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Blog: Internet DailyTech WAP, More Comment Changes
Kristopher Kubicki (Blog) - March 20, 2007 12:47 AM
Print E-mail del.icio.us 27 comment(s) - last by johnsonx.. on Mar 28 at 8:24 PM

Come check out DailyTech on your PDA!

As we approach the 500th day of DailyTech operation, we've been adding even more to the DailyTech engine.

The first of these changes is a WAP-enabled DailyTech -- you can now read DailyTech on your WAP-ready phone or PDA.  You'll automatically be redirected to the WAP page if you hit DailyTech from a phone, but if for some reason you cannot see it simply point your browser to:
http://dailytech.com/mobile/
Next, you may note that the occasional posting has been rated to 6.  Once in a while I find a post I personally like a lot, and as such, the great webmasters in the sky have given me the ability to knock posts up a notch. 

We've also implemented a few more changes to commenting that should facilitate discussion a little better and I'm sure you'll notice the changes over the next couple days. 

Please give us feedback and let us know how to improve DailyTech!

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WAP interface looks good
By johnsonx on 3/20/2007 2:30:34 AM , Rating: 2
I just tried the mobile interface. Quick and lean, only downloads a few K instead of a few hundred K. I got an essentially free 20Meg per month data plan which I'm not willing to give up to pay for unlimited data, so this is perfect.

BUT, I found that when I clicked the link posted in the article (to masher2's comment that was modded up to 6), it loaded up the non-WAP version of DT. Can you do anything about that, or do we just have to be real careful about clicking links in WAP mode?




RE: WAP interface looks good
By johnsonx on 3/21/2007 1:33:52 PM , Rating: 2
also, a further observation about the WAP mode:

At the bottom of the latest headline list there should be a way to get to more articles. Once you've read the 10 articles listed, you can't get more without switching to the non-WAP page which defeats the purpose.


RE: WAP interface looks good
By KristopherKubicki (blog) on 3/21/2007 3:53:28 PM , Rating: 1
There should be a link there that says "More Articles"


RE: WAP interface looks good
By johnsonx on 3/21/2007 7:50:05 PM , Rating: 2
I sure don't see such a link. Do you?


RE: WAP interface looks good
By KristopherKubicki (blog) on 3/22/2007 5:17:35 AM , Rating: 2
It's on our staging server -- I didn't realize it wasn't on the main site. I'll make sure its live soon.


RE: WAP interface looks good
By johnsonx on 3/26/2007 8:10:34 PM , Rating: 2
Still not there by the way...


RE: WAP interface looks good
By KristopherKubicki (blog) on 3/27/2007 3:23:30 PM , Rating: 2
Should be there right now. I just made sure it was pushed live.


RE: WAP interface looks good
By johnsonx on 3/28/2007 8:20:50 PM , Rating: 2
Nope, still not there. At the end of the article list is a link for 'Latest Blog Posts' and a link to 'Switch to Non-WAP DailyTech'. No link for 'More Articles'. The article list is current though, so I know I'm not seeing something cached.


Comments
By oTAL (blog) on 3/20/2007 10:56:23 AM , Rating: 2
For me this is one of the most interesting parts of the site. It makes the community alive and it's pleasant to actually recognize a couple of names from the comments and see added value. Plus I love it that the feedback is mostly read and acted upon (errors corrected, information added, etc. - especially from you Kris).

Although I do not know how commenting is currently implemented since I only see it from one point of view, which limits perception, I still think of a few changes that could be made.

The most important is the voting limitation when you participate. When you have knowledge on a subject you want to both participate and moderate, so you should be able to at least moderate in those threads in which you did not participate.

One other is about equilibrium and status... Maybe a member's name in the comments could be colored in a way that would hint to his value in the community. This could be done by a weighed formula counting the number and quality of the posts, and maybe also longevity and article contribution. I can think of some people's comments I'd always be interested in reading (although I hardly ever agree with him, masher is one of those; patentman is another one that hardly ever makes a less than stellar comment) and I can also think of some people whom I've never seen adding value to the site (those I will not name). Average post rating doesn't always reflect that since people like masher are usually caught up against the tide which only makes his contributions more valuable, although lower rated.
Some people here are pretty trigger happy on the down modding... Equilibrium could be added by forcing some kind of symmetry into modding. If someone mods down 10 comments and mods up 2, then the value of each downmod is only 2/10 = 0.2... Or maybe I'm just complicating too much and a simpler mechanics could be found... maybe a thumbs down symbol on down modders labeling them as overall negative people =P

Last, I think there could be a fast, direct way to give quick feedback to the author on spelling mistakes and the sort. Truth is, although spelling is not important, it subtracts value from an article and makes it less pleasant to read. Still, spelling corrections in the comments make comments less pleasant to read... and often lead to flaming.

How about a parallel system in which someone reporting a simple correction could just check a box ("feedback to the author") and when the author corrected it the post would disappear... maybe adding rating to a person or a pen symbol after his name as a status symbol of being a spelling nazi. =p




RE: Comments
By kristof007 on 3/20/2007 1:15:14 PM , Rating: 1
I like your last idea of the pen symbol with spelling and information correcting of an article.

I also think the rating up/down idea should be symbolized. When you said thumbs up thumbs down, Newgrounds instantly came to mind. They have a rating system, 1 to 5 and the voting system sees how you vote and based on more 1s or 5s you get a light/dark side connotation. I think some sort of system like that could be implemented here :-)


RE: Comments
By oTAL (blog) on 3/20/2007 3:49:25 PM , Rating: 2
Well, I didn't know that concept already existed, but I guess originality is dead and every thought you have is someone else's thought recycled =P
Anyway, I'm glad you like it and I really believe it could have a positive impact on the DailyTech community.


RE: Comments
By johnsonx on 3/21/2007 1:21:23 PM , Rating: 2
quote:
Last, I think there could be a fast, direct way to give quick feedback to the author on spelling mistakes and the sort.


Much like what I suggested here in another KK blog, 6 months ago:

http://www.dailytech.com/article.aspx?newsid=4113&...

My suggestion even got modded down... what was so bad?


RE: Comments
By oTAL (blog) on 3/22/2007 6:26:29 AM , Rating: 2
Dude, I also commented on that matter before, I don't know how long ago, and I don't give an ass if you did it before or not but you can check my comments and find out... if you win I'll give you a cookie...
Or.... let's just keep making noise about it till they improve the site... ;)


RE: Comments
By KristopherKubicki (blog) on 3/27/2007 3:24:00 PM , Rating: 2
We're working on something like that.


RE: Comments
By johnsonx on 3/28/2007 8:24:37 PM , Rating: 2
oTAL,

I'm not sure why you took my comment that way, as if I was suggesting your idea wasn't valid because I already said it. Rather I was saying yes, that's a good idea, indeed I already suggested it myself. In so doing I was pointing out to KK that now at least two people (and probably others) had suggested this.


Old Opera Bug
By Kougar on 3/20/2007 12:25:19 PM , Rating: 2
This one has been around since I started using Opera, and it only seems to affect Opera.

When using the search box I can type "Intel" and hit the enter key, and 0 results are returned. Now if I type "Intel" and click the GO button, I get the results. I'm not exactly sure why Opera does this, but if it is a code issue I thought I'd let y'all know.




RE: Old Opera Bug
By KristopherKubicki (blog) on 3/20/2007 12:26:38 PM , Rating: 1
Thanks for the heads up - I put somebody on this.


RE: Old Opera Bug
By Kougar on 3/21/2007 6:05:48 PM , Rating: 2
Well that was quick! It works fine now, thank you. :)


how about spell checking?
By brandonmichael on 3/20/2007 2:55:32 PM , Rating: 2
Perhaps a spell check button in the post a new comment form would be helpful... Its nice that the engine tells you when you've misspelled something, but I have to admit, I've changed the spelling on something quite a few times before giving up and going to dictionary.com to solve the problem. Great site either way.




RE: how about spell checking?
By oTAL (blog) on 3/20/2007 4:25:38 PM , Rating: 2
Firefox 2.0 ;)


Maybe
By Merry on 3/20/2007 3:09:37 AM , Rating: 2
You could colour code the ratings so that 2 is normal then it goes through shades of green to 5 (or six) then the same, but with shades of red down to -1 .

I'm thinking the whole rate something up to 6 is somewhat pointless, though. Perhaps you should pro-actively stop ratings on posts that are being maliciously modded down for no particular reason (some of mashers posts are a good case of this).

And it would also be good if we had some sort if user directory and somewhere where we could easily locate our comments without having to find one first.

Anyways good job thus far!




RE: Maybe
By KristopherKubicki (blog) on 3/20/2007 10:17:02 AM , Rating: 1
Hi Merry,

I don't think you'll see many comments moderated up to 6. Once they are moderated up that high though, nobody else can moderate them down -- which is sort of to prevent malicious moderating.

Also, we've put some changes in that we're not really detailing to prevent people from just completely moderating on whim without really contributing to the site.

Thanks for the feedback!


By irev210 on 3/20/2007 2:50:53 AM , Rating: 2
I like dailytech, but the one thing i absolutely hate is the bullet on whatever number of the week.

Example-

3.6 million

The number of sony batteries recalled

8 billion dollars

The number of whatever

1

This is getting old

etc etc etc

The first time it was okay, but you guys are just over doing it at this point.

Also, more original stories would be great.

Overall, great job though. It is tough to keep up-to-date w/ all of the tech news.




I L0v3 Ev3rythin6
By kristof007 on 3/20/2007 3:05:33 AM , Rating: 2
I love the quote on the bottom of each page. Great idea! I also love the main page. It's divided up great. I usually link to the articles from Anandtech.

Also thanks for expanding the "most popular" articles section on the left. I think that's great too. Overall I love the site and I can't point my finger on anything I don't like. Keep it up guys!




Awesome
By Master Kenobi (blog) on 3/20/2007 11:44:42 AM , Rating: 2
Absolutely awesome, now my Blackberry can easily navigate Dailytech without having to scroll down past all the topics, ads and whatever else. Simply awesome. My blackberry wheel thanks you.




DT WAP Rocks!
By juanflaiter on 3/21/2007 11:40:35 PM , Rating: 2
Hey Kris, DT WAP rocks, I tried today during classes and it´s just great.

Greets!

JF




SCRAP IT.............
By crystal clear on 3/24/2007 12:00:06 PM , Rating: 2
SCRAP the RATING SYSTEM Completely.

LET US RATE THE ARTICLE & NOT THE COMMENTS.

LET somebody at DT do the rating of the comments.

We rate the article as-

Very good /Good /Above Average /Average /Poor

So do you as above for the comments.

The current system is not suitable as we often see sometimes
a creepy sickly one liner get modded up & a constructive comment gets the opposite treatment.

LET US RATE YOUR ARTICLES WHILST YOU RATE OUR COMMENTS-
thats FAIR.




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