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Comments Updates
Tue Aug 06 2024

As previously mentioned, comments now have a 'notify flag'. When you leave a comment now, there is a tickbox which you can tick to receive notifications when new comments are added. The granularity is very broad though, it will notify you if there's any comments added to the entry, not just the reply you've made.

I've also implemented comment replies, which will display replies underneath the comment to which it was a reply. I'm not overly happy with the layout at the moment, but it's the best I've got and I can't really put my finger on what I don't like anyway! If you've had a Patron diary re-imported and that diary had comment replies (because WordPress supported comment replies, or 'nested comments') then these should now be displayed correctly, as I have implemented the system with that in mind.

I've also implemented a requirement that anyone leaving a comment must have set a Username in their profile before they can leave the comment. This stops the comments section being filled with comments from: <blank>.

I think that's about it for now. Let me know what you think or if you find problems!

EDIT: Oh, comments now show the oldest comment first because trying to follow a thread of comments is really unintuitive if the newest comment is shown first 😀

32 Comments
  • From:
    D'vorahDavida
    On:
    Tue Aug 06 2024
    Thank you! We will see how things shape up as we use them. It really does feel good to be writing again. I think everyone has expressed it in one way or another over the last several days.
    • From:
      DearDiary1
      On:
      Tue Aug 06 2024
      I have seen a lot of people saying they're enjoying writing again - and I've seen so many people saying they didn't like the WordPress system! I aim to keep this one simple. Let's get more people here and make this the most popular online diary site in the world :)
      • From:
        Wrenchman366
        On:
        Tue Aug 06 2024
        Nice glad to see reply to comments, Thanks Steve for your hard work 👍
        • From:
          DearDiary1
          On:
          Tue Aug 06 2024
          Thanks Tim! Interested to hear whether both you and D'vorah have received notifications for the replies? Assuming you ticked the box :)
          • From:
            Wrenchman366
            On:
            Tue Aug 06 2024
            Didn’t see a box to tick but I did receive notification of comment reply I think it works Tim
          • From:
            D'vorahDavida
            On:
            Tue Aug 06 2024
            Yes. I received a notify of reply.
            • From:
              MissTick
              On:
              Wed Aug 07 2024
              Oooh, nested comments!!!! Wow! I am now curious just how small the box of sequenced comments can get...LOL shall we test, folks? If we keep replying to the comment in this thread, eventually we'll hit the frame...(unless Steve will tell us off, that is ;-) this is fun game!
              • From:
                MissTick
                On:
                Wed Aug 07 2024
                a new thought - maybe we can test if no borders on nested comments would look better?
                • From:
                  DearDiary1
                  On:
                  Wed Aug 07 2024
                  It's definitely a possibility. The current layout is almost certain to change though because it's OK, but not great :)
                • From:
                  DearDiary1
                  On:
                  Wed Aug 07 2024
                  Perhaps just a left border? Kind of like how replies are often done in e-mails?
              • From:
                DearDiary1
                On:
                Wed Aug 07 2024
                To be fair I don't know how small it will let you go :) Might end up reading a vertical column of text!
                • From:
                  Wrenchman366
                  On:
                  Wed Aug 07 2024
                  I just need to find out LOL Lots of reply’s I love it Tim
                  • From:
                    MissTick
                    On:
                    Wed Aug 07 2024
                    what about expandable threads? like - if you have multiple replies on one comment - you'll see the number of comments in one thread, then you can chose to expand to read them? and yeah - let's try left only border to see how it feels, otherwise all those psychedelically artistic frames makes me dizzy already
                    • From:
                      DearDiary1
                      On:
                      Wed Aug 07 2024
                      I did consider collapsible threads, but I think that would be more cumbersome. I've removed the borders for replies - I think it looks better but let me know your thoughts :)
                      • From:
                        MissTick
                        On:
                        Thu Aug 08 2024
                        this new layout for comments works so much better! Thank you, Steve! Personally, I am happy with how it looks and reads
                        • From:
                          DearDiary1
                          On:
                          Thu Aug 08 2024
                          Thanks MissTick. I'm working on image popups now :)
  • From:
    D'vorahDavida
    On:
    Tue Aug 06 2024
    This just occurred to me when you mentioned letting other people know about the site. Are you ready for advertising? If so, is it possible to create a sharable advert with link to DD? Something snazzy? I'm not sure how to do that, but If I had such an advert, I could share it on Twitter and Facebook.
    • From:
      DearDiary1
      On:
      Tue Aug 06 2024
      I think we're ready for advertising - what do you think though? Though to be fair, I'm not good at snazzy ads either!
      • From:
        D'vorahDavida
        On:
        Tue Aug 06 2024
        Well, it might be better to have all your tweaks and updates a little more to your liking, and maybe wait till the background option is up and running for the decorators (like myself) Ha! Before launching it to the public at large. I'd have to mull over some way to create an image that I can embed the DD link into. Maybe one of the rest of us know how to do that?? It's not REQUIRED... it was just an idea, so that it catches the eye...
        • From:
          MissTick
          On:
          Wed Aug 07 2024
          I agree, those who used DD before are here for the writing, the new diarists will need to get hooked up by the easiness of sharing thoughts first, than they will discover the wonderous DD community and learn to love it here. Inserting images in the entries are somewhat heavy-ish-to-handle still, so let's wait for the snazzy a little bit longer?
          • From:
            DearDiary1
            On:
            Wed Aug 07 2024
            With regard to entry images, apart from the ability to click and enlarge the images (which is what I'll be working on next) I can't see much else I can do to improve it, but open to ideas. D'Vorah, I think, is talking about being able to set your own background images? Or possibly being able to have some kind of Diary Signature so that each entry automatically appends an image (or indeed, any additional HTML you want) to the entry?
            • From:
              Wrenchman366
              On:
              Wed Aug 07 2024
              Yes I agree it would be nice to be able to put pictures of text to be on permanent part of the diary like no matter what text or pictures you put on your entry these will always be there like giving your diary some personality Tim
            • From:
              D'vorahDavida
              On:
              Wed Aug 07 2024
              Yes. Setting a background image that surrounds your text would be nice. As to advertising, I was just trying to figure out how to make a little ad image to put the link to Dear Diary in when I post it to Twitter. Just putting a link might not get people to click on it. Maybe I need to work on this myself and figure it out. Right now I'm headed to the airport to pick up a friend... so I gotta jet. Still very excited about spreading the word!
            • From:
              MissTick
              On:
              Wed Aug 07 2024
              I personally find myself somewhat limited by left/right/full size options, to be honest. I'd like to be able to drag the image to the position within the text where it fits best and, if required, downsize it to fit. (you can check out what I mean on my Home page - the only way to make inserted image appear "inline" is - to keep uploading different sizes of it until it fits best - still haven't had a time to play with sizing yet) that brings me to the question - when we upload our images, they seems to go to "assets" in database? but what if once uploaded already, you change your mind and either delete the image or replace it with another image? would the previous version still be stored somewhere here or images deleted if they are not saved in the entries? Just out of curiosity, really, as I am the one who keeps changing her mind and now wondering if she is littering your database with all the unused images she uploaded... Anyways, perhaps, I'm the only one who likes random places for her images. It is also entirely possible this is too complicated to even bother to implement, as everyone else is satisfied with just choosing the sides...
              • From:
                DearDiary1
                On:
                Wed Aug 07 2024
                Unfortunately there's really no way for me to tell if you've deleted an image from an entry, so yes, at the moment it clutters up the filesystem (not the database though). I'll see if I can think of a way of improving that but in the meantime, don't worry about it. It's one of the reasons why the images are resized, because a photo off your phone could easily be 6megabytes, whereas an HD image is about 200k :)
              • From:
                DearDiary1
                On:
                Wed Aug 07 2024
                You can drag the text to be around the image using the small dots on the left hand side when you hover your mouse over a paragraph. The handles don't seem to show up over images, but they do over a paragraph. I've not done much with it, but it sort of works :)
                • From:
                  MissTick
                  On:
                  Thu Aug 08 2024
                  thank you! I never actually thought about trying to move text - not intuitive when hoovered over those dots on the left, I kind of expected some sort of menu to pop up, so when there was none, I just ignored it...lol...leave&learn, eh
  • From:
    Salamander
    On:
    Sun Aug 18 2024
    I tried leaving a reply to a comment this morning to my latest entry, but it does not display. Don't know if I screwed it up somehow, or if there's a bug.
    • From:
      DearDiary1
      On:
      Sun Aug 18 2024
      I'm puzzled as to how it would let you comment here but not on your own diary - did you get the popup that said Comment Sent (or whatever I programmed it to say, I forget now!) or did it show an error?
      • From:
        Salamander
        On:
        Mon Aug 19 2024
        Sorry - I totally misphrased the problem. I attempted to reply to a comment D'vorahDavida left to my post - I did not reply directly to the post. The reply to the comment was not private. The reply looked as if it took, but it did not display. I was (perhaps incorrectly) expecting a nested display.
        • From:
          DearDiary1
          On:
          Mon Aug 19 2024
          Heya Sal, I can't see any reply in the database so something went wrong somewhere. If you used the reply button (as you did here) then it should be a nested reply as you suspected. Perhaps a network glitch took it? (Though you should get a notice that your comment couldn't be posted if that happens, but who knows)! Could you try again and let me know what happens?
        • From:
          D'vorahDavida
          On:
          Mon Aug 19 2024
          Oh! I don't want to miss your comments, so try again Salamander! ☺️