patrick.net

There may be duplicate comments for a while.

The issue is that comments are being broadcast to all browsers open to the page the comment was made on. So first it gets made, then it arrives again as part of the broadcast.

Will fix soon, but getting tomorrow's newslinks ready at the moment.

OK, I fixed the duplicate comment issue, and got the websocket to stop timing out after one minute (curse you, nginx!), but now the problem is that comments are appended to any open thread on patrick.net, not necessarily the right thread.

It's just a transient thing, if you reload a page, all comments are in the right place again.

Will fix tomorrow.

Patrick says

but now the problem is that comments are appended to any open thread on patrick.net, not necessarily the right thread.

Just noticed this. If there was a way to identify the thread that the comment was from and then go to what that comment was referencing, it might be a cool accidental feature. As I type this now, drB6 just had a comment show up (see screenshot). I'm kind of now intrigued to go check out this thread. Still have the instant comments for the thread, but might be an interesting experiment to maybe have other comments instantly show up below the comment box with a link to the thread start.

Could be stupid, but I thought it was kind of interesting. Like what the fuck are those guys talking about over there? I'm going to see what's up.

WookieMan says

If there was a way to identify the thread that the comment was from and then go to what that comment was referencing, it might be a cool accidental feature.

@WookieMan There is! Just click on the date link above any comment and you go to the right thread, with the comment in the right place.

I plan to fix this today, but good point, it's a great feature to see what people are commenting on at the moment. Is there some other place I could always be showing the latest comment without confusing people? Maybe in the header?

Patrick says

There is! Just click on the date link above any comment and you go to the right thread, with the comment in the right place.

Lol, I just discovered this before coming back over here. I knew that it was there, apparently had a bimbo moment. That's what I click on the home page to avoid going to the linked article if there is one. Or at least the time from last comment or whatever.

Patrick says

I plan to fix this today, but good point, it's a great feature to see what people are commenting on at the moment. Is there some other place I could always be showing the latest comment without confusing people? Maybe in the header?

It's been pretty active this morning and I like to see that activity. You don't have ads, but if one of your goals is more engagement and longer site visits, it would help with that I would think. At least when activity is high.

I'm on a 27" iMac, so I have a ton of real estate on either side of the main column or whatever you call it. So the side would work for me, but I know most are probably on laptops or mobile OS. Plus, I doubt it's a quick fix to add a box or whatever to the side with the instant comments from all threads being fed into it. That's why I thought below the comment box if it wasn't a big deal. That would push your book down I imagine for those comments, so that might not be desirable for you.

Could just use a snippet of the comment like you do with new posts on the home page. Also, as I'm playing with this, if you decide to try any of this, maybe have it open in a new tab if possible when you click the timestamp link? That way you could still stay on the same thread and either finish a comment or come back to that tab later.

This could of course get unwieldy on a busy day or on a site that has 10 times the commenters. Or maybe you could make it so only posts that the registered user liked would show updated comments? I don't know. Throwing shit at the wall and seeing what sticks. I'll stop for now.

@Patrick

Got a bug with instant comments. I was in another thread, and when Bob replied to a comment I made, his reply from a completely different thread appeared in the thread I was currently browsing.

I'm using the latest Chrome browser.

Yes, known issue, but WookieMan pointed out it may actually be kind of a feature.

Thinking about how best to fix it now...

Patrick says

Yes, known issue, but WookieMan pointed out it may actually be kind of a feature.

Thinking about how best to fix it now...

lol

That would be a cool feature if it appeared like in a separate UI area, and you could click it to go to the thread directly.

Test of fix

ok, now instant comments go only to the same thread that made the comment