You Guys Talk, We'll Spill Our Guts (And By Spill We Mean Fix)
A technical update and an open ended-question: First, maybe you've noticed the site has been alternately slow, weird, or down recently, and we wanted to say we're working on it. We had to move to a new server, and shortly after that, we upgraded Movable Type, the kit that runs this thing, to the latest version, 4 -- and that's when the trouble started. SixApart, the company that makes Movable Type, has been helping us sort it out, but so far we haven't been able to nail down the exact problem. Sometimes it messes with posts (like when a post shows up on the home page, but the full entry 404s), and sometimes it means comments time out or don't show up at all -- anyone having that problem? Let us know. A couple comments have double or triple-posted, which we usually figure is a sign that people reloaded on getting an error.
So if we upgraded and it's breaking the site, why not go back to Movable Type 3? Well, here comes that open-ended question mentioned in the last paragraph. MT 4 bakes in a lot more features for the comments, and, since you guys have been on a roll -- quoted on shirts, in the New York Times, and (in at least one case) approached by a magazine editor to expand on thoughts in a comment, we want to find out what you want in the comments. Threading, so you can respond directly to a particular comment? Some sort of system for rewarding good or funny comments and punishing shitty troll comments? Saving your favorite comments? Cheap, plentiful energy from our friend, the Sun? Most useful comment gets one of these t-shirts and a pen for writing on it.
Posted at 1:38 PM
Thanks for asking our opinions, 'Gummers.
I have to say though, I prefer the "No Threads" approach that the site has now. I'm not sure why exactly, but to me threads always seem so formal and stuffy.
Upgrades can be rough. Keep up the great work.
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Blah, blah, blah.
While you're writing about how slow the website is, The Blood Brothers are breaking up.
Dear Friends,
After 10 years of making music as The Blood Brothers, we have made the collective decision that our time together has come to an end. We feel extremely fortunate to have spent such a deeply memorable and amazing part of our lives with each other. At this point, however, we feel it's best that our futures move forward on separate paths. We'd like to express our sincerest thanks and gratitude to all the bands we've played with, individuals who have helped us make our records, and fans who have come to our shows and picked up our music throughout the years. Your friendship, support and love hold such a profoundly special place in each of our hearts. We hope that the memories you attach to our music are as fond as those you have given us. Thank you and take care, we'll miss all of you.
Love,
The Blood Brothers
Courtesy of their website, and myspace.
WRITE ABOUT THIS!!
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Saving your favorite comments? Cheap, plentiful energy from our friend, the Sun? Most useful comment gets one of these t-shirts and a pen for writing on it.
1)You know, threading could actually be quite good. Its odd that I never really thought about it, but I suppose it IS the best way for everyone to respond when DwD gets everyone up in arms. I suppose my gut reaction is usually a negative one towards threading, but I think that could actually work out quite nicely!
2) As far as the second idea, I think it would be interesting to have a reward system for interesting comments. Sure, I suppose you've given out prizes and such here and there in the past for funny ones -- perhaps thats all that's needed, though. A reward system may be sort of cheesy, though if there's anything these indie kids are good at, it's snark. But I do, however, wholeheartedly support some sort of way to block those assholes who try to get you to go to their shitty band's myspace.
3) Saving favorite comments? Seems odd. A hall of fame? Maybe? Who knows, but all I know is that if i REALLY wanted to remember something so endlessly funny, I could just write it down. But if it was that good, I'd likely just remember it.
4) cheap, free energy from the sun would be good, too, but i'll keep my eye out for posts from ecorazzi or something instead of you guys. no offense. it's just up to you to keep my ears full with nice sounds.
Good luck with whatever version you choose!
-Fletcher
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I want the ability to post my disinterest regarding the demise of The Blood Brothers in the comments section on a prominent music blog. Thanks for making it happen Stereogum!
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Overall I'm finding a lot fewer problems with comments these days than, ah, roughly last year this time. A little "quote" button might be nice-- I'm not even sure if we can use any HTML tags in our comments-- but I generally like the simpler interface.
When pages reach a bazillion comments it can be a little rough-- a pagination feature would be nice. I'm with Spilken8r on the "no threads", though.
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@myself: "I'm not even sure if we can use any HTML tags in our comments"
And that would apparently be a "no". The ability to make use of some bold or italics, at least, would be keen.
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Stereogum could become a prominent music blog with a few minor programming upgrades.
One thing I would appreciate would be the ability to write HTML and CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) in comments. The capability to choose fonts and background colors could liven up the rather drab comments section and users could post funny pictures in response to what someone else posts. Imagine a .gif of a big thumbs down after DwD goes on one of his rampages! :P
On the content tip, how about more Video Hangover? My co-workers nearly fall out of their chairs when I forward them those posts.
That's about all, I suppose. Feel free to contact me if you need more advice.
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me, i think some threaded comments work pretty well (reddit) but others don't (digg, slashdot), but i see where (at least two of you) are coming from. maybe there's a way to flip between them or take advantage of what threading does well (so you can either skip past some sort of stupid argument or actually continue an interesting discussion) without breaking up the page flow or seeming stuffy.
nix the comment-saving, though- that makes sense. hall of fame of some sort is a great idea.
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html in comments, got it. images, yes. inline video commentability?
re: css in comments, are there really that many of you out there that know it enough? all i can think of is this exchange on kempa.com:
Z: i just scoffed about a band being called CSS yesterday
A: yep
A: same band
Z: but not a design reference
A: you'd think they were portland webdesigners commenting on how the structure of indie rock is the same and is only shaped by applying style attributes.
A: But no
Z: hahaha
A: the cascading style sheets
A: would be a good band name though
Z: that would be amazing
Z: agreed
A: dude
A: concept alert!
Z: hahaha ok
A: start a band
A: called the cascading style sheets.
A: write and arrange verse chorus bridge etc
A: and do the same song in like ten different styles
A: Literal!
Z: hahaha
Z: normal people would just think they were remixes
A: ah true
Z: and would not understand its nerdy gravitas
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Thanks for the constructive feedback everyone. And yes, #1 Blogger's photo will go in the Hall Of Fame.
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I know CSS well enough but I would never feel the need to use it in comments, personally, although that conversation is pretty fucking funny.
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Tech specs are boring spice. This, however, is not: "...and (in at least one case) approached by a magazine editor to expand on thoughts in a comment" -- um, do tell more!
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each comment should be sponsored by paste.
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adrienne, I disagree.
Brought to you by Paste.
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ok, so here's a possibly way to do this:
registration for commenters, everyone has a profile (OoOO social networking), avatar and all of that. each comment has a "reply to" button and a "thumbs up" or "thumbs down" button, so good funny comments get thumb'd up, then DwD comments get a thumbs down. you could even have charts with current high and low scores (best and worst commenters)
iono. just a thought.
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I'm all for being able to use italics and bold but I think the ability to put up photos is just too much. I think it would be funny in the beginning but would become annoying or get out of hand really fast.
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upgrade the content.
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(like when a post shows up on the home page, but the full entry 404s)
mt-testbg says your server supports background tasks. Do you have LaunchBackgroundTasks enabled in your config file? And if so, does this problem persist if you turn it off?
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@jneslo- yeah, i think metafilter went through just that situation with inline comment photos/image tags. awesome, funny, distracting, removed.
@Su- we're running mod_fcgid, so we've had launchbackgroundtasks disabled the whole time. switching over to cgi doesn't solve anything, so we're staying with mod_fcgid until we can figure it out.
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Oh yeah, if it's not too late to gripe, this has nothing to do with the comments section, either: "next page" and "previous page" are a bit ambiguous, something more like "older" and "newer" would make more sense.
I sometimes think "next" will take me to the "next" content I want to see-- i.e. the backlog-- and "previous" will take me to where I've been, since you always start at the front page. Ha, minor, anyway.
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Do not under any circumstance allow images or video or any kind of html/css editing to be put into comments. My man Hi-tek made me look at this site...tubgirl or something and I don't ever want to see it again.
As for comment threading? I don't think it's necessary. Fuck it, just give DwD comment threading. That's what everyone wants it for anyway.
Also check out Be Kind Rewind, out January 25th 2008. Me and Jack Black do some hilarious shit. Motherfucker dresses up like Robocop! Can you believe that! Well worth avoiding Talib Kweli and not putting out a new Black Star album for another year. Get ta steppin'
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i like what nick, jneslo and mos def said. thread comments may be too much, as well as images. thumbs up/dwn is cool.
and more commercials!
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