story?

Quoting?

[krbvroc1]

I installed this and used the 'Reply to Selected Text' feature. It inserts 'blockquote' tags. Shouldn't it insert 'cite' tags? I like my quotes to be italicised, not just indented. Indentation does not seem to be proper quoting to me.

I went under the Preferences and changed the Quick Reply Format. But it got me thinking what is the difference between blockquote + adding italics and simply the cite tag?

Re:Quoting?

[Spy der Mann]

and simply the cite tag?

Ah, so THAT's what you guys used! I didn't know and used the <i> tag instead.

Re:Quoting?

[christopherfinke]

I installed this and used the 'Reply to Selected Text' feature. It inserts 'blockquote' tags. Shouldn't it insert 'cite' tags?

That's up to you; you can change the reply format in the Slashdotter options dialog.

Why no support for trunk?

[bill_mcgonigle]

Don't take this as a complaint - rather a matter of curiosity - why is the extension not compatible with the current nightlies? I find many useful extensions aren't and they're taking longer to update to be compatible with this release than others in the past. I presume it will be at some point, so why not now - is this a particularly nasty task?

I look forward to using the extension when it is.

Re:Why no support for trunk?

[christopherfinke]

why is the extension not compatible with the current nightlies?

Mostly because I don't use the nightly builds and thus wouldn't be testing on them. Is it possible to install them without upgrading my installation of 1.5.0.1? If so, I'd be happy to test it on them and post a compatible version of the extension.

Re:Why no support for trunk?

[bill_mcgonigle]

Is it possible to install them without upgrading my installation of 1.5.0.1?

I haven't tried it yet, but I have this open in a tab and it looks good from what I've read.

First Post?

[SnarfQuest]

Does it have a button to add an anonymous "first post" message to all the articles on the front page? It doesn't even need to look at the number of responses already posted. That seems to be one of the most common exercises done on slashdot.

Other features

[ericdano]

Other features include automatic flogging of Authors for posting duplicates. I.Q. filter, so we won't see any of Zonk's posts. Oh, and bad grammar maker. Gotta have that.

Thank You

[Spad]

All of Slashdotter's features are optional, and the extension is compatible with Firefox, the Mozilla Suite, Seamonkey, and Flock.

As a Seamonkey user, I'm really sick of Firefox extensions that refuse to work because the author couldn't be bothered to check them properly, so thank you for taking the time.

Re:Wow

[cayenne8]

Hmm...is there a feature you can click that turns up the 'intelligence' of the posts your read?

Re:Awesome

[SigILL]

Now if you can just add a feature to ignore all comments by userX my life will be complete :p

That's what your foe-list is for.

Oh, and kudos to christopherfinke for this plugin; I love it.

Legitimate story?

[Paralizer]

Seems hazy if an author should be allowed to submit a story to /. about his own project.

Re:Legitimate story?

[thrillseeker]

Seems hazy if an author should be allowed to submit a story to /. about his own project.

Yeah, we wouldn't want anyone knowledgeable about a subject starting threads.

Re:Legitimate story?

[MrP-(at work)]

Yeah, I'm getting sick of all these stories relating to that Linus dude and his pet "Linux" project.

Re:Legitimate story?

[timmyf2371]

Better that the author submits the story as this guy did rather than submit it under a pseudonym praising "some other guy's" extension.

I think it deserves to make front page as it did anyway; for people who aren't interested, fair enough - it's just another story you aren't interested in. For people like myself and many others who had never heard of this extension, it's great that we've now been informed.

Re:Legitimate story?

[raoul666]

Seems hazy if an author should be allowed to submit a story to /. about his own project.

Why? Especially if it's free, useful, and applicable, I can't think of a better story. Why does it matter if he submits it instead of me? A little bit of karma is all he's gaining.

Props to the creator of this thing. Very nice indeed.

Re:Legitimate story?

[max99ted]

Seems hazy if an author should be allowed to submit a story to /. about his own project.

I dunno... it's a handy item, the author is a Slashdot user AND has replied to posts about his project. I (for one) don't have a problem with it.

props

[fish_in_the_c]

cool :) props to you. I like it.

Don't install that!

[Tei]

Even if this software its safe. Having the same extensions is a call for problems, because a tiny hole will exploit the monocultive..

I suggest most people avoid this extension, and use only if really needed.

Remenber kids: Javascripts can kill your dog. (and .XPI is XUL+javascript).

Re:Don't install that!

[flosofl]

because a tiny hole will exploit the monocultive..

What? What does that mean?

Re:Don't install that!

[RemovableBait]

You were going for +5 Funny... right?

Re:Wow

[christopherfinke]

Hmm...is there a feature you can click that turns up the 'intelligence' of the posts your read?

Apparently not.

The real question

[rrkap]

The real question is: When will this new extension automatically insert Soviet Russia and Beowolf cluster jokes?

I'm going back into hiding now...

Re:Awesome

[MyLongNickName]

I think that his problem is in a limitation Slashdot has. You cannot foe yourelf. Clearly a third party work around is what he needs ;)

Re:Wow

[AKAImBatman]

What I need is a life.

What you need is kids. They'll take care of your free time for you, dontcha worry 'bout that. ;-)

Thank You

[Randle_Revar]

Thanks for the extension and thanks for making it work with SeaMonkey.

Re:Finally!

[bofh69]

Now I can make all of slashdot use that awesome color scheme from the Games section!

Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!

Suggestion!!

[Spy der Mann]

Automatically delete the comments (and replies) with goatse and similar links, please!

Re:Awesome

[SigILL]

I think that his problem is in a limitation Slashdot has. You cannot foe yourelf.

No problem; I know how to fix that. Just give me your password, and I'll do it for you.

Re:awesome

[Red Alastor]

That sounds pretty cool, I will go and download it right now, hmmm with all the extensions I am running my firefox is becoming bloatware :op time to remove a few I think.

What I like about it is that its function don't appear when you aren't on Slashdot so it doesn't add to your clutter.

Mmm OK... where's preferences page?

[mcguirez]

Maybe I'm not seeing this because I added this as a site-wide addin but most plugins add a new entry under preferences dialo. Some (Adblock) add a menu item under tools instead.

I can't find preferences for slashdotter on SeaMonkey although the reply, [CC}, and collapse replies work fine.

?

Re:Mmm OK... where's preferences page?

[christopherfinke]

I can't find preferences for slashdotter on SeaMonkey

There isn't one, although you can access the preferences under about:config. They all start with extensions.slashdotter.

Re:Mmm OK... where's preferences page?

[Atzanteol]

There isn't one, although you can access the preferences under about:config. They all start with extensions.slashdotter.

Or you can go to "tools->Extensions" and then double-click on the slashdotter plugin. It brings up a nice dialog box to configure slashdotter.

Re:Mmm OK... where's preferences page?

[mcguirez]

Well thats exactly the problem! There is no tools-> extensions in SeaMonkey or Mozilla.

Re:Mmm OK... where's preferences page?

[Atzanteol]

Ahhh, my bad. Sorry.

Re:Awesome

[liliafan]

well well learn a new thing everyday

Not me ....

[AnonymousPrick]

I want the "Frist Porst" button myself.

And, I don't want to upgrade to Ff 1.5 to use it. I'm quite happy with Ff 1.0.7.

Re:Not me ....

[roman_mir]

Well, good luck getting a developer to support FF1.0.7 2 of my extensions for example can fail gracefully, but simply providing less features for 1.0.7 and providing full features for the new version, but the third extension (StockTicker,) will only work right in the 1.5 and up due to certain features that are completely missing in 1.0.7 and that are critical, so I am not even testing in 1.0.7 anymore and I am sure this applies to most extension authors.

Re:Awesome

[MyLongNickName]

Sure it is mathematical though. It is the 5,000th prime number (no commas). We'll see who the first person to figure it out is.

Re:trolly troll troll

[bosko0]

Actually, "All Slashdotter's features" is the most correct, but "All of Slashdotter's features" is not something I would ever say is a big grammar error.

Reply to text option

[Anonymous Brave Guy]

What a great extension - it just made it straight onto my (fairly short) list of installed Firefox add-ins.

One minor request: any chance we could customise the reply to selected text option? At the moment, it just seems to wrap everything in blockquote tags, which doesn't necessarily yield well-formed HTML, and might not match someone's preferred quoting style.

Re:Reply to text option

[rholliday]

any chance we could customise the reply to selected text option?

You can. It's in the Extension options.

Re:Reply to text option

[Anonymous Brave Guy]

You can. It's in the Extension options.

So it is. Thanks, I completely missed that first time around. D'oh...

I have a better idea.

[Spy der Mann]

Imagine the millions of man-hours per day saved by people hitting that button rather than typing all that manually.

Funny, it reminds me of an idea I had thought about previously. Why not have a "first post this comment" while you're typing, so that it will encode the string inside your comment with steganography?

Does it fix the "slow down cowboy!" bug in slashco

[British]

The one thing that irritates me about slashcode is the "slow down cowboy!" with that mandatory waiting period before you can reply. If my karma's high enough, it's a good assumption that I'm not going to post nonsense, and that in fact I have something to say with a quicker response time. Slashcode apparently thinks otherwise. I don't liek the fact when I have something to say, I have to wait x amount of minutes before posting it.

It also discourages meaningful, brief replies if the time between "reply" and "submit" is too short. Does the firefox extension fix that problem?

Re:Wow

[Kalak]

To get kids usually requires a life first - all the better to crush your free time on the rocks of parenthood.

Re:trolly troll troll

[Potor]

Actually, I believe that before a pronoun or proper noun, "all of" is better. For instance: all of us, all of France, all of Slashdotter's, etc. That's what my dictionary tells me, at any rate.

Left in the dust

[fjm03]

Once again, us aging geek lites, barely able to comprehend Linspire 5.0, are left in the dust.

Gota version for FF 1.0.7?

Re:Left in the dust

[christopherfinke]

Gota version for FF 1.0.7?

I believe the only thing that wouldn't work on pre-1.5 versions would be the options dialog, which uses some new XUL introduced in 1.5. I may post links to modified versions of the extension on its homepage that will work with earlier Firefox versions, but they wouldn't have the pretty options dialog that the official version would have.

Mod parent up!

[Spy der Mann]

BTW, can you implement a "mod parent up/down" request, where you can select which tags to be used? as in informative, insightful, troll etc.?

Re:Awesome

[redheaded_stepchild]

I think you should learn to love your elf.

Re:Does it fix the "slow down cowboy!" bug in slas

[rholliday]

Does the firefox extension fix that problem?

That would be controlled on the server, not in your client, so no extension could "fix" it.

Re:Does it fix the "slow down cowboy!" bug in slas

[christopherfinke]

Does the firefox extension fix that problem?

No; that's a server-side limitation and can't be fixed/changed by an extension.

Doesn't work with Firefox 1.0.7

[JThundley]

The extension doesn't work with Firefox 1.0.7. I was enticed when I saw it in a comment earlier. Is there an easy way to upgrade to 1.5 in Ubuntu? I'm already using the universe repos.

Re:Doesn't work with Firefox 1.0.7

[flosofl]

The extension doesn't work with Firefox 1.0.7. I was enticed when I saw it in a comment earlier. Is there an easy way to upgrade to 1.5 in Ubuntu? I'm already using the universe repos.

Ubuntu has stated that they will not be rolling 1.5.x into 5.10 due to massive dependancy issues (at least that's what was claimed).

However, it can be done. Go to Ubuntu Forums and search for "Firefox 1.5 install" in the forums for 5.10. It's pretty straight forward. Alternatively, you could use Automatix to install 1.5 (search the forums for Automatix).

Re:Doesn't work with Firefox 1.0.7

[Risen888]

The wiki actually gives more-complex-than-required instructions (symlinks and whatnot). I just downloaded the new version from Mozilla, unpacked in in /home, and pointed my gnome widgets directly at it (/home/youradhere/firefox/firefox).

Saving time

[filament]

Wow! This will make wasting time so much more efficient!

Re:Awesome

[rholliday]

Not sure what you're using for the tagging feature (probably AJAX), but the tags have disappeared for me, even though the checkbox is disabled by default. I've enabled and re-disabled the option and extension to no avail.

Otherwise a definitely excellent product.

Greasemonkey Script can make it pretty...

[GeekLife.com]

I altered someone's greasemonkey script a bit. It unitalicizes all the article text, changes all the fonts to sans-serif, makes the page fixed-width to help with unending, unreadable length lines of text, and fiddles with a few font sizes for better readability.

// ==UserScript==
// @name Slashdot: italics swap, topic skin
// @namespace
// @description
// @include http://slashdot.org/*
// @include http://.slashdot.org/*
// ==/UserScript==
 
function addGlobalStyle(css) {
    var head, style;
    head = document.getElementsByTagName('head')[0];
    if (!head) { return; }
    style = document.createElement('style');
    style.type = 'text/css';
    style.innerHTML = css;
    head.appendChild(style);
}
 
addGlobalStyle(
 
    ".intro { border: solid thin #FFFFFF;padding: 10px; background-color: #FFFFFF; color: #555555; font-style: italic; line-height: 155%; font-size:13.5px; }" +
".intro a { color: #338833; text-decoration: none; }" +
".intro a:hover { text-decoration: underline; }" +
".intro i { color: #000000; font-style: normal; }" +
".topic img { position: relative; top: -25px; }" +
".storylinks { font-size:11px;}" +
".details { font-size:11px;}" +
"#frame { font-family:sans-serif;width:960px;margin:15px auto; }"
 
);

Re:Greasemonkey Script can make it pretty...

[a.d.trick]

I haven't checked it out, but it would probably be better if this line

style.innerHTML = css;

was changed to

style.appendChild(document.createTextNode(css));

It would make it standard code as well as be a lot more efficient.

And IE has had how long to think of this?

[wizard_dink]

What amazes me is IE has been around HOW MUCH longer than FireFox and they still don't have this add in as a default feature?

Re:Awesome

[christopherfinke]

the tags have disappeared for me, even though the checkbox is disabled by default

See this comment.

Re:Awesome

[rholliday]

I looked all over to see if you'd answered that already ... sorry. Thanks for the quick reply.

Re:Wow

[sploxx]

So a wife, but that implies no life...

Re:Does it fix the "slow down cowboy!" bug in slas

[geekoid]

An intentionally implemented feature is not a bug.

I could pander until my karma was high, and then bombard slashdot with posts. Could have hundreds before my karma was lowerd.

In the 'olden' days when they first implemented karma and it was apoint system, I aklways felt your karma should be subtracted from the number of seconds you are forced to wait.

It is still a wait, but not as bad. Before subscription, I also thought it would be neet if people with a karma over 40 got to see the next story first.

Re:Wow

[garaged]

no to mention those nice sleep hours...

I'm heading for my second child and I can tell you is worth, but you wont sleep good anymore

Re:FP!

[SydShamino]

Any chance that we could, as an option, replace this with "Reply to Selected Text in a New Tab"?

I prefer to have my existing tab unchanged when creating replies, so I can browse back and forth through my whole browsing history while crafting my reply.

Cracker's wet dream

[DragonHawk]

Since we're trolling...

I can just imagine the legions of Slashdotters (the people) installing Slashdotter (the program) as we speak (type). I know I plan to.

So, imagine if the author of this program slipped in a Trojan Horse back door or some such. Or, waited a bit, and added it to a future release. Suddenly, he'd have some level of access to the browser of hundreds or more Slashdotters!

How many people here reviewed the source code to this thing before they installed it? I know I didn't.

Food for thought.

Re:Wow

[AKAImBatman]

no to mention those nice sleep hours...

Don't worry, it will get better. You can forget ever sleeping in again, but you will eventually be able to get 8 hours of unbroken sleep. Just make sure you go to bed early...

also missing...

[SlowMovingTarget]

Later versions will include a feature that automatically votes for the "Cowboy Neal" option in Slashdot polls.

Re:*Gasp*

[Gobelet]

No Bon Echo support? :(

Well to be honest, there's no extension that works with Bon Echo. That's why I reverted back, I missed my extensions too much!

Thank God...

[identity0]

Slashdot's comments section has such a broken UI, I was actually thinking the other day to write a program to help me navigate it. Props to you for making that unnessisary.

I have some ideas about what is broken on Slashdot. Some of them would require actual site modifications to fix, other could be fixed with a browser extention.

If you want more bugs, how about:

  - When I'm in the post writing screen, there is no text of the story or link to it, so I have to open Slashdot in another tab and go to the story to read it.

  - The comments index is very, very broken. The "threshholds" concept's three drop-down menus (-1:5), (Threaded/Nested/Flat/No comments), (Oldest 1st/Newest 1st/Highest 1st/Oldest 1st Ignore threads/Newest 1st Ignore threads), and the "Comments spill at 50" concept interact in bizzare ways such that I don't even know what it's *trying* to do.

  - I *hate* the fact that comments below your viewing threshhold are listed at the bottom of the thread level instead of between the posts that it was replying to and got a reply from. So you sometimes see people seemingly reply to themselves, or flaming others, but they are actually replying to something below your viewing threshhold. I've seen arguments start this way, because someone thinks a flame was directed at them instead of to the AC that replied to them earlier. Please. for the love of god, put in an indicator if there is a post below the threshhold that a post is replying to.

  - I would like to be able to view the whole comments section as a threaded, subject-only(that is, no expanded posts) view, and open up individual posts which will open up in a nested, all-open veiw. Perhaps allow right-clicks on post titles should allow you to open up the comment and its follow-ups with any pre-specified threshhold options?

  - Instead of three drop-down menus in the comment index, how about a list of rules which we can rearrange the order of to make settings? Might require AJAX.

  - Slashdot's user prefs allow me to "bias" the moderation towards funny, or informative, or other moderation types, but it is a PITA to change it for each story. Some stories I want to read in "funny" mode, others I want to read in "Informative" mode. I should be able to change the bias to one of several presets like on an Winamp equalizer on a per-story basis.

Re:Thank God...

[Alaska Jack]

This is a really good comment. I agree with the idea that the core /. experience -- browsing through comments -- is disgracefully clunky, especially WRT to your third point.

My solution to this was a little different -- implement a vertical "tree" pane, like Google Groups. To my mind this is clearly the best forum user interface in existance -- it's so simple and intuitive that frankly, I'm baffled why I don't see it anywhere else.

I explain in a little better in my SourceForge bug report:

https://sourceforge.net/tracker/index.php?func=det ail&aid=1395676&group_id=4421&atid=354421

"Add Google Groups-style navigation pane"

    - Alaska Jack

Re:Thank God...

[jamie]

Not all of it, but we are working on a lot of this (in fact it's a little scary how close some of your ideas are to ours :)

Stay tuned...

Re:Thank God...

[adinb]

I just wish I hadn't used up my mod points yesterday. You're right on the money, especially where belowthreshold comments are listed. I hope taco listens one of these days. It's why I'm using newsvine more and more. (even though their coments system is still in basic flat mode)

But the Newsvine guys actually write back, and write back with insightful replies. I'm really looking forward to their 2.0 rev of their commenting system. Even Digg's new (but still broke) commenting system is better than /.

Re:Thank God...

[ObsessiveMathsFreak]

My solution to this was a little different -- implement a vertical "tree" pane, like Google Groups. To my mind this is clearly the best forum user interface in existance -- it's so simple and intuitive that frankly, I'm baffled why I don't see it anywhere else.

Because the Google Groups interface sucks. Seriously. It's the worst thing to come out of Google in quite some time. Not even AJAX can save it.

Re:Thank God...

[Alaska Jack]

To each his own, I guess, but I'm amazed to hear anyone say that. You do know i was talking specifically about the "view as tree" option, right? The one that creates a navigation pane on the left.

So I'm curious -- what is it about it that you don't like? I can look at the pane and see at a glance where in the comments hierarchy I'm at. And I can do that at any time, unlike all the other forums I see out there, which have horizontal navigation-tree areas at the top or the bottom of the page, so they're basically useless.

    - AJ

Re:Thank God...

[john83]

If you want more bugs, how about: - When I'm in the post writing screen, there is no text of the story or link to it, so I have to open Slashdot in another tab and go to the story to read it.

Agreed. I tend to hit reply with the middle mouse button these days, just to keep the thread open elsewhere.

- The comments index is very, very broken. The "threshholds" concept's three drop-down menus (-1:5), (Threaded/Nested/Flat/No comments), (Oldest 1st/Newest 1st/Highest 1st/Oldest 1st Ignore threads/Newest 1st Ignore threads), and the "Comments spill at 50" concept interact in bizzare ways such that I don't even know what it's *trying* to do.

I don't have a problem with it.

- I *hate* the fact that comments below your viewing threshhold are listed at the bottom of the thread level instead of between the posts that it was replying to and got a reply from... Please. for the love of god, put in an indicator if there is a post below the threshhold that a post is replying to.

There is one. Use the goddamn blockquotes and italics properly.

Slashdot's user prefs allow me to "bias" the moderation... I should be able to change the bias to one of several presets like on an Winamp equalizer on a per-story basis.

That would be sweet.

reply to selected text

[thisislee]

a quick-reply feature that adds a 'Reply' option to the right-click menu when you select text in a comment,

....awesome

AArh. Not available for deerpark :(

[flyingace]

AArh. Not available for deerpark :(

Available only till 1.5*

The times they....

[fm6]

You're right about needing to be able to skip a comment tree. You don't even need a fancy collapse feature — just a link that means, "go to the next comment at this level". I often don't bother to look at popular stories because I know I'll never have the patience to find my way past all the trolling, irrelevent jokes, and shoot-from-the-lip flame wars that the initial posters always indulge in.

This wasn't such a big deal when I started following Slashdot 5 years ago. But there are a lot more users now. It's really pathetic when any popular site is unable to evolve with the times — but when it's Slashdot, you want to cry.

Re:The times they....

[Nimey]

I set any comment modded "funny" at -6 in my preferences. That cut down on a lot of the garbage.

I see a great need: a Bayesian function on this extension to automagically "mod" comments; e.g. anything with the word "Micro$oft" or "M$" modded at -4, free ipod spam at -6, and so on.

Re:The times they....

[Sentry21]

That's why you browse at Score: 3. There are a lot less crappy posts, no trolls, and just plain less to read. Ever since I started browsing at threshold 3, Slashdot has been a lot more managable. I don't understand why people complain about things like this when the solution has been here for years. Try it, you'll like it.

Re:The times they....

[patio11]

That was just a simply brilliant piece of troll-by-mod. Not that I support it but it was clever enough to provoke a laugh out of me.

On the filtering, I don't imagine you'd save yourself enough time to make it worthwhile if you actually had to hand-train the classifier, especially given the nearly infinite number of ways to troll on Slashdot.

Re:The times they....

[zerocool^]

This issue isn't complicated to solve. When you leave your comments Threaded, slashcode displays some random crap comments for no other reason. Try this: set your comments to "Nested" and "Oldest First", and set your threshold to "+3". It's slashdot nirvana.

For whatever reason, Nested does what you'd think it should do. Top level posts are all the way on the left of the screen; direct replies are underneath. Setting your threshold to +3 has the following benifit: Before the karma counter ran on the Bill and Ted system, it was a simple number between whatever and 50 (I don't remember if it went below zero, but I think it did). If your karma was 25 or more, you got a karma bonus to your posts, i.e. posts you made were at +2 starting, rather than +1. Unfortunately, this is still in effect, and almost everyone has enough karma to post at +2, or at least enough people that there's lots of noise in with the signal. So, by narrowing your comment display to +3, you only see comments that *someone* has modded up.

So, that's "only comments that have been modded up" coupled with "a proper nesting system" and "not random crap". And if you want to see the rest of the comments, just click the "X replies beneath your current threshold" link to display them. Try it; you'll never go back.

~Will

Re:The times they....

[fm6]

Some "funny" comments are actually funny.

I wouldn't use filters for Slashdot for the same reason I don't use them for email: too many false positives.

Re:The times they....

[fm6]

I do browse at 3. But the moderators notion of what deserves to get modded up isn't always mine. Like if there's a story that has anything to do with global warming, you're sure to have yet another flame war over whether it's real or not. Which most Slashdotters seem to enjoy, but which I've long since gotten bored with.

Quality over quantity.

[diorcc]

I don't see how this plug in will improve the quality of people's comments. Now instead of thinking about it for 10 seconds, they'll only think about it for 2. Talking about the average of course... and yes there are a lot of off-topic/pointless posts everywhere ;) They should make the extension SLOW them down and think twice...

Re:trolly troll troll

[cukimunsta]

It's all good.. been looking for something like this for a while - well done

First Post menu Option?

[sudo]

Damn , no First Post menu option.

And how about "Auto-troll", "Mod This Up", "Your Momma" ...

Technically...

[jd]

If a Firefox VRML Extension extends Firefox to control VRML objects, then a Slashdot Firefox Extension should extend Slashdot to control Firefox browsers.

Re:FP!

[christopherfinke]

Any chance that we could, as an option, replace this with "Reply to Selected Text in a New Tab"?

Sure thing. Look for it in version 1.3.

Re:Wow

[kbielefe]

Hmm...is there a feature you can click that turns up the 'intelligence' of the posts your read?

It's called "Read at +3", and I've been using it for years. It can be temporarily disabled by clicking on a "replies beneath your current threshold" or "parent" link of an intelligent reply, like I did to read your post.

And yes, I'm aware that I am calling this very post unintelligent by my own definition.

Re:trolly troll troll

[Daenks]

All of Slashdotter's features are optional, and the extension is co

omg, it works!

Re:Wow

[Foofoobar]

That would be to imply that there are women being bred in a secret government laboratory to be specifically aroused by Dungeons and Dragons, comic books and your ability to compile the kernel.

Um... anyone know if this lab is looking for QA?

Coral Cache for every links...

[antdude]

I still prefer stand alone Coral Cache extension for all Web sites links, not just /. Very useful on Digg too.

Hmm . . . hide replies doesn't work for me

[Phurd Phlegm]

When I click one of the "hide replies" links, I go to http://www.slashdot.org/UL, which just shows me the front page. Does this work for anyone else?

Re:*Gasp*

[christopherfinke]

No Bon Echo support? :(

I just downloaded Bon Echo and tested Slashdotter; it works, and I've uploaded a compatible version (1.2.2) to the Mozilla Addons site. It should be approved anytime within 1 day to 3 weeks (based on past experiences). In the meantime, it's available here.

I love it

[AgNO3]

I love it. Great work dude. It is good to see the Grammer Nazis all being wrong. It is quite amusing.

So does this mean . . .

[UnknowingFool]

we will be able to /. web sites faster?

Oh yeah it's really great

[jbrader]

I just installed it and it deleted all my themes.Death.

Re:Awesome

[SigILL]

It is the 5,000th prime number (no commas).

48611 you mean?

Now that was easy :)

Re:Awesome

[fbjon]

You beat me by a minute. And it has to be the weakest password I've ever seen.

Reply in right-click menu..

[XaXXon]

'Reply' option to the right-click menu

Yep, it works

My own personal wishlist feature

[DragonHawk]

Wow. Cool. Now *that's* service.

As long as you're taking requests.... ;-)

I usually browse with comments with a medium-high threshold. When I find a thread that looks interesting, I middle-click the comment ID (the "#12345" link after the time in the header) of the top post of said thread to open it in a new tab. Then I change that thread to a -1 threshhold, Nested, and redisplay, to see the whole thing.

It would be really nice (for me) to have that available in an automated way. Maybe on the menu when right-clicking the comment ID or something.

I would understand if this is considered too esoteric a feature. Maybe it could be generalized somehow.

Either way, thanks for the cool tool!

Re:My own personal wishlist feature

[c_ollier]

I usually browse with comments with a medium-high threshold. When I find a thread that looks interesting, I middle-click the comment ID (the "#12345" link after the time in the header) of the top post of said thread to open it in a new tab. Then I change that thread to a -1 threshhold, Nested, and redisplay, to see the whole thing.

You could do this with a greasemonkey script which parses all links on the page, looking for those particular links. It then modifies them to add GET parameters (threshold, mode...).

Tinfoil hats on!

[amazon10x]

version 1.2 has been approved by the Mozilla admins

Don't all the extensions that are put on that site have to be approved by the Mozilla admins? If so, I'm pretty sure they would have at least glanced over the source...

Re:Tinfoil hats on!

[Bing Tsher E]

And in a glance, they would have discovered a carefully concealed exploit. . .

Re:Tinfoil hats on!

[Myen]

It's not actually Mozilla admins - it's addons.mozilla.org reviewers.

There is no barrier to entry in becoming a reviewer. You are only expected to install the extension, use it for a bit to make sure it does what it claims and doesn't break, and approve. (Disapprove, of course, if it doesn't work.)

There is no code review involved. The reviewers are not even really expected understand code. Being approved on there doesn't really signify a sign of quality. Heck, if you want to you can end up reviewing your own.

Re:Awesome

[MyLongNickName]

Nah. I just wanted to see how many attempts I would get on my account. Surprisingly none so far. Or, perhaps, Slashdot queue's the messages for a while, which seems to me poor security...

Re:Awesome

[SigILL]

I just wanted to see how many attempts I would get on my account.

None from me. Password guessing is boring and beneath me. Always ready to help look up a prime number though.

Plus, I guess you changed your password to the 5001st prime or something prior to posting your challenge? :)

Re:awesome

[docdoc]

Please explain what you mean by "when you aren't on Slashdot"...

HEY!

[Spy der Mann]

I was serious! :(

Re:Awesome

[MyLongNickName]

Nah. I use strong passwords, along with a password safe. I generally do not remember any of my passwords.

Signs and Portents

[bill_mcgonigle]

What's really cool about all this is Taco doesn't have to see it. Now that he's gone WebStandards, the users can write things like this to manipulate the DOM directly. It's got many of the benefits of a fat client (for the set of problems that can be solved with DOM manipulation) but it's still the web if you're on another platform.

Maybe somebody will come up with a tag for suggested extensions for a site and Slashdot would want to serve it out directly. Just don't call it Web 2.5!

Re:*Gasp*

[Premo_Maggot]

yay, someone mod this man informative!

X-Bender ?

[vieux schnock]

Does it show the X-Bender response?

Now, you DO know that Slashdot adds an X-Bender HTTP response which comprises of random quotes taken from Futurama at each query, now, do you ? Yes ? Ok, just checkin' ;-)

Re:X-Bender ?

[omega9]

You're slightly incorrect.

Your explaination of the response header is correct, but it's not always X-Bender. It's X-[Character], where [Character] is the person who originated the quote. For instance, here's the response header from a recent page view:

X-Fry: I haven't had time off since I was twenty-one through twenty-four.

I have found, though, that most are quotes from Bender.

Re:Awesome

[knothead99]

The AJAX replies feature isn't for replying to comments, it's for those links that say "X Replies below your threshold." It makes it so you don't have to load a new page to see those replies.

I don't even know if this is possible within a Firefox extension but it would be nice if when I clicked that link to show the hidden comments, it just displayed the ones that were missing there with the option to collapse them again.

I love the reply feature though (used it here)!

Damn.

[Rob T Firefly]

This is terribly useful and well done, which is just going to bug the sheer hell out of me when I kill time at work reading /. and not having Firefox or the plugin to play with. Thanks, author, for making my workday just that much more of a relative grind!

Re:Wow

[mibus]

I had my second a couple of weeks ago... yeah, your sleep goes out of the window!

My body - unlike my wife's - retaliates by having a deeper sleep; most of the time she can't even wake me to help during the night ;)

Re:Awesome

[mudbogger]

The AJAX replies feature isn't for replying to comments, it's for those links that say "X Replies below your threshold." It makes it so you don't have to load a new page to see those replies.

It's displaying all of those comments (X number of them), but there are also the comments that are right at the threshold and those don't seem to be displayed. Am I missing something?

A lot of the time those are the ones I want to read too...if my threshold is three for example I probably want to see the one comment that is a 3 nested one level down, not necessarily the 26 others that are 1's and 2's.

This is just my small observation; ontw, definitely an extension that will get a lot of use from me though. Thanks!

Re:Awesome

[Bad D.N.A.]

Also, I think the replies are AJAX. Woo

I dont know why, but every time I read "AJAX" I always think people are talking about

http://www.jaxa.jp/index_e.html

go figure?

extension request

[alex_guy_CA]

Just in case anyone out there is looking for a new extension project, Firefox needs a really good auto fill feature. Anyone who has used Safari a lot knows just how helpful good auto fill is. There are a few extensions out there already, but they don't hold a candle to Safari. I use FF anyway though primarily because of how amazing adblock is.

Re:*Gasp*

[enrgeeman]

Now why would we want to mod up the creator of the plugin?

Re:Wow

[teledyne]

Didn't you read? That's a feature, not a flaw.

This is why I won't use Camino

[artifex2004]

I have a (grease)monkey on my back... seriously, I'm addicted to all the stuff I can do with that plugin. In fact, the first thing I thought when I read the summary for this was, I wondered if it was too intense to be written as a gm script :)

Okay, that plus I don't think I could copy my profile easily back and forth amongst my XP box and my FF for Mac and a Camino install also, and have it all just work. FF on Mac understood my XP profile just fine.

Unfortunately, FF 1.5 crashes on my Mac almost once a day, and the previous version did not. :(

Re:*Gasp*

[tvjunky]

What I would love to see is when this (incredibly useful) extension made moderation on slashdot less of a hassle. It just sucks when there are a lot of comments, especially when browsing comments at a threshold of 1 or 2, you want to moderate one of them and have to scroll all the way down to that "moderate"-button. Additionally the information given on the following page isn't that useful at all.
It would be nicer if there was a "moderate"-button besides the ratings under each comment that would do the moderation in the background in an AJAXy fashion and maybe gray out the "rating"- dropdown field for that comment afterwards.

Re:On Writing (and a suggestion for the extension)

[underspecified]

I don't see the grammatical error in the bolded text. There is a comma splice [wikipedia.org], though. Remember: if the two phrases sound good alone, use a period or a semicolon!

There's no comma splice here. The final two sentences are joined by the conjuction 'and' plus a comma. The author does show a propensity for using serial commas [wikipedia.org], though most authorities will agree that this is correct usage, if not more logical. ^_^

Slashdotter

[HaydnH]

How depressing! I thought a plugin called "slashdotter" would've been used to take down web servers =P

Re:trolly troll troll

[brainburger]

I am probably falling for this, but you were right to say nazis, not nazi's.

It's good

[ejd3]

I actually started using this a few days before this story broke. I like being able to customize which theme is used by default. (I use the linux one because I think black just looks better than teal.) I used to use some Greasemonkey scripts to enable just about the same functionality that this extension does but the thing that I think is really missing from Greasemonkey is an auto script updater. One has been made http://userscripts.org/scripts/show/2296 but I'm sure that this works with very few scripts as of now.

Re:Awesome

[JourneymanMereel]

Really, sweet!

It's 'IAmWeToddDid' ;)

I found a bug already

[WormholeFiend]

The 'first post' function is not working.

Mozilla Admins?

[Suppafly]

I've been working on Slashdotter Firefox extension for Slashdot users, and version 1.2 has been approved by the Mozilla admins.

Since when did Mozilla admins have to approve extensions?

(blockquote)(p)(/p)(/blockquote)

[ChristTrekker]

Good point, you technically should have paragraphs inside of blockquotes. I'd dispense with the i tag though - blockquote gives it enough visual distinction, and italics are generally harder to read. Putting a largish quote in all italics is a bad idea.

Re:(blockquote)(p)(/p)(/blockquote)

[zootm]

Yeah, that tends to be what I do — I do find myself wishing that Slashdot had a slightly better style for blockquote, though. The simple indentation isn't really ideal, in my eyes.

Re:(blockquote)(p)(/p)(/blockquote)

[ChristTrekker]

Now that slash uses CSS, it would be easy enough to submit a suggestion for change. I'd make the left and right margins a bit smaller, if it were up to me. Maybe very small left margin with a border on the left too, so it looks something like how Outlook does quoting. Either would work OK with nested quotes.

Re:awesome

[ProfFalcon]

Please explain what you mean by "when you aren't on Slashdot"...

I think he means when you're surfing porn instead of Slashdot.

Feature request

[metamatic]

When Slashdot produces one of those irritating "You need to wait a while before posting" errors, I'd like the plugin to store the HTTP POST data and quietly retry every now and again until the post goes through.

Currently I leave a tab open and go back to it and retry, but it's annoying because it seems to be totally random how much time Slashdot will require to elapse before the post can go in. I've had it tell me to slow down because I posted 35 minutes ago.

Tagging is by users

[SeanDuggan]

Actually, I'd be worried if dupes were tagged as such when they're put up; if the editor realizes it's a dupe, why's it up in the first place?
Users add the tags, not the editors.

Re:Wow

[garaged]

exactly the same here !!

I compensate it by letting her sleep later on the morning, the most amazing thing is that I wake up at 5:30 in the morning every day for work (Mexico city !), and I do it perfectly, but If my wife tries to wake me any time earlier, she just can't.