Since the last time I mentioned an alternative way to use time since I have been a busy beaver. I have read up on how to create Textpattern plugins and I have looked at examples. Now I am ready to release upon the world my timesince plugin.
The plugin itself is very easy to use and I hope it will provide a lot of people with happiness. The plugin consists of a custom tag. The tag needs simply putting where you would otherwise use the <txp:posted /> tag. For example
Posted <txp:e26_timesince />.
This would output something like: "Posted 2 days, 13 hours ago." I have tested the plugin in Textpattern 4.0.3 and it worked fine. Other versions of Textpattern are untested so use at your own risk. It should work fine with both articles and comments.
The function I used will always output the largest time frame and then an optional second chunk is displayed if it exists. The possible chunks are: years, months, weeks, days, hours and minutes. Please use responsibly and if you get into difficulties drop me a line.
Download: e26_timesince.txt
If you read my entry Update V5 you will know that I was intending to make some desktops with the new mannequin (over there on the left). Well since then I have redesigned the sandbox and played with a different style mannequin there. I also played around to make my favicon (up top there). Then I set about making one suitable for desktops. I currently have the result sitting proud on my desktop... and now you can to :-).
There are the two colour variants of my desktop. They are only 1024x768 however if you would like a larger version feel free to ask. Enjoy!
I often comment on blogs giving my opinion in discussions. This means I have seen how comments can be done well and how they can be done badly. Now I have to say most blogs follow the same structure for their comments. These standard elements let people feel at home on any site.
The main purpose of comments in a blog is for a discussion. Therefore, the design should enable discussions to flow. One of the best ways to do this is to get all the fluff out of the way in the actual comments Fiftyfoureleven.com has got a great design that enables you to just focus on the content and not on the metadata.
Another system that helps discussions to flow is a threaded view. The only problem with real threaded comments is the indentation soon moves the comments right, to the side of the screen. Newsvine has overcome this by only allowing comments to nest one level deep. This enables different angled discussions to form while keeping things tidy.
Whilst threading is good, it is impossible for you to reply to two different threads with one comment. This was solved with a rather novel approach by Dunstan Orchard. With his comments you were able to select comments that inspired your comments. This enables a function whereby you click on a comment, that comment then gets highlighted, as do the comments that inspired that comment and subsequently, ones inspired by it. This enables you to visually follow how discussions have progressed.
Trackbacks enable your blog to tell other blogs when you refer to one of their posts. This lets people follow a discussion top down through blogs as the discussions progress. There are many ways to implement how your blog handles these 'trackbacks'. The one I feel works best is how it is done at 9rules (this is not unique to them, however because of their popularity there is usuallt a lot of both trackbacks and comments. This involves separating comments from trackbacks.
This means people can both look at sites mentioning articles posted on the site while also being able to follow a discussion on the site.
While all of the methods mentioned so far have been good at encouraging discussion in comments, there are also sites that seem to try and discourage discussions.
Bad Comment Design
Lets look at Vitamin. The sites content is great, the authors - even better. However, you try and follow any type of discussion in the comments, as an example look at How CRAP is Your Site Design to see how hard they have made it to follow the discussion. Without reading any of the comments you try and visually work out for yourself which are comments and which are sites using trackback.
The problem is the whole thing is a mess of comments and trackbacks. This makes it hard to work out who is real and which is a blog. Some of the trackbacks are obvious as they have the standard "[...]" before and after the comment showing you it was taken out of context. However, look at the first comment, it is very hard to work out if it is a real comment of a trackback. It is only clear when you click the link.
The problem is Vitamin aren't alone in trying to stop discussions from flowing. There are hundreds of sites doing the same thing. I ask you, why is it when you take so much care over the look of the site do you neglect to think through how your comments are being presented?
You see, you can create a clean site with excellent articles but if your comments don't allow for a decent discussion you are as a consequence, alienating your readers. In the age of the "user generated content" it is essential to get this right and let your readers feel like they are being included in the site. After all with so many sites on the internet to read, why would anyone spend 10 minutes trying to differentiate real comments from trackbacks when they can just as easily move on to anther site?
Note:
The pictures above have been slightly modified for demonstration purposes. The articles which the pictures were taken from are as follows: Fiftyfoureleven.com; Newsvine.com; 1976design.com; 9rules.com.
The 9rules round 4 list was published on Saturday and as I was semi-expecting this site didn't make the cut (again). Many people are saying that if you didn't get in that you were rejected. This is in fact the wrong attitude, it's an attitude that will ensure that you never make it in.
If like me, you didn't get in this round, you didn't fail - you merely deferred your success. Maybe it will be to the next round, or maybe even the round after that. If you want to get into the network you will have to work for it. I mean sure, it may not be a walk in the park but if you really want to get in it’s worth the effort.
Now, I have never been very good at writing. Even from an early age I have had problems trying to get what is in my head down on to paper. This has made it very difficult to try and do anything on the web, as most people expect your written ability to be great. This is probably the reason why I have never been very good at keeping this site packed with lots of fresh content. Up until recently, I have mainly posted short, badly written entries. However, I have tried to turn this around. Every post I currently write has to go through a number of processes before I can post it.
This attitude has come from me realising that there are two ways you can live your life. You can either muddle along with life not really making to much effort with anything. Or you can try your hardest to make something of yourself. I, myself, am taking the latter approach and think it has improved this site.
If you ask any of the 'A List' bloggers I bet they will all have their own story as to how they managed to get to where they are today. I know at one stage Scrivs was even named by John Hicks as “the busiest man on the Internet,”. Now, he certainly didn't get that title by sitting twiddling his fingers.
You see 9rules stands for something - it's not just a badge you get to put on your site to look pretty. If you have it there, you will have had to work for it. Many of you are probably saying to yourselves, "What does this guy know he has been rejected 4 times already?!". However, it is from those set-backs that I have learnt. Most of the time you learn more by stumbling the first time and getting it right the second time, than getting it right the first time.
Sure I am annoyed I didn't get in. However, unlike a number of people out there, I will be learning from this and moving onwards and upwards. Sure I will keep my post count at only one a week. In my opinion it is better to post one article a week and be consistent, rather than posting 10 posts one week then none for the next 3 weeks.