Kudos to TMO to splitting the baby on this one. I love the way you can set how many to view, the order, and how you can collapse and ignore people, and for those "sensitive" people that hate the non-registered riff raff, now you have no excuse. If you read our posts it's because you cannot help yourself and need and want to.

If I'm quick enough, this could be the first post in the new system! Great job, guys!

By a thankfully hidden guest

It's a sweet system. Here are my suggestions to improve it:

1) Make teh Subject and date the top line,a nd put Name/Close box under it. That makes it easier to scan messages.

2) It would be nice to have a seperate text size box for the font size of the messages.

3) The subject headline should be a tad bigger, and the body text of the commetns should be a tad smaller. That will make it MUCH easier to scan comments quickly.

4) Put the Reply|Quote buttons between the Name and Close items in the top of the box. This will save a LOT of scrolling/vertical space when going through a lot of comments.

Overall, a huge improvement.

w00t!

I forgot to mention the fact that article comments will also be browsable from the forums. That's not turned on yet, but it will be soonâ„¢.

Oh, and smileys.

Quote

Raena wrote:
By a thankfully hidden guest

This will take some getting used to!

I know this has been a long term project at Mac Observer, so its nice to see it come to fruition. And its spiffy looking to boot.

Wonders how Raena knows that I'm thankful for being hidden?

Is everyone else seeing my last post in huge bold text? Not sure what I did...it was not intentional.

Thank goodness for registration, seemed like everyone wanted to be RC.

I like reading the trolls. Will I have an option to make all Trolls visible? I like reading RC and his clan.

Hey, I might actually start posting comments now!

Fantastic job Guys! (and girls;-)
The best just keeps getting better.

Ah, welcome to the forums, Paul/Reality Check. I was wondering if you would actually be the one to get that user name.

I am such a nice guy that I am going to give you a warning, despite your history. The moment you post a pointless troll post, you will be labeled a troll. That will auto-hide all of your posts.

Bryan
Editor
TMO

These comments have been way too chaotic lately, and the new features will help.

Totally b0rked in IE 5.5. Nested boxes stack up. The open and close view doesn't work at all. (I realize this is because 5.5 is not even remotely standards-compliant, but still annoying.) But other than that, this makes reading comments at work feasible. Woo!

Not much else to say--I particularly like the upcoming tie-in with the message boards...must have been a monumental task!

Very well done indeed.

Tab order is still wrong. Also, there are quite a few "КК" around the comments area. Just a note.

(These are in the latest version of Safari)

Thanks, guys! I can go back to my own handle now without worrying about trolls entering posts with my name on their rantings. I like being able to quickly scroll through the comments as well, that will be a great time-saver.

I also appreciate the troll-control features. Much needed. However, I'd be almost as quick to auto-hide anyone that responds to the trolls, since the responses are what brings them back in the first place, and they're just about as annoying as the trolls themselves.

Quick fix on the КК problem! I only see them down at the comment entry window now.

Man, you fixed that already, too. Can't point things out fast enough!

One more observation. When I go back and edit a comment and press "submit", I'm sent to a screen that says "That post or forum doesn't exist." However, the edit is implemented.

Still in all, a huge improvement.

The new comment engine is better, faster, and pretty. I like it!

Much better than having to click on comments to see them.

Hi guys,

I'm fixing things as soon as you guys are posting problems, so keep them coming!

-Stephen

Thanks for the notes, Edtekker. I wanted to note that I also consider the reactionary types to be as big a problem as the troll(s). Registration, of course, cuts down on much of that, but we will be reining those folks in, too.

Lastly, please note that we are experiencing lots of bugs. We are working on them, and anyone who sees anything amiss is asked to note it here.


Bryan
Editor
TMO

Sorry folks, but the RC Impostor Paul grabbed the name "Reality Check" before I could. I registered under "RealityCheck". If you see a space in "Reality Check" it's the impostor.

I know the next post from Paul will claim it's the other way around, watch the posts from "RealityCheck" and "Reality Check" and you'll see who the real deal is.

All fixed in IE 5.5 now. *huggles Burnum*

Quote

jinkies wrote:
All fixed in IE 5.5 now. *huggles Burnum*

The fake Reality Check account has been deactivated. Trolling goes both ways, folks.

As for "Paul," that was directed at the real RealityCheck.

Bryan
Editor
TMO

Love freedom but freedom has to go hand in hand with accountability. Hopefully this new comment system will marry to two. Groovy.

Well said, Ahnyer.

I believe it will, FWIW.

Bryan
Editor
TMO

Just keep in mind that a post that may be critical of Apple doesn't necessarily mean a troll. I've seen knee-jerk reactions here that someone (including myself) mentions oh....lousy marketshare or Apple's stubborness not to open up the iPod to other formats or wondering where the heck Apple went with computer updates....automatically gets labelled a troll from a multitude of the other posters here.

I'm sure you're already aware, but I had to vent my 2 cents.

Now it's quite obvious that "Reality Check" is nothing more than a creation of TMO to keep people coming back. You obviously enjoy his flame bait. Pretty lame if you ask me...

This page looks fine now, but a little while ago the comments were missing entirely, and just now, the story about the European Labels had a bunch of garbage characters instead of a comments area. Using the latest version of Safari myself.

View and Close buttons don't appear to be working, I am running IE 6 Sp1

Clicking on a subject doesn't appear to do much either. So it is currently impossible to view "Hidden" posts.

Like the forums, like the registration, and especially like the ease with which trolls can be ignored. But the forum font size is too large and doesn't seem to be affected by font settings in the browser.

+

Best comment system I've seen on any website. Congrats, TMO.

Thanks for the comments, iggyb. I very much agree with the sentiments you expressed. Being critical of Apple does not a troll make; being a troll is all about presentation and intent.

Also, to the anonymous person accusing TMO of using RC to spur comments: You obviously have no idea of who we are and what we stand for to make such a lame accusation.

Bryan
Editor
TMO

Yeah, we ALL have our occassional cranky days and/or over-the-top responses to an issue posted here sometimes, so I hope our passion doesn't get us stuck with a "troll" label. We Mac users are a pretty volatile bunch sometimes, so I hope healthy dissent still has a place.

It's incredibly obvious which of us here regularly contribute to the discussion, and who among us are only here to poke us with a stick. I promise not to poke, but let me feel free to wave it at others... the verbal "fencing" here is always enjoyable!

BTW (to stay on-topic)... HOORAY HOORAY HOORAY!!!!!!! <whew>

When I open some (but not all) articles, the comments area is missing and the following error appears:

Quote

General Error

Could not obtain topic information

DEBUG MODE

SQL Error : 1064 You have an error in your SQL syntax. Check the manual that corresponds to your MySQL server version for the right syntax to use near 'AND f.forum_id = t.forum_id' at line 4

SELECT t.topic_id, t.topic_title, t.topic_status, t.topic_replies, t.topic_time, t.topic_type, t.topic_vote, t.topic_last_post_id, f.forum_name, f.forum_status, f.forum_id, f.auth_view, f.auth_read, f.auth_post, f.auth_reply, f.auth_edit, f.auth_delete, f.auth_sticky, f.auth_announce, f.auth_pollcreate, f.auth_vote, f.auth_attachments FROM topics t, forums f WHERE t.topic_id = AND f.forum_id = t.forum_id

Line : 275
File : /var/www/bbm/macobserver.com/htdocs/comments/comments.php

...I always posted as "Ken P" here in the comments, and almost never in the forums. So now it's revealed that I only had FOUR posts! Geez, I feel like a newbie now...can't I get credit for the hundreds of posts I made HERE??? (just kidding...this overhaul is wonderful and all, but I still feel like a newbie...)

-Ken P. / pyxl8

The thing is the "Troll" label of one person, is the "Realist" view of someone on the opposite side of the argument. There are plenty of super fervant mac fan boys that are just as nuts as the anti mac fan boys. I think most of them believe in their views. And I think most of them go to great lenghts with the facts to justify their view. Note that one man's "go to great lengths with the facts" is another man's "purposeful misrepresentation of the facts."

Even the folks that are most heavily called trolls, Bloodoman, RC, and me (but I'll exclude myself for the remainder of this comment) frequently provide a view or idea that I find valuable. Even when I disagree with it, which is quite often.

Honestly, the mac boosters and fan boys are SO unified and reliably brainwashed in their views that I wish I had a way to paint or label them as Mac Zealots. At least the antimac guys are creative in the BS they cook up. Most of the mac fanboys spurt out the same dogma as if they are chanting like zombies.

I still wouldn't ignore them. I like to see how many and how in sync they are as a guage of apple's base.

Quote

Bryan wrote:
Thanks for the comments, iggyb. I very much agree with the sentiments you expressed. Being critical of Apple does not a troll make; being a troll is all about presentation and intent.

Bryan
Editor
TMO

I love the reordering to oldest first, and the ability to show/hide guest posts. It’d be nice to be able to hide all posts to just scan subject lines also.

Quote

pyxl8 wrote:
Yeah, we ALL have our occassional cranky days and/or over-the-top responses to an issue posted here sometimes, so I hope our passion doesn't get us stuck with a "troll" label. We Mac users are a pretty volatile bunch sometimes, so I hope healthy dissent still has a place.

I think akcarver's suggestion is great. Since we "guests" get no cool formatting tools you'll have to deal with this as a quote:

"I love the reordering to oldest first, and the ability to show/hide guest posts. It’d be nice to be able to hide all posts to just scan subject lines also."

Also, it would be great to dim or somehow highlight new posts/comments since the last time we saw the comments for a story. So we see comments 1-10 on day 1. We comback on day 2 and see comments 1-100. IT would be nice to have commetns 1-10 dimmed or collapsed, and then comments 11-100 highlighted as new.

I was expecting the page to reload when I clicked the view link on a closed post. When it just popped open immediately, I was blown away. Nice.

Something looks terrible when viewed on IE? *feigns shock*