new feature: complete rewrite of the comment system

[slug]

we've started over from scratch for the comment system.
this includes comments on images,galleries, and guestbooks.

the new system should be much faster and more streamlined.
what used to be "View Your Forum" is now the "Comment Management" page.

new features.
private comments. when posting you can mark a comment as private if you want only the recipient to read it. the owner of the comment won't even have the option of making the comment public.

hidden comments - there's a new setting on the account page to make new comments on your galleries start off in a hidden state. this means that only you can view them. if you approve the comment, click the "show" link and then everyone can see it.
a good combination of settings will be to allow guests to post comments, but make guest comments hidden. this way, random people won't be able to post rude comments on your photos and have them display to the world until you approve them.
you can also hide existing comments if you don't want others to see them, but don't want to delete them.

better stylesheet support.
the HTML around the comment area has more classes and divs to give much more control over the appearance of the comments with your stylesheet.

there are some other comment related features on the way, but this release should be a significant improvement i hope.

-slug

[derekslater]

Is there any way of turning the comment box "off" it does seem rather intrusive suddenly attaching itself to every gallery ??

[jmphotography]

Thank you so much for this upgrade. I find it very useful and easy to manage. I appreciate the hard work from the PBase team.
Yours Truely

[slug]

ok. will make an option to not display the comment box.

the idea behind having it there is to make commenting easier. less clicking. but can have an option to just show a small link to load the box.

-slug

[plbh]

Thanks for the new features. And I agree with Derek that the new comment box on image pages is too intrusive -- it should just appear when you click "Comment on this image" or "Add comment" or whatever. Having the full-size image in view as you compose your comment in a nice improvement.

[derekslater]

Thanks Slug that would be nice... And thanks for all the effort you put into running the site too......... keep it up

[slug]

due to the reaction it received, and to maintain consistency with previous behavior, the comment box has been replaced with a "post a comment" link.

but there is also an account setting to always show the box if you would rather.

-slug

[jacekw]

I understand a need for faster and more streamlined features. However, PLEASE do not clutter picture pages with more and more "features and widgets". What clearly distinguishes Pbase from all other photo sites is its clean appearance and lack of distracting clutter. In fact, I tried and walked away from your majeor competitors (smugmug, flicr, photo.net) because they seem to miss the key point - that printing, extra links, community links, all that other good stuff, is secondary to the prime reason we are here: pictures. Should google clutter its front page I will walk away from it too..
Thank you for a great photo site and keep it that way. Kind Regards - jsw.

[jenga]

Thanks Slug - I like it a lot, and even more so without the comment box!

(and now I have a new bit of HTML to get my head round!)

[alangrant]

I like this a lot too, good work. The degree of CSS control this allows is particularly welcome.

A couple of small points:
- Would it be possible to wrap the small table above the comments (the one that says "post comment" etc.) in a DIV with a named class? This would have no effect initially, but would be useful to those who might wish to apply CSS to this section (e.g. to give it the same font as the comment list). At the moment I don't think we can modify this through CSS.
- I noticed that adding a comment to the guestbook (as distinct from a gallery or image) requires a lot of scrolling to get to the bottom of the page. Maybe it was always like this, I can't remember. But it might be good to have an input box (or a link to the input box) at the top of the guestbook.

[slug]

to alangrant:
noted. we still have some work to do relating to people that have large amount of comments.
an input box at the top of the guestbook would probably be a fine solution there.

another change i didn't mention before is that if guests leave an email address, it is no longer displayed to the world. only to the person the comment is for. no need to provide food for the spambots.

thanks,

-slug

[isabel95]

I understand a need for faster and more streamlined features. However, PLEASE do not clutter picture pages with more and more "features and widgets". What clearly distinguishes Pbase from all other photo sites is its clean appearance and lack of distracting clutter. In fact, I tried and walked away from your majeor competitors (smugmug, flicr, photo.net) because they seem to miss the key point - that printing, extra links, community links, all that other good stuff, is secondary to the prime reason we are here: pictures. Should google clutter its front page I will walk away from it too..
Thank you for a great photo site and keep it that way. Kind Regards - jsw.

I agree entirely...I hope they will ditch the boxes around the comments. I appreciate the clean uncluttered interface of pbase!

[wangi]

Okay, good stuff... But how can I see old comments, more than are shown on the comment management page?

[rtwo]

Slug and Emily...and your team... thanks for the efforts on the comment improvements. I like it a lot. Appreciate the flexibilty.
It was also fun to see your write up in the new magazine.
And when you comment on what you are doing, it really helps. I know you had a struggle at Christmas, it was tough time for us all.

Appreciate the efforts and the site!!!

[jeanb]

another change i didn't mention before is that if guests leave an email address, it is no longer displayed to the world. only to the person the comment is for. no need to provide food for the spambots.



-slug

Great idea.