Tue, March 25, 2008
Frequently Asked Questions About the Redesigned Onebee Comments—5:56 PM
Remember to hit "refresh!" Clear out those cached style sheets, people!
Q. Have any of these questions ever been asked, frequently or otherwise?
A. Of course not.
Q. Didn't the onebee comments just get redesigned?
A. Longer ago than you'd think, but indeed. Yes, they did.
Q. So... WTF?
A. I really liked the new design, but as soon as it was implemented it began showing its limitations. I was forced to write code to truncate long e-mail addresses, or they'd break the left-hand "who said it" column. I was forced to truncate long URLs in the comments, or they'd break the other column–
Q. Zzzzzzz....
A. Point taken. Also, Brandon recently pointed out that his favorite thing about onebee is the long discussions that go on in the comments now and then. (My favorite thing, too.) As I thought about that, it didn't make sense for the comments to be squeezed into such a small space. It should be clear at a glance that you're looking the comments part of the page (and not the onebee post), but the narrow column and the tiny text made reading long comment threads a chore. The first rule of design is: don't make it a chore to do the most awesome thing.
So, I started gathering some new ideas for a better design, with plans to implement it sometime in the next few weeks. Then, one of those glorious long comment discussions began to heat up. Seemed like a good time to get down to business.
Q. Hey! How come e-mail addresses are no longer listed alongside comments?
A. I never really wanted them there in the first place. Almost no one puts them in, and even though I encode them to deter e-mail harvesting spambots, there are no guarantees. I would've removed them during the last redesign, but I was afraid newcomers (or the elderly and infirm) might not realize who Bee Boy is. Having my e-mail address listed next to my "nickname" made it a little clearer.
I would change "Bee Boy" to "Jameson" or something else – I'm kind of tired of "Bee Boy" – but too many commenters have referred to "Bee Boy" in some of my favorite onebee comments, so changing it would break that continuity. Finally I decided to compromise and put a little onebee logo next to my comments – hopefully that will make it clear that those are by me. For all those countless newcomers who read this site every day.
Q. The new design is imperfect though. I noticed [whatever glitch].
A. Well, by all means let me know. I only had so much time to test it out, and I went through as many pages as I could think of, but things have a way of slipping through. I'm sure a few minor details will be adjusted in the next day or two, and I'd be happy to address your glitch as well.
