from the removing-one-ugly-hack-at-a-time dept.
Rehash 15.04 - Tentative Changelog
- Migration to Apache 2.2/mod_perl 2 (complete, still bug flushing)
- Removal of all MyISAM tables in the backend (complete)
- Migration to MySQL Cluster (implemented)
- SSL by default (enabled on dev)
- Nexus support
- Rewritten site search engine, replacing MySQL FULLTEXT searches with Sphinx (in progress, mostly done)
- Private Messaging
- Inline Reply and Moderation*
- IPv6 support
- Another large chunk of dead code removal
* - if user has JavaScript enabled, non-JS users will get the current behavior.
From a user perspective, the most visible changes are just more streamlined site performance. Inline reply/moderation is something that was by far the most common request the last time we asked for feedback on the subject, and I am hoping to have it implemented with this release. (Fancy URLs, the other largely requested feature will require consider effort to find and fix URLs throughout the codebase; I do not have an ETA on this feature, aside from the fact its on our roadmap).
Migrating from standard MySQL to cluster should help us considerably keep the site up for longer periods of times; we have previously experimented with other MySQL replication solutions, and found them all lacking, especially in cases of master failover. With this update to Rehash, we can take a database server offline and not have the site come crashing down, or require exceedingly large amounts of effort to replicate and reconfigure the front-end servers.
While this covers here and now, I've long liked to have plans 6 months to a year out, and post them for community feedback so everyone is in the loop on both what we're doing, and why we're doing it.
Looking ahead, we'd like to be able to expand both our potential userbase, by allowing user-created nexuses, expanding site usability for people who do not speak English as a primary language, and allowing for the possibility of non-English spin-offs of SoylentNews, as well as continuing our ongoing work on rewriting and improving the backend of the site to both increase usability, and decrease maintenance burden. As such, I see our next major update focusing increasing our internationalization and localization abilities.
Now obviously, these are broad objectives, and there will be the usual slew of tweaks and upgrades as we move forward, so don't consider these lists to be definite and final. Furthermore, if there is pushback on the direction we're taking, I hope our previous history will show we'll sit down and work to revise our plans.
Rehash 15.06 - Tentative Changelog
- Isolation of language strings from templates to .po files, solicit community efforts to translate the site into various languages*
- Incorporate translations into Rehash, allowing a user to use the site UI in their native language
- Define and finalize plans for user-created nexuses
* - our initial focus is going to be on left-to-right languages. While RTL language support is something I'd like to support, this is likely going to require a massive amount of effort beyond just getting the site translated, so unless a large group of folks step forward to help build say an Arabic or Hebrew version of SN, RTL support is not super high on the priorities list.
Non-English speakers are likely familiar with the two major spin-offs of the other site, specifically Barra Punto and slashdot.jp
Both of these sites are running on rather dated versions of slash, and lack much of the port and polish that has gone into the back end since they were launched. We feel that we can do better, and want to give the non-English users of our site a chance to help build better news portals. We've already have significant interest in making the site available in Spanish, and I met a bunch of Polish SN users when I was in Warsaw last summer; I want to provide the community with tools to take what we've done and take it further.
Between now, and when we are technically able to, we hope to find volunteers who would be willing to edit and manage a non-English version of SoylentNews, and thus allow them to "hit the ground running" so to speak, once the site upgrade launches.
On user-created nexuses, as I've indicated before, this essentially will be our version of subreddits, allowing any topic to be discussed on SN. Prior to implementation, we, as a community, need to define a formal code of conduct, as well as determining what, if any, monetization should be done; while we can cover our hosting costs from the revenue brought in from subscriptions, I'd like to eventually get to the point that we can hire both full-time developers and editors. While this may still be years out if ever, being both fully self-sufficient, and being able to cover development and sysadmin costs (vs. being 100% dependent on volunteers) is an important step (though this is a discussion for a future article).
Moving on, let's take a look at where I'd like to see us by August ...
Rehash 15.08
- Implementation of user-created nexuses
- Assuming sufficient volunteers, launch of non-English SN in at least one language
- Defined community-governance of content on SN
- Initial port to PostgreSQL
Right now, the staff directly handle both content, and handling of users issues. For the most part, I'd like to think this works relatively well, but once we have users who can manage their own parts of SN, we need to make sure we have mechanisms in place to handle user grievances. While I'm unsure how much of our community uses Reddit, many are at least passingly familiar with the some of the drama that has come out of various subreddits, and the lack of transparency from the admins.
By having defined mechanisms of governance, this will allow the admins here to intervene should it be necessary, and allowing disputes between nexus admins and their users to be resolved with a minimum of drama and such, as well as making sure we don't compromise the values on which this site was originally founded.
On a technical level, we also are looking at moving to postgreSQL in the long term. While it may seem odd that we're doing two rounds of major database work, migration to MySQL cluster merely helps handle availability issues, aside from removing FULLTEXT searches, it has not been necessary to rewrite much code to allow the site to operate on a cluster. Migration to MySQL cluster is more an increment improvement then a massive rewrite of the guts of the site
For those unfamiliar with MySQL, it lacks many of the features that are present in more robust databases. Its not uncommon to have massive JOINs spanning 3-4 tables in the current code base, or large amounts of database logic written in Perl due to limitations in MySQL views, triggers, and stored procedures. By migrating to a more advanced database, we hope to drastically reduce (perhaps by half) the amount of code present in the front end and reducing our long-term maintenance burden. Obviously, until we start the effort to port the back end the true difficulty of this will remain unknown and it may well be, once we dig deeper into it, that the cost of migration would outweigh any benefits.
In Closing
Since we went live a year ago, SoylentNews has been, and continues to be an adventure. I'm committed to helping us reach the goals set out in the manifesto, constantly placing the community first, and allowing this site to grow and thrive. Your feedback is extremely important to know if we're going the right way, hence why I'm laying down where I want to go now, and then seeing if everyone feels like its a good move. If not, I'll go back to the drawing board, and try again. We wouldn't be here without you guys, and we're not going to forsake the folks that got us this far.
Until next time,
NCommander
(Score: 2) by Grishnakh on Wednesday March 18 2015, @04:12PM
On a technical level, we also are looking at moving to postgreSQL in the long term.
I for one am highly interested to see how this will pan out. From everything I've read, Postgres is a much better database overall and just as fast as MySQL.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by opinionated_science on Wednesday March 18 2015, @04:54PM
I have only used it on a few fairly large projects (genetics etc) and Pg seemed to work quite well. In general, anything that takes you away from O***le is a good thing....
(Score: 2) by WizardFusion on Wednesday March 18 2015, @05:20PM
While I have never used PostgreSQL, I know that VMware use it as one of there database offerings, and it can handle the same amount of load as a Microsoft SQL server (according to the latest v6 vCenter)
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 18 2015, @04:45PM
I do not think adding private messaging is a good idea. It encourages people to needlessly hide information and thus devalues the community.
One of the most annoying things I see on other discussions sites are people who ask generally applicable questions and then people respond with "check your pm." If the question was good enough to make public, then the answers ought to be public too.
In my 25+ years on the net, I've never had a forum-based pm that should be private and was anything more useful than an "attaboy." We have moderation for attaboys, so that's already taken care of. For really private matters, I'll hand out a temporary email address -- I think the technical savvy is high enough here that we can expect people who have genuinely private issues to discuss to come up with their own way to initiate private communications. But we don't need to make it easy because it is so rarely valuable.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by GungnirSniper on Wednesday March 18 2015, @04:49PM
Newspapers did not make private letters obsolete.
I'm not sold on the idea of PMs, but I would like to see journals get some further feature promotion.
Tips for better submissions to help our site grow. [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by WizardFusion on Wednesday March 18 2015, @05:17PM
I agree, PMs are only really required if you need to message an admin. Inter user PMs should find another way.
One of the most annoying things I see on other discussions sites are people who ask generally applicable questions and then people respond with "check your pm." If the question was good enough to make public, then the answers ought to be public too.
This, too bloody often.
(Score: 2) by pogostix on Thursday March 19 2015, @02:17AM
What if I want to go beyond talking and plan some direct action regarding the issues we are facing, and we so often talk about? A PM feature would be handy in plotting against the government. At least to initiate contact. Not to actually discuss content. Done over https and with a basic trust in the operators of the site the government won't have meta-data that I'm in contact with someone.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by mrcoolbp on Thursday March 19 2015, @04:36AM
PMs are only really required if you need to message an admin
And you can just email us, admin at soylentnews.org works. But some are shy/wary to use email, so your point still stands.
However, some situations occur where I'd like to PM a member of the community, and I feel dirty scraping their email from their user account, especially if they don't show it publicly. I'd rather have a non-intrusive means of communicating with registered users as a way to contact them. A specific use-case eludes me (where simply responding to a comment wouldn't work), it's late and my brain is not 100%, but cases have arisen where I've emailed a user.
It's the converse of your case; Admin->user communications.
Similarly, I wonder if other registered users would be interested in a means of communicating with eachother, this is touched on above, a sort-of expanded journal functionality. If I want to contact another user, I can leave a message on one of their journal entries, but it will probably be off-topic. Maybe each user has a "wall" that we can comment on or something? *shudder*
I'd also like to have more of a forum for us to discuss ideas like this, and while I believe a meta nexus* would help, a similar problem occurs as with the above journal example: If a user wants to start a conversation about a feature/bug etc., they are (still, even with the new to-be-implemented meta nexus) forced to:
Maybe the "meta nexus" I speak of could have a "wall" of sorts that just had comment threads in reverse-chronological order (newest first).
More discussion is needed on this.
nexus*
A nexus is a section of the site (e.g. science.soylentnews.org, meta.soylentnews.org, linux.soylentnews.org, etc.) that you can visit that shows the main page with only stories that have topics relevant to that specific nexus (topics are like "tags" in this case, as stories can have multiple topics).
We have been trying to implement nexuses for a while, but have hit frustrating obstacles for them for nearly a year. Most of the waiting has been on wildcard SSL certs, and though we are in a position to acquire them, there is weirdness with our domain provider on the issue of keeping all of our URLs (third-level domains in this case) covered under our SSL Cert. TBH I don't understand the current issue fully, but it appears they are within our grasp in the near future (which may involve skipping the third-level-domain and using a syntax like soylentnews.org/NEXUSname/etc. instead), and that's why we're hearing about them again.
(Score:1^½, Radical)
(Score: 2) by mrcoolbp on Thursday March 19 2015, @04:39AM
martyb articulates a few examples of reasons why we might want to message users privately in a comment below [soylentnews.org]
(Score:1^½, Radical)
(Score: 4, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 18 2015, @06:13PM
Just make private messages (other than those involving admins) cost money. Then people will avoid them whenever they are not necessary. And if you really get "attaboy" messages (whatever "attaboy" messages are, apparently something not very useful), you at least can rejoice knowing that the money it cost them helped to pay for the site.
However what could be useful is a way to notify someone (using a standardized message) about a journal entry you just made. Something like
(where $TITLE of course links to the journal entry in question).
You should, however, have the option to block such messages; ideally you'd have the options
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 19 2015, @12:23PM
> Just make private messages (other than those involving admins) cost money.
Man that is silly libertarianism talking.
> However what could be useful is a way to notify someone (using a standardized message) about a journal entry you just made.
No thanks. If someone likes another person's journal writing skillz they can bookmark it.
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Thursday March 19 2015, @12:39PM
Hows about a journals rss feed [soylentnews.org] or atom feed [soylentnews.org] instead? It's not 100% but fixing it up is on the todo list.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 2) by Yog-Yogguth on Sunday April 05 2015, @01:37PM
I really like that feature, thank you for working on it/them :)
Bite harder Ouroboros, bite! tails.boum.org/ linux USB CD secure desktop IRC *crypt tor (not endorsements (XKeyScore))
(Score: 5, Interesting) by martyb on Thursday March 19 2015, @02:48AM
I have encountered situations where private message would be useful on SoylentNews.
Please note that there are no cases listed above where one *user* on SN private messages another *user*.
Maybe create 'roles' or 'lists'?
That all said, this opens up a whole can of worms for potential abuse (e.g. spam or flooding) , and we may find ourselves effectively recreating email or IRC, but badly. So, I like the general concept, but am somewhat apprehensive depending to the details of the implementation. I would like to see a full specification of use cases and error handling before committing either way.
While I have the thought, It would be useful to have a role default to accept all PMs from all users, but that would be open to a PM flood.
Possible Countermeasure: What if, *any* user could PM 'Editor' (or 'Dev', or whatever). Maybe they want to send another PM? Fine, but they have to wait 1 minute from the time the last PM was submitted. Want to send another PM? Now they'd have to wait 4 more minutes from the time the last PM was submitted. The next would require an additional 16 minutes, then 64 minutes, etc. As soon as that user receives a reply from that role, though, the timer/counter resets and that user can again reply immediately, with the progressive delays until such time as they receive another reply.
Wit is intellect, dancing.
(Score: 2) by mrcoolbp on Thursday March 19 2015, @02:26PM
Or implement a CAPTCHA on for sending PMs, or revoke outgoing PM privledges for spammers. Tie-in your idea for ACs.
(Score:1^½, Radical)
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Yog-Yogguth on Sunday April 05 2015, @01:48PM
I hate captchas so please let's not use anything like that.
Much better if people can disable PM's from anyone but those working on the site (i.e. those who could make an entry in your journal if they really wanted to), maybe that could even be the default (there could be lots of settings like allow Friends/Foes etc. or maybe a separate Friend/Foe etc. list for PM's).
And/or a PM system could be as simple as a continuously open/running and sticky journal entry (that isn't actually in the journal) and which one could decide whether or not to share with everybody. It would only need to hold a month of messages or something like that before the oldest gets deleted or it could be deleted (or maybe even that is unnecessary) by the owner on a per-message basis. I guess what I'm suggestion is a hybrid of a journal entry and reply notification.
(Sorry if someone has already suggested this stuff, haven't read everything).
Bite harder Ouroboros, bite! tails.boum.org/ linux USB CD secure desktop IRC *crypt tor (not endorsements (XKeyScore))
(Score: 3, Insightful) by vux984 on Wednesday March 18 2015, @04:48PM
Looking ahead, we'd like to be able to expand both our potential userbase,
Sounds good to me.
by allowing user-created nexuses,
I don't know what that is.
expanding site usability for people who do not speak English as a primary language, and allowing for the possibility of non-English spin-offs of SoylentNews, as well as continuing our ongoing work on rewriting and improving the backend of the site to both increase usability, and decrease maintenance burden.
The community is still fairly small; and internationalization while it brings in absolute user counts still has them in somewhat isolated pockets. I'm not sure this would be the direction I'd advocate; especially if your operating on the premise "if you build it they will come". I think my focus would be on making the site better for the existing community and adding users to the existing community rather than creating fragmented communities. I.e. adding another language soylentnews won't necessarily make -this- community any more diverse or active; it won't increase the number of submissions in the queue, or increase the number of active editors, etc and that's what I'd like to see. Instead I see this resulting in multiple separate soylentnewes each struggling for editors, submissions, and getting a critical mass.
On the other hand, the pooling of fund raising from multiple language spin-offs might work out well; assuming costs don't scale. And I don't pretend to have any insight into what the pent-up demand for a spanish, german, mandarin, or other localization of soylentnews currently is like, so perhaps you are right. Or whether the two other spin-offs you mentioned would be likely to re-locate here if that were possible. But I thought I'd raise the question.
For what it's worth, i think soylentnews needs a better mobile layout.
cheers
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 18 2015, @05:09PM
> And I don't pretend to have any insight into what the pent-up demand for a spanish, german, mandarin, or other localization of soylentnews
I will pretend. It's near nil. Japan is the only 1st world country where people with college educations aren't also passably fluent in english. So the creation of slashdot.jp seemed nearly inevitable. I'm sure that someone is going to accuse me of being degreeist but technical people who haven't chosen to get a degree are likely to have a good grasp of english for no other reason than it is so prevalent in the field. Look at that spanish site, they are averaging less than one article per day.
If the person doing the internalization has no other contributions to make, then great, have at it. But in terms of what's most broadly useful, that ain't a good allocation of resources.
(Score: 2) by janrinok on Wednesday March 18 2015, @07:50PM
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 18 2015, @08:11PM
Quantified? The activity level on that spanish site isn't a positive sign.
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Thursday March 19 2015, @10:50AM
Interest as in someone willing to head the project and recruit translators/funding. No idea on user interest.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 2) by CoolHand on Wednesday March 18 2015, @05:23PM
I somewhat agree with this. Rather than subsites for other languages, what would be really cool and would help increase the userbase of the english speaking site is an automatic translation ability built in. So our english site could be read and replied to in espanol or whatever language. I don't know how technically feasible that is. I imagine that google translate might be able to be leveraged for that purpose, but I'm not sure we'd want a dependency on that, or what the terms of service even are for google translate.
Anyone who is capable of getting themselves made President should on no account be allowed to do the job-Douglas Adams
(Score: 2) by hendrikboom on Wednesday March 18 2015, @11:50PM
Or a team of volunteer translators. I could probably handle translations from Dutch. But most educated Dutchmen can read English, so need would be meager.
(Score: 3, Informative) by janrinok on Wednesday March 18 2015, @07:37PM
(Score: 2) by DeathMonkey on Wednesday March 18 2015, @05:40PM
Ability to view a users comment history has been removed for some reason. This is useful functionality. Please bring it back.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by tathra on Wednesday March 18 2015, @07:57PM
this. why was it removed? where was the discussion about the pros and cons of removing it? did i somehow miss them, where we discussed this at length and either agreed to give it a shot or agreed that it needed to go? i thought that we, unlike slashdot, would continue involving the community in such decisions instead of the community simply having to deal with whatever the admins/developers pushed on us. this undiscussed change is a push in the wrong direction.
(Score: 2) by janrinok on Wednesday March 18 2015, @08:17PM
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 18 2015, @08:27PM
I just clicked your username ( https://soylentnews.org/~janrinok/ [soylentnews.org] ) and it only showed your submission history.
No comments.
I am not logged in.
(Score: 3, Informative) by tathra on Wednesday March 18 2015, @08:29PM
it must be because you're an editor? because i can't see yours nor anybody elses, and it was only brought to my attention from seeing other posts saying that it had been removed. it could just be a bug, so count this as a formal bug report.
(Score: 2) by dx3bydt3 on Wednesday March 18 2015, @08:34PM
I just checked mine, and I can see my own comments, but not those of other users. Last Journal Entry and Recently Accepted Submissions are all that show up under any other user.
(Score: 2) by bart9h on Wednesday March 18 2015, @08:51PM
Me too, but I can see only my last 24 comments.
Why can't I see them all, paginated?
(Score: 3, Informative) by mrcoolbp on Wednesday March 18 2015, @09:16PM
Full Comment history is a subscriber-only feature: Why Subscribe? [soylentnews.org]
(Score:1^½, Radical)
(Score: 2) by cwix on Wednesday March 18 2015, @10:20PM
I signed up on Soylent back at the start of things. I may have missed a bit of time there but I have never seen any discussion that says we are going to remove features for non subscribers. Can you show me where this was discussed?
Ohh by the way I will subscribe one I can do so without using bitcoins or paypal. I don't dabble in coins, and I refuse to use Paypal as they are shady as hell.
The fact that I have lost features is a crock of bull.
Ohh and another BTW you have subscribed users up above saying they are having the same issue.
(Score: 2) by tathra on Wednesday March 18 2015, @10:57PM
it never did show full comment history, just like the past 24 or something, thats a new feature just for subscribers, but losing the ability to see anybody's post history except your own is definitely a removal of features. i'm hoping its just a bug and not an intentional "feature" to try to push people towards subscribing or something.
(Score: 5, Informative) by dx3bydt3 on Wednesday March 18 2015, @10:59PM
The limitation that mrcoolbp referred to is different from the current problem.
Non subscribers and subscribers alike are supposed to be able to see a list of the 24 most recent comments when looking at user info. Subscribed users are supposed to be able to click through to see all comments. At the moment it looks as though no comments are showing for anyone except perhaps for admins.
(Score: 2) by mrcoolbp on Friday March 20 2015, @02:02AM
It appears we hid other users' comment-histories (in an effort to fight mod-bombing) in the most recent update, After researching, a few cases we don't feel mod-bombing is an issue currently. So we've heard your pleas and reinstated them. Comment-histories should be visible again.
(Score:1^½, Radical)
(Score: 2) by mrcoolbp on Friday March 20 2015, @02:06AM
We brought back comment histories [soylentnews.org]
(Score:1^½, Radical)
(Score: 2) by mrcoolbp on Friday March 20 2015, @02:04AM
We brought back comment histories [soylentnews.org]
(Score:1^½, Radical)
(Score: 3, Insightful) by cwix on Wednesday March 18 2015, @08:44PM
Can you see my comments? I cannot click on your name and see yours. I see a journal entry section and your submissions.
I have heard rumors that it was removed on purpose but I see no discussion over that, so if it was removed it was removed without the consent of the community and needs to be fixed. I hope it is just a temporary bug.
(Score: 2) by paulej72 on Thursday March 19 2015, @01:23AM
It was removed in the 15_03 update as it made an easy way to mod bomb a given user. Just go to thier page and down mod the first 5 comments each day. Some users brought this to our attention and it was changed, but in a reversible manner. If the community wants it back we can do so. Sorry that we forgot to add it to the change log article.
As for the the scribes benefits, this was to allow all of the comments to be seen, not just the last n number.
Team Leader for SN Development
(Score: 2) by paulej72 on Thursday March 19 2015, @01:25AM
Forgot to mention that his restriction was just for other users comment histories. Your own would not be blocked.
Team Leader for SN Development
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 19 2015, @02:24AM
> Some users brought this to our attention and it was changed,
Some users? Or one user with a persecution complex?
How many times did it actually happen? Or was it that the most recent 5 posts of the bombed user were also all in just one article discussion so the bomber just did a control-f on that page and it hit them that way?
If I were looking to mob bomb a user, this change wouldn't stop me at all. I'd just do a google site search on the user's name, restricted to the last 24 hours and then go from there. Easy as pie.
(Score: 2) by paulej72 on Thursday March 19 2015, @03:31AM
I reversed the var and comment histories for all users should be back. Let me know if this not the case.
Team Leader for SN Development
(Score: 2) by DeathMonkey on Thursday March 19 2015, @03:50AM
It doesn't appear to be working for me. Anyone else?
(Score: 2) by mrcoolbp on Thursday March 19 2015, @04:47AM
Agreed, not working yet. Please stand by.
(Score:1^½, Radical)
(Score: 2) by paulej72 on Thursday March 19 2015, @02:04PM
Team Leader for SN Development
(Score: 2) by mrcoolbp on Friday March 20 2015, @02:07AM
We fixed it with a bounce. You should be able to view comment histories now.
(Score:1^½, Radical)
(Score: 2) by DeathMonkey on Thursday March 19 2015, @03:08AM
I mostly use it to check my own comments from my phone without having to log in. Or, if I see a post (good or bad) and want to get some context by seeing any other posts in the thread.
And finally, I stand by my posts and wish for people to see them if they want to.
(Score: 2) by cwix on Thursday March 19 2015, @02:07PM
Was there any discussion in the community over this? I don't recall seeing any. If there was not, why not?
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Thursday March 19 2015, @02:32PM
Wasn't any on the grounds of you were only ever supposed to be able to see your own comments unless you were an admin. Apparently it was a popular bug though, so I expect it'll get a revisit.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 2) by cwix on Thursday March 19 2015, @02:57PM
We were not supposed to see other's comments? Really? Who made that decision. It was a feature that was available on the green site. When I came over here it was a feature (bug, whatever), but then it gets removed even for the subscribed users.
This was no bug fix it was a feature regression. Trying to color it as a bug fix lends me to believe that this was a unilateral decision by someone.
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Thursday March 19 2015, @10:48PM
Yup, really. Nobody made it, that's just how I thought it'd been set at the beginning and paulej72 didn't remember either way, so we figured it was a bug we'd never noticed. There are plenty of those.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 2) by mrcoolbp on Friday March 20 2015, @02:08AM
We brought back comment histories [soylentnews.org]
(Score:1^½, Radical)
(Score: 2) by fleg on Thursday March 19 2015, @02:26AM
in case it doesnt come back, the following search entered into google works rather well...
site:soylentnews.org username
(Score: 2) by mrcoolbp on Friday March 20 2015, @02:09AM
We brought back comment histories [soylentnews.org]
(Score:1^½, Radical)
(Score: 5, Interesting) by Ezber Bozmak on Wednesday March 18 2015, @06:48PM
Here is a super easy feature request. It is literally a one-liner.
On the front page each entry has a link like "XX comments" that link goes to the top of the page, not to the comments.
For example, the link for this story:
https://soylentnews.org/article.pl?sid=15/03/18/1434238 [soylentnews.org]
But because the "summary" is so long it is kind of a pain to scroll down to get to the comments.
All you have to do is add "#commentwrap" to the URL and it just works, for example:
https://soylentnews.org/article.pl?sid=15/03/18/1434238#commentwrap [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 18 2015, @10:40PM
#commentwrap
I use #topcomment (manually added), but, yeah.
The hyperlink for the story's headline and the Read More hyperlink should have #articles appended.
There are lots of tags already in the page boilerplate scrips that go unused. 8-(
-- gewg_
(Score: 4, Informative) by paulej72 on Thursday March 19 2015, @01:31AM
Team Leader for SN Development
(Score: 4, Funny) by Darren on Wednesday March 18 2015, @07:02PM
I highly recommend nodejs, it's ability with websockets to form collaborative websites could do things like showing everyone typing and creating their messages all at the same time etc. While that's a very fuzzy chaotic example it does leave open the idea that all data can be shared very rapidly with such architecture and the point of a site like this is to facilitate data collaboration and sharing in the form of posts.
Web Designer - darrencaldwellwebdesign.ca
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 18 2015, @07:29PM
Javascript is a security risk for users. Effectively all browser exploits in the last 15 years have required javascript as a necessary (but not sufficient) component.
We try to keep it to an absolute minimum around here because most of us block it anyway.
As a web dev you should be aware that this is not an extremist opinion, NoScript is the 4th most popular firefox extension, [mozilla.org] and nearly tied for 3rd.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 18 2015, @10:12PM
Alternatively, don't chase the web fad of the month and stick to stable technology which we can reasonably expect to be around in 10 years.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 19 2015, @08:55AM
You mean, pen and paper? ;-)
(Score: 1, Redundant) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 18 2015, @07:34PM
Inability to click a user name and see their previous comments.
If you posted it with your user name then there is no reason someone shouldn't be able to view those comments.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Phoenix666 on Wednesday March 18 2015, @10:58PM
I brought this one up a few weeks ago when this sort of thing was discussed, and started the process of working on it. But I'll put it out here again to get the community's read:
It seems like it would be useful to employ twitter-like @ tags to give a heads-up to other users to give them a chance to jump in on a conversation you're having. For example, let's say the article is about math and VLM had said something a week or so ago on the subject that seemed pertinent. You could put "@VLM" in the body of your post and VLM would get a message with a link so he can jump in and clarify or put in his two cents. It would have to have anti-spam features, of course, but on the whole it seems like it would help knit together the continuity and fabric of the discourse on the site.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 3, Informative) by The Mighty Buzzard on Thursday March 19 2015, @11:15AM
Phoenix666 Already partially implemented as you can see but has to have the closing colon and doesn't yet send a notification.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Thursday March 19 2015, @12:19PM
Awesome!
But now what am I gonna putter around on? ;-)
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Thursday March 19 2015, @12:35PM
Feel free to put the notification bits in. I think NCommander has me pretty otherwise busy once I get done moving.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 18 2015, @11:32PM
get rid of &from=rss
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Thursday March 19 2015, @11:41AM
Done. Won't show on live until the next update though.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 20 2015, @01:09AM
&thx=breh
(Score: 2) by cmn32480 on Thursday March 19 2015, @02:14AM
I dropped this one on IRC a few minutes ago, but thought I should leave it here as well for discussion.
Can we get a date put in the funding goal slashbox for when the numbers were last updated? Not a big thing, but helpful to those of us who watch the number climbing (or not).
"It's a dog eat dog world, and I'm wearing Milkbone underwear" - Norm Peterson
(Score: 2) by mrcoolbp on Thursday March 19 2015, @04:53AM
Done. Though I check it 'most every day, and certainly update it if the percentage jumps at least one point.
(Score:1^½, Radical)