Jackson Free Press

I'm looking at a few different upgrades to the JFP site that I want to roll out over the next few weeks...*maybe* within a month or so we'll be moving to a slightly upgraded platform for the entire site.

In this thread, if anyone is willing, I'd love to hear a wishlist from our regular (or not-so-regular) bloggers and visitors as to what they'd like to see on the JFP site. That can range from content (movie reviews, a better dining guide, better calendar, etc...) to different features (avatars in the forums, persistent logins, social bookmarking...whatever).

If you'd give me a wishlist for feature upgrades -- even if it seems out there or you're not sure how we'd manage or afford to do something -- and I'll see what I can incorporate and it'll help me shape the next iteration. Thoughts? Thanks!

Previous Commentsshow

Bump...looking for ideas, criticisms and wish list items from the JFP bloggerati and visitors regarding the next iteration of the site.

Todd Stauffer

Sep 20 2006

Lots of ideas, but little time- I'll be back here though. Many of the ideas that you had mentioned above get my vote though...

Rico

Sep 20 2006

Lots of ideas, but little time- I'll be back here though. Many of the ideas that you had mentioned above get my vote though...

Rico

Sep 20 2006

You don't wait long to bump, do you, Todd? ;-) One thing that's been bugging me lately is that sometimes the link from a user's name (or pseudonym) will take you to their profile page, and sometimes it takes you to whatever they have set up as their Web site in their profile. This may be a difference between the Forum pages and the news pages; I'm not sure. (I sometimes use this link as a way to view my own profile page so I can see what topics I've posted to recently, so I would like to see it consistently go to the user's profile page. After all, anybody who wants to look at my Web site will find the link on my profile page. :-)) Also, one of the Forum sections -- I think it's the "National" section -- doesn't have a proper breadcrumb trail on its topic pages; there's only one link that takes you all the way back up to the main Forums page. I'd like to see that fixed. Best, Tim

Tim Kynerd

Sep 20 2006

I should add that you JFP bloggerati are being watching nationally. There are a bunch of folks out there with other publications that would cut off their right ear to have the kind of interactivity and participation we have here. To my thinking, credit flows two directions on that: Todd's vision about how newspapers should use the Internet (which he's sharing with other alts at a Web conference in San Francisco in October), and to all of you users who really get in here and make this a community. We have something here you don't see very often on newspaper sites. To that end, I really encourage y'all to give the iTodd your suggestions for what you want to see. You might actually get it.

DonnaLadd

Sep 20 2006

I agree with Donna--this is, in fact, one of the best forums I've ever participated in anywhere, and I've been very actively participating in discussion groups, national and local, since 1989. I love the fact that there's a Jackson-focused "BBS" like this. Re wish lists: - A better calendar, definitely. - A spiffier user profile system would probably be nice. I have to say that I'm madly in love with MySpace and while I wouldn't expect anything quite that fancy, I think that social networking features are always a good thing. - I don't care much either way about avatars, but I certainly don't mind them. - As a blogger, I kind of like categories. Cheers, TH

Tom Head

Sep 20 2006

Ah, a spell check for bloggers would be wonderful!! Also, someway to pull down fonts and/or colors.

ChrisCavanaugh

Sep 20 2006

Actually, Chris, if you download the new Google Toolbar, or equivalent, they now have "on-line spellcheck" for posting on blogs and filling in forms. Pretty cool! Don't change much!

pikersam

Sep 20 2006

The bump was because I posted this in my blog, and the individual blogs don't get enough traffic because of the way they're organized. That's one thing I want to work on...people respond to threads that have comments by looking at recent comments (or stuff in Noise), not the individual blogs since they're buried. :-) How about RSS syndication? Anyone actually using our feeds?

Todd Stauffer

Sep 20 2006

I loved RSS, then subscribed to too many blogs, couldn't keep up, and stopped using it. :P I agree that blogs need to be more prominent--as it is there's not much practical difference between a blog post and a forum post. I'm not quite sure what the answer would be, though... Cheers, TH

Tom Head

Sep 20 2006

Oh, and Tom, I think the what-your-name-links-to deal is actually an option in the profile settings themselves. I'll check...it may be a system-wide setting. (I'm on my Blackberry, so I can't say for sure.) Hmmm.

Todd Stauffer

Sep 20 2006

Sorry, I meant Tim, not Tom in that last response. Now, Tom, you're right about blog vs forums...indeed, one could argue that forums have *more* visibility than the individual blogs thanks to the Recent Forums tool. My thought is this...bloggers should be "trusted" sources that meet two criteria -- they are recognized on the site as people who drive useful discussions and *we* (JFP management) know who they are. Amazon has impressed me with their "RealName" approach -- I think I'd consider that a "best practice" for online community. (Actually, I wouldn't require someone to post under their real name, but they should be accountable and verified by us.) DailyKOS seems to do something similar for their front page bloggers...

Todd Stauffer

Sep 20 2006

Better forum software? Vbulletin? :D I've got a plug in dying for it.

Ironghost

Sep 20 2006

Ironghost: Aside from your personal plug-in (grin) anything in particular about vBulletin that you think recommends it?

Todd Stauffer

Sep 20 2006

I love the Real Name. I like the avatars and such, but I know that the JFP will draw the line between an expression of self and total posting whoredom. I also like that we don't have any pictures that would ever get dinged as porn from a work computer. I'd hate Websense to filter. Maybe have avatars where we can't upload from anywhere but have to build from here? Or maybe that's too much to think on.

emilyb

Sep 20 2006

I get real tired of avatars and dumb signature blocks. I'd skip them myself if I were setting up a forum. More to the point, though, is that I'd like to be able to edit a forum post after it's been posted. I realize I can edit in preview, but sometimes I'll notice something after a post is already up and can't change it. I know this is possible because I have been able to do it with other forums, can research it if necessary. Otherwise, I like JFP's forums just as they are.

lucdix

Sep 20 2006

I just noticed that you're looking for *site* ideas, Todd, not just forum ideas. I would love to see an improvement in your photo galleries. I would like to be able to see thumbnails of all the photos in the galleries and to be able to click on the images themselves to move forward. All of the photo galleries linked to from the GBNF site - www.greaterbelhaven.com - are done that way using free software from JAlbum (www.jalbum.net), in particular a Flash-based gallery ('skin' in JAlbum parlance) called BananAlbum, though there are many solutions available. Here's one example:Brendan Nolan/ Legacy/Greann playing at Fenian's: http://www.lwdgrfx.com/2005m12Dec01Fenians/ Note that there are similar JAlbum solutions available which are not Flash-based.

lucdix

Sep 20 2006

Todd: It's easy to run, light (seemingly) on resources unless Tom gets posty again. ;) I know the Database can get unweildy occasionally. It supports all the fun and frivolity that a BBS can handle (avatars, sig blocks, ect, ad nauseum...) ...and Lord knows I've been on enough BBS'es in Jackson. :D

Ironghost

Sep 20 2006

I would like to see the process of quoting someone, using bold or italics tags, posting links, etc. become easier. I really like the little button things that let you add and name a url to a post easily instead of typing out the tags... Also, something that I find incredibly useful is a "view new posts" button at the top *and* bottom of every page. This enables a person to read through a thread (especially a long thread) and then be able to go directly to a newly refreshed list of latest posts- no matter if they are in the blogs or in the forums. You would not believe how useful this feature can be, particularly if it is a busy day on the forums! The "2005 Jackson City Elections" section of the message board has probably served its useful life... A "Food" section would be a nice substitute. The Commercial Appeal has a food blog that allows comments about restaurants from users, and they haven't been sued for it, as far as I know anyway... Spell Check for everyone! I would like for e-mail addresses to be unblocked- I know that some of you guys have good reason to keep 'em blocked, but how hard is it to set up a g-mail account just for use on boards like this? Check it or don't check it at will... There has been one time over the years that I wanted to contact a JFP person without broadcasting something on the board- it was political and confidential. Would have been nice to have been able to make contact some other way... Avatars- I can take 'em or leave 'em... That's about it for now- I'll think of some more as soon as I hit "submit"...

Rico

Sep 20 2006

We actually blocked some of the internal email functions when one of the more infamous njamer trolls starting spamming people using it. There might be a way to bring it back...I agree that it would sometimes be nice for members to write one another off-list. My biggest concern with going to vbulletin, etc., would be the hack we'd have to do to get one login for everyone. I assume that a separate login for forums and blog comments would be a deal-breaker. :-)

Todd Stauffer

Sep 20 2006

Lucdix: I hear you on the galleries. That's definitely a priority for me. :-)

Todd Stauffer

Sep 20 2006

I actually think the lack of all the bells and whistles adds to the debate of ideas. It encourages the user to actually try and formulate their point, joke, or argument in words which fosters a better forum because they cannot just post a bunch of funny pics, laughy faces, and symbols. I think this may be why this blog space in particular gets the intellectual and credible reputation that it's earned. Computers are already full of short cuts, fun games, and mindless diversions. Our debates shouldn't be. However, I for one welcome our new Avatar overlords should they arrive! ;-)

pikersam

Sep 20 2006

Well, I like the particular 'skin' I linked to (BananAlbum), but the fact is that there are dozens out there - some Javascript-based, others CSS-based, etc, some neither - just straight html. The JAlbum skins do not have to be Flash-based and are all super-configurable so you could add your own graphics - backgrounds, arrows, fonts, etc. I often do not bother going through JFP photos because I find the interface so clunky - and that's a shame because I can usually look at photos for hours. Here's another example from the Belhaven Market this summer: http://www.lwdgrfx.com/2006m07Jul29Market/ Here's another variant from the Stern, a German newsweekly: http://tinyurl.com/rber8 Note that they just use photo numbers, although I prefer thumbnails myself.

lucdix

Sep 20 2006

Better be careful what you wish for, Pike. The last thing this city needs is another avatar overlord.

Todd Stauffer

Sep 20 2006

One more item for the JFP site wishlist: I'd love to be able to link to an article without, at the same time, linking to the comments. Re emails - I had mine available for a while but considering the amount of spam I get otherwise, I asked myself how much sense it made to add another potential source - not much - so removed that capability.

lucdix

Sep 20 2006

Lucdix: you can actually use the "printer friendly" link at the bottom of any story to get a version without comments...early on we posted both "more" and "comment" links to stories (with "more" linking to a sans-comments page) but we got emails from folks who couldn't find where to comment. :-) It was a few too many entry points for non-geeks. :-) Also on the email issue -- I think it's the user's choice whether to *post* your email address OR allow people to email you via a form, which means they can't actually get you email address (for spam or stalking purposes) unless you write them back. Seems to me we may have turned that off system-wide a while back b/c there's still some potential for harassment.

Todd Stauffer

Sep 20 2006

Pike: you may have something on the simplicy thing. Actually our "forums" are just stylized "group blogs" that work like any other blog on the site except that they allow any member to post. (Loungeblog works that way, too, except that user entries are posted as closed so that Herman or Donna can approve them before they post.) One of my thoughts is to figure out if there is an advantage to moving to a true forum script, but I'm trying to weigh the pros and cons. One of the really cool reasons to stick to the current system is the way Recent comments on the home page don't care if the comment is on a story, or Tom's blog or a forum entry...I've encounter very few sites where comments "cascade" as nicely as they do with the current system. That said, I think spellcheck etc might be something we could pull off.

Todd Stauffer

Sep 20 2006

Thanks, Todd - shoulda thought of that myself but I didn't want to print the story, just link to it so I didn't check it. In my account options I did check the 'write to me via JFP' option.

lucdix

Sep 21 2006

Aha...then I probably turned off the "write me via the JFP option" system-wide. We'll have to think about how to police potential spam/abuse on that feature, but maybe if there's enough interest we could turn it back on. Maybe. Gotta talk to the boss-lady, first. :-)

Todd Stauffer

Sep 21 2006

Tom: up-thread you said that "as a blogger you like categories." Can you explain what you mean? Do you mean you like to *tag* entries for searches? Or you'd like to categorize your entries into fixed topics? And, on the myspace front, that's probably a JFP 4.0-level request (actually, the tech for myspace-type sites is pretty basic -- but moving our content to a platform with myspace-like features would be rough.) But, having said that, can anyone think of features along those lines that either (a) better promote online discussion or (b) can encourage JFP readers to use the site to meet up in person?

Todd Stauffer

Sep 21 2006

todd, I agree with pikersam that the simplicity encourages conversation. I like that & I think it makes it easy for new people to jump on in. But I'm going to think on improvements. I think what you've done with the site is truly amazing, technically, contentwise, everything. I think the moderator(s) (I think Donna, mostly, though others chime in) is a huge part of this as well. A great moderator makes a great debate possible and I've definitely seen a debate plummet downhill when there wasn't a good moderator.

Izzy

Sep 21 2006

Hi, Todd, I agree that tags would be nice - both tags JFP adds and additional tags I might add which would be searchable by all - for posts and articles and, why not, ads. The reason is that there's so much information on this site (a great thing!), it's sometimes hard to find things again. If these tags were available to all, another site visitor might find a post through them where he/she might not have looked. Let's say someone mentions the King Edward in the comments to a Melton blog. I tag it as such, the tag gets listed, another site visitor searches for 'King Edward' and voila! there it is.

lucdix

Sep 21 2006

What the heck is an Avatar in this context? All I ask is that the interface stays simple. I for one hate the MySpace interface, and all the junk people post. Of course, all of that has kept me from looking at the sites much, so there may be great features, but... I'm old. I much prefer the layout of the Wall Street Journal (black and white, no photos on the cover, dense font, etc) to the layout of USAToday (too much color, too many graphics, too many photos). If there's too much "design", I always feel like they are trying to hide a lack of thoughtful content. Yay for spell check. Agree on the need to update the photo galleries. Also, can we get a "return to JFP Home Page" button at the *bottom* of the pages? There's lots and lots of scrolling for us blog addicts. As one of the people who blocked my email because of some disgusting trolls out there, I can say that I would not mind having the "contact me via JFP" feature-thingy turned back on. I'm not opposed to all contact with my fellow bloggers, but I want them to work at it a tiny bit, and leave a trail of breadcrumbs so I can track them down if they're slimy.

kate

Sep 21 2006

Avatars are images associated with bloggers/forum posters. Sometimes they're pictures of the person, sometimes they're pictures of their favorite character from Stargate. :-) Probably a silly thing to have here (at least, that's how the comments are going) but I figured I'd toss it out there. As for a link to the home page...that's easy...I just replicated the top navigation links to the bottom of the comment page. I can pretty it up later if someone has a criticism...check it out.

Todd Stauffer

Sep 21 2006

Avatars = BAD!!! Todd = GOOD!!!! Thanks for the link. I'll use it now.

kate

Sep 21 2006

yeah, I like the back to home page at the bottom- great idea, Kate. Personally I think avatars is adding distraction with not much benefit.

Izzy

Sep 21 2006

I still think that a "view new posts" button at the top and bottom of every page would be a Godsend here. That way you aren't limited to going back to the home page and scrolling down to find the latest comments- they are always just a click away! Anyone that has ever tried using this feature on a board swears by it... It could simply be a link to the "last 100 comments" page for simplicity if you like- but it is really nice to have it both at the top and bottom... Personally, I wouldn't miss Avatars, but sometimes it would be nice to add a graphic image to a post- however, if you made it easier to just post a link to a graphic, that would suit me just fine and be a whole lot less distracting...

Rico

Sep 21 2006

I still think that a "view new posts" button at the top and bottom of every page would be a Godsend here. That way you aren't limited to going back to the home page and scrolling down to find the latest comments- they are always just a click away! Anyone that has ever tried using this feature on a board swears by it... It could simply be a link to the "last 100 comments" page for simplicity if you like- but it is really nice to have it both at the top and bottom... By "new posts" do you mean *just* the most recent comments (sitewide), or do you somehow want to see *all* new activity (new blog entries, new forum posts, new comments) on the site? Comments I could do, the others it seem would require replicating some of the interface elements from the front page like the recent forum entries. (Because the forums are each separate blogs, it's tough-to-impossible to roll all the forum entries together and say "new forum posts" -- that's a weakness to not using true forum software. My theory on the "comment" page (what you're probably viewing now) has always been to keep it as simply as possible...you'll see it's only two columns for content and ads. Right below that link I just added for navigation at the bottom of the page I could probably add the Recent Comments...maybe an abbreviated version of just the five most recent comments...I'll have to look at that...Recent Comments on the front page is actually a hack that Knol did after the original code we'd been using broke in a pMachine update.

Todd Stauffer

Sep 21 2006

From this thread, lucdix said regarding Craig's: It's free? So what? I'm willing to pay money to support excellent local journalism and I believe in supporting local businesses whenever I can. If you don't support them, you won't have them. There's no such thing as a free lunch and never will be and I want JFP to stay and prosper. Thanks, lucdix, for saying that. The truth is that the Craigslist interface does have some advantages...simplicity of the presentation and its strong search engine come to mind...I'll frequently go to the SF Craiglist and search for writing jobs that allow telecommuting, just in case I find an interesting gig for moonlighting some tech stuff. :-) Craigslist probably appeals to techie types a little more than some of the other services, but it's true that anyone who is searching online classifieds board is probably a bit more tech savvy than not. That said, I think the real strength of our classifieds is the ability to decide whether to post online for free, post in the paper for a charge or both. We're looking at a few ways to drive up the value of being in our Classifieds -- after all, the more legitimate Classifieds you have, the more valuable they become until things hit a tipping point -- but even if folks visit the current tool (hit the tab up top or visit JFPClassifieds.com) then you'll see that for a work-in-progress it ain't all bad. Criticism welcome!

Todd Stauffer

Sep 21 2006

By "new posts" do you mean *just* the most recent comments (sitewide), or do you somehow want to see *all* new activity (new blog entries, new forum posts, new comments) on the site? Comments I could do, the others it seem would require replicating some of the interface elements from the front page like the recent forum entries. (Because the forums are each separate blogs, it's tough-to-impossible to roll all the forum entries together and say "new forum posts" -- that's a weakness to not using true forum software. I dunno... I'm having a really hard time being clear on explaining what I mean! I go to some forums that have what I'm talking about in place, but all require registering, and I don't think any are a combination of blogs and forums like you have here. With the blogs, a person is pretty much limited to commenting on whatever the blogger happens to be posting, while in the forums, everyone is basically a blogger, and can start new topics at will... I can see the need to keep the main page of this site focused on the bloggers stuff, but the part I personally enjoy usually comes afterward in the comments section. Maybe if there was a way for the blog stuff to be cross-posted, both on the main page and in the forums, it might work. Then the "view new posts" button could link to something similar to the "recent comments" section that you already have. But another important aspect of all this- on most boards when you click on a comment on their "recent comments" section, it takes you directly to that particular posting- not just to the page the posting is on. This helps in allowing someone to follow several threads at once with a minimal amout of clicking and/or scrolling. I'm doing a horrible job of explaining myself here- please let me know if any of this makes sense!

Rico

Sep 21 2006

But another important aspect of all this- on most boards when you click on a comment on their "recent comments" section, it takes you directly to that particular posting- not just to the page the posting is on. This helps in allowing someone to follow several threads at once with a minimal amout of clicking and/or scrolling. Ahhh...I see. Ouch. That could be tough. I hear what you're saying, though...I know that following the discussion you've already read by scrolling to the bottom of the page all the time can get old. I've thought of broaching that by (1) splitting pages so that it's not one, long page or (2) putting a "go to bottom" link at the top of the comments page. At least at that point you could scroll *up* to more recent comments. ;-) To do what you're asking, we'd need to mark each comment with its own name tag and then have the referring link take both the story and the comment into account. No idea if we can do that or not since the link itself is built dynamically...food for thought, though, thanks! As for the recent comments, why don't I drop that at the bottom of the page and see what we think? :-)

Todd Stauffer

Sep 21 2006

To do what you're asking, we'd need to mark each comment with its own name tag and then have the referring link take both the story and the comment into account. No idea if we can do that or not since the link itself is built dynamically...food for thought, though, thanks! I know that it is at least possible. I think that each individual post has it's own tag or something that gets added automagically to the dynamically created link. I have no idea how any of it is done! As for the recent comments, why don't I drop that at the bottom of the page and see what we think? :-) Actually, what I had in mind was a little simpler- just a link to the "other recent comments" page. Your version is actually much better than that! How much trouble would it be to add that to each page automatically? For example, if someone in the forum created a new topic, would it appear on that page? And is there any way to give the "other recent comments" section it's own little window with it's own scroll bar and refresh button? Might be getting *way* too complicated here...

Rico

Sep 21 2006

Wow! Having the "other recent comments" links at the bottom of the page really works well! I hope that you guys decide to keep 'em, and you should get a patent on the code- you could sell it to every message board software company in the country! And the folks that don't like "bells and whistles" don't even have to see 'em if they don't want to...

Rico

Sep 21 2006

I'm probably asking too much again, but would it be too difficult to put a 'return to top' link now and then on these long comments pages? Yeah, I like the 'recent comments' link too. Good move! Is there an overall list of blogs somewhere I've missed? I found this JFP 3.0 thread again through the link in the 'Read Jim Hood Interview' thread, but is there somewhere/some way I could have found it otherwise?

lucdix

Sep 21 2006

Luc: the link would either have to be part of every comment or not at all. Why link "to top"? After you've read the story and you're in the comments why go back to the story? (I'm just askin' :-) Rico: glad you like it. I've got it live on forum posts, too, although I'm not sure of the design yet...might have to tweak that. Our forums are wiiiide. :-)

Todd Stauffer

Sep 21 2006

Oh, and Luc: this post is in my "blog" which links from the front page. But...I'm feelin' your pain, I promise. :-) I'm working on a reorg...maybe by this weekend if I can get a few hours free.

Todd Stauffer

Sep 21 2006

I often go back through a page, Todd, sometimes like to re-read how a conversation has developed, sometimes to re-read the article to be certain I understand something. What? He did that? As it is, I have to scroll back up. No big deal, just wasn't sure how you had this set up. If you'll notice, that's what I do with the html version of 'What's Fresh at the Greater Belhaven Market?' precisely because it's so long - around 9 pages if you print it out. At nearly any point you can return to the top to click to another section. (Oh, I have it sectioned off which you don't here) But that's not a blog. I insert the links as I go. Getting a few hours free? Now there's a pipe dream.

lucdix

Sep 21 2006

iTodd said: Rico: glad you like it. I've got it live on forum posts, too, although I'm not sure of the design yet...might have to tweak that. Our forums are wiiiide. :-) Todd, again I can't tell you how much I like having the recent comments thing at the bottom of the page- it's like discovering an alley to cut through instead of going all the way around the block- and it works perfectly! I just hope others will discover it and use it- it isn't something easily noticed.

Rico

Sep 22 2006

I like the recent comments everywhere, too. Another wish from me: it would be nice to be able to see all comments by a particular poster. Sometimes I know *who* wrote something, but can't remember which thread - for example, when Original Pikersam writes something brilliant on the Melton debacle, there's about a gazillion threads going at this point, and it would be nice to be able to see "All posts by Pikersam", rather than try to remember which thread it was in, or search through several threads.

kate

Sep 22 2006

iTodd, I'll take a look unde the hood today and see about implementing "show all comments by X in this thread" as Kate suggested and also a "back to top." I'm thinking a little icon with an arrow pointing up. I actually think these are very good suggestions. I can see why somoene would want to jump immediately to the top navigation from a post and see exactly what someone has posted in a particular thread without the other conversations happening. Personally, I've wanted to respond to a particular comment by X and had to wade through all the responses trying to find that one comment I knew X made. T, IM me if you want to talk more about these implementations.

kaust

Sep 22 2006

I *think* the system already supports viewing all of the comments by a particular person via their "profile" page. The problem is that the system doesn't force everyone to *link* to their profile page via their username, which would be cool, so to find them you'd have to go up to that "members" link in the little login toolbar and then scroll through the members to find the one you want. However, if you did that, I think you'd see a list of at least their most recent comments, although perhaps not a full history. Maybe knol could build a little "she said WHAT?" tool for dynamically entering user names and getting a user's postings. And on the "link to top" front, I think I can make that happen when I get a second.

Todd Stauffer

Sep 22 2006

My main issue: Say I'm not logged in and I'm reading the forums. I click log in so I can comment. After I log in my only choice is to go back to the main page forcing me to find the forum I wanted to comment in all over again. It would be great if after logging in we could have an option of being taken back to the page we were previously viewing. Did that make sense?

tiffitch

Sep 22 2006

Todd, got the link to top loaded for busy blogs.

kaust

Sep 22 2006

Tiff: yeah, that makes sense...it's something that Donna has complained to me about for years. :-) I think it's a limitation of our current system, but one that would be solved by the next *major* upgrade, which I'd like to make happen within the next month or so. I'll double-check to make sure there isn't something we can do to fix that in the interim, though.

Todd Stauffer

Sep 22 2006

Knol: I see it. Looks cute. :-)

Todd Stauffer

Sep 22 2006

Todd, working on redirecting to the original page upon login.... Give me an hour or so to dig through the variables. ;-)

kaust

Sep 22 2006

Got a quick hack on the "back to original page" option. Am implementing a stronger version over the next few mins.

kaust

Sep 22 2006

This is great- watching improvements taking place as I refresh! One question though- if this stuff is so easy, what took you guys so long??? 8-)

Rico

Sep 22 2006

Rico, who said it was easy? ;-)

kaust

Sep 22 2006

Rico, who said it was easy? ;-) Well all of these features are happening so fast and furious- almost every time I reload a page, there is something new added! Now if you could just make it easier to post links, italicize, and add a spell check...

Rico

Sep 22 2006

Rico: The changes I make are easy; the changes Knol makes are harder. :-) As for the comment/post editor...again, I'll look into it. I *know* we can do some of that in the upgrade, but I'm not sure what we can do before then. Will let you know. Here's a question for everyone...could we see a use for a wiki on the site? - Todd

Todd Stauffer

Sep 22 2006

Todd, working on a beta editor for the comments text area... FYI. I think a Wiki could be an interesting way to keep the facts straight on all things Jackson from architecture to politics to history to people.... Basically a "Wikipedia" of Jackson and MS. But, we'd certainly have to implement quality control knowing a few arses in the area would have a blast smearing it with BS. ;-)

kaust

Sep 22 2006

Todd and Knol, I just noticed the top link arrow. Thanks!

lucdix

Sep 22 2006

Todd, thanks for the recent comments and home page link at bottom of page. Both are handy improvements. Go ITodd!!

Izzy

Sep 26 2006

and go Knol, too!!! (didn't mean ta leave you out)

Izzy

Sep 26 2006

Props to Knol for fixing the login-redirect. You can now log-in and return to the same page you were looking at. Too cool! Meanwhile...any other suggestions? Any other complaints? New feature requests?

Todd Stauffer

Sep 26 2006

I believe the possibility of being able to attach images has been brought up, Todd. Since I can't attach a screen capture, I'll have to describe it. Since you asked, I decided to be nitpicky. I was looking at your front page and thinking how much vertical screen real estate is lost to your google search bar whereas you have unused space to the right of that 'podcast' tab. The 'podcast' tab is redundant in any case since you have it next to the JFP Capitol Blog. You could also gain horizontal space by moving the 'home' tab to the left. A very minor irritation is that the orange for the music tab standing out makes me think it's the selected tab since it's in a completely different color range than your other tabs. I realize that black shows the selected tab but the orange and the blue for the podcast tab break the navigation color scheme. I also miss the tab navigation when I go to the photos page. And, as mentioned above, I'm really looking forward to a better photos page when you get to it since you have some excellent photographers. In fact, it would be great to see photo pages cross-referenced by photographer - Jaro's work, Kate's work, Renee's work, William Patrick Butler's work, Thabi's work, Adam's work, etc.

lucdix

Sep 27 2006

Good ideas, lucdix. I know you don't like the image galleries. :-) I'm hoping at some point to offer something along the lines of user-generated galleries, so people can host their own shots, etc. That would take us a little of the ways down the road toward the JFP site being a "social network" of sorts. As for the navigation stuff, the Google bar is a little more handy than just being a Google bar since it's a better search of the JFP site (tech wise) than the one that's built into the CMS. But we could move it around some. And, I hear you on some of the tabs...expect them to change in the relatively near future, along with some of the way the front page content is organized. :-)

Todd Stauffer

Sep 27 2006

There's some fascinating photography for its own sake on this site, Todd http://www.mexicanpictures.com/projects.html but the page I link to to might also be a starting point for JFP's photo pages. As I've written, though, I like thumbnails plus a link back to the referring page in addition to the main photos. This site has neither once you've entered a gallery.

lucdix

Sep 27 2006

lucdix, I'm certainly not the site owner -- just a consultant and coder. With the sites I've managed and forums I've moderated, user-uploaded images often lead to copyright violations and ALOT of time moderating. It's hard enough to police copyright issues with text [not as difficult with engines like Google] but an image's true origin and creator are *very* difficult to validate. Based on my experiences, the chance of a non-tech trying to upload a 2MB TIFF is highly probable. Provide an error message and they still become confused why their pretty, little picture won't upload and send an email to the moderator/owner. I've also seen where image linking leads to bandwidth theft which can easily cost another individual money. Another concern is that any random image uploaded by an individual could lead to the site layout going out the window to wrap the image. All those problems can be remedied through server-side scripting and JavaScript -- images auto-resized via GD, NETPBM, etc; filetype checked via JavaScript; and file size/type checked via AJAX/server-side. This still does not alleviate the need for a moderator to screen potentially harmful or tasteless images and images by other photographers. My $.02 based on my own problems when dealing with user-uploaded images -- especially in comments/forums.

kaust

Sep 27 2006

I vote NO on allowing users to upload images. There are *way* too many images on most web pages, and that makes them take way to long to download, even with decent bandwidth. Loving the new tweaks to the interface, especially the 'back to top' arrow and the Recent Comments at the bottom of each page.

kate

Sep 27 2006

I could do without images, too- but there should be a way to link to images easily... Those that want to see 'em can just click, and those that don't won't need to.

Rico

Sep 27 2006

Rico, you can link to images just as easily as a site. Just paste the images URL where you'd normally paste a link to the site. It's courteous to warn someone of the image your linking to. FYI: I'm working on a WYSIWYG editor that will allow you to edit content in the comments form and apply formatting, links, etc much like you would in MSWord. Running into to some technological hurdles since most off-the-shelf editors retain formatting of pasted text. This creates a massive problem because if John Doe posts content from NYT, it could also contain HTML for the images, NYT style and formatting, etc. In essence, every comment could potentially look different including fonts, color, etc. So, we're working on making bolding, italicizing, blockquoting, linking, etc (common in the comments here) easier and more user-friendly... But maintaining the overall style of the site and refraining from hotlinking images from another site are a high priority.... So, it's coming but may be in the next version of the site.

kaust

Sep 27 2006

Actually, what you are doing with the user friendly stuff is all I want. I would like the basic pages to remain "clean"- no jumping avatars or large images of somebodies pet, but I just don't like typing code whenever I want to link to something!

Rico

Sep 27 2006

Gotcha... The editor is on the project list and work is already underway on the beta version. I actually prefer coding. Go figure. ;-)

kaust

Sep 27 2006

Hi, Knol, Just to clarify...I wasn't promoting that idea. I only thought of it since I wanted to include a screen capture as an illustration of the vertical real estate lost to the google search bar. I'm actually **against** moving the site in the 'mySpace' direction, the 'social network' idea. I really like the site pretty much just as it is. When you look at the astonishing amount of bandwidth devoted to terrible photos on Flickr, I'd say let google/flickr deal with that, not the JFP. As far as linking to images, though, that's easy - it's just a URL. Let's say the image in question is on 'www.mysite.com' and is called 'katrina.jpg'. The link is www.mysite.com/katrina.jpg No special code is necessary. You can find the link by right-clicking an image in Opera or Firefox, or by viewing the code in Internet Explorer.

lucdix

Sep 27 2006

I'm with Kate on leaving images off. I like the simplicity of the blogs/forums cause it makes conversation & ideas the focal point.

Izzy

Sep 27 2006

i think we really need to redo the photo gallery :)

William Patrick Butler

Sep 27 2006

One more 'feature' thought. While I realize that I can bookmark articles/blogs on the JFP site in my browser, would there be a way to store this information on the site itself so that, when I log in, I'm shown a history of where I've been to help me find my way back to those areas easily? Even spiffier would be an indication that there have been new comments for those blogs since I last logged in. I have the 'notify me when someone replies to this post?' field checked but have never been notified.

lucdix

Sep 29 2006

I have the 'notify me when someone replies to this post?' field checked but have never been notified. Do you have your correct e-mail address on your profile? It always notifies me- sometimes long after I even remember posting on a particular thread!

Rico

Sep 30 2006

Yep - I just checked. And I've been getting the Lounge List for years now.

lucdix

Sep 30 2006

While I realize that I can bookmark articles/blogs on the JFP site in my browser, would there be a way to store this information on the site itself so that, when I log in, I'm shown a history of where I've been to help me find my way back to those areas easily? Yeah, that's another one I want to look into. It might be down the road a bit, but I think that'd be a huge help for some of our consistent users. Kinda let you leave breadcrumbs on a discussion you want to follow. Even spiffier would be an indication that there have been new comments for those blogs since I last logged in. I have the 'notify me when someone replies to this post?' field checked but have never been notified. This does work for a lot of folks. lucdix, don't rely on LoungeList as a barometer -- I use two different systems for JFP and LoungeList (switched over after the list got too big for the CMS to handle). You could easily have two different addresses for LoungeList and JFP.com, unfortunately.

Todd Stauffer

Sep 30 2006

I have the 'notify me when someone replies to this post?' field checked but have never been notified. I normally get notified, but I have missed a bunch of them recently. The emails didn't go into my junk folder, and they shouldn't have since I have theadmin email address in my address book. I started getting the notifications again, so I guess there was a system hiccup of some kind. Suggestion: When I get my notifications, I would like to see the title of the thread along with the URL instead of trying to sort them out by the URL's.

LatashaWillis

Sep 30 2006

I like that 'return to the front page' arrow next to the 'return to top' arrow. Thanks for adding both those. As far as being notified when someone replies to a post, though, is there somewhere else my email would need to be but in my profile?

lucdix

Oct 1 2006

As far as being notified when someone replies to a post, though, is there somewhere else my email would need to be but in my profile? No. There is a checkbox above the SUBMIT and PREVIEW buttons. Just make sure you click on the box to add the checkmark before you hit SUBMIT.

LatashaWillis

Oct 4 2006

Hi, Latasha, Thanks for the input. That is checked (and has been) but I've never once been notified. I may try another email address (it's presently an AOL address) to see if that makes a difference. L.

lucdix

Oct 4 2006

Lucdix, nearly every managed elist I've dealt with has had problems with AOL. It wouldn't surprise me if it had something to do with them. Not saying this is the specific problem but AOL has more problems than their customer service, UI, and browser. ;-)

kaust

Oct 5 2006

Well, actually, Knol, I've never had any problems with AOL's browser or UI or customer service, not a one, and I've had an AOL account for 9 plus years. AOL had problems with its dialup accounts for a while but that lies at least five years back and was way past when I switched to broadband anyway. Just two days ago Roadrunner delivered email from a friend in Belhaven (with jam.rr.com) to me (in Belhaven at a jam.rr.com address) two days late, so I doubt the problem is AOL. The RR message had no attachments, consisted of about twenty words. Re the JFP notification, I plan to switch to another email address to see what happens, although, recently, my gmail account has also given me problems syncing with Outlook. When a message doesn't make it through to AOL, it gets sent to the spam inbox, so I can still find it. That's why I wonder if the messages are being sent at all from the JFP server. What problems have you had with AOL and when?

lucdix

Oct 6 2006

Actually, I just remembered that I changed my 'notify me' address two days ago and got no notification that anyone had replied to this thread, so it's definitely not AOL. It's no big deal - I check the thread anyway - but it's nice to have things working.

lucdix

Oct 6 2006

lucdix, please come to this thread, submit a comment and leave the "notify me...." checked. I may have found the culprit.

kaust

Oct 6 2006

I think the changes are working out really good!

pikersam

Oct 6 2006

Testing back at you, lucdix.

kaust

Oct 6 2006

That did it, Knol, thanks.. It went to the changed (non-AOL) email, so I've changed the profile back to the AOL address to see if it will work there.

lucdix

Oct 6 2006

The notification for the last two posts just came through to my AOL address, so whatever you changed did the trick. Many thanks.

lucdix

Oct 6 2006

Got it now... All's well it seems.

kaust

Oct 6 2006

Hey, Knol.

DonnaLadd

Oct 6 2006

Response...

Rico

Oct 6 2006

All, you'll notice on responses that it now includes the topic name in the subject line. I'm working to include a portion of the response in the body of the email though this may take a few.

kaust

Oct 6 2006

Another try - I've gotten the last three notifications - including the topic notification - but I may have submitted while you were making the change because one of my posts only brought a blank screen upon preview. Including a portion of the response is a great idea. The preview is working on this one.

lucdix

Oct 6 2006

lucdix, I made a "boo boo" in my scripting and caused a server error. Killed the process and all is working again!

kaust

Oct 6 2006

I sure am getting a lot of mail from the Jackson Free Press these days....the notification including the thread referenced is definitely working. The preview function's also back so I must have submitted right as you were making the change.

lucdix

Oct 6 2006

Test... Can someone respond for me again? ;-)

kaust

Oct 6 2006

Testing, 1-2-3... Stopped getting notifications yesterday.

LatashaWillis

Oct 6 2006

L.W., you should now be getting them. Let me know if you got them... Also, you'll notice this message should be included in the email notification you received...

kaust

Oct 6 2006

Knol, I got a notification for your post asking for responses and for Latasha's post saying she'd stopped getting notifications yesterday - including the content of the post. I have received no notification for your response to Latasha at 11:34 a.m.

lucdix

Oct 6 2006

lucdix, it could be in the mail queue. Let me know if you don't get it shortly.

kaust

Oct 6 2006

Hi, Knol, I'm not sure what your definition of 'shortly' is, but I got the post above this - yours sent at 12:06 - at my AOL address at 12:07 - but have still not gotten either your post from 11:35 or my post from 11:53. It's now 12:50 and I'd think they'd both be out of the mail queue by now.

lucdix

Oct 6 2006

lucdix, tell me if you get this one. ;-) I'm thinking I may have killed some processes (to free the server from a bad script) and it killed the queue during the process. I did this several times so please let me know if you get this.

kaust

Oct 6 2006

Hi, Knol, That one got through (to AOL) - and, this time, landed in the spam folder, presumably since I've gotten so many emails from 'admin@jacksonfreepress.com' recently. So I'd say you're probably right - that the queue got killed as you were freeing the server of the bad script. Thanks for the fix! On another note, have you and Todd considered the possibility of letting a poster edit his/her post once it's up? I hate it when I see a typo which I can't correct except by adding another post.

lucdix

Oct 6 2006

Actually, we talked about it (edit controls). While we want to offer that option, there are many problems it presents in the context of debate/discussion. Someone can literally go back and change the comment which could alter the discussion or create inaccuraces. So, we've talked about the option of allowing strikethrough and add mark up. The added content would be noted as added. Strikethrough would be noted using the strikethrough tag. Another option we discussed was allowing a 1 minute window to allow for edits. Basically, submit then you have 1 minute to edit the content. After that it is literally part of history. Does that make sense? Of course, this might not be a problem once we implement a rich-text editor and spellcheck (which is on the project list for 3.0). Also, on my personal list: hide the comments box if you are not logged in. You won't even see it if you're not logged in... No longer will you need to type and type and then lose your comment unexpectedly. I'm working on this now and it should also be included by default in 3.0.

kaust

Oct 6 2006

Well, unfortunately, I can't remember which forum it is, but I know that I've contributed to some forum or other, probably a photography one, which always mentions that I've edited the post. This is, however, an option I can check or uncheck - whether or not to let others know I have. The 1 or 2 minute option sounds good because it's usually right after I've posted that I notice something - and have missed it in the preview. Hiding the comments if you're not logged in - as an option or fixed?

lucdix

Oct 6 2006

Sorry... Should have been more clear. The comments textarea and form would be completely hidden from people not logged in.... Once logged in, they textarea would be displayed as usual.

kaust

Oct 6 2006

lucdix, log out and give this page a try. I've implemented the fix to hide the comments form from those that aren't logged in. This should resolve the problem of people typing a huge comment only to have it disappear because they are not logged in. It's not as graceful as I'd like it to be but it works for now.

kaust

Oct 6 2006

What a difference a word makes. I was in a hurry and didn't read your post carefully earlier, Knol, thought you wanted to hide the comments themselves from people who weren't logged in. Instead just wanted to hide the comments *form*. That makes a lot of sense. The implementation's fine.

lucdix

Oct 6 2006

L.W., you should now be getting them. Let me know if you got them... Also, you'll notice this message should be included in the email notification you received... Knol, the notification is in my inbox, and it is dated 10:34 AM. I need to check my time zone setting. Anyway, I got all the notifications after that one. I like the new format with the thread title in the email subject and the comment in the body of the email. Would it be possible to get the username of the poster too? I am able to get that on another forum I go to. On that Web site, I can also edit my message a few minutes after sending it, but I can see why you would want to use the strikethrough option instead. Let's not give the trolls any leverage. :-)

LatashaWillis

Oct 6 2006

Knol said: Actually, we talked about it (edit controls). While we want to offer that option, there are many problems it presents in the context of debate/discussion. Someone can literally go back and change the comment which could alter the discussion or create inaccuraces. Yes, this happened to me on another thread on this site just yesterday. Someone went and severely altered a post, leaving my one word response dangling like a chad on a Florida ballot. Makes me look like an idiot, and I really don't need any help in that regard...

Rico

Oct 7 2006

Hmmm, that's not good. How could this have happened on another post on this site? Knol, does that mean these edit controls are already in place? The more I think of it, the more I like a two minute edit rule - perhaps with a countdown clock? I'm really only thinking about typos. A poster could always post again to correct a factual issue. Additionally the edited post would show that User A edited it at such and such a time. I don't need anything in the way of formatting myself beyond, say, bold or italics.

lucdix

Oct 7 2006

lucdix, I think Rico was talking about another thread. Currently, the only people that have edit rights of comments are people with super admin rights and those numbers are limited within the sys. As for typos, if we implement a spellcheck, the need to correct spelling should be resolved, right? Of course, the bigger problem is finding a universal dictionary that's not a drain on system resources. It's easy to tie spellcheck into Microsoft's dictionary engine and do it client-side but creating/implementing a universal system that works with OSX (higher-than-average % of JFP users) and Linux (yes, there are some of them visiting this site) will be the challenge unless future research suggests otherwise.... [I'm super busy with OUToberfest at the moment so that's my #1 priority for the next week.] Back to edits... I'm personally all about seeing corrections as another post rather than an edit of a previous post. Like Rico said, it can throw the whole conversation off if someone changes their own post mid-stream. Even before two minutes, you'll generally have someone responding to your post on the busy threads. So, it could lead to edit madness with everyone correcting their posts based on one user's edit. Make sense? So, in your opinions, would a spellcheck remove the need for an edit option? *Sorry if I'm all over the place in this comment. Too much Red Bull this morning. ;-) Wings!

kaust

Oct 7 2006

Hey lucdix, thanks for your input. Todd and I are discussing whether a two-minute edit rule is needed, or is more trouble than it's worth. My big advice is for everyone to preview and edit your own posts before submitting. And we are not considering whether to allow users to edit their posts at any time after posting. That would not add to the integrity of the site or the discussions. Truth is, typos are part of the speed of the medium, and people wouldn't still have typos and mistakes beyond the two-minute rule. We'll let you know.

DonnaLadd

Oct 7 2006

Knol and I doubleposted. I basically agree with him.

DonnaLadd

Oct 7 2006

"Todd and I are discussing whether a two-minute edit rule is needed, or is more trouble than it's worth." - ladd That's kind of where I was going in that last post. It could literally create chaos on a busy thread after thinking more about how conversations flow on the very busy ones. I'm personally not bothered by typos. I've come to expect them. But, a client-side spell check may alleviate some of those errors and not be a headache. T&D, I'll get back to y'all on what I discover regarding this. Running comments through the server would be a nightmare so I'm looking for something that will utilize the end-user's system to do the task. Of course, you could always do like me -- paste into a mail or word processing app.

kaust

Oct 7 2006

How about a quote function? In my case that would have at least shown the comment that I was replying to, even after the comment was deleted. Yes, I know about copy and paste, but it would seem like Mac people could come up with a more elegant solution...

Rico

Oct 7 2006

I see no need for a spell checker myself. Spell checkers miss homonyms and near homonyms (since, sense, cents), can't correct misspellings of proper names, etc. I was thinking of correcting my own typos if I notice them. As far as the two minute rule, though, you responded to this thread, Knol, as I was writing this post, I refreshed the page not thinking it would wipe out my comment, and gone it was. It sounds as if the simplest/safest course is to 'stay the course' (sorry, I couldn't resist the reference). If only someone with superadmin rights can edit a post now, though, the question is who altered the post Rico responded to.

lucdix

Oct 7 2006

The more I think about the forum I mentioned where I can correct my previous posts, it's much less frequented than this, is not about controversial issues (it's about f/stops, shutter speeds, lenses) and exchanges don't take place in real time as they do here. Your 'running the post through Word' to spell check, Knol, is a good alternative for people who really need to check if they're so inclined. Additionally, whether a poster takes the care to spell correctly gives others insight into his/her thought processes. Plus spell checking might eliminate Freudian slips, which would be a shame. While I can understand why you'd want a quote function, Rico, leaving the editing integrity just as it is (with only superadmins being able to edit posts) is the equivalent of a quote function. If I want to quote a previous post, I just copy and paste.

lucdix

Oct 7 2006

Forutantely, BBCode for Firefox does work sorta with whatever ya'll use here for commentary. I can quote people, italicise, et al... not all commands work, mind you, but it also has HTML and XHTML tagging abilities too. Firefox 2 is supposed to have spell check as an item, too. :D

Ironghost

Oct 7 2006

perhaps it might be useful to either split some of the larger threads into more than one page or to have the the most recent comments at the top and the oldest at the bottom. it would prevent having to scroll for two minutes to get down to the bottom.

djames

Oct 7 2006

djames, good point about splitting or easier navigation. I'm letting my head spin on some ideas for linking directly to a comment. It's not built into the CMS so I'm looking currently thinking through some efficient ways to implement the hack without causing pages to load at a slower rate... Basically my vision: if you get an email notification, you'll go straight to that comment upon clicking the link rather than the top of the page. Same would work for the "recent comments" links. This is something I think has been needed for a while.

kaust

Oct 7 2006

Just as Knol and Todd have now given us a 'top' arrow, it might perhaps not be too difficult to add a 'go to bottom' arrow which sends a site visitor to an anchor right below the most recent comment. However, you can also get to the most recent post using 'Ctrl-End'. I like the fact that the thread starts with the oldest comments and that the most recent are at the bottom and I hate having to click to a new page to get to the next set of comments. In other words, I like the thread setup just as it is.

lucdix

Oct 7 2006

As for a quick link to the bottom or comment form, if y'all think that's a good idea, it's a VERY easy addition... Basically, I could quickly create a new nav icon (like the up and back buttons) that would allow you to jump to the bottom form. If I do implement (T&D, feedback, please), what's the best icon to use -- a "+" sign (read: add comment) or a down arrow (read: to the bottom of page). Personally, I feel the down arrow could be mistaken as a scroll feature but not an instant jump to the form.

kaust

Oct 7 2006

I like the idea of a down arrow myself, similar to your others, but perhaps with a tool tip which says 'go to last comment' The first time someone used it and it jumped to the bottom of the thread would get the idea across that it's not a scroll arrow. The present 'top' link could say 'go to first comment'.

lucdix

Oct 7 2006

I would like to see RSS feeds available for different sections of your home page. I have a personalized Google home page (which is terrific), with RSS feeds from various newspapers, media outlets, my calendar, etc. It would be nice if I could pick and chose sections of your front page, such as "Noise: blogging the news" and "Recent Comments: 100 comments viewer". I'm not that technically savvy, so you may already have the ability to do that from your site, I just couldn't figure out how to use the "syndicate this site" to limit it to the sections I want.

FriendsofJackson

Oct 7 2006

Friends, full RSS of each section of the site will definitely be in 3.0 after some rearranging in the backend of the site. There currently are three that are live on the site and listed below. JFP Headlines: http://www.jacksonfreepress.com/index.xml LoungeBlog: http://www.jacksonfreepress.com/lounge.xml Blog Headlines Only: http://www.jacksonfreepress.com/blogs.xml Hope those help for now.

kaust

Oct 7 2006

I see that you've added the down arrows. Great!

lucdix

Oct 7 2006

The variable works. Nice.

lucdix

Oct 7 2006

lucdix, could you respond once more? After deleting the test comments I made, I systematically deleted the notification flag for myself. Would like to view the output.

kaust

Oct 7 2006

I'm trying to test this thing too...

Rico

Oct 7 2006

Rico, got your message. The signature will be handy!

kaust

Oct 7 2006

Keep those ideas coming, all. Thanks! We'll be bringing back some ideas from this conference as well. And wait to y'all see Todd and Knol's JFP Version 3.0. We will incorporate as many of your needs and desires here as possible. So don't be shy.

DonnaLadd

Oct 7 2006

Knol said: "Rico, got your message. The signature will be handy!" Not sure what you mean here- signature?

Rico

Oct 8 2006

Ladd said: "And we are not considering whether to allow users to edit their posts at any time after posting. That would not add to the integrity of the site or the discussions." It really doesn't- even when it is the "super-administrators" doing the editing. In this particular case, it wasn't that big of a deal, but the principle is the same- wouln't you agree? On another note, when someone posts a new thread in the forums section, is there any way to make it appear in the "recent comments" area? As it stands, someone has to reply to the post before anything appears- and if the original post is somewhere down in the bowels of the forum section, there is a pretty good chance that it will never be seen in a timely manner...

Rico

Oct 8 2006

Rico, there's a section in the far left column of the homepage that lists recent forums.

kaust

Oct 8 2006

Thanks- I hadn't noticed it before. I would *still* like to be able to see that in the recent colums section as I don't stay on the homepage all that much, but now that you have added the navigation arrows maybe that will change...

Rico

Oct 8 2006

Hi, Knol, I've been out of town since my last post yesterday so am just now responding. I've received notifications for all posts to this thread since 1:18 pm Saturday, truncated and indicating who posted.

lucdix

Oct 9 2006

In the interest of fairness, I think the Lott and Fleming blog links should be next to each other since they are running against each other. When you come to JFP.com, one of the first things you see is Lott's blog since it's right there at the top... you have to go on an expedition through 50 links before you find Flemings...

Jo-D

Oct 12 2006

Hey all...Knol made a tweak to the way the Recent Comments appear at the bottom of the comment and main Index pages; you should actually not see anything different, but we made the change to keep Google and other search engines from grabbing those comments and assuming they're part of the "current" page because it makes search results messy. Anyway, please report in if you see more errors than usual or problems, particularly on the Comments (main story) pages. Thanks! - iTodd

Todd Stauffer

Nov 14 2006

Bad tweak! The recent comments are no longer showing up! I'm using Opera on a laptop with Windows XP pro if that means anything...

Rico

Nov 15 2006

There needs to be an option for a logged-in user to edit his/her post!

Jo-D

Nov 15 2006

I use Opera on a regular desktop computer with XP and the recent comments have disappeared for me as well.

lucdix

Nov 15 2006

Rico and lucdix, what vs of Windows and Opera are you using. This appears to be a bug *only* in Opera (IE, Firefox, Safari, and most Mozilla's work). Obviously, Opera handles AJAX in a manner that's not considered compliant or up-to-date. To explain why the comments are pulling via AJAX: Google has begun indexing all the "recent comments" located on all of the site's pages. Those keywords (in the comment's title) are throwing off search results. In other words, if you search for Melton and Jackson Free Press, nearly every page of the site loads in the results. So, the AJAX solution prevents bots from seeing those links. Will work on a work-around for Opera. Bear with us. Jody, if we ever implement an edit post option, it will only be for 60-120s. If we extend it beyond that, it could lead to conversational havoc.

kaust

Nov 15 2006

Hi, Knol, On this computer I have Windows XP Standard (Home) with, I believe, all updates and both Opera 9.0 and 8.54. The recent comments are missing in both - but only for certain blogs. As an example, they're missing on the front page but present at the bottom of the JackBlog page.

lucdix

Nov 15 2006

I'm using Windows XP Professional (SP2 I think), and I'm not sure what version of Opera- don't know how to "get info" with Windows! The version of Opera is pretty new though- I just dl'd it about a month ago... Hope that you guys can fix this- I use the "recent comments" stuff all the time!

Rico

Nov 15 2006

Rico, to find out which version of Opera you're using, just go to 'Help-About Opera'. I use 9.02. I'd be curious to know if you're seeing the same thing I am. The recent comments are missing from the bottom of the front page, but present at the bottom of the 'JackBlog' page you reach from the tab - i.e., here: http://www.jacksonfreepress.com/jackblog.php

lucdix

Nov 15 2006

Rico and Luc, I've tried this on my version of Opera and it works. Please try it on yours and let me know. Do not comment on the test page please.

kaust

Nov 15 2006

That works for me, Knol - in both Opera 8.54 and 9.02.

lucdix

Nov 15 2006

Whatever you just changed did it, Knol. Thanks!

lucdix

Nov 15 2006

AJAX comments change implemented. Thanks for your feedback. Tested and works on IE 6, Firefox (Win/Mac), Opera (Win), Safari (Mac)... If anyone on AOL or an older version of Internet Explorer and/or Netscape (ick) could try this, it would be helpful. If you don't know what browser or version you're using and/or haven't downloaded an upgrade or new browser in the last 6 months, my personal suggestion is to UPGRADE YOUR BROWSER! It's not 1994 anymore. The web has evolved and your browser should also! ;-) My personal recommendation is Firefox for Win and Safari for Mac. Other good browsers include Opera (Win) and Shiira(Mac). Clean fast browsers that aren't part of the monopoly that is Microsoft.

kaust

Nov 15 2006

"But another important aspect of all this- on most boards when you click on a comment on their "recent comments" section, it takes you directly to that particular posting- not just to the page the posting is on. This helps in allowing someone to follow several threads at once with a minimal amout of clicking and/or scrolling." RICO This is very appealing to me, as is spell check. Do not like Avitars. I like the idea of being able to cross-reference when a thread blends into another thread, just not sure who should do the cross-referencing. Thanks for asking our opinion.

ChrisCavanaugh

Nov 15 2006

As far as I'm concerned, Opera is the best browser available by far. I feel it has not achieved the popularity Firefox has because it originally came in two versions: an ad-based one or a non-ad-based one which cost $40 (it's now free) whereas Firefox has been free from the beginning. I test all my websites in at least three browsers - Opera, FF, and IE, but my website stats show that IE still predominates by a wide margin. Opera comes with all the features I have to install over 20 extensions in FF to get, (although FF now comes with more pre-installed than it used to). An excellent (free) web developers toolbar which installs as an extension into FF is available at http://chrispederick.com/work/webdeveloper/ for those of you who are wondering what's 'underneath the hood'. To check websites in IE and FF for design purposes, I use easily-installed icons in Opera to move to them or preview directly from Dreamweaver. I had troubles with IE7 when it was still in beta, am not in a rush to install it now, particularly since it overwrites IE6 without asking your permission.

lucdix

Nov 15 2006

Here is what version of Opera I'm using: Version 9.01 Build 8552 Platform Win32 System Windows XP Java Sun Java Runtime Environment version 1.5 XHTML+Voice Plug-in not loaded I tried to click on the fix link listed above and got the following message: Parse error: syntax error, unexpected ';', expecting ')' in /home/jacksonf/public_html/stories/lib/comment.fns.php on line 734 Tried it a second time, and it brought me back to this page- still no recent comments, though...

Rico

Nov 15 2006

Never mind- recent comments just showed up again!

Rico

Nov 15 2006

Testing the email sig. Added anchors to links for y'all. Had to do a good bit of digging and find all the appropriate functions. Could someone respond to this email when they get a chance so I can test the output? Danke.

kaust

Nov 15 2006

OK... So, the sig errored. Anchors are added to base comment links but not outgoing emails at the moment.

kaust

Nov 15 2006

Another test.

kaust

Nov 15 2006

final test

kaust

Nov 15 2006

I lied. This is the final. ;-)

kaust

Nov 15 2006

Hi, Knol & Todd, I'm just curious. Some of the threads have your three arrows - top/bottom/return to main page - and some don't. At first I thought this was only the case for old threads, but I see it happens with new ones as well. What determines whether a thread has arrows? Incidentally, I like seeing whether I'm logged in or not when I start to write a comment. Thanks for implementing that.

lucdix

Nov 17 2006

Further to my post above, Knol, Todd, whoever, I just noticed that in responding to the post with the link to the video of US soldiers in Iraq in the truck followed by Iraqi kids hoping for a bottle of clean water, the yellow 'you are logged in' information (for making comments) did not appear as it does, for instance, above the comment box here. Under what circumstances is it there and under what circumstances is it not? In both cases I used the same browser (Opera), the same OS (Win XP), etc. Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!

lucdix

Nov 23 2006

luc, can you provide a link? If it's in the forums, I don't think we've applied the fix to that area because the forums should be completely revamped in the release of v3 of the site. If I get a moment, I'll take a look but right now, I'm currently working on the backend of v3.

kaust

Nov 23 2006

Hi, Knol, Sure - I noticed the problem in the discussion about US soldiers' taunting of Iraqi kids. Here's the link: http://www.jacksonfreepress.com/forums/threads.php?id=11659_0_17_0_C

lucdix

Nov 23 2006

Hey, Knol, I'm really not trying to bug you but you asked for links if I see the problem. I noticed that neither the arrows now the yellow 'you are logged-in' box appear in the thread Cliff Cargill just started about Mayor FM's 'crimefighting': http://www.jacksonfreepress.com/forums/threads.php?id=11675_0_64_0_C#66554 They're fine in this forum.

lucdix

Nov 24 2006