modelmotion wrote:Ok perhaps i should explain how I think things work. Think of WordPress as the basic skelton. What they do is use code that is generated by REVVER to create the video feeds. That is code that is designed by REVVER but is is implanted into the skeleton WordPress page. The videos on the left are one set of code and the videos on the right are a different set of code each pulling a different feed from REVVER.
Now it is very easy to change the number of videos in the feed and you have control over the size of the icon (which is just about right). All they need to do is reduce the number of videos to the show the most recent vdeos and it would probably speed up the page considerably.
That's actually basically what I was trying to say but didn't (well)... cut down on the number of icons on the front page, and designate new pages for, say, a dozen thumbnails at a time in backwards order. Then when you click on the thumbnail from that "archive", you get to the video and its comment boards.
I am not a fan of the collapse idea. I think it work well in some venues such as the one posted but when i look at the comment i want to quickly scan over them to see what i want to read. That requires 2 things:
1. that i see all the content of the comment
2. that there be the maximum number of post of one page
Now this is just my opinion but I think if you ask around you will find a lot of people use comments in a similar way to myself.
I woke up this morning with a single thought in my mind which came from a class I once took in school. Basically you need to look at things on two levels: the task and the people levels.
I could list 10 reasons why the forum engine that we currently use is not great for the needs of the comments community but none of them would probably be the reason that it ultimately fails.
Why you ask?
Well according to the class the major barrier to change comes from hurt feelings and until the needs of people have been dealt with they will resist change.
Now from talking to many people over the past few days clearly a lot of feelings have been hurt. Yea I know this is sounding very Jonas but I swear I am not Jonas. However, until the hurt feelings are resolved I do not believe we will make a lot of progress.
That does not mean we need to stop brainstorming. I am just pointing out the obvious. The real problem lies much deeper than the mere task of solving the technical problems or advancing the site design.
Oh and I was hurt plenty of times on the forum. I was one of the most resistant to change. I have had to do a lot of internal work to embrace both.. but hey it has been worth it!!
The comment made in the video was a good start to the healing process. I am not sure if it was deliberate or not but I think it gave the comments community a lift.
I understand that the process will take time and it will largely take place on an individual basis. However I think it needs to be acknowledged and that people are still processing what happened. Its a bit like what Bree is going thru.
I think what is clear is we are a very tight community and I think that needs to be at the heart of any long term changes that take place.
People seem to be enjoying the Frappr map. Thats a nice follow thru to the candles tribute. I wish we had a mechanism for getting these things officially sanctioned.
i just wanna say that iris, bk, mute, and others have been really really wonderful to us during our time of quarrel, and for that they should get medals!
Mary, thanks for caring and being a part of our movement to dissolve the divisiveness and to become one big happy family. YOU should get a medal, too!!
I took a look at the board that "fantasma" mentioned earlier using a password and ID provided.
I was unable to determine what "engine" the site uses other than they appeared to be using xml, so it may well be a custom solution but i cannot be certain of that since I am not a programmer.
The board does have a relatively simple format where each message can be collapsed to minimize space. However unlike the WordPress solution we are currently using it allows for responses to individual messages as would be more typical of a forum discussion. Some people would argue that this would be a good thing but my gut is that this additional layer would distract from the simple linear flow of the WordPress format.
I was able to expand the main messages and use the text to speech feature i normally use to read comments so that was a pleasant surprise.
The solution on the board had tightly integrated profiles and "email" capabilities and that seemed to work well.
The board also had interesting search features where the messages could be sorted by author, date, read/unread and I could see where that would be useful.
Overall I found the board very well adapted for the purpose it was designed (supporting a college class) however it may be overly complex for the needs of the home page. The elegance of WordPress is its extreme simplicity in creating a simple and easy to follow list of comments.
mary wrote:i just wanna say that iris, bk, mute, and others have been really really wonderful to us during our time of quarrel, and for that they should get medals!
texas?
where in texas?
or what part if where makes you uncomfortable.
oh yeah!
if i speak, i am condemned.
if i am silent, i am damned.
who am i?
