Slashdot Mirror
Slashdot Discussion System Updates
So D2 now remembers what you have read. This will mostly be useful to readers who use the key bindings to navigate -- we didn't really want to guess if you've read something, but if you use the WASD keys to navigate, moving on from a comment flags it as read. Read comments are slightly faded, and if you re-enter a discussion a few hours later, it should remember what you've read.
We've simplified comment retrieval as well. If you get to the 'End' of a discussion and try to get more comments (either by clicking one of the various 'More' links, or by pressing a keybinding like S or D that tells us to move on to the next comment) a dialog box will show up asking you if you would like to lower your threshold. So if you normally read at Score:4, and read to the end of the Score:4 comments, it will offer to lower your threshold to Score:3 either for all time, or just for this page. This means you don't need to constantly raise and lower your threshold to handle discussions of different sizes. This works really nicely.
Lastly is a user preference in the pref pane labeled 'Collapse Comments After Reading.' I'm actually considering making this one on by default but I'm open to feedback. It does what it says -- after you've navigated off a comment (using the keybindings again), it collapses the comment you just left. This makes it very easy to keep your place in a discussion as it grows. This is especially useful in discussions where you want to leave a tab open for several hours, or else come back later and figure out what's new.
There are undoubtedly bugs: feel free to email me or post them to the bug tracker. Thanks to pudge for hacking all this stuff too. Especially the bugs -- he wrote those first.
Hmm, I think it's also about time to fix some display bugs. The most important one would be that replies to a given comment visually look like they're replies to the parent. And the lines that should tell you what nesting level you're at seem to disappear sometimes, especially when you collapse something. And collapsing a grand-grand-grand-parent, for example, also hides all children, but it triggers that triggers another kind of display bug: the boxes and hooks don't disappear.
I usually use Opera, but I was able to see that Firefox doesn't do away with those problems either.
Hmm...guess not.
That's not the type of 'preferences' being referred to in the article.
What?! You mean we have to RTFA?
how about not forcing us to preview a few lines of bloody text? I've generally got better things to do with my time than clicking preview, waiting, blah, etc. Hell I don't even remember now, been so long since I bothered. Understand that there is a troll problem (see above comments), but those set of changes weren't the way to fix it - they were really just the way to make non-trolls not want to bother as much anymore.
what does awsd do?
Im a gamer, not a grammer major. This post is full of spelling and grammer mistakes.
Ahhh...but in this discussion, first post has never been so appropriate.
I'm not sure what was changed, but D2 doesn't work with the version of IE 6 we use at my office anymore. Granted, we have some restrictions on what scripts run, but now I cannot reply, expand or display hidden comments using D2.
Those who believe the Internet is private,
find their privates are on the Internet.
Maybe add support for unicode?
Me thinks someone forgot to post the little "Post Anonymously" box. Don't worry, we all do that sometimes.
I wank in the shower.
I'd like to see demoting needing more than two or three votes in the same direction.
Maybe Computers will never be as intelligent as Humans.
For sure they won't ever become so stupid. [VR-1988]
FIRST post attempts, yes.
FRIST post attempts, not so much...
w-a-s-d might be fine for some, but for us old school vi types, h-j-k-l is hardwired into our brains. Could that be added along-side the w-a-s-d stuff?
I've never consistently gotten the correct threads when I have more than one page and say show me the next page. I see a certain thread in the first 50, then hit page down and there it is again. The only way I've been able to compensate is filter to a high enough level that all threads fit on one page and then drill down.
And the biggest problem I have is lack of editing.
Just 15 minutes-- or better yet- hold all versions so people can see what you posted first so you can't lie but CAN fix stupid errors.
Also, there is no way to see level 0 posts only. That's very helpful when you want to up-mod folks who were silenced by a bad mod.
She was like chocolate when she drank... semi-sweet at first and then increasingly bitter.
Logging in without having to navigate away from the page when replying would be nice.
So, in the old system, you hit reply, realise you aren't logged in, type in user name and password (or have FireFox auto complete), type your comment and post.
The new system, realise you aren't logged in, hit the login link, get taken to a different page, login, navigate back to the old page, have to find where you wanted to reply, and notice that in the three minutes you spent logging in (some people are on dial up, some people do other things while waiting for pages to load, some people do both), you notice someone else has made the comment you were going to make!
So, how hard can it be to just include a username and password box when you hit reply and aren't logged in?
I wank in the shower.
If you're typing a reply and then expand A GP post, it erases the reply you were writing. Kinda frustrating when you need to recheck what someone said.
Also, even when I"m logged in (with good karma), I don't have the option to submit directly, and the preview button often hangs.
-Bucky
Your last name....Bagina...does it, by any chance, rhyme with vagina?
If so, I can understand your anger. It must really suck to live life with a name that rhymes with Vagina!
I feel your pain.
Joe Kock.
We can post anonymously? This makes trolling so much easier!!! Microsoft rules!
Note to readers: I sacrificed any potential gain in fame and fortune to make this witty response work.
Soon you'll have recreated the functionality of a late 80's usenet client.
And sorry slashmasters but I consider D2 to be nothing but one sizable bug.
When did you up the number of moderator points given out at one time? Used to be that you got 5. But today I find I have 15.
Posted AC just in case its a bug even though I rarely use up all 5.
Hi, I unfortunately only have IE6 at my current job site. The new scripts seem to break on IE6. I can't expand comments nor can navigate through them. I've noticed many CSS positioning bugs in IE6. I'm not suggesting you waste time trying to fix them. Perhaps a stripped down CSS file and losing some of the JS may be in order for browsers that do not support the features.
Before all these changes this site was much easier to scan. Now it bunches comments up on the right side if they are nested to deep, the lines while clever are not ready for production and I just liked it better before all these CSS changes. If you guys need something to do, start reading more science and engineering sites and less game and sysadmin sites. I mean if you are having a slow newsday you aren't looking hard enough.
An Education is the Font of All Liberty
Is it just me, or does the score filter stop working for everybody when you turn on D2? Hard to understand that they can track what posts I've read, but not which ones are beneath my threshold. D2 is nice, but having to sort though hundreds of trolls and AC snipers is not worth it. Especially now that Slashdotter has caught up with latest HTML changes.
how about you make those annoying Anonymous Coward trolls use the old discussion system? You know, as a sort of punishment for not logging in.
That'd be a reward. The real punishment would be forcing them to use D2.
"16MB (fuck off, MiB fascists)" - The Mighty Buzzard
when you open up a comment in a new tab/window, by clicking the subject, a script runs (presumably ajax) when you go to close the tab. you can see the "loading" section below the "More|Prefs|Reply" section in the left panel open up, and there's a slight delay. it only seems to happen the first time you open the comment.
why? I dont like it. It slows me down, and I dont think any script should be allowed to run after I hit X to close the tab.
Just wondering: what's wrong with D2? Sure it has some bugs to iron out, but I feel it makes things a lot easier.
I didn't even know about this feature until now, but it isn't all that useful if you've got 'find as you type' enabled. Anyway, I would really like to use this, so does anybody know of a way to use these keys in firefox without disabling the search functionality completely?
We still can't mod the editors.
Thats nice that the discussion system has been updated, but it would be even better if the moderation was improved. We have too many hacks running around with mod points that are ripping down comments that they disagree with, regardless of their relevance (look at the gun control threads to see good examples of irrational moderation.
We need moderation methods that actually reflect the scoring more intelligently, or a scoring that more intelligently reflects the value of the comment. The "overrated" and "underrated" moderations are garbage. Hacks use it to promote their friends and demote their foes. Why should a comment that started at +2 ever be marked "overrated"?
Damn_registrars has no butt-hole. Damn_registrars has no use for a butt-hole.
Can we at least make the meta-moderation system useful? I haven't seen any indication that meta-moderation feedback goes anywhere, or has any impact on the moderations themselves (or those who gave them). As best I can tell meta-moderation is just a way to get moderation points sooner.
Damn_registrars has no butt-hole. Damn_registrars has no use for a butt-hole.
What I'd like to see is the option to gray-out / collapse any comments older than a certain timestamp. Then have that timestamp automatically set to the last time a particular discussion was brought up (allowing the user to adjust it if needed, i.e., if you didn't finish reading the whole page the last time it was brought up). That way, new comments would stand out.
One thing the new comment system seems to have in common with the old is that, in Safari 3.1, typing in a comment, filling in the captcha and then hitting enter results in the comment being deleted. And thanks to the wonders of Ajax, it's gone for good - no help hitting the back button.
I can understand that 'submit' might not be desirable as a default form action, but 'delete all traces of the comment you just wrote' seems a bit harsh. And I thought we were all keyboard freaks here on /. - god forbid I should have to move the mouse to click the button! Then again, maybe it's just Safari being goofy.
Also, even when I"m logged in (with good karma), I don't have the option to submit directly
Try opening "Reply to This" in a new window or tab to get the old comment form. The old comment form also has the advantage that users with the karma bonus can turn it on or off just for this comment, not for this comment and future comments.
I'm fed up with waiting for buggy scripts to finish. /.
It happens on virtually every page I visit on
The fun thing is, that whether I choose to wait, or terminate the script immediately, it makes no difference to the page.
This is in Firefox 2 on linux BTW. I posted this via ie on WM5, and no issues.
. . . for every moron who claims:
etc, etc, etc.
If I reload the page, they don't *stay* collapsed. Say I've been following a discussion during a slow day at work, and it's interesting enough to keep following from home, or maybe to check the next day... there are probably far more already-read comments than new comments, so there's still quite a lot of old stuff to scroll thru looking for the brighter color bars.
Logging in without having to navigate away from the page when replying would be nice.
So, in the old system, you hit reply, realise you aren't logged in, type in ...
Crap!
I'm a huge vi user myself, but the biggest difference is wasd is left handed and hjkl is right hand. Most people are used to using the mouse with the right hand. So you'd be jumping on and off the keyboard to click links/etc.
I don't think that Slashdot really needs to hand out gold stars for doing a decent job of moderating.
I don't see it as a way of rewarding good moderators as much as a way of watching out for incredibly bad moderators. I guess I expected that the meta-mod system would perhaps have some influence on who would receive moderation points at what frequencies, based on how often they moderate carelessly.
However I see no evidence to support that.
Damn_registrars has no butt-hole. Damn_registrars has no use for a butt-hole.
It always just felt klunky and slow to me. Earning my special ire was the fact that, by default, it has that damnable sidebar floating on the left, one of my most hated web UI devices. If I remember correctly, it displays fairly wonky in IE as well. I realize that "klunky and slow" is pretty subjective, but it's good enough for my purposes. Not to mention, by all the accounts here, it's buggy as hell, so while I may check it out again in the future, I'll wait to do so until it isn't the widespread beta it seems to be right now.
"16MB (fuck off, MiB fascists)" - The Mighty Buzzard
I love reading slashdot without being logged in because of one setting: the replies to parent threads are all collapsed and are one click away from being read. However, the threshold is annoyingly high, so I log in so I can read the lower point posts, but can't figure out how to make the replies automatically collapsed. Anyone able to help?
Wait, fortune? You could make money reading slashdot?!
So you've made it more convenient to read Slashdot. Sincerely, thanks! I was skeptical at first but I've come to appreciate D2 - with one exception. You've made reading Slashdot more efficient, so it's easier to read multiple stories at once, so there are more things I want to comment on. Too bad! I'm still subject to the same broken comment delay that ranges from two-minutes-too-long to we'll-get-back-to-you at random.
Want to make karma actually mean something? Drop the delay from users with an arbitrarily good karma so that they can actually contribute to the site without wanting to choke the programmers.
Dewey, what part of this looks like authorities should be involved?
You guys have completely lost track of every web usability lesson. This "improved" navigation is a perfect example of geeks gone wild, of an open source project run by a bunch of programmers with no idea what usability even means. Slashdot now has a "user interface" that is completely at odds with every standard on the web. This is so counterintuitive it's unbelievable. The idea that you should "RTFM" is boneheaded. The comments you're getting in this thread are ALL FROM PEOPLE WHO HAVE FIGURED OUT YOUR NON-STANDARD INTERFACE. Normal web users may be trying to read this, but they'd quickly become frustrated and depart, their comments unheard. Do you guys even read Jacobsen? Do you even know what a hyperlink is? The web has standards, boys. Get used to it. Work with it. But don't invent your own.
Turn the sidebar off.
A bullet may have your name on it but splash damage is addressed "To whom it may concern."
or you can say 'IE doesn't work well with it' if you'd like.
I don't mind it so much when people say something like:
"I say, interesting read this one. I may put further thought into the matter, but I'd like to suggest the chap is correct in not licking the outputs of the miniature fuel cell he's created. Oh, and I do believe I've made the first post. Cheerio."
It's when people snipe articles like they're first edition TMNT comics, typing as fast as they can to get "FRIST POST!" that bugs me.
The biggest problem with Slashdot is that anonymous downmodding is used to suppress comments instead of posting something disagreeing with them.
If someone modding down a comment was required to post their reason, exactly like a reply comment, that could be viewed by both regular readers and metamoderators alike (and made hideable by default in preferences), that would probably cut back a lot of the frivolous downmods, and convert them to explicit disagreements instead. Since that feature is so similar to the regular comment system, it should be quick to develop, debug and deliver.
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make install -not war
There was a big change in the moderator system some years ago. I think it was motivated by exactly the kind of abuse you're talking about. As I understand it, Rob decided to limit mod points to people in the middle of the range of posting rates. People who post a lot never get mod points, neither do people who post very little.
IMHO, this change actually made things worse, because they excluded the regular participants who were most committed to making the community work. People who post haphazardly are exactly the people who should not be moderating; they're the snipers and "oh yeah" types who like to tell others they're FoS, but don't have the attention span to have a serious conversation.
Rob and his editors obviously don't agree. My guess is they've had less occasion to "correct" moderations they consider unfair (because there are much fewer mods to correct) and they see that as evidence that the new system is working.
As for "overrated" and "underrated": these are not supposed to reflect the quality of the comment, they're supposed to be a way of correcting scores that have gotten multiple mod points when only 1 was deserved because two moderators flagged it at the same time. Personally, I don't think this happens often enough to justify two mods with so much potential for abuse. But if we must have it, you should be allowed to apply "overrated" to a post with less than 2 upmods or "underrated" to a post with less than 2 downmods. Ideally, those two mods should come within a few minutes of each other, but I suppose that would be hard to detect.
And whatever the quality of the moderator pool, it would make a lot of difference if people actually understood what the moderations are supposed to mean. The definitions are hard to find and hard to understand. What's the difference between "troll" and "flamebait"? "Interesting" and "insightful"?
(Hey guys, I explain stuff for a living. Give me a call.)
At this point, it would be helpful if one or more of the editors (Rob especially) butted into the conversation, defending their policies and correcting any facts I've gotten wrong. Never seems to happen. I guess they find the resulting flame wars taxing. Understandable, but frustrating.
If I remember correctly, it displays fairly wonky in IE as well.
I am certain this bit of advice may sound repugnant to you considering you signature, but it works out very well for me. Stop using IE.
The cancel button is your friend. Do not hesitate to use it.
Underrated and overrated should be meta-moddable, at least; perhaps the metamod system could show comments modded thus with their moderation and points before the over/under was applied.
I too have been a victim (FSVO) of mods who mark me "overrated" when I haven't received any other moderation.
Hail Eris, full of mischief...
E pluribus sanguinem
Sigh. And now that I've said that, expect parent post and possibly this one modded "overrated" in 3... 2... 1...
Hail Eris, full of mischief...
E pluribus sanguinem
When I view moderation details by clicking the "Score:N" link next to the comment's Subject, the page of moderation types and totals is often blocked by a banner ad at the top. The banner blocks the "close X" at the top right of the details, so clicking there is clicking on the banner's link, not the "X" that closes the details and returns to the basic view of the comment.
Instead I have to go back a page, and then forward a page to return to the basic view of the comment. It's a pain in the ass, especially if I accidentally click the banner to "close", and then have to come back from some ad page that's tricked me into visiting.
A sneaky way for Slashdot to increase its banner clicks, while making us hate the advertisers and Slashdot.
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make install -not war
IE is my browser of preference. As far as I'm concerned, if a site doesn't display properly in it, I don't go to that site, since web sites tend to be nicer to IE than Firefox. Thus, I don't use D2, since they haven't seen fit to make it work with IE.
Note I'm not saying that sites shouldn't work in Firefox, either... it's a site developer's responsibility to make their web site work in all browsers in common usage, not just the ones they feel like. Whether a site doesn't work in IE or Firefox or Opera or Safari or... you get the idea, it's just as poor on the part of the site dev.
"16MB (fuck off, MiB fascists)" - The Mighty Buzzard
The scoring system can help you there. Select "minimum threshold".
I've seen a few sigs that echo this sentiment humorously; "Slow down cowboy, it's been 11 minutes since you last made a comment. Chances are, you type faster the 11 words per minute".
I understand the reasoning for the "slow down, cowboy", and mostly approve, but there are a few times when the slowdown seems inappropriate.
One is in one's own journal. I don't see any reason at all to have a "slow down cowboy" in your own journal.
The second is responding to a response to your comment, especially when you are getting to the comment through the "slashdot message system". How can it truly be a discussion when you can't reply to a response?
The third would be on stories older than 24 hours old. By then pretty much everyone has had a chance to comment.
I almost never comment anonymously, so I was surprised the other day when I tried to. A user posted an anonymous comment with the statement "sorry for the AC posting but I just moderated in this thread." I was going to point out that what he was doing was a bit unethical; the system is set up so you can't comment in topics you're modding for a reason. I was also going to say "there are legitimate reasons for posting AC" and wanted to illustrate this by posting AC. An hour later I still couldn't submit the comment, so I gave up. I was logged in; I checked the "no karma bonus" and "post anonymously" for the offtopic comment. If I had been posting anonymously all day I would understand this, but it was my first anonymous comment in months. I don't understand why it was so much longer than my usual four minutes.
I was surprised to find that you can metamoderate a comment that is in response to your own comment. I wouldn't have thought the system would have been set up like that, but I've seen it twice now.
Another suggestion would be on a user's "journal" link. Often I'll see a funny or interesting comment and want to see a user's journal, click the link and find that he's only made two journals and the latest is from some time in 2003. Rather than the link saying simply "journal, I'd like to see "latest journal entry [&date]".
And now for something completely different, I'd like to see TWO BRICKS BEING SMASHED TOGETHER</Python>
mcgrew's razor: Never attribute to stupidity that which can be explained by greedy self-interest
There's a floating box in the top left allowing me to change my threashold. It binds to the top of the browser. To get rid of it I have to click on the arrow, then chase the arrow to the other side of the browser and click it again. If I don't get rid of it, my mouse scrolling speed crawls to a halt. Is there any way to get rid of this stupid thing by default?
... Or at least to make your day a little more efficient.
This is Slashdot. You must be new here.
"Working properly" isn't a feature end users should be concerned with?
"You can either have software quality or you can have pointer arithmetic, but you cannot have both at the same time."
but there's some other less interesting stuff as well. Hit the link below to read more.
But who am I to complain, it worked on me ;-)
and I'm so confused by all this. Why can't we just have a normal commenting system? I wistfully look back on the days when Youtuber's posted full sentences as their comments, "First!" was only shouted at little league baseball games to tell the kids where to throw the ball, and I didn't have to use Quake Tournament style controls to read through comments... Those were the days.
--- He advocated thrift and hard work and disapproved of loose women who turned him down. ---
This has been driving me nuts ever since the new comment system was introduced. Overall, I mostly like D2, but since the old system has allowed me to login while posting for *years*, and now suddenly I can't, it feels like a step *backwards*. I especially I hate when I've typed 2 paragraphs of text, then suddenly realize I'm not logged in. Yeah, copy-and-paste are you friend in that situation, but it's still a pain. As the parent pointed out, after logging in, you have to find the main article, then find whichever discussion thread you wanted to reply to, which can be a major waste of time.
Please, why in the world can't I login right in the comment box? I know you guys want to ajax-ify everything, but really, just having the username/password fields as part of the form with the comment summary and body was so simple and elegant, how could you possibly improve it? Since the code on the backend is already there to handle it, since the old system is still there, I can't imagine it would be terribly difficult to add this back into the new system?
My thoughts exactly. It would be nice to have NNTP access to /. stories, at least for paying customers.
FWIW, I'm using Firefox v3.0 on an up-to-date Ubuntu 8.04 x86 PC.
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make install -not war
First off, the "idle" section. I can appreciate that you want to have it, but why the hell hasn't anyone bothered to add it to "preferences" yet?
Second, the in-line reply box. Great feature. Almost everything about it works. EXCEPT that the size of the textbox is... bad. Below is a screenshot... the text box seems to be fixed width and so gets worse when replying to child and grandchild posts.
http://img182.imageshack.us/my.php?image=90344635nz9.jpg
Oh, and it also might be nice if logged in users with the highest karma level didn't have to "preview" for the in-line reply.
Why not mark comments as read via mouse-over, like Google reader?
Should this be modded +3 funny, or +3 tragic? Oh wait, 2x= comedy, 3x=tragedy. Never mind.
Hey Thanks!
What does Slashdot has to do with Diablo 2?
Hmmm, I post very little. So far this year I average about 2 per month, yet I get mod points on a pretty regular basis. Usually I get mod points in a cycle 3 days after mod point end then 5 then 3 then 4 then repeat. I don't metamod often either, maybe once for every 2-3 POSTS I make.
As a slight aside, for about a year I was getting mod points EVERY sat. at 5PM
To err is human; effective mayhem requires the root password!
What's wrong with D2?
Between me and you
Omitting "R2", so brave
Is a day without
Burma Shave
Get thee glass eyes, and, like a scurvy politician, seem to see things thou dost not.--King Lear
Moderator points are dealt more often to people with high meta-mod scores (but not too high). The peak is probably something like 90% approved.
I really would like to believe that, though I haven't seen any evidence to support that statement. For that matter, where is a meta-moderation score kept? Is there any way that a user can view their meta-mod score?
I've moderated many times, but not once have I seen anything resembling meta-moderation feedback.
Damn_registrars has no butt-hole. Damn_registrars has no use for a butt-hole.
Underrated and overrated should be meta-moddable, at least
I'm not sure that either of those actually accomplish what they were likely intended to do. They seem to be used more for political purposes now than anything.
For that matter, I noticed that I acquired a new "freak" not long ago. I can't help but wonder if this person may be responsible for politically moderating some of my other comments down.
Damn_registrars has no butt-hole. Damn_registrars has no use for a butt-hole.
As much as I'd love to sit and argue the merits of browsers with you, it's just going to take this thread from "off-topic" to "hellaciously off-topic", so let's save it for a story that's about browsers.
"16MB (fuck off, MiB fascists)" - The Mighty Buzzard
No, but the first moderator of a first post will always mod it "troll", "flamebait", "offtopic", or hilariously "redundant" even if its final moderation winds up as +5.
Because of that I hate getting first post, but I guess that's the price of being a fast reader.
As to "Frist Post", does that congresscritter actually comment at slashdot?
mcgrew's razor: Never attribute to stupidity that which can be explained by greedy self-interest
Underrated and overrated should be meta-moddable
They are. I today just had an overrated meta-modded as unfair.
You're posting from work, too, aren't you? ;-)
If you guys need something to do, start reading more science and engineering sites and less game and sysadmin sites
Not to mention fewer "Your Rights Online" trolls by plaintiff lawyers trying to astroturf their way into having a free hand to sue $billions out of whatever industry (telecoms? studios?) they think has deep enough pockets to pay for their retirement to the Riviera and the kids' education at Harvard Law.
My out of the ass estimate is that fewer than 50% of the front-page stories on /. have anything to do with what I'd call "nerd" subjects, like cutting-edge science and technology.
-5 Ironic signature
Modding Trolls +1 inciteful since 1999
and that as far as features for the end-user are concerned, IE is just as good these days.
I despise the new version of IE. My favorite "feature" is how it starts up to that common splash screen (customize your settings or whatever it is) every time you start it and how that splash screen refuses to go away on start-up until you acknowledge it -- even if you don't want to change any of the settings. Drives me up the fucking wall every time I have to setup a new computer for someone. Can't not use IE -- need it for Windows/Office updates -- so I either have to acknowledge the stupid screen and "customize" software I'm never going to use again or deal with it opening up every single time IE is launched. What's worse is that they couldn't make it a local splash screen. Somehow customizing the settings in your web browser requires loading a page from Microsoft's servers. Makes it all the more enjoyable for dial-up/slow connection users.
And "IE is just as good these days?" Maybe from the narrow viewpoint of "out of the box" (though I would dispute even that). But AFAIK IE doesn't have near the amount of third-party add-ons available for it that Firefox does. Is there anything as useful as this available for IE?
I want peace on earth and goodwill toward man.
We are the United States Government! We don't do that sort of thing.
Then I guess I'm wrong about who gets mod points.
A metamod/post ratio of 1/2-1/3 is actually pretty high. Perhaps that's why you get so many mod points.
Come again?
"16MB (fuck off, MiB fascists)" - The Mighty Buzzard
Instead of trying to figure out what post is the parent, child and grandpa.... It start like this: 1. First Post 2. Second Post ---- Then later: 1. First Post 1.1 Reply to 1. 1.2 2nd Reply to 1. 2. Second Post 2.1 Reply to 2 2.1.1 Reply to 2.1.1 2.1.2 Reply to 2.1.1 3. Boobies! (post dated) Then i could say '2.1.2 points out that 2+2=4'. The next step would be to have tagging that turns 2.1.2 into a link to that post. When referring to a post in another thread it would be 12345.2.1.2.
Utilizing the synergization of benchmark e-solutions to pre-workaround action items!
You can use WASD to navigate? Cool. I had no idea...
I'll stick with my scroll wheel, I think.
Random Thoughts From A Diseased Mind (Not For Dummies)
At the risk of losing karma:
...it's a site developer's responsibility to make their web site work in all browsers in common usage, not just the ones they feel like.
My sig is more hate toward the moderators...
Love them or hate them, moderators and meta-moderators are part of the system. If all you are concerned about is karma, then you will have to weigh you desire to post against your fear of loosing karma points. My suggestion is to say what you want intelligently and damn whether it is popular. Popular speech is boring.
As to your post above:
I must disagree. If it exists, it is a developer's responsibility to code to a set of standards. It is a site and browser developer's responsibility to code to a set of standards.
The cancel button is your friend. Do not hesitate to use it.
Can't overrated/underrated be replaced by a scheme where the moderator says "I think it should have this number". Their vote moves it one in the direction of that number, if it is already there or past it it does not change. If several vote at the same time for the same number it will still only move to that number.
I would also like to see as a new set of modification types:
"I agree and this is a good post" (mods up)
"I disagree but this is a good post" (mods up)
"I agree but this is a stupid post" (mods down)
"I disagree and this is a stupid post" (mods down)
"Flame/troll by somebody I disagree with" (mods down, this indicates a fake post by an opponent to the moderator, but pretending to support their opinion but with incorrect or easily refuted strawman arguments)
"Flame/troll by somebody I agree with" (mods down, this indicates a fake post by somebody pretending to argue against the moderator's position, but with incorrect or easily refuted strawman arguemnts).
"Funny" (which really means off-topic but the moderator thinks people should see it anyway)
"Off topic" (means off-topic but bad, mods down)
I had no idea you could use the WSAD buttons to browse comments. Nice :)
Having a smoking section in a public restaurant is like having a peeing section in a public swimming pool.
Love them or hate them, moderators and meta-moderators are part of the system. If all you are concerned about is karma, then you will have to weigh you desire to post against your fear of loosing karma points. My suggestion is to say what you want intelligently and damn whether it is popular. Popular speech is boring.
I agree, and that's what I do, but it doesn't leave me any less frustrated when I say things that are legitimate additions to the discussion, but get swatted down because they aren't popular. I'd rather die with integrity than live without it, if you will, but better still to live with integrity. In addition, it's even more frustrating when a post that is very clearly trolling/flamebait gets modded up just because it disagrees with the unpopular viewpoint (the post in question was nothing more than, and I quote, "Douchefag." This post actually got modded up.). This is blatant moderator abuse, and pisses me off. I can hope it gets caught in meta-moderation, but that isn't going to make it any less frustrating to see the abuse taking place.
It is a site and browser developer's responsibility to code to a set of standards.
I can agree that it's the browser's responsibility to code to a set of standards. The site's responsibility, though, is not to the standard, or to their own ease of development, but to the users. Once it gets to the site development stage, the browser is set in stone, and the developer has to deal with it in order to deliver a good experience to their users. Ignoring those users is abandoning their responsibility, just as surely as browser-makers ignoring standards is abandoning their responsibility.
"16MB (fuck off, MiB fascists)" - The Mighty Buzzard
how about you make those annoying Anonymous Coward trolls use the old discussion system? You know, as a sort of punishment for not logging in.
That'd be a reward. The real punishment would be forcing them to use D2.
That's what I was getting at. Those fuckers don't want to listen to me when I complain about D2, so I thought I'd try a little reverse psychology.
Riddle me this:
I bash D2 and get a Troll mod; You bash D2 and get a Funny mod. WTF??
I can almost never post as AC. If I check the AC box I've got about a 5% chance of actually being able to post. Usually I can preview and then it will never let me submit.
I've also run into problems just posting regular posts. The timer thing on the submit button *can* be helpful, but usually there isn't even one of those and I just have to sit here and wonder if I'll ever be allowed to post my comment.
You are using English. Please learn the difference between loose and lose; they're, there, and their; your and you're.
Slashdot does not censor posts no matter how unreliable or corrupt the poster is. Senator Bill Frist has just as much right to post here as any of us.
In the older system, there was a comment thresh hold drop down and a check box to save it. I used to open a bunch of comments in a new tab and then make the thresh hold -1 to read all the comments. Now open a new tab and then slide the slider to view them all but it remembers this the next story I open. I wish there was a button there to save this as the default and the slider would only apply to that one tab.
Maybe there are some keyboard shortcuts to open all the comments under the current one and collapse them all instantly. If so that would be fine as well, but really clickable thing a bons for that functionality would be nice.
Another thing is the obnoxious size of the reply to this button. Why can't it simply be a hyperlink?
Also I miss the parent link, it used to be simple now I need to scroll a bunch of messages up losing track of where I was.
Finally sometimes I open a comment by clicking on it and my whole page moves. That is frustrating, maybe I still want to see the bottom of the parent? Also why is it not consistent?
Why should a comment that started at +2 ever be marked "overrated"?
Because other, better comments start at 1, 0, -1. Chiming in at +2 or +3 with "oops replying to thread 'cause of mismod" SHOULD BE DOWNSLAPPED to +1 on a charitable day and "-1 'TARDED" any other day.
I miss the ability to change a moderation - either to change the value or to moderate a different comment instead.
With the new system you make a menu selection and that's it. In my opinion, it makes it too easy to accidentally select a value you did not intend to choose.
Never let reality temper imagination
Make our days more efficient? Probably could do that by flicking the power switch to "OFF" on your web servers.
What's the difference between "troll" and "flamebait"? "Interesting" and "insightful"?
[...]
(Hey guys, I explain stuff for a living. Give me a call.)
Hmm, perhaps not.
Why should a comment that started at +2 ever be marked "overrated"?
Because other, better comments start at 1, 0, -1. Chiming in at +2 or +3 with "oops replying to thread 'cause of mismod" SHOULD BE DOWNSLAPPED to +1 on a charitable day and "-1 'TARDED" any other day.
Perhaps since you post as anonymous coward, you are not aware of this, but you have to earn a starting score of +2. You earn it by having a reputation of good posts (good karma). I could be mistaken but I have never seen anyone whose posts start at +3 as you claim.
And the AC's like you that post at 0 could easily start posting at +1 just by signing up for an account. I have yet to see anyone post at -1 who didn't have abysmal karma - and these people could reverse their fortune by more than one method if they so chose.
Damn_registrars has no butt-hole. Damn_registrars has no use for a butt-hole.
I think one way to make the meta modding a lot more effective is to allow it to be more tailored based on subject area and your own expertise.
I don't know squat about computers. I see things about OOXML or something marked interesting, my first reaction is "That is totally not at all interesting... UNFAIR." I resist that temptation, but I have no idea of what most of the posts even mean, so how can I metamoderate?
Biology though I have a fair amount of expertise, and think I could judge moderations much better on them than your average slashdotter.
Another interesting factoid here also, I very rarely use all of my mod points ( I just ignore trolls and all but the most blatant flamebait). After all modding trolls as trolls is what they really want...
To err is human; effective mayhem requires the root password!
Thanks for that information. Please click this link to allow us to exploit your ActiveX^W^W^Wgive you free cursors.
What's up with idle.slashdot.org?
Why is the new commenting system working seamlessly for all sections except for that one?
It is the one place in slashdot where you can't set your preferences, and that doesn't respect the ones you set somewhere else on the site.
Is it supposed to be some kind of an easter egg? Because it sure as hell doesn't look like a bug to me.
Since this week slashdot started making me wait 1-3 seconds for the tab to close.
It seems like it's updating something, probably in support of this feature:
So D2 now remembers what you have read.
I mean, the feature seems cool, but couldn't it have been implemented in some other, more subtle? Like saving every N seconds, or something?
I just wonder if the network goes down, or the connection fails for some reason, if it will be impossible to close my tab without bringing the whole browser down.
Firefox isn't some holy grail of awesome, and that as far as features for the end-user are concerned, IE is just as good these days.
You see this site is "for nerds" (I prefer to be called a geek, but what-the-hey). This means we're bothered about coding standards and interoperability and the like. So IE7 is still considered poor (compared to FF, Op, Konq, Saf) as it doesn't work well with standards compliant code. It's an order of magnitude better than IE6, but it's still not at the level of the other mainstream browsers.
Plus people here tend to look down on commercial enterprise that just rips off OSS innovations and doesn't add anything back. IE7 does add a couple of things but they aren't mainstream web interface features.
I've been reading Slashdot for years and I've always had this problem: Whenever a discussion hits two or more pages, if I try to view the second page I get the comments from the first page with a couple of new comments appended. I've posted about this before but nobody seems to mind. It's mind-boggling how a site as frequented as Slashdot can have such a huge bug for so many years with nobody doing a thing about it.
Improve at backgammon rapidly through addictive quickfire position quizzes: www.bgtrain.com
That's not an option where I work, and I somehow doubt I'm alone.
To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
I second the notion of filtering out Idle. However, I'd also like to see this filtering apply to the RSS feed. I rely on RSS to get the story list and it'd be nice if I could customize that as well. Maybe give the feed page a UID parameer. No need for passwords/cookies/etc.; which Slashdot sections I want filtered is hardly compromising personal information.
Or you put the filter right into the feed URL - http://rss.slashdot.org/Slashdot/slashdot?filter=idle would return a feed for all sections except Idle, for example. Quick and easy to implement.
USE HOT GRITS WITH STATUE OF NATALIE PORTMAN (NAKED AND PETRIFIED)
That's configurable now? Can CmdrTacos sexual preference be set on a per-user basis? Does this apply to other people as well?
I wish more online communities had the sexual preferences of the staff as a per-user preference.
USE HOT GRITS WITH STATUE OF NATALIE PORTMAN (NAKED AND PETRIFIED)
Perhaps since you post as anonymous coward, you are not aware of this, but you have to earn a starting score of +2.
As a reader - not a poster (no login and no intent to get a login), I don't care what people have written in the past. Few ought to have any bonus above 0. Getting a login makes you "+1". That is not earning shit. Rather it is a trade, sourceforge monetizes you (increases registered user base), and you get a bonus. Since the karma bonus can be waved, it is implicit that it ought to be waved when suitable. Don't take my word for it.
I could be mistaken but I have never seen anyone whose posts start at +3 as you claim.
Perhaps that was true in the past: login (+1), karma (+1), subscription bonus (+1) = +3. The current description differs slightly so that it may lead to a higher apparent score. There is a subscriber bonus, thus the "No Subscriber Nonus" checkbox. How that affects post scoring is not clear to myself at this time. Yes, I may be confused.
And the AC's like you that post at 0 could easily start posting at +1 just by signing up for an account.
No, I am happy to start at 0. Any feedback I get is of more worth. There is no value in linking my string of posts or having any link back to my person. "Anonymizing" it is not in my interest in this case. It doesn't take many pieces of information to determine who someone is. Eventually, posters leak out: gender, decade born/raised, education (degrees and/or school), current state, occupational description, marital status, etc. Further, email/IP information is available via court order (or not - like a bribe or security breach). Not that I am paranoid, rather I am controlling my online exposure and don't want any risk without reward. If there was a reward, *IF* I was seeking a new job, then I would be all over that Facebook, Linked In, ensniff by greatness BS.