Housekeeping

I’ve activated a new theme, called Blocks2. No, BLOCKS2!! It gives comment numbers, which makes it really easy to refer to the comment you’re responding to, plus it allows threaded comments, letting you reply to a particular comment, indenting as it goes.

Let’s see how it works for a few days; let me know when something seems broken. I’m keen to make things easier, not more difficult!

Now we can refer directly to comment numbers, which are consistent and unchanging within a thread.

Let me know of problems.

— Richard T

Visits: 53

20 Thoughts on “Housekeeping

  1. Richard C on 13/10/2010 at 11:50 pm said:

    Found the “Housekeeping” button that I should have used to post this:-

    Richard T

    1. I did a test by inserting a reply to #47 but the system reset all the comment ID’s from (the old) #49 onwards – just like Hot Topic (and we can’t have that)

    2. I find the bolder font a bit easier to read.

    3. The quote system is VERY clunky, but the HTML tags are all on display so maybe with practice.

    4. I see Val prefers wandering threads

    5. Thanks for trying a new scheme, If it’s no good then you can always go back to normal or another.

    • Richard C on 14/10/2010 at 7:47 am said:

      Re 3.

      The quote system duplicates the ENTIRE comment so there’s a lot editing to b-quote a sentence.

  2. Richard C on 14/10/2010 at 12:18 am said:

    Just spotted another “Housekeeping” button in the “Hot off the press” section.

    Was that there on the previous scheme? Its a VERY useful feature.

    It would be good to alert everyone to this feature – keeps this stuff out of post comments.

    I’m sorry, if I’d known about it before I would have placed all my metacommenting in housekeeping.

    • Thanks for your experimentation and comments. “Housekeeping” is simply the title of this post. It’s not a system function.

    • Insert comment to test comments numbers resetting, as I just asked Richard C.

    • Richard C on 14/10/2010 at 7:58 am said:

      “Housekeeping” is simply the title of this post. It’s not a system function.

      It is a system function in that there are 2 “Housekeeping” buttons, 1 at top of “Hot off the press” and the other (2) at bottom left hand corner of each post.

      That’s how I found my way here – VERY useful.

      Button 2 is not present on the older posts and I can’t remember seeing button 1 top of “Hot off the press” before.

  3. This is not a good-looking scheme, but I do like the vertical efficiency (you can go a long way through the discussion in a short distance) and the large numbers of nested comments.

    Richard C: what did you mean about the comment numbers resetting?

    • Answer myself, red-faced: I see. That could get messy. I hadn’t noticed HT doing it. I’ll keep looking for another theme.

      But how else could the numbers be treated?

    • Richard C on 14/10/2010 at 7:27 am said:

      RT, May I suggest that next post (or later) is open thread.

      e.g. Anthony Watts – “Open Thread”, “Open Thread Monday”

      Jo Nova – “Away til Monday” People can post ,,,,, (Good if you want a holiday)

      The theme could be ID #’s ONLY (If WordShine has the option)

      i.e. No blocks, threads are driven by comment addresses e.g Huub @ 32, Huub # 32, Huub 28 32 or just @32, #32, Re 27 32.

      If the troops get restless, you can go back to normal.

    • Richard C on 14/10/2010 at 7:44 am said:

      “This is not a good-looking scheme”

      Agree, I think perhaps the blue background is too dark (not enough text-background contrast).

      The darker font is easier to read (although 1 1/2 spacing might be better – seems very dense)

      “vertical efficiency” is good – the boxes don’t get too skinny too quickly.

      Your actual posts don’t come across nearly as well as normal – hard to separate different posts and the headlines don’t stand out, normal was definitely better for your posts.

    • Richard C on 14/10/2010 at 2:13 pm said:

      “I think perhaps the blue background is too dark (not enough text-background contrast).”

      Perhaps not now that I’ve adjusted to it

      “although 1 1/2 spacing might be better – seems very dense”

      Also, perhaps not.

    • Richard C on 14/10/2010 at 12:00 pm said:

      I’m “warming” (Ha!) to the new theme.

      It seems easier to find sub-threads.

      You could ditch the comment ID #’s (if that’s possible). They’re useless if they reset with each comment insertion.

      Boxes and ID #’s are incompatible.

      It’s either:- Boxes OR ID # sequence, NOT both IMO

      P.S. I’d still like to give an ID # sequence theme (as Jo Nova) a trial run (if that’s possible and you’ve got the inclination) using an Open Thread post to make a comparison of the relative utility of discussion – PLEASE but no rush.

    • Richard C on 15/10/2010 at 7:38 am said:

      “P.S. I’d still like to give an ID # sequence theme (as Jo Nova) a trial run (if that’s possible and you’ve got the inclination) using an Open Thread post to make a comparison of the relative utility of discussion – PLEASE but no rush.”

      RT, it’s just occurred to me (Duh!), that you might not be able to employ an ID#-only theme just for one trial post without changing the theme for the ENTIRE Blog.

      If there is the facility to set an ID#-only themed trial post while leaving the rest of the Blog as is, fine. But if not, changing all the previous posts will stuff up the EXCELLENT and VERY USEFUL resource that has developed.

      I’m sorry to send you on a wild goose chase (perhaps) but my minds been on other things and housekeeping doesn’t always get the attention it deserves.

      Have not encountered any problems using BLOCKS2 for discussion, but it could get very tiresome if the #83 (14:01) – #91 (22:10) thread gets technical in a CA way (probably wont but you never know).

      Change has been good so far IMO.

    • Richard C on 15/10/2010 at 12:09 pm said:

      “I’m still catching up with all the things you’ve been writing about and I’m still looking for an appropriate theme”

      BLOCKS2 seems to capture the essence and nature of “Climate CONVERSATIONS Group” perhaps a little better than the previous normal one did (IMHO).

      Maybe it’s better to leave the ID#-only theme to JoNova where it works perfectly there.

  4. Richard C on 14/10/2010 at 8:18 am said:

    Something else I think is different is that the reply box stays in the thread box instead of dropping down to the last comment.

    So there is no need to scroll back and forth. I don’t think that happened in the normal theme.

    That feature is VERY NICE if a boxed sub- thread scheme is used.

    • Richard C on 14/10/2010 at 6:28 pm said:

      And I DO like the way the boxed thread stops getting narrow at a decent width when the “Reply” button disappears.

      VERY NICE, as opposed to HT.

  5. Richard C on 14/10/2010 at 10:42 am said:

    I find being presented with Rodney’s smiling face every time after submitting a comment a little unsettling but I guess we will eventually move on to a new post and that it is not a feature of the new theme.

  6. Richard C on 14/10/2010 at 12:19 pm said:

    The wider format has fixed some CR problems I had in a comment Oct 12th, 2010 at 10:14 #5?

    The normal theme with narrower boxes gave me grief in that respect – the new wider blocks are definitely better.

  7. Richard C on 14/10/2010 at 6:37 pm said:

    “The aim then is for a headline to be picked up in the Google News, climate science section and until we do, we don’t rate..”

    Or somewhere else in the Blogosphere.

    Headline:-

    Climate Wars: Climate Conversations vs Hot Topic.

    The battle lines are drawn……yada yada

  8. Richard C (NZ) on 08/12/2010 at 10:38 am said:

    Richard T.

    Now that you have settled on a constant CCG style and Open Threads is working, can some of those comments (mostly mine) at the top of “Open threads as promised” be deleted now that they are no longer relevant?

    Everything above Vals comment here could go perhaps.

    https://www.climateconversation.org.nz/2010/10/open-threads-as-promised/#comment-25928

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