Linked by Adam S on Thu 25th Aug 2005 20:42 UTC
OSNews, Generic OSes I've just incremented the OSNews version number from 3.0 to 3.1. I'm not really sure if now is too early or too late to make this change, but some fairly large backend changes have occured recently that prompted me to revisit whether or not this is really the same site that 3.0 was at rollout. Anyway, there's a nice new feature that comes along with the change to 3.1 -- THREADING. Read on to find out about it.
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RE: Threaded view
by orestes on Thu 25th Aug 2005 20:50 UTC
orestes
Member since:
2005-07-06

Thank you.

RE[2]: Threaded view
by Anonymous on Thu 25th Aug 2005 20:50 UTC in reply to "RE: Threaded view"
Anonymous Member since:
---

Does it work ?

RE[3]: Threaded view
by orestes on Thu 25th Aug 2005 20:53 UTC in reply to "RE[2]: Threaded view"
orestes Member since:
2005-07-06

Yes, it works just fine. It does take a little getting used to the collapsed appearance though.

RE[4]: Threaded view
by DittoBox on Thu 25th Aug 2005 20:54 UTC in reply to "RE[3]: Threaded view"
DittoBox Member since:
2005-07-08

I prefer expanded. Does indeed look very nice though, thanks a ton OS New! This site just keeps getting better and better.

RE[5]: Threaded view
by Beryllium on Thu 25th Aug 2005 20:56 UTC in reply to "RE[4]: Threaded view"
Beryllium Member since:
2005-07-08

Expanded is also more my cup of tea. Slashdot's way of collapsing all but the highest-rated ones is neat, but only really applicable on highly contentious and commented-on articles ...

RE[3]: Threaded view
by Anonymous on Thu 25th Aug 2005 21:25 UTC in reply to "RE[2]: Threaded view"
Anonymous Member since:
---

yes it does

RE[3]: Threaded view
by Shannara on Fri 26th Aug 2005 00:46 UTC in reply to "RE[2]: Threaded view"
Shannara Member since:
2005-07-06

Nvm, looks like a pref that must be set ...

RE[2]: Threaded view
by rcsteiner on Thu 25th Aug 2005 22:18 UTC in reply to "RE: Threaded view"
rcsteiner Member since:
2005-07-12

Ditto. Thanks, folks. This threaded view is VERY slick, and I think it will help some of us navigate the site a little more easily.

It's good that folks who like flat mode still have that option, too. :-)

Very nice...

RE[3]: Threaded view
by Anonymous on Fri 26th Aug 2005 10:25 UTC in reply to "RE: Threaded view"
Anonymous Member since:
---

thanks for your work, osnews is great!

Test
by Anonymous on Thu 25th Aug 2005 20:50 UTC
Anonymous
Member since:
---

Ok someone has to start, let's see if threading works so please feel free to reply.

RE: Test
by DittoBox on Thu 25th Aug 2005 20:50 UTC in reply to "Test"
DittoBox Member since:
2005-07-08

testing123

RE[2]: Test
by Beryllium on Thu 25th Aug 2005 20:55 UTC in reply to "RE: Test"
Beryllium Member since:
2005-07-08

Let's see how far it will indent before auto-collapsing! ;)

Also, let's see if they ever implement LiveJournal-style inline comment boxes (I've been meaning to implement that in my code, as well) ...

RE[3]: Test
by Rodrigo on Fri 26th Aug 2005 09:52 UTC in reply to "RE[2]: Test"
Rodrigo Member since:
2005-07-06

Testing ;)

RE: Test
by ulib on Thu 25th Aug 2005 20:55 UTC in reply to "Test"
ulib Member since:
2005-07-07

[FreeBSD mindset]
Can we cvsup to 3.1 then?
[/FreeBSD mindset]

;)

RE[7]: Threaded view
by orestes on Thu 25th Aug 2005 21:02 UTC
orestes
Member since:
2005-07-06

It seems that the 'more' link pops up before it is actually needed.

RE[8]: Threaded view
by orestes on Thu 25th Aug 2005 21:11 UTC in reply to "RE[7]: Threaded view"
orestes Member since:
2005-07-06

It also appears that the nesting goes four deep, then the 'more' link takes you only to the fifth reply and it's parent. The sixth reply shows up back on the main page and we start the nesting again.

RE[9]: Threaded view
by Adam S on Thu 25th Aug 2005 22:01 UTC in reply to "RE[8]: Threaded view"
Adam S Member since:
2005-04-01

The sixth reply is still nested. That was a bug, in which the read_thread page didn't ring up as a reply, but it's changed. It's clear we need a better way to view threads once they get more than four deep.

Perhaps a change to "read_thread" is in order.

?
by Wintermute on Thu 25th Aug 2005 21:05 UTC
Wintermute
Member since:
2005-07-30

Am I missing something? Are threaded views supposed to be active right now? or no? Because all I can see is the standrd flat view.....

RE: ?
by Beryllium on Thu 25th Aug 2005 21:10 UTC in reply to "?"
Beryllium Member since:
2005-07-08

You have to select it in your preferences.

RE[2]: ?
by Wintermute on Thu 25th Aug 2005 21:11 UTC in reply to "RE: ?"
Wintermute Member since:
2005-07-30

Thanks, already found out about it.

I guess I am too used slash.

I can't vote up/down comments!
by DittoBox on Thu 25th Aug 2005 21:05 UTC
DittoBox
Member since:
2005-07-08

It seems that after I've posted to a "thread" I can't vote any comments thereunder up or down. They're greyed out just like they are for my own comments, but *not* like those from moderators where it actually says that they're a mod/admin.

My setting is set to "expanded".

RE: I can't vote up/down comments!
by Adam S on Thu 25th Aug 2005 21:08 UTC in reply to "I can't vote up/down comments!"
Adam S Member since:
2005-04-01

hmmm. try now.

DittoBox Member since:
2005-07-08

In expanded view it still doens't work.

And it seems if I go to a specific comment (even my own, see link below) I can then vote up or down on them.

http://www.osnews.com/permalink.php?news_id=11684&comment_id=23...

Adam S Member since:
2005-04-01

Ok, it should work now, I was able to replicate it.

DittoBox Member since:
2005-07-08

It does indeed work now.

Awesome!

Kudos
by ulib on Thu 25th Aug 2005 21:09 UTC
ulib
Member since:
2005-07-07

Kudos to the OSNews people, threading is very cool.

The only thing that (IMHO) isn't the best is the "more..." thing. What about something like showing the exceeding comments all aligned to the last level of indentation?
Or maybe the "more" thing is made on purpose, to discourage from making the threads too long. ;)

RE: Kudos
by boily on Thu 25th Aug 2005 21:18 UTC in reply to "Kudos"
boily Member since:
2005-06-30

Threading is very nice indeed!

The more thing is useful: it keeps the comments from being cluttered. Also, I'd suggest to show in some way how many more comments are hidden by this "more".

More shows less ;-)
by Beryllium on Thu 25th Aug 2005 21:13 UTC
Beryllium
Member since:
2005-07-08

More is only showing one sub-comment, and not the whole sub-tree.

Another suggestion....
by Wintermute on Thu 25th Aug 2005 21:19 UTC
Wintermute
Member since:
2005-07-30

How about an option to disable the password requirement every time you edit your preferences? Or is that not possible?

And perhaps we could have a link to http://www.osnews.com/topic.php

on the main page, it can take several clicks to understand what a topic icon stands for (since mouse-hover simply gives "read similar articles..."

Anyway, keep up the good job guys!

RE: Another suggestion....
by Adam S on Thu 25th Aug 2005 21:21 UTC in reply to "Another suggestion...."
Adam S Member since:
2005-04-01

Ha ha! I fixed that yesterday! I just haven't implemented it. Hovering over a topic should be available very soon.

Edit by AS: Scratch that, I just activated it. It should be available within a few minutes, when the cache next refreshes.

RE[2]: Another suggestion....
by lemmy on Fri 26th Aug 2005 01:39 UTC in reply to "RE: Another suggestion...."
lemmy Member since:
2005-07-10

well at 3:30 CEST it still is not active.

RE[2]: Another suggestion....
by Wintermute on Fri 26th Aug 2005 07:26 UTC in reply to "RE: Another suggestion...."
Wintermute Member since:
2005-07-30

Yup, still not working here...

v dude...
by Anonymous on Thu 25th Aug 2005 21:22 UTC
RE: dude...
by Adam S on Thu 25th Aug 2005 21:29 UTC in reply to "dude..."
Adam S Member since:
2005-04-01

Everyone knows what ++ means. It's a joke. Have a freakin' sense of humor.

RE[2]: dude...
by jon1012 on Thu 25th Aug 2005 22:13 UTC in reply to "RE: dude..."
jon1012 Member since:
2005-07-19

I think he was trying to be funny ;)

RE: dude...
by Motz on Thu 25th Aug 2005 22:12 UTC in reply to "dude..."
Motz Member since:
2005-07-06

Someone obviously doesn't understand the concept of operator overloading ;-)

RE[2]: dude...
by Luke McCarthy on Thu 25th Aug 2005 22:30 UTC in reply to "RE: dude..."
Luke McCarthy Member since:
2005-07-06

Obviously he was using fixed point not floating point. Who'd use floating point for version numbering? ;-)

v RE[3]: dude...
by Motz on Fri 26th Aug 2005 12:18 UTC in reply to "RE[2]: dude..."
Parse Error.
by will on Thu 25th Aug 2005 21:26 UTC
will
Member since:
2005-06-29

I just switched to threaded (expanded) view, and noticed this at the top of the page (right above the "Post a new comment" box, right justified).

Parse error: parse error in /home/osnews/web/storybox.tmpl.php on line 169

Read More...
by Adam S on Thu 25th Aug 2005 21:46 UTC
Adam S
Member since:
2005-04-01

Ok, I added a little bit so that the "More..." link sends you to a page where you can continue to drill down, but perhaps the best thing to do is create a new subthread page, so to speak. I'll work on that. But it won't be immediate.

RE: Read More...
by Beryllium on Fri 26th Aug 2005 00:31 UTC in reply to "Read More..."
Beryllium Member since:
2005-07-08

Sounds good.

OSNews3.1
by jaygade on Thu 25th Aug 2005 21:51 UTC
jaygade
Member since:
2005-06-29

Looks good, but I prefer the flat view. But I am glad the people who like threaded have been made happy.

So, any movement on numbering comments or being able to rate (non-OSNews) stories?

By numbering comments, I just mean that the first comment to come in is 1. Comments that have been modded down still have their number, so I could be reading along and see

1. RE: Threaded view
2. Test
4. RE[2]: Threaded view
(because 3. was modded down.)

This doesn't have to be a per-user setting. That way I can easily remember which was the last post I read when I come back to read some more. Also when I decide to switch to a lower threshold I have an idea of where to look for those missing messages since they are not on their own page any more.

Rating stories would be an incredibly useful tool.

RE: OSNews3.1
by Adam S on Thu 25th Aug 2005 21:53 UTC in reply to "OSNews3.1"
Adam S Member since:
2005-04-01

Numbering comments isn't going to work. It might have worked if we designed v3 to work that way, but we didn't, so I don't think it's practical, nor do I think the benefits are worth the time to do it. It would be cool, in hindsight, though.

Rating stories is something I'm all for, but not everyone agrees with me. Perhaps this is good topic for discussion here now. Would you all like to be able to rate ALL stories? And furthermore, would you like to see the ratings on the front page?

RE[2]: OSNews3.1
by jaygade on Thu 25th Aug 2005 22:07 UTC in reply to "RE: OSNews3.1"
jaygade Member since:
2005-06-29

>Numbering comments isn't going to work. It might
>have worked if we designed v3 to work that way, but
>we didn't, so I don't think it's practical, nor do I
>think the benefits are worth the time to do it. It
>would be cool, in hindsight, though.

Pity. Maybe during the next big overhaul!

>Rating stories is something I'm all for, but not
>everyone agrees with me. Perhaps this is good topic
>for discussion here now. Would you all like to be
>able to rate ALL stories? And furthermore, would you
>like to see the ratings on the front page?

Well, since I brought it up I *will* vote for it.

RE[2]: OSNews3.1
by TheBashar on Fri 26th Aug 2005 21:26 UTC in reply to "RE: OSNews3.1"
TheBashar Member since:
2005-06-30

Yes, I would very much like to be able to rate all stories and double yes that I'd like to see it on the front page. I hate to say it, but every now and then a dumb story (or factually incorrect one) slips through. It would be great to be able to avoid clicking into the story to find out. Having a "hide stories with score less than X" preference is the next logical step, but unessecary I think. Just showing the current score on the front page would be a boon.

RE[2]: OSNews3.1
by John Nilsson on Sat 27th Aug 2005 21:10 UTC in reply to "RE: OSNews3.1"
John Nilsson Member since:
2005-07-06

Why not do some AJAX (for the browsers that support it), reload the page continioulsy in the background, on each iteration make new posts stand out. Eclipse has a nice way of marking importnat stuff in/by the scrollbar, it might be possible for to do something similar.

In any case, doing post numbering in javascript shouldn't be hard, isn't comment_id incremented with each post? Just sort them in an array and add the array index to the post.

RE: OSNews3.1
by Adam S on Thu 25th Aug 2005 21:55 UTC in reply to "OSNews3.1"
Adam S Member since:
2005-04-01

One more thing:

when I decide to switch to a lower threshold I have an idea of where to look for those missing messages since they are not on their own page any more

Yeah, it's funny how that works. When we used to mod down comments the old way, when they were on their own page, users would flock to the comments to "see what was so bad that it got modded down." But see, the idea is that users mod down comments so people don't have to see the junk. We don't really want it all on a page, we want it out of the conversation, so to speak. You know?

RE[2]: OSNews3.1
by jaygade on Thu 25th Aug 2005 22:03 UTC in reply to "RE: OSNews3.1"
jaygade Member since:
2005-06-29

>When we used to mod down comments the old way, when
>they were on their own page, users would flock to
>the comments to "see what was so bad that it got
>modded down." But see, the idea is that users mod
>down comments so people don't have to see the junk.
>We don't really want it all on a page, we want it
>out of the conversation, so to speak. You know?

I understand the concept, but it has the opposite affect sometimes. Maybe I should just set my threshold lower, but items that get -5 would still draw my attention.

I like the fact that modded down comments can be segregated from the primary conversation. But the curiosity to see what was so bad it got modded down is still there.

Like groklaw's way better
by Anonymous on Thu 25th Aug 2005 22:00 UTC
Anonymous
Member since:
---

I prefer the way Groklaws threading works. In Growlaw I can see all the thread titles under all original postings without having to click anything and with Firefox tab browsing I can go to any thread subposting easily.

RE: Like groklaw's way better
by Adam S on Thu 25th Aug 2005 22:03 UTC in reply to "Like groklaw's way better"
Adam S Member since:
2005-04-01

We can do that if we dispense with indenting. Groklaw isn't confined to some of the rules we impose on ourselves, like the usable screen width. There simply isn't enough room for us to constantly indent without wrapping.

RE[2]: Like groklaw's way better
by TheBashar on Fri 26th Aug 2005 21:29 UTC in reply to "RE: Like groklaw's way better"
TheBashar Member since:
2005-06-30

Groklaw is "ehhh" for my tastes, but the indenting here in expanded threaded view is really da-bomb. I vote for keeping indenting.

Slashdot
by Luke McCarthy on Thu 25th Aug 2005 22:08 UTC
Luke McCarthy
Member since:
2005-07-06

It took me a very long time to get used to the way slashdot worked but strangely enough I've never had a problem with usenet. I think I'll stay with flat view.

Nice job
by Sphinx on Thu 25th Aug 2005 22:42 UTC
Sphinx
Member since:
2005-07-09

That is pretty sweet.

OSNews++
by TaterSalad on Thu 25th Aug 2005 22:48 UTC
TaterSalad
Member since:
2005-07-06

First off, let me say, way to go Adam and the rest of the OS News crew! (yes even you Thom).

As always, suggestions, feedback, flames, gift certificates and evites can be directed to osnews-crew at osnews dot com, or to me personally at adam at osnews dot com.

I just have to ask, has anyone really sent you a gift certificate?

RE: OSNews++
by Adam S on Thu 25th Aug 2005 23:02 UTC in reply to "OSNews++"
Adam S Member since:
2005-04-01

I just have to ask, has anyone really sent you a gift certificate?

You could be the first!!

RE[2]: OSNews++
by TaterSalad on Fri 26th Aug 2005 02:13 UTC in reply to "RE: OSNews++"
TaterSalad Member since:
2005-07-06

I'm going to hold you to that. Expect something in the mail next week.

Cool, but...
by Roguelazer on Thu 25th Aug 2005 22:56 UTC
Roguelazer
Member since:
2005-06-29

Cool. Now there's one less thing for the various trolls and whiners to complain about. But I think I'll stick to flat view- I still feel that it leads to better conversations. On a side note, any thoughts about that "anti-bad repliers" idea I sent you?

Screenshots
by Anonymous on Fri 26th Aug 2005 00:30 UTC
Anonymous
Member since:
---

Can we have some screenshots?

Don't you mean un-threaded view?
by Shannara on Fri 26th Aug 2005 00:41 UTC
Shannara
Member since:
2005-07-06

I can't wait until Threading goes live for registered users. It should be interesting to see how it is visually implimented.

Although there is one thing ... In the article, it sounds like they are talking about "unthreaded views" and not "threaded views". A good example of threaded views is slashdot. There, you can easily follow a thread and replies via tree-like view. Makes it simple for both beginners and vets to follow.

Which one are you talking about?

Adam S Member since:
2005-04-01

I can't wait until Threading goes live for registered users.

Uh.... threading *is* live for registered users. Instead of screenshots, navigate to your preferences and turn threading on in the section that says "View."

lpetrazickis Member since:
2005-07-06

Yup. It would have a smoother learning curve if there was a dropdown at the top of the page right next to Browse At: [-1 ].

Adam S Member since:
2005-04-01

And..... done.

Does version number matter?
by Anonymous on Fri 26th Aug 2005 01:42 UTC
Anonymous
Member since:
---

I don't really see the point in numbering the changes to OSNews. Does anybody really care if it's 3.0 or 3.1? I can't even see anywhere on the site where it gives the version number, besides these types of posts.

RE: Does version number matter?
by Adam S on Fri 26th Aug 2005 03:02 UTC in reply to "Does version number matter?"
Adam S Member since:
2005-04-01

"I don't really see the point in numbering the changes to OSNews. Does anybody really care if it's 3.0 or 3.1? I can't even see anywhere on the site where it gives the version number, besides these types of posts."

Nope. No one cares and it doesn't matter. It's just fun because lots of people use the site and enjoy new features.

Anonymous posts
by Dark_Knight on Fri 26th Aug 2005 03:22 UTC
Dark_Knight
Member since:
2005-07-10

I would prefer to see only posts being allowed for those that register. Those that don't register are able to read the news but not post in the threads. It gets tiresome seeing all the anonymous posts and having to reply to an IP Address instead of a username.

RE: Anonymous posts
by Adam S on Fri 26th Aug 2005 03:33 UTC in reply to "Anonymous posts"
Adam S Member since:
2005-04-01

Well, you don't have to reply to an IP, if you choose the "reply" to a comment, it will be linked, so you'll see which Anonymous it's directed to.

There are simply too many users who prefer to use the site anonymously for us to disable this access, although I agree that it would very likely raise the quality of the posts around here.

v curious
by Anonymous on Fri 26th Aug 2005 03:40 UTC
RE: curious
by Roguelazer on Fri 26th Aug 2005 03:42 UTC in reply to "curious"
Roguelazer Member since:
2005-06-29

When you start submitting them!

RE: curious
by Anonymous on Fri 26th Aug 2005 07:42 UTC in reply to "curious"
Anonymous Member since:
---

Now when will you focus on accurate & decent news articals?

Name on recent newsitem that was untrue.


--Thom Holwerda

Friends!
by Roguelazer on Fri 26th Aug 2005 04:23 UTC
Roguelazer
Member since:
2005-06-29

Mmm. Let there be friends!

RE: Friends!
by Adam S on Fri 26th Aug 2005 15:13 UTC in reply to "Friends!"
Adam S Member since:
2005-04-01

Yes, "friends" is now active in user profiles. I'm going to try and find a better way to allow adding in the comments as well.

Cookies
by Anonymous on Fri 26th Aug 2005 07:02 UTC
Anonymous
Member since:
---

You could store the last read post in a cookie for registered users, and provide an option for paranoids to disable it.

RE: Cookies
by Anonymous on Fri 26th Aug 2005 07:04 UTC in reply to "Cookies"
Anonymous Member since:
---

(additional comment)
This wouldn't add more database lookups. If the users has post-tracking set, it would be stored in a cookie as well. If there's no cookie, don't do it :-)

Threading and the "re:" age
by growchie on Fri 26th Aug 2005 08:14 UTC
growchie
Member since:
2005-07-07

Why don't you just put [new] or something similar in front of new comments. Let say if the comment is less than 1 hour the [new] will be red, after 4 hours it will turn green and after 12 say black. When the comment is more than say 16 hours old you dont show [new] label at all. As I see you keep track to the time comments were submitted so no new datasets are necessary easy you just calculate the age on the fly.
Do you own research and find the appropriate timings.
Of course this does not reflect what is actually new for the users, but it is very handy when you come back say 5 hours later. Or if you wish you could track when user last visited the site and calculate the age of the comments according to that time (if cookies are not a problem for the users).
I don't know if it is possible to do in your current implementation, but I saw that on another site I regularly visit and this helps a lot.

v Wtf?
by Anonymous on Fri 26th Aug 2005 08:24 UTC
RE: Wtf?
by QuantumG on Fri 26th Aug 2005 10:28 UTC in reply to "Wtf?"
QuantumG Member since:
2005-07-06

Yep, that's a good point.

RE[2]: Wtf?
by Anonymous on Fri 26th Aug 2005 10:32 UTC in reply to "RE: Wtf?"
Anonymous Member since:
---

It's not a good point. Name me one CMS (backend AND frontend) that will *for sure* render well on every browser, no matter how obscure it is. And then I mean PDA browsers, phone browsers, text-based, Net+, the whole shite.

Then we'll talk.

--Thom Holwerda

RE: Wtf?
by Wintermute on Fri 26th Aug 2005 10:29 UTC in reply to "Wtf?"
Wintermute Member since:
2005-07-30

Your post doesn't make any sense. If they feel like reinventing the wheel, its their right to do so. I am sure they have their own technical and 'political' reasons. You don't pay them to do this do you? So why are complaining? It's newsworthy because it concerns the site. Anyone who regularly visits would be interested in changes, this is especially true considering that one of the new features is threaded views.

Secondly, who are you to decide whats not newsworthy? If you don't like this article, just don't spend your time on it. Simple!

RE: Wtf?
by Adam S on Fri 26th Aug 2005 12:19 UTC in reply to "Wtf?"