New Commenting System!

Sometime next week, we’ll be taking down the current commenting system that’s found on stories, blogs, team and player pages. In its place will be a new system that features some major improvements.

Some features include:

• Threaded comments
• Instant notifications – If you are scrolled to the top of the page, you’ll receive a notification if someone replied to a comment of yours.
• Instant comment stream—no page refresh required.
• Option to “follow” conversations, which will send you email notifications if desired. You’ll also receive an instant notification if you happen to visit a conversation you’ve commented on later in the day that has new activity.
• Social functionality
• Positive ratings

Here’s a sneak peak:

 

a. This area shows both the number of comments that have been made, along with the number of users currently live on the page reading the comments area and following the conversation. Following a conversation will also display your avatar at the top of the comments area.
b. By hovering over your screen name, you’ll have links directing you to your profile, and well as a settings page that allows you to set the frequency of your comment notifications. 
c. “Follow” the particular conversation and get notified when other users comment or reply to your comments.
d. Post to Twitter and/or Facebook. You can even “tag” your friends on those networks in your comment. When you tag a friend, they’ll be notified via the social network you mentioned them on.
e. Sort comment thread by Newest or Oldest
f. Flag abuse options. Currently, four options are displayed, “spam, offensive, disagree, and off topic.”  We will not moderate comments flagged as “disagree” or “off-topic”. We’ll only be moderating items flagged “spam, or offensive.” We’re working with Livefyre to remove “disagree and off topic” as options. Story, team, and player comment threads no longer feed into the message boards, so we won’t send them to the off-topic area.

Comments we will moderate include:

• Illegal activities
• Offensive content in regards to race, sexual orientation, handicapped, culture, or other crude/hostile statements.
• Sexually explicit content (images/written statements)
• Advertising
• Harassment (threatening verbal/physical abuse, sharing/leaking personal information like address/phone numbers/email/location, etc.
• Swearing/offensive language.

g. Tag other users (@user). If you’ve authorized Twitter and/or Facebook, you can tag users on those networks as well.
h. Delete
i. Like - This will display the avatars of those users who have liked your comment.
j. Comments now have spell check!

Other items worth mentioning:

• Staff, admins, mods do not have a CBS icon next to their name yet (this will be implemented at a later time). Those identifiers will still be visible on the boards.
• Ignore button. This feature has been requested (frequently) by both users and staff members, but this current version of the platform does not feature the option. We’ll continue to work towards this feature in a later release.
• Comments will no longer filter into the boards (Stories, team/player pages will no longer create threads). The boards will be solely user generated.
• The boards will not feature any of these upgrades (for the time being), but changes will come to the boards in the next few months.
• The profile page needs a ton of work, but they also remain unchanged for the time being.
• More to come!

Please feel free to ask me any questions. Once we launch, I’ll open a new thread to address any bugs you might encounter.

-ozzier

Fixed the broken settings image from the original thread.

To continue...

bluenosecanuck - STILL no 'ignore' function?!?  Wow.  Just wow.

 TrollyMcTroller - Golly!  You mean, now I can share CBS stories on Facebook and Twitter to generate more page hits for Viacom?

I'm so excited! 

#NothingThatsBeenAskedFor
#StillIgnoringYourUsers 

We're not ignoring anyone. You don't like the social feature? That's cool--it's completely optional. Outside of the obvious visual appeal, this new component has features often requested by everyone--better spam filtering, better mod tools, easier to navigate, notifications, a better ratings system, etc. 

I'm not trying to start anything. I just want to throw my opinion out there about all of this... But I can honest to god say that's an ugly format. One of the reasons why I post here more than any other site on the web is because i like the format of one box after another without a sub-box for replies underneath it and all of that other jibberish such as "likes" and "post to".  Doing the comments section the way it shows in the picture above makes the message boards look like one big mess. I'm definitely not a fan of that style, and I'm sure others aren't as well. CBS may lose some more posters on top of the many others that have left this site over the years, once again.

The delete button also doesn't make sense. Users will now be able to delete pieces of the conversation in the thread. Do you honestly think the message boards will get better by giving users the option of removing large pieces of conversation in each thread?  Again, this will also make this site look messy. 

However, I do like the idea of going back to the old-style thread format where the threads aren't mostly related to article comments from CBS writers. I'll give you a thumbs up for doing that, as it was annoying.  

I do love the new "live updates" feature as well. I hate refreshing the page every few minutes on a game thread or another thread to see if anyone else posted since I made a post. 


Whoever is in charge of the changes, graphics, etc on this CBS site needs to think things through a little more.  Take some lessons from Apple executives and try to actually release a site that is of high quality visually, in features and in peformance, rather than rushing out features a couple at a time while making the site look god awful. 

Things that need to be improved:

•  Don't put an ignore button in. Again, this is a message board. If somebody is going from one thread to another harrassing you then warn them or let a CBS admin know so they can be banned or told to stop. Implementing an 'ignore button' again, will take away pieces of a conversation within a thread, resulting in the possibility of a messy looking site.

• Release a full-site update instead of just a bunch of low-quality, small updates. Instead of rolling out with one feature one week, and one a few weeks later. Just finish building all of the features, re-do all of the graphics, re-do our profiles and THEN put them in the site after they've been tested for bugs. Again, I'm somebody that doesn't even get paid to do this stuff, and I could do a better job. 

• Don't listen to every single user with suggestions. Suggestions like the ignore button, or edit button just don't need to be implemented in the site. If you make a typo, so what?  A user doesn't have a reason to go back and make changes. They can simply make another post with corrections if they need to. 

Anyways... my opinions. Carry on.

Thanks for the input, MikeSyr18. 

Doing the comments section the way it shows in the picture above makes the message boards look like one big mess. I'm definitely not a fan of that style, and I'm sure others aren't as well.

 I disagree, but it’s all a manner of opinion. Also, remember that this change is for the comments stream that appears at the bottom of stories, blogs, etc. This won’t affect the message boards. They’ll be two separate things now.

 

The delete button also doesn't make sense. Users will now be able to delete pieces of the conversation in the thread. Do you honestly think the message boards will get better by giving users the option of removing large pieces of conversation in each thread?  Again, this will also make this site look messy.  

Naturally, you’ll only be able to delete your own posts—not the posts of others.

 

Release a full-site update instead of just a bunch of low-quality, small updates. Instead of rolling out with one feature one week, and one a few weeks later. 

With some rare exceptions, that’s not the way websites work. Every department is vying for the same resources, and doing one huge site overhaul that’s all encompassing, while working on live events, simply isn’t possible.

 

Don't listen to every single user with suggestions. 

I’ll listen to every single user that has legitimate suggestions, just like I’m listening to yours. The fact is that we can’t implement every suggestion that’s thrown our way, but I do enjoy receiving feedback.

 

 

We're not ignoring anyone. You don't like the social feature? That's cool--it's completely optional. Outside of the obvious visual appeal, this new component has features often requested by everyone--better spam filtering, better mod tools, easier to navigate, notifications, a better ratings system, etc. 

Oooooh.  Visual appeal.  Every time Viacom has implimented a site redesign, they've increased the "visual appeal" and taken away basic functionality.  

The only thing "requested" by anyone that I've seen around here was to either remove the story comments from the community forums or to at the very least, have a link back to the article so people knew what the hell they were arguing over and use consistant formatting between the comments and forums.  So, Atta Boy!  The comments are finally seperate again.

Better spam filtering?  What's better about it?  From what you describe it still completerly relies on people to report it.  Is there something else beyond that?  I'm all ears.

Better mod tools?  Who requested that?  The mods?  I think you're confused.  People were calling the mods "tools" and wanted better mods.  The inconsistancy is the problem. 

Easier to navigate?  really?  Are the quicklinks coming back?  Those were actually handy and made jumping to specific forums a snap.  One of the few things that Viacom got right in the last several site redesigns.

Notifications?  Might actually be nice.  I'll be able to have up to the date emails everytime someone posts another link to watch rugby online.  Whooopee!

A better rating system?  What's beteter about it?  What does significance does the new improved rating system hold, or is it just a meaningless number/title on someone's profile that doesn't really affect anything?

What else do you want to brag about?  Spell check?  I'd be really impressed if it was 1992.  Congrats on only being two decades behind on technology, and you had to buy an off te shelf product just to do that.  

Color me impressed. 

Color me impressed. 

Why do you post here again? For someone who clearly dislikes every single community feature, you still visit multiple threads a day and are an active participant. Again, you don't like the features? That's cool--you don't have to use them. You don't like the community? Fair enough--vote with your usage and your time. 

I realize I'll only be able to delete my posts and not posts made by other people. That's not the issue. The issue is people deleting their own posts. If somebody deletes their post, they're deleting part of the conversation. It's just not a realistic way to have a conversation when you sit there and delete something people should read. It'll make arguments and such more difficult. 

Why do you post here again? For someone who clearly dislikes every single community feature, you still visit multiple threads a day and are an active participant. Again, you don't like the features? That's cool--you don't have to use them. You don't like the community? Fair enough--vote with your usage and your time. 

Why do you work here again?  For someone who claims to want to make things better for the users, you sure seem to be towing the company line a lot and give a lot of lip service to "serving the user" without ever actually doing anything useful.

But to answer your question, I post *here* specifically, because the thread in which I used to participate is now a ghost-town since your new "improvements" and "added features" made it pointless to continue so everyone left.

And as I've explainrd to you before (not that I expect you to remember, after all, I'm just a lowly user) I participate in these forums becasue of THE OTHER MEMBERS.  There is a good COMMUNITY here, despite what Viacom keeps trying to turn it into.  I still enjoy conversing with the PEOPLE.  

I'd just like to do it like we used to, without all of the spam, and without a bunch of trolls that are allowed to run free, without fear of consequences while good contributors to the board are banned left and right.

For someone who claims to want to make things better for the users, you sure seem to be towing the company line a lot and give a lot of lip service to "serving the user" without ever actually doing anything useful.

Okay.

 

I realize I'll only be able to delete my posts and not posts made by other people. That's not the issue. The issue is people deleting their own posts. If somebody deletes their post, they're deleting part of the conversation. It's just not a realistic way to have a conversation when you sit there and delete something people should read. It'll make arguments and such more difficult. 

I think it'll be fine. If it's something that becomes a major issue, we'll address it. 

I like the changes so long as they stay out of the main boards.

As far as t he delete button, just make it timed, so if a guy says something from misinterpreting the article or something benign, he can delete it before too many people trash him, but if some nefarious character says something stupid and gets beat silly for the next 30 comments, he shouldnt be able to come in and delete his stupidity.

Are the quicklinks coming back?

This message has been removed by the administrator.

No, the quicklinks aren't coming back. Simply bookmark you frequently visited page(s) on your web browser of choice.

No, the quicklinks aren't coming back. Simply bookmark you frequently visited page(s) on your web browser of choice.

I seem to recall you quoting usage statistics as the reason that the quicklinks feature was removed...

Just out of curiosity (and I'm sure the powers that be, can't be bothered to track such things, but I'll ask anyway) have you recorded any actual user feedback about the Quicklinks feature?  When everything was working as intended was there EVER any negative feedback about it?

Just wondering.

Thanks. 

Sometime next week, we’ll be taking down the current commenting system that’s found on stories, blogs, team and player pages. In its place will be a new system that features some major improvements.
-
I am hopeful (and don't know why) this might actually have some new functionality/usage, and I'm anticipating checking it out.
-
Really though, was an ignore button that hard to do?

Just out of curiosity (and I'm sure the powers that be, can't be bothered to track such things, but I'll ask anyway) have you recorded any actual user feedback about the Quicklinks feature?  When everything was working as intended was there EVER any negative feedback about it?

We looked at data for over a year, and the numbers showed that the overwhelming majority of registered users didn't have even a single quicklink. When it came time to discuss what would be included in the redesigned header, we didn't have the numbers to back a fight to keep then. The truth is in the numbers. The feedback of a vocal and passionate minority group of users wouldn't have been enough to counter the data. 

Really though, was an ignore button that hard to do?

It's not that it's a matter of difficulty, really. Several CBS sites are moving to the same comments component (Gamespot is one of them, for example) and the company who provides this technology doesn't have the feature built in to their service yet. Several sites, including ours, have made it known that we'd love to have such a feature. If/when they make the feature available, we'll bring it to our site as well.

 

It's not that it's a matter of difficulty, really. Several CBS sites are moving to the same comments component (Gamespot is one of them, for example) and the company who provides this technology doesn't have the feature built in to their service yet. Several sites, including ours, have made it known that we'd love to have such a feature. If/when they make the feature available, we'll bring it to our site as well.

So instead of maintaining your own message boads poorly, you've decided to outsource it to the lowest bidder, and are using the change to remove more functionality in exchange for marginal cosmetic differences.  Quick question;  would the company now providing this new technology be based out of Elbonia perhaps?

I really liked changing fonts (for no reason) to ones that I cant use.