Ditto
I don't like this. It's not intuitive, even for people used to forums. Things posted as a "reply" don't appear next to comment their replying to, & stacks of comments are hidden, only appearing when you click on "show 14 replies". It's not clear why some comments are tucked away like this & others aren't, or what you can do to make sure your comment remains on the page. This makes it particularly badly suited to what we're trying to do here: gauge the opinions of a wide selection of users, since so many people's comments are going to fall into one of these pockets of invisibility.
It place replies a level under the one you are replying to, in chronological order, like Wordpress blogs. I have it cranked up so that I can see all the replies at once and let me tell you the load time is unbearable. This software is still alpha, which means that the developers still have not settled on the features to be included and there are no plans to use this sitewide - I just wanted to test it in terms of a forum discussion and as the messaging system on my userpage.
How do you get it "cranked up"?
Go to my preferences and change your settings for Threaded discussions.
For instance, this should appear under Pi's comment as I'm second. It would save an edit conflict. But considering this is an experimental extension rather than a full fledged install of VB or similar, it's not bad.
The comments should appear expanded up until the newest one under "new messages" which highlights new replies. The ones tucked away are side-tracked threads without new replies. If someone makes a similar reply under the normal talk page system they're equally likely to be missed. Under the usual way of doing it with talk pages, the intuitive thing is to scroll to the bottom of a section - so if someone's indent etiquette says to post a direct reply in the middle of the discussion, you'll miss it unless you were lucky enough to catch it on recent changes.
Fuck, I just wanted to ask "WHERE DO I ASK TO GET THE "YOU HAVE NEW MESSAGES" THING REMOVED FROM MY WATCHLIST?" but I see no way to make a new section or such. Please kill this until it actually works...
At the top where it says, start a new discussion above all the threads.
I do like the idea of folding away old comments by default, but doesn't the new message thing do something similar to that any way? It is had for me to tell because I have set the folding default high enough that I don't get folding.
"There are new messages for you." Where?
This format FUCKING SUCKS ADMIT IT.
Christ, where am I supposed to look in this pile of shit for the "new messages for you"? I have a fucking talk page for "new messages for me". I also have a watchlist I use. This structure needs to DIE a quick death. Because every time I get the "There are new messages for you." I will come here and say this, since I can't find those delightful "new messages" that are supposedly "for me"
KILL THIS NOW.
And I think the new messages page is a great idea, I can see all the new replies to threads I'm following in one place, conveniently highlighted, instead of having to go through Recent Changes (or my watchlist) and spot the pages I'm interested in that have new messages. Going through new replies diff-by-diff is impractical because it is slow, and if I instead look at the whole thread it is hard to find the new comments, especially the ones that go off on a tangent and have been inserted in the middle of a discussion.
The only complaint I have is with the phrasing, I don't think messages is the right word. Maybe replies?
Then click "mark all as read" and it will remove them without you having to bother yourself. Have you not noticed that it highlights the new replies with a box around them? Something that isn't done with new posts anywhere else unless you happen to like trawling through diffs or are lucky enough to catch it on recent changes.
And again, I'm seeing nothing other than "it's crap" and a lot of capital letters.
Seriously, am I the only person that has figured out how to use this without any hand holding? It's not difficult.
" Have you not noticed that it highlights the new replies with a box around them? "
That's the odd part. This conversation came up in my "New Messages" list, but there's nothing highlighted as new. I expanded all the conversations, but there's nothing there.
And the condescending "am I the only person that has figured out how to use this without any hand holding?" is noted and not appreciated.
I had the same thing. It might be because I grabbed the part of this conversation that had the new message and dragged it to another thread.
When people complain they can't figure something out when I did pretty quickly, I have a right to be condescending. Either that or I have Sylar's intuitive aptitude.
But since being a dick is apparently the only way to get any recognition on RationalWiki, I decided to start properly.