New Post Structure

[Jason Dunn]

<p>Hey everyone! This is a quick note to let you know that we've changed a few things about the way that posts are structured. This change went live on Pocket PC Thoughts about a week ago, and we've now rolled it out on the other sites. First and foremost, the headline of our posts finally work like every other blog/news site on the planet: when you click on the headline of a post, you're taken to the full view for that post (sometimes known as the permalink view). Previously we'd link to the article we were quoting from - now that link is in the lower-left corner of the post, near the bottom in an obvious <strong>Read </strong>link. We still have our Discuss link, and we're still going to show you the number of posts in a thread there. We've kept the Permalink link, and the Source listing and link hasn't changed.</p><p>The other big change we did was to add tags. Yeah, we're about four years late on that one - hey, that's the peril of using a custom content management system. ;-) We've actually been putting tags in our posts for many months now, but the system wasn't exposed to you, our wonderful readers. The way the system works is similar to most other sites: the authors assign the tags to the post, and if you want to see more about that topic, you click on the tag and it takes you to a page that has all the content that matches that tag. This will be particularly useful when it comes to keeping up on trade shows, contests that we're running, etc. So what do you think of the changes? Constructive comments welcome!</p>

[ptyork]

I think that this bit of added consistency is good (especially since the old headlines at the bottom always went to the permalink). However, I do wish that the permalink page INCLUDED the discussion ("like every other blog/news site on the planet" ;) ). This is a minor nit, but if I want to chuckle at new replies to a flame that I posted in an old article I have to click at least two links (more if it is many days old): first the permalink and then the discuss link. Either that or perhaps just remove the permalink page from the standard page flow and always just go straight to the discussion page (which has the entire post as the first message anyway). There are many things I love about your unique blog engine (like the ability to cross post and have common comments across all of the sites in the Thoughts Media empire). But, extra clicks always grind my gears.

[Alber1690]

The headline-linking-to-a-source concept was quite interesting; one I had to get used to. But I did. Regardless, it seems more "fitting" now I guess; "compliant." Haha. Kudos. Keep it up.

[ptyork]

Hmm, one other nit. If the post is cross-posted, it looks like the discuss link takes you to a generic comments site rather than the site-specific one. No biggie, but it does mess up my normal click habits of clicking on the home link (or the logo) to go back to where I was (now I have to do the oh-so-difficult back-button click thing ;) ).

[Jason Dunn]

However, I do wish that the permalink page INCLUDED the discussion ("like every other blog/news site on the planet" ;) ).

That's definitely something I've thought about and remember asking my developer for a while ago - I'll ask it to our development list and we'll see what we can do...the biggest difference between us and many other sites is that we're using "real" forum software, not a blogging engine like WordPress. That has advantages, but also some disadvantages (like this issue).

I have to click at least two links (more if it is many days old): first the permalink and then the discuss link. Either that or perhaps just remove the permalink page from the standard page flow and always just go straight to the discussion page (which has the entire post as the first message anyway)

Hmm - I don't quite follow. The Discuss link is right there on the front page with each post, so why would you click on the permalink view then on discuss? Why not just click on discuss?

[Jason Dunn]

Hmm, one other nit. If the post is cross-posted, it looks like the discuss link takes you to a generic comments site rather than the site-specific one.

That only happens in the rare occurrence of "network news" such as this topic, which goes into the Thoughts Media forum. If it's a post about, say, a new 32 GB microSD card, that post will have a "home" forum of either Pocket PC Thoughts or Smartphone Thoughts.

[Adam Krebs]

Ugh, you mean all those lame jokes I've been putting in the tags will be shown to the world at large now? Better go in and change those... :D

[ptyork]

Hmm - I don't quite follow. The Discuss link is right there on the front page with each post, so why would you click on the permalink view then on discuss? Why not just click on discuss?

Only an issue for older stories, the ones in the Previous Stories section at the way-bottom or on the Archives page. There is no Discuss link there, only a count of replies. You have to click on the title link which takes you to the permalink page, scroll to the bottom, and then click on the discuss link. The two least painful options to fix this would either be to make the replies count a hyperlink that takes you directly to the discussion page OR bypass the permalink page and make the title link go directly to the discussion page. The first option is probably the most consistent with your latest changes, though IMO since the discussion includes the entire post, I'm not sure the permalink page is really even all that necessary.

[programcsharp]

Not quite related, but is there any way to get a one *thoughts feed that pulls in posts from all sites? I follow them all and it's annoying when identical posts show up in several of them.

[Rocco Augusto]

Not quite related, but is there any way to get a one *thoughts feed that pulls in posts from all sites? I follow them all and it's annoying when identical posts show up in several of them.

I built out a small script that does this a few months ago but it only parses between PPCT and SPT. It shouldn't take much to add the other Thoughts Media sites to the mix as well and would be the perfect light project for me to take on tonight while I'm sick. Unfortunately though it is not a feed.

[Vincent Ferrari]

Not quite related, but is there any way to get a one *thoughts feed that pulls in posts from all sites? I follow them all and it's annoying when identical posts show up in several of them.

That sounds like an ideal type thing for Yahoo! Pipes.

[Jason Dunn]

You have to click on the title link which takes you to the permalink page, scroll to the bottom, and then click on the discuss link. The two least painful options to fix this would either be to make the replies count a hyperlink that takes you directly to the discussion page OR bypass the permalink page and make the title link go directly to the discussion page.

Aha, I understand exactly what you mean. Great idea! I'll add it to our development list.

The first option is probably the most consistent with your latest changes, though IMO since the discussion includes the entire post, I'm not sure the permalink page is really even all that necessary.

The permalink view is nicer to look at than the forum view, so I wouldn't want to lose it.

[Jason Dunn]

Not quite related, but is there any way to get a one *thoughts feed that pulls in posts from all sites? I follow them all and it's annoying when identical posts show up in several of them.

Ever since Google bought Feedburner, they've really sucked at helping publishers (people like me). They were supposed to create a merged feed for me months ago, but still haven't. The identical posts problem still going to be there though - I don't think Feedburner/Google has any sort of duplicate post parsing. Remember that not everyone reads every site, so we can't remove things from RSS feeds. That almost seems like more of a client-side function now that I think about it...