In the last two weeks, WUWT changed the cloud service it was hosted on, and made significant changes to the way comments are handled using the new WpDiscuz commenting system, while allowed editing, comment up/down voting and many other features.
I also made a big change to the Tips and Notes page, so that it doesn’t get bogged down and need to be purged periodically..
The process of change has not been without hiccups. But, I believe they are mostly solved now.
Just a couple of caveats before the discussion.
- I can’t move the posiion of the main comment form, currently at the top of comments. The software was designed that way and people asking on the WpDiscuz support forum have also made the same request.
I can’t current make the text in nested comments the same size as the main comments. Perhaps in the future with some CSS tweaking it can be done. I’m not a CSS expert.See update below.
Comments suggestions, what ifs and polite complaints are welcome.
UPDATE: Based on feedback in this thread, I’ve disabled the “read more” comment button. Comments will load in full now.
UPDATE 2: In case you don’t know, inline image embedding works, but ONLY if you use https, not http in the URL.
UPDATE3: The differing text size between top level and threaded comments has been fixed. My thanks to Eric Worrall
UPDATE4: I added a plugin that provides a comments search next to the very top comment box. Helpful on large threads.
6/11 10AM – I had to remove it, as it was being exploited and slowed the entire system down.
UPDATE5: 04/11/18 I added another plugin, this one designed to handle YouTube and image embedding, as well as allow for direct uploads of images, audio, and video files in comments using the new icons that now appear in the comment box.
UPDATE6 BY WILLIS: I’m overjoyed to announce that Anthony has fixed the problem with the formatting on all of the previous posts. They display correctly now, so I’m able to recommend WUWT once again without reservation. Please ignore my comment below, the issue has totally gone away. My thanks to Anthony for his usual dedication to detail and his unwavering support of the blog. Well done, my friend.
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Javascript and security: When my browser loads this page, your server asks it to run javascripts from youtube.com, google.com, polldaddy.com, gaug.es, wp.com, pubmine.com, newsmaxfeednetwork.com, doubleclick.net, netdna-ssl.com, and wattsupwiththat.com. Being moderately concerned about computer security, I’m reluctant to let some of those domains (the ones about which I know nothing) run arbitrary javascripts on my computer, so I find myself viewing your pages in a somewhat degraded mode, as presumably do other cautious visitors. I know this is a lot to ask, but I don’t really see a practical alternative: Could you reduce your javascript requirements to a small-enough set of trustworthy-enough domains that you could say to your visitors, “I promise that no javascript loaded from any of these domains will turn out to be malicious”? (And if you can’t do that, then just what sort of risks are you expecting your visitors to take?
I don’t have control of all of these, but my security scans show them to be safe.
On Jo Nova’s site the voting process keeps track of both +ve and -ve (red thumb) votes. I think that Jo has a much better way of displaying voting.
Here it appears that just the total effect of all the votes is shown. So 10 votes in favour and 10 votes against gives a total score of zero and it seems that the comment is being ignored. Suggest that you try Jo’s way of displaying votes.
It looks like I can vote twice in either direction (up or down) for a comment before the system stops me.
Took about 5 minutes to load the page…under attack again?
Yes
I added another plugin, this one designed to handle YouTube and image embedding, as well as allow for direct uploads of images, audio, and video files in comments using the new icons that now appear in the comment box.
Testing:
I wish there were a way to browse through all my old comments—and also those of others. Some sites, such as Seeking Alpha, provide this feature.
and you got the ENSO chart back;_0
happy even though its going the wrong way just now for aussies
I find your “new cloud service” has been so slow this week as to be virtually unusable. No improvements in comment threads etc have any value if it becomes so painful to access an article in the first place. I often glance at WUWT in between other tasks and chores. Will give it time, but way too slow to do this right now.
Do others have this experience (since the change) ? Note other websites I browse regularly are unaffected.
Not sure how much it is related to the latest plugins added, but right now from the moment I click on an article or any WUWT link till the moment it actually starts displaying (loading?) the page I have to wait more than 30 seconds. It is very frustrating. And is is not my browser, I am using Chrome and this doesn’t happen with pages outside WUWT.
Edit: and… it did it again when clicking the post comment button. 20 seconds this time.
EDIT; Editing is nice too. 😉
Great praise for nixing ‘read more’. I’d like to bring up another reason it should be avoided. Every WUWT article is a lecture — but after a good bit of slinging in the comments (sometimes mud but often gold with great references) an WUWT article can collectively approach thesis level. I save these gestalts to disk with their inline images. The ability to archive whole articles with all comments is precious. I have some 500+ articles on disk, They are among the most valuable things I’ve ever saved.
If I turn off the Internet and load one of these saved pages locally — menus and things are awry but the essence content and comment, is all there. I’ve posted non sequitir in comments before thanking Anthony for maintaining quality ‘static’ pages before, ever with a sense of foreboding. I muse privately “Some day someone will force him to ‘upgrade’ to some flypaper abortion.”
What do I consider flypaper? It is when user content gets hidden abominations like ‘read more’ and becomes statically ABSENT. And this comment system is the worst. Oh it’s the very best if you are happy go lucky flipping this or that open on a dumbphone, and if anyone ever asks, what would you do if you lose connectivity or the site disappears from the net, what would you be left with, you whistle loudly and stop your ears. It’s so very clever it will not even retrieve the rest of every single comment from the net unless you express interest in that comment. Does that sound like a good thing? It is a horrible thing.
If you are an archivist like me, you’re positively paranoid about it. I save articles preserving your titles adding my own keywords. And when the new came along my worst fears were confirmed. Saving a WUWT page to disk with that ‘read more’ stuff only saves the stubs of comments of course, and what you take away to view locally is something cruel and pointless.
Some systems actually stream the hidden information inline but flagged as hidden with a functional ‘unhide’ button that may or may not work when viewed offline. This system is worse, it is just not there. But I’ll admit it’s clever. But still bad. Clever people make up bad things too, unintended consequences.
But I’m happy to say that with ‘read more’ gone, Paging repeatedly until the whole is loaded then saving yields a viewable offline copy. I and the future generations who will inherit my saved archive (post-apocalypse) thank you.
Anthony/
Thanks for removing that plugin. Here I was thinking it was my machine throwing a fit so I take a break for lunch, come back a bit later and it’s like a new machine all over again.
Sorry, could not find any faults 🙂
Much better platform now, also loads faster (for me, anyhow).
Still the best topical site in the world.
A lot of linked images have disappeared.
For example
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2014/07/02/another-antarctic-sea-ice-record-set-but-excuses-abound/
Instead of images there is Figure 1, Figure 2, etc.
When is this going to be fixed?
The ‘proudly powered’ ‘tooltip’ at the bottom behaves badly. Jumps up, slides down, repeat, while scrolling. Using a slow tablet with enlarged fonts. I guess the float there has some .js deintelligence tha breaks it. Annoying as h, though doesn’t prevent reading.
“We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on WUWT. If you continue to use this site we will assume that you are happy with it. This notice is required by recently enacted EU GDPR rules, and since WUWT is a globally read website, we need to keep the bureaucrats off our case!”
The law, as far as I can tell, the law does not require a sticky component. I’m sure people would rather see a small box on the banner rather than a floating window-like creature which obscures reading until it has been clicked away. Sticky things that steal vertical pixel capacity of wide but not high displays are a nuisance of the greatest degree.