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Article comment section

Jan. 7, 2014, 4:03 p.m.
Posts: 0
Joined: Sept. 20, 2006

Just wanted to voice my thoughts on the recent (??) change to the comments system for front page articles.

I'm lazy, and both don't check the comments under the articles themselves and can't be bothered to scroll down to the bottom and insert my own comment. However, I'm quite diligent (surely to the detriment of my day to day activities) at checking the forum and participating in conversations there.

I feel that to appeal to everyone, both comment sections should be linked. That is, if one comments via the front page, it automatically generates that comment in the article discussion thread, and vice versa should one post a comment in the forum thread.

I'm sure there are reasons for moving the comments to the article itself, but as a daily visitor, I definitely noticed a decline in comment participation on past articles since the change.

Seems to me that generating more back and forth is surely more productive for NSMB.com

Jan. 7, 2014, 4:11 p.m.
Posts: 1095
Joined: Jan. 31, 2005

While we're on this can I stay logged in to the article pages? I'm able to stay logged in to the forum but for some reason I have log in anew whenever I want to comment on an article.

There's nothing better than an Orangina after cheating death with Digger.

Jan. 7, 2014, 6:39 p.m.
Posts: 4905
Joined: July 9, 2004

I'm here to offer my support for the these suggestions

Jan. 7, 2014, 7:57 p.m.
Posts: 15014
Joined: Feb. 19, 2003

I read the articles more with the old system. Rarely bother with the front page now, and never comment if I do check it out.

Jan. 7, 2014, 8:25 p.m.
Posts: 19034
Joined: Oct. 28, 2003

+5

Jan. 7, 2014, 8:28 p.m.
Posts: 15805
Joined: May 29, 2004

What are these articles you speak of?

Pastor of Muppets

Jan. 7, 2014, 9:19 p.m.
Posts: 3518
Joined: May 27, 2008

I read the articles more with the old system. Rarely bother with the front page now, and never comment if I do check it out.

Agreed.

Being cheap is OK. Being a clueless sanctimonious condescending douchebag is just Vlad's MO.

Jan. 7, 2014, 9:47 p.m.
Posts: 1150
Joined: Oct. 31, 2006

Ditto on all counts. Sometimes I forget that the forum isn't the front page.

Jan. 7, 2014, 10:11 p.m.
Posts: 15019
Joined: April 5, 2007

Wait? There is stuff other than the forums?

Why slag free swag?:rolleyes:

ummm, as your doctor i recommend against riding with a scaphoid fracture.

Jan. 8, 2014, 8:01 a.m.
Posts: 8242
Joined: Dec. 23, 2003

i don't find it so hard to check the main page etc….

Jan. 8, 2014, 9:50 a.m.
Posts: 8935
Joined: Dec. 23, 2005

i don't find it so hard to check the main page etc….

Reading stuff on the main page isn't that bad…it's trying to follow along with the comments that sucks.

Jan. 9, 2014, 3:54 p.m.
Posts: 6449
Joined: Nov. 19, 2002

No big deal with reading or commenting on the articles but…why does "that other site" release all the same vids and general MTB news/articles a few days or more sooner than we see them here?

Not slamming NSMB at all but just curious why we're so far behind? I'd prefer to keep my MTB related reading to NSMB

Jan. 9, 2014, 4:06 p.m.
Posts: 3447
Joined: Nov. 23, 2002

Wait? There is stuff other than the forums?

quoted because it's nice when someone appreciates your humour.

We don't know what our limits are, so to start something with the idea of being limited actually ends up limiting us.
Ellen Langer

Jan. 9, 2014, 4:56 p.m.
Posts: 4295
Joined: June 24, 2010

Hey Everyone,

Thanks very much for your input and rest assured your comments do not fall on deaf ears. We discussed this topic at our editorial meeting yesterday and will be working to find a solution that works better than the current system.

The history of comments goes like this: In the beginning, we would link through at the bottom of front page magazine articles to a forum thread in the Article Discussion forum for conversation. There were no comments visible on the front page. We then moved to a system that allowed us to auto-populate front page comments from a forum thread. Most recently, we moved to the current system, which separates the magazine and the forum comments.

When we implemented the current system, we had intended for it to be a lot easier to sign in and do your thing, and for the ability to sign up for comments without having a forum account. Unfortunately with that new system, the syndication of comments to a forum thread was not an option. This had its positives and negatives; the negatives are well covered in this thread.

One issue that did exist was some people (the usual suspects?) were having a tendency to get into the same old arguments on threads in the Article Discussion forum, which resulted in many of the front page magazine articles having a negative, argumentative tone in the comments. With the current system I can say that while the number of comments has decreased, the number of inane arguments has gone down to pretty much zero.

One of the bigger problems in my opinion – and kp nailed it in the first post – is that it's quite difficult to keep track of your comments and responses to them. The forum gives the ability to do that, but forums are also very old technology. Many sites are using Facebook login now, which would also track your comments – but that comes with its own can of worms, right?

We had hoped the implementation of the new commenting system would be simpler; it turned out to be a bit clunky, and had some bugs we weren't anticipating. We don't like that. It went in at the same time as we started with a new back end content management system, so there were a lot of other bugs to work out at that time – many of them more crucial to delivering daily magazine content.

As it so happens, we are currently in the process of doing another update on the back end. The conversation about comment system is open. Please feel free to continue to drop in with your thoughts.

Thanks,
Morgan

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Jan. 9, 2014, 5:03 p.m.
Posts: 4295
Joined: June 24, 2010

No big deal with reading or commenting on the articles but…why does "that other site" release all the same vids and general MTB news/articles a few days or more sooner than we see them here?

Not slamming NSMB at all but just curious why we're so far behind? I'd prefer to keep my MTB related reading to NSMB

I manage the content for the NSMB front page. We post at least one piece of original content – gear, editorial, video, etc – on the front page every weekday. I fill that in with interesting stuff from around the internet: videos, industry news, press releases, and so on. Sometimes other sites get a jump on content, for various reasons. Sometimes stuff doesn't come across my radar immediately.

I am proud to say that what does hit the front page is curated well, and in most cases is up pretty much as soon as any other site has it – and sometimes before. If content is truly worthy of being posted and I happened to overlook it for a day, I'm still going to post it. If you've got your ear to the ground in the MTB media world, you might see something on another site before you see it on the NSMB front page. It is, however, not the case that every piece of content is available elsewhere, or posted days later.

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