Open thread: Site issues, requests and other feedback

(Works Progress Administration)

Howdy gang:

It’s been half a dozen years since I was in the site design game, so I anticipate there will be some improvements in order. Let me know in this post if you encounter any issues, including the device/browser, or if you have requests for potential site enhancements.

Update (Jan. 6, 10:50 p.m. CT):

Changes made:

  • Comment field now has text-editing toolbar (and ability to post images/tweets by sharing the link to them).
  • Avatars can be added without Gravatar by uploading an image on your profile screen. Scroll the bottom for the option.
  • Threads reduced from five response levels to four for better readability on mobile.
  • New comments now highlighted in blue (the best simple solution I can find to the “mark as read” request at this time).
  • New: Time-zone disparity in comments fixed (new comments should no longer show up as posted 5 hours ago).

Known issues:

  • Spam folder snagging with registration emails (I have no control over these emails, so check your spam filters).

Requests:

  • Highlight well-liked comments.
Take a second to support Sox Machine on Patreon
58 Comments
Oldest
Newest Most Voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
fustercluck

Us halfwits would like to post pics & gifs

fustercluck

comment image!

Josh Nelson

Do tweets work?

Rex Fermier

Will it be possible to post a avatar without using Gravitar? I don’t want to have to join another website just to post a silly photo of myself. Just sayin’

GrinnellSteve

I went ahead and signed up for Gravitar, but I couldn’t make heads or tails of what to do to create my avatar. Obviously, some people aren’t as flummoxed by technology and computer syntax as I am. I’d love to have my 1959 Nellie avatar back.

GrinnellSteve

And I uploaded an avatar, but I’ll need to play around with the dimensions.

Thanks for adding a non-Gravitar option for the geek-challenged.

Lurker Laura

I second this.

Pointerbabe

Agreed- I’d like to use the same silly photo I used on SSS without joining yet another website 

Steve

It can be done by using the wp-user-avatars plugin. I know and trust the developer of that plugin.

Trooper Galactus

How can I do it?  I still only see the Gravitar thing, and echoing previous sentiments, I’d really rather not sign up for it.

Pointerbabe

It worked!  Thanks Steve!

Flitcraft

Many thanks for your excellent (really) work at SSS, and congratulations on the new old site.

Of possible interest to those registered but haven’t as yet received their email confirmation, well you might not want to wait two hours before finally deciding to check your spam folder. That’s wherr mine was hiding.

Good luck, Jim.

oahusox

Thanks. Mine was hiding there too.

northsiderepresent

Here are some questions:

1) Is there a Right Rail?

2) Is there a function so we can scroll through to new comments?

I think I’ll rather miss things going green but I AM HAPPY to be here. I offer congratulations and cheers to the masthead!

GrinnellSteve

Yeah, the ability to distinguish new from old comments was a life saver on the more popular articles. And I liked how the green gave a visual clue to comments that evoked some passion.

Eagle Bones

This would get my vote as the first thing to add once Jim has the resources/time. Seeing how many new comments there are since you last checked and which ones are new when you get down into the comments section is super helpful for keeping a conversation going. There’s got to be a programmer somewhere in our midst that would be willing to provide a few hours to Jim pro-bono, no?

Buck Turgidson

Agreed on unread comments a different color and highlighting multi-recced comments.

Also happy to follow everyone over from SSS. Seems like old home

GrinnellSteve

How did you create paragraphs? I hit “enter” to go to the next line, and nothing happens.

Buck Turgidson

maybe it’s browser? I got paras with ‘enter’ key first try – using Chrome

GrinnellSteve

Let me try today.

Nope. I’ll spearmint with IE. I’m on Firefox on my PC.

GrinnellSteve

And now I’m on IE.

Hitting enter just seems to tab me out farther. Still no hard line changes.

GrinnellSteve

I see paragraphs in my earlier comments.

And now I can see them as I’m composing. Thanks, Jim!

As Cirensica

I think I read there are plugins that allow you to do that, but I am not sure how it works and whether or not it’s a user based thing or an admin thing.

I definitely think it would be fantastic to be able to distinguish new from old comments. Right now, all we have is to look at the age of the comment, but even that is unreliable as I notice that when I post a new comment, it says it was posted like hours ago (?!?)

You can also turn on the notify me by e-mail option but that sounds like an awful idea.

katiesphil

Is this where I check in?

jorgefabregas

KP left this at the other site.
“While somebody is still around here, can you help?
I have registered on Sox Machine, it shows me as logged on, I get the Howdy, katiesphil and everything, but when I comment and click Post, my comment seems to be launched into a void, the page reloads without it, and it never appears.

Should I take this personally? Is there something I’m doing wrong?”

katiesphil

Thanks, jorge

katiesphil

Apparently I can reply. Let me try a standalone.

katiesphil

Thanks, Jim. But now I feel all tardy in wishing you congratulations and telling you how much I’m looking forward to continue following you and the others here. So I guess I won’t bother now.

SoxFanInToronto

This is kinda strange but all of the comments I see under a post show up as 5hrs+ old even though they seem to have just been posted when looking at the recent comments column on the right. Thanks a million, Jim.

SoxFanInToronto

I think I have figured it out a bit. I think the blog is set to UTC-0 or Greenwich time so since I am located in EDT, everything appears as if it was posted 6hrs ago by the time-stamp due to comments and posts being converted from EDT or CDT to Universal Standard/Greenwich Time. This makes the comments appear to have been posted 5 or 6 hrs ago even if you had just posted them.

Lurker Laura

Also, is there ability to show which comments are unread? That is a useful feature.

Oh, I get it. Like the James Brown song.

ParisSox

The subject line was a nice feature on the old site.  But for priorities, I’d take the distinguishing between read and unread comments.   

oahusox

Hey Jim and Josh. Good luck with The Machine. I’m looking forward to it.

bennett32

Congrats on returning to the old site! I’m looking forward to following you guys here. Thanks for all the work you do.

I second the calls for a read/unread feature and some kind of shorthand for good posts.

I would also love to see something like fanposts migrate over here. A forum for non-White Sox chatter was great, as was the ability for us plebeians to post stories on occasion.

Josh Nelson

Hey, a rumor!

greenlight

Where do we talk about politics and religion?

greenlight

My post says 5 hours old, but I have 3 minutes and 17 seconds to edit it.

winningugly

This is the Wild West. Like Disney before Kyle Bass and Saul Steinberg hired Eisner. It’s not a big business yet. Enjoy the errors. Jim is whipping his staff into shape as we speak. (Heh.)

northsiderepresent

I mean, we’re just greedy and spoiled

Rex Fermier

Is there a way to scroll back through the “Recent comments?”

Steve

comment image

Yep, it works. Just be sure to remove any extraneous garbage from the URL after the .gif, .jpg, or .png.

MrTopaz

If it’s possible, is there anyway to change the way responses to post “stagger” or indent on mobile? They go far enough over to accommodate the responders avatar, and so after an exchange of two or three posts, this leads to response lines that are only 4 or 5 characters long, compressing the whole thing into an unreadable letter totem pole.

Eagle Bones

Posted this in another thread, but moving it here as I’m assuming it may not get picked up in the other thread.  Noticed the comments are showing which ones are new now, but if you leave a comment and the page recycles, the comments are all shown as read (i.e. if you read the first comment and responded, you now can’t tell what is new further down the page).  A minor bug, but something to note.

Also seems like you can’t reply anymore once a thread gets two tabs in.  Not trying to pick on you Jim, just wanted to make sure these got into the bug log.  Appreciate you working to make the new site a great one!

richard

Jim:

This is dickschr from SSS. I was registered here before but forgot my password. However, when I tried the forgot password option, the link never came to my email account or my spam folder. Consequently, I had to register under a new name through a different email account. Can you send me my old password?

dickschr@aol.com

 

ConorGsFan

Is there anyway to get the side bar to stop scrolling with the page? It’s really jittery and distracting especially on tablet.

Josh Nelson
Josh Nelson

Ok. That didn’t work. Attempt #2

Yeah, that is a failure, too. How does one embed GIF or Tweets in the new comment section?