"Please don't discuss this article here..." Has To Stop!

spunker88 · 02-10-08, 04:44 PM

Recently all the news articles have had this message.

Now Chris has set up a great mobile version of aximsite that lets u do everything u can on the desktop version of the site easily from ur axim/pda.

But, a problem arises when a mobile user wants to commet on one of these articles. They are redirected to mobiltysite's blog which is a non-mobile site. This site causes pie to close and isnt very mobile friendly at all.

I dont know what was ever wrong with forum commeting.

The main problem is that there is absolutely no way to tell that it is going to be an empty post unless you tap on it to go to it. Maybe if these threads were closed after they were created we could tell that u cant commet on them here.

But, right now i dont get what big advantage the blog has. I think it discourages users from commeting. Even when im on my desktop i dont want to navigate over to another site, login and go to an unfamiliar blog just to commet.
Can somebody tell me why this happened in the first place?

larrywms45 · 02-10-08, 04:49 PM

I think I read a reply yesterday from Gigi regarding this matter. She reminded us that this was put up for a vote and it was passed. Merging the two sites was a good idea in the beginning but this hiccup is rather irritating.

To be honest, I remember the initial discussions but don't think that this type of situation was anticipated at that time. It would appear to me that if the two sites are now one, replying should be seemless.

Gigi · 02-10-08, 05:08 PM

Originally Posted by larrywms45

I think I read a reply yesterday from Gigi regarding this matter. She reminded us that this was put up for a vote and it was passed. Merging the two sites was a good idea in the beginning but this hiccup is rather irritating.

To be honest, I remember the initial discussions but don't think that this type of situation was anticipated at that time. It would appear to me that if the two sites are now one, replying should be seemless.

Uh, it wasn't me, but it's nice to know you think I am capable of such rational thought. :hide:

EDIT: It was the fair Julie who explained the reason:

http://www.aximsite.com/boards/mobil...-0-0-12-a.html

Julie · 02-10-08, 05:34 PM

This is not a site trouble at all....it is a change in the way comments and articles are handled in the forum. Did you vote in the poll? Did you comment in Chris' thread where he announced this change?

Julie / Gigi.....I'm in good company.

edge777 · 02-10-08, 06:17 PM

I've noticed this too. In reality, Mobilitysite has a mobile forum version as well, which works slick on my PDA phone. But ya, now we have these ridiculous posts which have an intriguing title, but them I'm told not to comment here, but rather go to the main blog sight which is taking forever to load on a regular computer due to an over-abundance of ads (I'm okay with ads, but when they're all trying to access external content at the same time, and you have to wait... wait... wait... for them to all load, it's a bit overkill). On a PDA phone, it's impossible, and you have to pay for data usage... well... time to re-mortgage your house after one visit.

This issue doesn't have much to do with the merger, nor even to format, but rather trying to integrate blog format into the forum. As well, I'm not sure the vote really explained the nuances of how this was going to work, especially in a mobile viewing format. It's just annoying. I think it might be best to just keep the main content stories in one place, and the forum content in another (for ease of mobile viewing).

larrywms45 · 02-10-08, 06:31 PM

My bad! My old brain cells don't work so well these days.

I still think that when this poll was held, no one saw this as a problem.

**Chris Leckness** · 02-10-08, 07:44 PM

Guys, there are alot of reasons this has come to this point.

The hack that allows the the syncronization between the databases which allows forum commenting to work with the blog is broken somewhat. With the most recent update of wordpress made some changes that cause hang ups and eventually performace issues. There are also a couple little bugs, but we've been working through these bug for months. I paid this dude to custom write this to work for us. He's made it available in the vbulletin community with changes i asked for too, but it's not perfect out of the box. I have tried to rehire the guy for the last 2 months. The 1st bit, he was willing to help when he got dont with a project, now when I find him online, I pm him and he goes offline.

Performace was one of the reasons I created this poll. The other reason was that having both commenting methods available is very confusing for those that make the posts. The author gets notification that someone commented on the blog, but not the forum comments. On top of that, there is no way of threading them together, so you could end up having 2 serparate conversations.

On the reasons to go to just blog commenting... a) like I said, performace. There are queries going back and forth constantly with this hack and an i/o bottle neck was happening when one of these queries had an issue. I was having to kill processes manually in top 6-7 times a day to restore some level of speed. b) If we have "just" forum commenting, we are losing potential comments. Think about this... How many times have you all visited a site and want to throw your two cents in and realize you have to register to post a single comment and say, "nah... I don't need another login"? I work this way myself.

I am not attempting to "alienate" the forum users with this at all (as one email accused), I am just doing what I (with some democracy) think is best for the growth and future of the sites.

It shouldnt be hard for forum commentors to hit the blog post and comment, but now that I realize that the mobile version is broken, I can see why it's an issue. I will get this back up and running soon.

I am open for suggestions... I realize that blog commenting has some threading and archive issues to be desired, but the posts on the "blog" are not really "help the user fix something" type comments that need to be searchable.

My goal for the site is to continue to grow in both forum community and a becoming an established blog dealing with mobile. I really think that it can work together. There is no rule that we can't succeed in both. :)

I hope this clears this up and like I said, I am open to suggestions. (short of paying a ton to a coder again to get a custom solution that breaks so easily)

edge777 · 02-11-08, 12:02 AM

We appreciate your work Chris. I gotta say, I was one of those guys that was a bit perturbed at some of the changes and moderation, but overall, it's a great sight. It's changed focuses, but with the mobile market booming, I think you're moving in the right direction. As for moderation, I'm a part of a few forums that have little to no moderation, and they're pretty ugly places (I agree in free speech, but as a society without law and order is pretty brutal, so a forum without rules just becomes messy). Thanks Chris.

spunker88 · 02-11-08, 07:14 AM

Originally Posted by Chris Leckness

Guys, there are alot of reasons this has come to this point.

The hack that allows the the syncronization between the databases which allows forum commenting to work with the blog is broken somewhat. With the most recent update of wordpress made some changes that cause hang ups and eventually performace issues. There are also a couple little bugs, but we've been working through these bug for months. I paid this dude to custom write this to work for us. He's made it available in the vbulletin community with changes i asked for too, but it's not perfect out of the box. I have tried to rehire the guy for the last 2 months. The 1st bit, he was willing to help when he got dont with a project, now when I find him online, I pm him and he goes offline.

Performace was one of the reasons I created this poll. The other reason was that having both commenting methods available is very confusing for those that make the posts. The author gets notification that someone commented on the blog, but not the forum comments. On top of that, there is no way of threading them together, so you could end up having 2 serparate conversations.

On the reasons to go to just blog commenting... a) like I said, performace. There are queries going back and forth constantly with this hack and an i/o bottle neck was happening when one of these queries had an issue. I was having to kill processes manually in top 6-7 times a day to restore some level of speed. b) If we have "just" forum commenting, we are losing potential comments. Think about this... How many times have you all visited a site and want to throw your two cents in and realize you have to register to post a single comment and say, "nah... I don't need another login"? I work this way myself.

I am not attempting to "alienate" the forum users with this at all (as one email accused), I am just doing what I (with some democracy) think is best for the growth and future of the sites.

It shouldnt be hard for forum commentors to hit the blog post and comment, but now that I realize that the mobile version is broken, I can see why it's an issue. I will get this back up and running soon.

I am open for suggestions... I realize that blog commenting has some threading and archive issues to be desired, but the posts on the "blog" are not really "help the user fix something" type comments that need to be searchable.

My goal for the site is to continue to grow in both forum community and a becoming an established blog dealing with mobile. I really think that it can work together. There is no rule that we can't succeed in both. :)

I hope this clears this up and like I said, I am open to suggestions. (short of paying a ton to a coder again to get a custom solution that breaks so easily)

Oh i see...

What if you closed the threads immediately after you posted them or put something in the title to notify us, so we dont tap on them when mobile and have to load the post before noticing its only a link.

**Chris Leckness** · 02-11-08, 12:21 PM

There is no way of wordpress controlling vbulletin to tell it to close the post, that's the problem. If you can see the forum category, that should be an indicator that it's a blog post at mobilitysite... if it's in Mobilitysite news.

psionandy · 02-11-08, 02:26 PM

Originally Posted by Chris Leckness

There is no way of wordpress controlling vbulletin to tell it to close the post, that's the problem. If you can see the forum category, that should be an indicator that it's a blog post at mobilitysite... if it's in Mobilitysite news.

Could you perhaps lock the forum so that only news editors/mods can post in that forum... that way it's effectively locked and still allows the wordpress redirect to post it's little message.

spunker88 · 02-11-08, 04:56 PM

Originally Posted by Chris Leckness

There is no way of wordpress controlling vbulletin to tell it to close the post, that's the problem. If you can see the forum category, that should be an indicator that it's a blog post at mobilitysite... if it's in Mobilitysite news.

Oh, my bad. I thought mods were posting the articles the same way everybody else posts by manually typing it in there.

**Chris Leckness** · 02-11-08, 05:24 PM

No. This is an automatic process that i paid a dev to custom fit our needs.

ps. the mobile version of the blog was lost. Its back now, but temporary. Its plain out of the box. Anyone have a problem with it?

**hyedipin** · 02-12-08, 10:12 AM

Chris, like psionandy suggested, if it is possible to just close that whole "news" sub-forum to regular members, so at least they cannot post there. This will also limit the confusion.
My only worry is that, if you limit it to regular members, maybe it will deny access to WordPress as well?

Everyone will know, if it is news or blog entry, they cannot reply in forums. That simple. If they want to discuss something about it, they are free to start a new topic in any other category and discuss, or just comment in the blogs.

stevenator65 · 02-12-08, 10:26 AM

Please don't discuss "Please don't discuss this article here..."

Just Kidding!