self reads and hidden comments

12 posts / 0 new

Topic locked

Sat, 2008-02-02 19:46

I know I sound like a stuck record but there's two things about this otherwise wonderful site that have been bugging me for a long time:

1. the read counter records your own hits, so you can't tell how many other people have read your stories (especially if you tend to tweak them a lot). I searched the net for a bit and found this drupal thread, which would seem to be relevant: http://drupal.org/node/129971

2. You can't see from the "My account page" if there are comments on your stories. I can't believe this is difficult to fix, since other pages, like "Read cherrypicked", or "Recently added" already do it, and even keep track of which comments each user has read.

If it's any help, I'd be glad to look through the source code and try to fix these myself (I used to be a web programmer, and still code as part of my job). In fact there seem to be a few programmers using this site... maybe we could turn it into an open source project, set up a version control server, and start submitting changes ourselves? Of course you'd still have final say about what went in.

I guess computerminds wouldn't be too happy about that though...

Mon, 2008-02-04 11:00

tcook

I'm not sure they would mind at all - I'll let Mike have a look at this and come back to you!

Wed, 2008-02-06 18:02

kim.rooney

I definitely agree with both points- the comments especially. I have recently 'discovered' some lovely feedback on pieces by accident. Also, when you give another writer feedback, you want to know they've seen it. This mutuality is after all, one of the positive aspects of the site. I think the open source idea is good too. Drupal is, according to its own blurb: ...” a free software package that allows an individual or a community of users to easily publish, manage and organize a wide variety of content on a website.” I’m no Drupa Diva, but I can create and edit content using this system at work. It’s great and offers flexibility. If you’re new to Drupal, look at http://drupal.org/about There’s also http://www.drupal.org.uk/ for us Brits.

Kim Rooney

Wed, 2008-02-06 19:35

Brooklands

Yes, agreed about being able to see new comments from My Account. That'd be useful.

Thu, 2008-02-07 17:40

tcook

I have spoken to Mike about it and there is a new piece of Drupal software coming very soon that will make all of this possible. Sit tight.

Tue, 2008-02-19 01:08

jxmartin

I have recently read through some of my postings and discovered that several very gracious people had graciously taken the time to read and review them. My apologies for not getting back to you. Sooz, Tony and iandsmith, Thank you for your time and advice. It was kind of you. J.X.M

Fri, 2008-02-22 15:35

QueenElf

I didn't know about this either. I am trying to read and comment every day, whether i post or not. I felt guility about scrolling through my stories to see if I had any comments. I am changing direction a bit & wanted some feedback.

Lfuller

Sat, 2008-02-23 12:31

johnshade

I downloaded drupal 6 and started playing around with it. It doesn't seem too difficult to customise... I managed to set up a prototype writing site in a couple of days. Are we still on drupal 5 at the moment? Either way, my offer of trying to fix the hidden comments and other bugs still stands, if you let me have the source code. Long term, I really think putting the code on http://sourceforge.net/ or similar would be a good move (maybe with access restricted to abc members who express an interest). It's quite straightforward to set up a local version of a drupal site for editing and debugging... then we could just submit the changes we want and Tony/computerminds could approve them (or not).

Sun, 2008-02-24 10:07

raysawriter