Update
Users of IE will immediately notice that the site looks a little better here and there. It's still much more pretty in Firefox, but for all those who are too lazy to switch that should be pleasing.
You'll also notice the menu to the left has changed – it no longer does that annoying thing where it wouldn't contract until the whole page was loaded and the javascript could run. In keeping with the general theme of the changes, it looks awesome.
But I saved the best 'till last. Click that comment button to the right. You know you want to. Yep, it's a lovely javascript tree structure that makes groking the whole thread/subthread thing just oh-so-easy – you can expand and contract threads by clicking the plus (
) or minus (
). And if you've got javascript disabled it should still degrade nicely.
Did I mention it's easy to use? When you want to reply to a comment, click the paper and pen (
). This will cause your comment to appear where the icon was. So click where you want to post. Of course, there will be those seasoned SE members out there who want to create subthreads. If you're very sure that's what you want to do, click the grayed out pen (
). If you're not sure what does what holding your mouse over an icon should give you a hint.
As a general rule of thumb you should reply when you want to continue a conversation and start a subthread only when your comments are no longer relevant to the current thread of conversation. So, when you're rebutting you should probably use a general reply, not a subthread. Previously, creating a subthread tended to give people the advantage of being further up the page – they could seem to be interjecting into previous conversations almost. Now this advantage is offset by the fact that you'll be inward a layer and therefore less visible.
The new sleak comment interface meant I couldn't use a combo box for comment moderation. The moderation system is now bipolar – it's either plus or minus (those with sharp eyes will notice it's minus (−) not hyphen-minus (-) – I am awesome). Anyway, this introduced a new problem because there can't be a single form for the entire page. To prevent you from having to load the page for every moderation, the comments now use some simple AJAX to send the request to the server everytime you click a link. The upshot is that (for the next while at least) clicking a moderation link does have an effect, it's just not visible until the next time you visit the page, or until you hit refresh. Also note that it's the first of your clicks that has an effect; clicking the minus link after clicking plus will be disregarded at the server.
The bipolar moderating system meant a review of the karma system. It's now much easier to understand. I works like this: for every minus rating you lose 1 karma, for every plus rating you gain on karma. There are no other rules to understand. I couldn't bring myself to get rid of (mainly Funky's) existing moderations, so if you rated someone greater than zero it counts as a plus, less than zero as a minus. Also, karma has been anti-decimated (it is now a tenth of it's previous value).
Finally (although this list of changes is not exhaustive), the lameness filter on comments has been changed. This means you don't have to worry about long words. Also; and this is my personal favourite; it means that urls in comments are automatically converted to links.
So, that's that. Welcome to 4.30.
...disassembles my despair
It never took me anywhere
It never once bought me a drink
You'll also notice the menu to the left has changed – it no longer does that annoying thing where it wouldn't contract until the whole page was loaded and the javascript could run. In keeping with the general theme of the changes, it looks awesome.
But I saved the best 'till last. Click that comment button to the right. You know you want to. Yep, it's a lovely javascript tree structure that makes groking the whole thread/subthread thing just oh-so-easy – you can expand and contract threads by clicking the plus (
) or minus (). And if you've got javascript disabled it should still degrade nicely.Did I mention it's easy to use? When you want to reply to a comment, click the paper and pen (
). This will cause your comment to appear where the icon was. So click where you want to post. Of course, there will be those seasoned SE members out there who want to create subthreads. If you're very sure that's what you want to do, click the grayed out pen (). If you're not sure what does what holding your mouse over an icon should give you a hint.As a general rule of thumb you should reply when you want to continue a conversation and start a subthread only when your comments are no longer relevant to the current thread of conversation. So, when you're rebutting you should probably use a general reply, not a subthread. Previously, creating a subthread tended to give people the advantage of being further up the page – they could seem to be interjecting into previous conversations almost. Now this advantage is offset by the fact that you'll be inward a layer and therefore less visible.
The new sleak comment interface meant I couldn't use a combo box for comment moderation. The moderation system is now bipolar – it's either plus or minus (those with sharp eyes will notice it's minus (−) not hyphen-minus (-) – I am awesome). Anyway, this introduced a new problem because there can't be a single form for the entire page. To prevent you from having to load the page for every moderation, the comments now use some simple AJAX to send the request to the server everytime you click a link. The upshot is that (for the next while at least) clicking a moderation link does have an effect, it's just not visible until the next time you visit the page, or until you hit refresh. Also note that it's the first of your clicks that has an effect; clicking the minus link after clicking plus will be disregarded at the server.
The bipolar moderating system meant a review of the karma system. It's now much easier to understand. I works like this: for every minus rating you lose 1 karma, for every plus rating you gain on karma. There are no other rules to understand. I couldn't bring myself to get rid of (mainly Funky's) existing moderations, so if you rated someone greater than zero it counts as a plus, less than zero as a minus. Also, karma has been anti-decimated (it is now a tenth of it's previous value).
Finally (although this list of changes is not exhaustive), the lameness filter on comments has been changed. This means you don't have to worry about long words. Also; and this is my personal favourite; it means that urls in comments are automatically converted to links.
So, that's that. Welcome to 4.30.
...disassembles my despair
It never took me anywhere
It never once bought me a drink