Geek Articles - Codename: Shorthorn

HowdA All,

I thought I would start a new thread here instead of watering down the current release of Geek Articles 2.0

Basically, I released Geek Articles as a cheap and cheerful way to give explicit forums an 'Article system' feel without all the hullabaloo with adding a major addition and hacking your vB code within an inch of its life.

I was aslo desperate for an Article System that actually integrated with vB in the sense that it would be searchable (with the other threads), use vBs user permissions, Attachment system, wysiwyg, etc...

Well, Geek Articles 2.0 does that. However I quickly learned that as soon as you release a hack, about 502.3 people start asking it to do things it wasnt designed to do (anyone know what I mean?).
I dont mean that to sound like a drag as I thought most of the ideas were actually quite good - however they were out of the scope for Geek Articles 2.0

In to your life walks Geek Articles codename: Shorthorn.

This is a project aimed at merging the best of Geek Articles 2.0 (the simplicity, searching, permissions, etc...) with a heavier duty article system (adding a byline option, multiple pages, etc...).

I have my first milestone in beta and has the following features:

• Everything Geek Articles 2.0 has
• Byline addition
• Multiple page support

Once I have finalised these features (I want to give them a test over the next few days on my site) I will then release it for private Beata testing and then finally on this thread for open beta testing.

What I would like to do is to get feedback on the direction that it is taking. Does it look sucky? Is the functionality crappy? Are you really just after a really neat Hangman system for vB?

Here is a live version of a multi page article

So please, come one, come all and let me know if I am wasting my freaking time.

Toodles

[Snow]

I agree with rlamego about the comments and the placement of the comment button.

With the comments showing on all pages of the article I can just see members missing the rest of the article because they've been distracted by a comment or they just didn't realise there was more pages to the article. I know it sounds a bit silly that people would not realise it's not the end of the article but, at least on my forum where some members are not very fluent in english, I can see it happening. Maybe, in place of displaying the actual comments, you could place a discrete link e.g. "View comments" on all pages and only on the last page the actual comments. What would be even more useful is providing an option for the administrator to display X comments (X being a value that the admin could choose) and then members would be required to click on "View all comments" to see the rest.

As for the placement of the comment button, I would definately like to see it at the end of the article only. If someone is adding a comment, it's usually to criticise or add info to the article/tutorial and quite frankly, I want those members to read ALL of the article before bashing the author that spent all that time writing the article/tutorial. Of course you can't force someone to read the article in full and they could just click on last page to get to the comment button but at least you're making it more difficult for them.

[The Geek]

Mkay. Cool. I will put in options for:

x amount of comments to show at the bottom of an article
Show the above amount ONLY on the last page of the article
Display comment button ONLY on the last page of the article
Display rating ONLY on the last page of the article

Sound good? Anything else?

[rlamego]

Huh. Excellent point. So wouldnt the better approach have nothing to do with the display of the commnets, but rather the placement of the comment button?

I don't know if I understood this question. If you are stating that the placement of the comment button is the core issue, I don't agree. But I wouldn't also agree that the placement of the comments is the core issue =)
The most important thing, that I think it escaped me in my last reply, is how you approach the system.

You started this mod from an excellent angle: "Lets fake it! vB already does everything needed, there's no need to reinvent the wheel, we'll just display this a little better".
From your point of view, which isn't far from the truth, an article is nothing more than an extremely big post. Like every other post in your forum, the comments and comment form (quick reply) come after it.
Breaking the text into several pages shouldn't be the starting point to reinvent the wheel.
Personally I think it's pretty confusing to have comments in the middle of the article. If I question myself "is this the end of the article or are there more pages?", I know some of my members will be sure that if there are comments there, then the article is over.
And why shouldn't they? If every other page in the site is like that, why should it be different there?

Bottomline is: if you can provide a way for the admin to select if the comment button (and/or the quick reply form) and the comments are displayed in the last page or everywhere, great! I sure appreciate it as I'm sure everyone else will appreciate having the option instead of being forced to "hack the hack" =)
However, like I've tried to explain, it doesn't make much sense.

Edit: while I was typing this, you (NG) and Snow posted your replies. I second Snow's post. Next time I'll wait a while before replying =)
And yes, that looks fine to me =)

[TCB]

Originally Posted by rlamego

Derek Powazek of Fray.org fame wrote a book called Design for Community. There's a chapter called "Bury the post button" where he describes how comments got a gazillion times better after he put the post button in the last page of the story.
He's take is: the more clicks it takes, the better the posts will be. The distance puts away readers that are not really interested or engaged in the content. I've applied this "philosophy" in several sites with remarkable results.

Comments are easy, articles are not!

What a fantastic (and logical) view on the comments issue! I think many webmasters/board owners have a mixed feeling about comments: on the one hand it brings life to the site, while on the other hand it takes away the focus of the article when the quality of comments look like slow chatting.

So putting the 'place comment' on the last page of an article is a great first step. Perhaps optional?

[The Geek]

OK guys... I have implimented what I think your suggestions were.


Take a look and tell me if that is what you had in mind -> http://www.thenailgeek.com/showthrea...t=8801&conly=0

Changes:
No comments link/button on article pages (except for last page)
Moved rating to last page (makes sense with the comment move).
Last page previews first 5 comments with a link to read the rest of the comments. In a way... I like this a lot better. I feel that with only a 5 post preview of comments, you will get people that will keep their comments related to the article instead of the other comments. If there are no comments previewed, they may be more apt to read all the comments before posting.

Actually... who knows? there are pros and cons.

Just tell me what you think.

[Symbian.info]

Originally Posted by the nail geek

OK guys... I have implimented what I think your suggestions were.


Take a look and tell me if that is what you had in mind -> http://www.thenailgeek.com/showthrea...t=8801&conly=0

Changes:
No comments link/button on article pages (except for last page)
Moved rating to last page (makes sense with the comment move).
Last page previews first 5 comments with a link to read the rest of the comments. In a way... I like this a lot better. I feel that with only a 5 post preview of comments, you will get people that will keep their comments related to the article instead of the other comments. If there are no comments previewed, they may be more apt to read all the comments before posting.

Actually... who knows? there are pros and cons.

Just tell me what you think.

I love it! So really like to do the private beata test;-)
Bud keep up the good work, Really want to use this (like I do the Geek Article system)

[Nick0r]

How about an add on for http://www.daniweb.com/tutorials/tutorial12725.html to make url's like article-title-name-here.html

[The Geek]

Originally Posted by Nick0r

How about an add on for http://www.daniweb.com/tutorials/tutorial12725.html to make url's like article-title-name-here.html

ACK! Out of the scope for me mate!

[Nick0r]

darn, none of the article systems will encorporate this, if anyone did, I'm sure many others (including me) would pick that system over the rest.

[Snow]

Originally Posted by the nail geek

OK guys... I have implimented what I think your suggestions were.


Take a look and tell me if that is what you had in mind -> http://www.thenailgeek.com/showthrea...t=8801&conly=0

Changes:
No comments link/button on article pages (except for last page)
Moved rating to last page (makes sense with the comment move).
Last page previews first 5 comments with a link to read the rest of the comments. In a way... I like this a lot better. I feel that with only a 5 post preview of comments, you will get people that will keep their comments related to the article instead of the other comments. If there are no comments previewed, they may be more apt to read all the comments before posting.

Actually... who knows? there are pros and cons.

Just tell me what you think.

I like it better this way (although I'm counting more than 5 comments trailing the article) and yes, I think the rate this article does belong at the end of the article. I look forward to installing this on my forum.