Tag Archives: Websites

A Sneak Peek at OSNews Version 4

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Since we’re getting close to a usable version of OSNews 4, I thought I’d post a few sneak peek screenshots of the next version of OSNews. This is somewhat silly, because the interface is based on CSS, so it can and possibly will change significantly (it’s more important to get the PHP sorted out than the CSS, up front at least). But nonetheless, by the end of next week, v4 will be close enough for me to switch to it full time. If you click the “Read More” link, you’ll see several sections of screengrabs from the site as it stands today.
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OSNews Version 4 Begins

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I wrote the first lines of OSNews version 4 today. It’s exciting, because I am planning a major site makeover. I am pretty convinced that we can boost performance, make the site more usable, and even add some new stuff while removing some of the cruft that never worked right (like OSN Digest).

We also have some neat new features planned.

Best Digg Comment Ever?

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Could this be the best digg.com comment ever?

I think it is. It’s clear, concise, and well worded. It’s not moronic, it doesn’t rely on AOL-speak or l33t. It doesn’t play off the same techie cliches. It’s just good, old fashioned quality content. It makes a point and it makes a point well.

The quality of comments on digg.com are generally low, but every now and again you find a diamond in the rough.

OSNews v4 Logic

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I was playing with an outlines of OSNews version 4 today. I have started sketching out some ideas that I intend to implement geared at making the site more consistent, easier to use, less complex, and less heavy from a code standpoint.

One of the major areas to improve is commenting. I am going to change the way threading works almost entirely.

First off, comments below your threshold will not disappear anymore. They will simply be collapsed and greyed out. Yes, this is a bit digg-ish, but we had to implement a lot of complex code in order to compensate for parent comments that were below threshold. So unless a comment is administratively hidden, they will show and be un-collapsable via Javascript (I don’t know if it will be AJAX or just Javascript div swapping). I think this is a better solution than we have today.

Secondly, moderation will definitely be AJAX-based.

Thirdly, I haven’t “cleared” this with David, but I think flat comments will be hard coded to view all in one page. It’s so much easier on the database to use a single, easy light query than to force several page loads and hit the db over and over.

Next, the comment template will be unified. Currently, there is a flat template, a threaded template, an admin flat template, an admin threaded template, and a reply template. I’m going to fix this nonsense.

In the process, I will clean up commenting. Comments use a ridiculous chain of includes just to produce a comment. This is the effect of hacked feature upon hacked feature of v3, and v4 will fix this.

Other changes: the user page will be streamlined to display user information as well as provide a base for recommendations, etc. Currently, it’s trying to be too many things.

Lastly, I intend to clean up the URLs. While preserving all valid links, I want the URLs to be prettier and not have file extensions. Jobs.OSNews is a good example of what I’d like to see via the URL.

Anyway, if you have thoughts about features, etc you’d like to see, feel free to leave a comment.

Planning OSNews Version 4

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So we’re really beginning to talk about the next iteration of OSNews. There are several things we’re talking about right now, but since I’ve gotten a lot of web experience since the coding of OSNews 3, written several new and powerful web applications, and since we’ve, since rollout introduced several new features and several new optimizations, including multiple caching techniques, I’ve been trying to decide whether it’s best to just fool with the interface, or whether I want to actually rewrite parts of the front and backend. I’ve written lots of apps for work – some are completely AJAX based, some don’t use Javascript at all. Some are completely object-oriented, some are procedural. Some are very tied to MySQL, some use Microsoft SQL Server.

There are definitely ways to continue to optimize OSNews, but it would require some major changes. I’m not sure I’m up for that, and it would also mean changes to the mobile site. That said, I think the smartest thing to do is to do some rewriting.

I told David today that I have some requirements – yes, requirements, if *I’m* going to be coding OSN4. At the top of the list is reliance on CSS for the majority of layout and liberal use of javascript for the UI. I want freedom to go for the whole kit and kaboodle — AJAX (where it makes sense) and javascript in many places to accomplish what we can on the client side. Things like moderation should not require a page load – or two, as it currently is.

I love our claim that we render everywhere, it’s unique and we are probably one of the best sites on the net for mobile use. But I’m so over coding in HTML 3. It took me less than an hour to get threading working properly on this site. It took me days to plan and code it on OSN.

So, as I approach the run for OSN4, I’m thinking of what we ought to be implementing and the best way to do it. We’re going to do some slimming – we’re probably give up themes initially. We’ll probably give up multi-mode comments: you’ll get to choose between flat mode (all comments, in order) and expanded threaded. We’ll probably scale back some features, but expand others.

Either way, it’s sure to be an adventure as we get there.

Suggestions for Improving digg.com

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How do you digg? Do you digg up articles that fascinate you? Articles that your friends recommend? Articles you want to check back on later? Do you use it as a social news system, as intended, or as a bookmarking system? The problem, as I see it, is that as cool as digg is, there’s no real guide as to how to use the site. I think it can be fixed with a few minor changes. Read on for more.
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