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posted by NCommander on Thursday June 04 2015, @10:00AM   Printer-friendly
from the lets-do-this-right dept.
So as the post-upgrade dust settles, one of the big things still left on our usability TODO list is implementing inline reply and moderation for the site. A quick survey of our developers is that no one here really is super experienced in writing JavaScript code, so I'm putting a call for help to find someone to help implement and write this. For anyone getting interested in SN development, this appears to be a straightforward task. Here's the official requirements for the feature.
  • A user should be able to post and moderate comments without a seperate page load
  • If JavaScript is disabled for whatever reason, the site must degrade to the current click-to-post functionality. We don't want to force people to enable JS if they don't wish to. Dynamically rewriting the DOM to change links may be necessary, but this can be discussed
  • The rehash API must be extended to add this functionality; this should be relatively easy and straight forward; we have parts of the original AJAX code so this functionality may already be in place.
  • Contact me, or paulej72 on IRC, or post a comment below if you're interested in helping.

 
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  • (Score: 3, Insightful) by Ryuugami on Thursday June 04 2015, @10:25AM

    by Ryuugami (2925) on Thursday June 04 2015, @10:25AM (#191987)

    Again, what is the argument for this functionality?

    Some people consider the current system a pain in the ass, and may be willing to enable Javascript just to get that increase in usability. Personally, I'm on a fence. I post rarely enough that I don't think I'll enable it, but I'd like to have the option to. Options are nice.

    BTW, I'd say this is exactly what JS should be used for: increased usability. If only the same thing could be achieved without it... or if we could enable only a limited subset of JS without all the security-nightmare parts. Something like a limited implementation that just silently fails when JS tries to access HDD or whatever.

    --
    If a shit storm's on the horizon, it's good to know far enough ahead you can at least bring along an umbrella. - D.Weber
    Starting Score:    1  point
    Moderation   +1  
       Insightful=1, Total=1
    Extra 'Insightful' Modifier   0  
    Karma-Bonus Modifier   +1  

    Total Score:   3  
  • (Score: 5, Insightful) by Gravis on Thursday June 04 2015, @10:32AM

    by Gravis (4596) on Thursday June 04 2015, @10:32AM (#191991)

    Some people consider the current system a pain in the ass,

    because it is! changing page for every little action is annoying because you lose your place and it kills any focus you might have had.

    • (Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 04 2015, @10:38AM

      by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 04 2015, @10:38AM (#191993)

      Have you considered the more likely possibility that you have attention deficit disorder? Sorry I will try to abbreviate so you do not lose your focus before the end of a sentence.

      U got ADHD bro. LOL

      • (Score: 2) by Tork on Thursday June 04 2015, @05:32PM

        by Tork (3914) Subscriber Badge on Thursday June 04 2015, @05:32PM (#192183)
        That's the first time I've heard the "ADD Defense" in response to bad UI design.
        --
        🏳️‍🌈 Proud Ally 🏳️‍🌈
        • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 04 2015, @07:17PM

          by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 04 2015, @07:17PM (#192228)

          So basically, you've never used a command line, a text mode editor like Emacs or vi, or any other user interface that requires you to remember commands to use it effectively. Get off my lawn, child, and take your graphical toys with you.

          • (Score: 2) by Tork on Thursday June 04 2015, @08:48PM

            by Tork (3914) Subscriber Badge on Thursday June 04 2015, @08:48PM (#192265)
            Please tell me you don't contribute to Open Source projects.
            --
            🏳️‍🌈 Proud Ally 🏳️‍🌈
          • (Score: 2) by monster on Friday June 05 2015, @12:56PM

            by monster (1260) on Friday June 05 2015, @12:56PM (#192486) Journal

            Some actions are much easier to do with a UI than with command line. Things like "Take this file, this one, and that, but not this other one" can be made in a breeze with a proper UI while requiring a lot of extra steps using just a command line.

            Command line is great and clearly superior for some things, on par for others, and definitely not the proper tool for some. If you can't see that then you aren't a neckbeard, just an old geezer.

        • (Score: 2) by Gravis on Friday June 05 2015, @12:07AM

          by Gravis (4596) on Friday June 05 2015, @12:07AM (#192311)

          That's the first time I've heard the "ADD Defense" in response to bad UI design.

          ahh, so you have been spared from listening to Gnome 3 developers.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 04 2015, @12:42PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 04 2015, @12:42PM (#192022)

      Any modern browser (say, = 5 years old) will let you ctrl-click on links. You should try it some time.

    • (Score: 4, Insightful) by kbahey on Thursday June 04 2015, @02:38PM

      by kbahey (1147) on Thursday June 04 2015, @02:38PM (#192075) Homepage

      As someone who browsers with javascript disabled, this has not been an issue for me. Just right click and open in a new tab, and do your thing there, and close the tab. You are back to the page you were at. I have been doing this for a long time with SN and other sites that it is second nature to me.

      • (Score: 2) by Ryuugami on Friday June 05 2015, @08:49AM

        by Ryuugami (2925) on Friday June 05 2015, @08:49AM (#192424)

        Unfortunately, this doesn't work with the "moderate" button, which I use much more often than "reply".

        My work-around (if you can call it that) is to glance to the scroll bar when clicking moderate, so I can quickly scroll back to the general vicinity of where I was...

        (BTW, at least in Firefox, middle-click or ctrl+left click both open links in new tab. I don't know if it works in other browsers.)

        --
        If a shit storm's on the horizon, it's good to know far enough ahead you can at least bring along an umbrella. - D.Weber
  • (Score: 2) by NCommander on Friday June 05 2015, @02:56AM

    by NCommander (2) Subscriber Badge <michael@casadevall.pro> on Friday June 05 2015, @02:56AM (#192349) Homepage Journal

    We already use quite a bit of javascript for improved threading. The entire expand/remove comment interface vanishes (or more specificly, doesn't get drawn) if JS is disabled.

    --
    Still always moving
  • (Score: 2) by NCommander on Friday June 05 2015, @03:31AM

    by NCommander (2) Subscriber Badge <michael@casadevall.pro> on Friday June 05 2015, @03:31AM (#192360) Homepage Journal

    My understanding of the DOM makes it incredibly difficult to do just that; you simply have too rich an API with everything interlocking with each other. What someone SHOULD do is redesign the basic JS library to be less braindead, and get it standardized and implemented. Pretty sure it will be a cold day before that happens.

    --
    Still always moving