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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.
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Contact me, or paulej72 on IRC, or post a comment below if you're interested in helping.
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Help Wanted: Implementing Inline Reply and Moderation
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For recreational use only.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by wonkey_monkey on Thursday June 04 2015, @11:45AM
There may be, possibly, a reason for this?
Yes. The reason is that no one at Soylent really is super experienced in writing JavaScript code.
What are you trying to imply? That Javascript is an obscure, forgotten language?
And for many, this is not a degrade, it is the grade!
You're welcome not to avail yourself of the additional functionality, but I doubt you speak for the majority or anything close to it.
If you don't want to use Javascript, these changes should have no effect on you.
Again, what is the argument for this functionality?
Because it's faster and much less frustrating for the user.
I don't know where this luddite attitude (in general) against Javascript comes from. You can argue for all kinds of reasons why it's a bad thing philosophically or from a security standpoint to allow code to run in your browser and muck about with the DOM, but if you seriously can't see how much more useful and usable Javascript can make a website, then it sounds like you're just being willfully obtuse.
What if you want to refer to other comments (either in or outside of the ancestry of the comment you're replying to), for example?
What about moderation? I would certainly be more inclined to do it if it didn't involve losing my place on the page.
Not to mention the bandwidth savings. This page, for example, with a just few comments on it, is 40k. The page I'm currently on, typing this reply, is about 18k. Then I like to preview my comment, which is probably about the same. Then I hit submit - a few more k to tell me I've posted my comment. Then I go back to the page to read more comments - another 40k.
That could be reduced by a huge amount through judicious use of Javascript and AJAX requests.
systemd is Roko's Basilisk
(Score: 0, Disagree) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 04 2015, @12:50PM
Not to mention the bandwidth savings. This page, for example, with a just few comments on it, is 40k. The page I'm currently on, typing this reply, is about 18k. Then I like to preview my comment, which is probably about the same. Then I hit submit - a few more k to tell me I've posted my comment. Then I go back to the page to read more comments - another 40k.
By the same token, we could also strip all the markup, I mean, no-body ever sees those crazy things in the ''. I'm sure we can strip them and just serve plain TXT.
And then there's the stylesheets, goodness, so much bandwith, let's get rid of them.
We can save even more bandwidth by not doing images as well, those are +18kB each as well.
All in all, I think we should go back to gopher:// [gopher]
ok, had enough? Do you realize why you sound dumb yet?
(Score: 2) by wonkey_monkey on Thursday June 04 2015, @01:28PM
Except my suggestion reduces bandwidth and improves - or at the very least does not impact - the usability or presentation of the website. Which is what you makes your extrapolation dumb.
systemd is Roko's Basilisk
(Score: 2) by monster on Friday June 05 2015, @01:00PM
If the JS version doesn't show a preview, that sounds like reduced functionality to me.
(Score: 2) by wonkey_monkey on Friday June 05 2015, @03:48PM
I never said it shouldn't.
systemd is Roko's Basilisk
(Score: 2) by monster on Friday June 05 2015, @04:25PM
Fair enough. I was just talking from experience from other sites with that behaviour.
(Score: 2) by NCommander on Friday June 05 2015, @03:33AM
You joke about gopher but we have some code to implement a gopher version of this website (https://github.com/SoylentNews/rehash/tree/master/plugins/Gopher). One of these days, I might actually finish that April Fools Joke ...
Still always moving
(Score: 2) by martyb on Thursday June 04 2015, @12:53PM
It's not ideal, but I've been using this workaround on that other site and here for years. If your browser supports multiple tabs, Open the comment you wish to moderate in another tab[*], apply moderation, and then close that tab.
[*] For example, the comment to which I am replying currently displays in its header:
Right-click on #192007 [soylentnews.org] and select open in new tab. Perform your moderation in *that* tab and then close it when done. Your place in *this* tab is unaffected.
It may not be ideal, but I've certainly found it effective and hope that others will, too.
Wit is intellect, dancing.
(Score: 4, Informative) by sudo rm -rf on Thursday June 04 2015, @01:41PM
Right-click on #192007 and select open in new tab.
Even simpler: middle click. Maybe there are browsers that don't support this, but the usual suspects do.
I only mention it, because many people don't know the power of the middle mouse button;)
(Score: 2) by maxwell demon on Thursday June 04 2015, @02:57PM
I've already had mice where the wheel was so sensitive that it was hard to middle-click without at the same time scrolling, which of course is not good if you try to middle-click a link. So the power of the middle mouse button very much depends on the quality of your mouse.
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
(Score: 2) by schad on Thursday June 04 2015, @04:44PM
It can be a little fidgety, but with practice you'll get it right about 90% of the time. And it's not like anyone dies if you scroll by accident (I hope).
The real objection -- and I'm surprised nobody has brought it up yet -- is that middle click in X means "paste selection." In a browser it means paste-and-go.
You can also use ctrl+left click.
(Score: 2) by maxwell demon on Thursday June 04 2015, @04:50PM
Spoken like someone who never had a really bad mouse. I can assure you, with the wrong mouse you'll be lucky to get 50%.
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
(Score: 2) by schad on Thursday June 04 2015, @05:09PM
Quite possible. I'm a PC gamer so I do research mice before I buy them.
(Score: 2) by monster on Friday June 05 2015, @01:20PM
At least on Firefox, ctrl+click is the same as middle-click.
(Score: 2) by danomac on Thursday June 04 2015, @05:03PM
Or, even easier, just choose the moderation from the drop down in the comment and keep reading/moderating the thread/comments. When you get to the bottom of the comments, you'll see a Moderate button outside the comments section that will commit all moderations at once.
(Score: 2) by aristarchus on Thursday June 04 2015, @05:09PM
I don't know where this luddite attitude (in general) against Javascript comes from.
Umm, experience? That and, um, bad experience. Nothing luddite about it.
But thanks for the explanation of the possible benefits. I primarily use javascript as a canary. I deploy Noscript, and if a page will not function without allowing javascript, I do not go there, if I have a choice.