TMO Rolls Out New, Advanced Comment System

Y ouive long asked for it. Weive long wanted it. The day is here, at last. We are happy, as happy as anyone could possibly be, to announce our brand new, advanced comment system. The new system brings a number of highly requested features to the forums, including the ability to see each post without clicking through to a separate page, as well as the ability for registered users to edit their posts.

Weive gone much further than that, however, having introduced some additional features to the comments, some of which are unique to TMO. First of all, you can decide how you want your comments ordered, from oldest to newest, or newest to oldest. You can also decide how many comments you would like to see on each page, a boon for those readers on dial-up access. You can choose anywhere from "0" to "All," with "0" meaning you wonit see any comments at all.

Furthermore, weive introduced a brand new feature that allows you to hide any particular thread you wish. This is handy for keeping track of what you have read, moving very long posts out of your way, or even hiding a post from an annoying poster you donit wish to see.

But wait, thereis more...

We now have the ability to label any particular user a "troll." When so labeled, the trollis posts will be automatically closed, hidden to view unless you click to open it. With the tremendous problems we have faced regarding trolls in the article comments, as well as the reaction from too many people against those trolls, this new tool will be a major tool in our arsenal for once again making the TMO comments a place for intelligent discourse.

Lastly, we are now able to moderate the comments more easily. This means that we can remove spam posts, edit gratuitous profanity without deleting posts, more easily delete posts that need deleting, and more easily ban anyone needing banning.

Note that the new comment system will only be available on articles going forward. Older articles will have the old comment system. You can see the new comments below, and we emcourage you to use them.

We have put tremendous work into making all this happen, with Stephen Swift working on the phpBB engine to make it possible, Gavin Mahan developing the front end, and the new, very spiffy close/view feature, and implementing the look and feel originally developed by Raena Armitage, the designer of TMOis new look. Dave Hamilton and I would like to thank all three of them for their very hard work, especially the many, many hours put in by Stephen and Gavin.

Bryan
Editor
TMO