The Comment Forum - The Automatic Earth

This topic is empty.

Viewing 27 posts - 1 through 27 (of 27 total)

Author

Posts
March 8, 2012 at 11:45 pm #8596

ashvin
Participant

Just a quick heads up. As you can see, a new menu item has been added to the top of the front page called “Comments”. This link will lead you directly
[See the full post at: The Comment Forum]

March 9, 2012 at 12:44 am #1455

FrankRichards
Participant

Ash,

No joy. No “Comments” listing, still the same three non-intuitive clicks to actually reach the forum.

March 9, 2012 at 2:39 am #1458

ben
Member

no joy.

March 9, 2012 at 4:13 am #1462

ashvin
Participant

It’s only one click to reach the main forum. Also one click to comment directly under articles. If you mean the open comment thread, yes, it’s 3 clearly-labeled clicks. But such is life right now. Be creative if you must – keep the window open.

March 9, 2012 at 4:40 am #1464

Reverse Engineer
Member

Its a definite improvement. At least now you can reach the Recent Comments in 2 clicks.

Definitely are some challenges involved with integrating these formats, and overall I think this is working pretty well.

We are going to work on possibly using a Tabbed Widget or Popup windows for Blog readers to quickly scan what is going on in the Comments.

BTW Ash, I accidentally dropped the OWS article into the wrong category, it should be in the Open area, not Lifeboat. It probably should be moved. Sorry about that.

RE
https://www.doomsteaddiner.org

March 9, 2012 at 12:50 pm #1468

sumac.carol
Participant

Is there any way that a “burning questions” section could be added somewhere? A friend and I have repeatedly posted in the comments section a question about the Canadian equivalent to Treasury Direct. Unfortunately, we never got an answer and I would think that this question would be relevant to quite a few people. Even people living in other countries besides the U.S. and Canada might want to know. In any case, the broader suggestion is for a place for people to post questions. Thanks for all you do — much appreciated.

March 9, 2012 at 1:32 pm #1469

scandia
Participant

There are 2 reasons I support TAE. Hard to put one before the other.
The analysis is smart,bold, practical, entertaining with a huge dose of compassion and love for the 99%. The former Blogger board , over time, became a community. The former board was for me scintillating, a cornucopia of knowledge,links,anecdotes,hand holding,patient teaching…
This new format elevates data over community. I so-o-o miss the old board , the personal sharings, a drop in centre when I felt like I was losing it.
People I don’t know are posting now. This is a good thing in the sense the message /cautionary tale needs to spread far and wide.
When I learned of the plan for a new format other than Blogger I thought the purpose was a better security mechanism to weed out trolls. Oh well, times they are a changin as they say 🙂

March 9, 2012 at 2:00 pm #1470

ashvin
Participant

Some are reporting that the new menu item doesn’t show up in Google Chrome (and perhaps other browsers) until you hit F5 and/or restart the browser. So try that if you are not seeing the “Comments” menu.

March 9, 2012 at 2:43 pm #1471

ogardener
Member

Something about complex systems…. test 😎

March 9, 2012 at 7:29 pm #1477

gezelle
Participant

Scandia, I never posted on the old board because of the close-knit community…I never felt like new voices were welcome. Why even the Troll With Many Names was part of the regular cast of characters.
I have been reading my way through Stoneliegh’s list of reccommended books from the post on price waves and many of the links gatrnered from Ash’s posts. The content and data are very important to me and my learning curve.

March 9, 2012 at 7:40 pm #1478

DIYer
Participant

Firefox here.
Apparently it doesn’t refresh the menu until Firefox reloads the CSS or something. I, too, did not see the ‘Comments’ menu item until I explicitly refreshed the page.
(it was not enough to load TAE into a blank page on a recently-started browser session)

March 9, 2012 at 8:57 pm #1480

ben
Member

gezelle post=1077 wrote: Scandia, I never posted on the old board because of the close-knit community…I never felt like new voices were welcome. Why even the Troll With Many Names was part of the regular cast of characters.
I have been reading my way through Stoneliegh’s list of reccommended books from the post on price waves and many of the links gatrnered from Ash’s posts. The content and data are very important to me and my learning curve.

that was a projection of yours, gezelle – which is not to say it wasn’t a bit intimidating at first if one’s prone to overthinking, as i am. nice people here, with reasonable standards. 🙂

March 9, 2012 at 9:57 pm #1481

skipbreakfast
Participant

Well in theory, the forum format versus blog comments SHOULD create even MORE of a community than we had before. But I agree something is definitely getting lost in the forum format as it stands. I know it’s a work in progress. But having been an active user of other forums in the past, I know how much better the community communication can be than blog comment sections. Community members can start topics which become self-generating “articles” in their own right. It’s much easier to go back and find useful information too. But anything more than a “click” to get to the forum is too tricky. Plus, I don’t see the utility of repeating the original article as the first”post” in the forum. The reason why I’m clicking on the forum is that I have either read the article and want to start the discussion (so don’t need it filling up the first page of the forum) or I want to engage in conversations entirely unrelated to the article (but otherwise related to the themes and concerns of TAE in general). I’m not sure that the layout of the topics for the forum is intuitive yet. It might be that I’m used to the layout of other forums…but internet forums tend to follow some similar patterns that we’ve become used to and which TAE is sort of bucking right now.

One function I miss here, that I’ve used often in other very active forums, is the “What’s New” button. It simply sorts a list of all the active “topics” that have had recent activity. It’s not sorted by theme/subject, but simply lists in order of the most recently active. That way you can engage in the most lively conversations going on right now. I think it’s currently very hard to find where the members are congregating. Someone might post on “Water” which goes unseen by someone posting on “Finance”, etc. So we’re all divided. But with What’s New, you get a time-stamped list of latest “threads” in the forum, sorted by the most recent “activity”. I see the “REcent Activity” button, but it still seems to prioritise the recent article posted by TAE, rather than bringing attention to the discussion thread itself. Might seem a small distinction, but I think it’s impeding conversation.

March 9, 2012 at 10:25 pm #1483

Greenpa
Participant

Scandia – yeah; thanks for laying that out. Me too.

Ash, Ilargi, Stoneleigh- I appreciate (everybody does, I think) the incredible amount of work you’ve undertaken to improve TAE. Geez, what a lot of blood, sweat, and probably tears.

I haven’t chimed in on the new format before, because I’m aware that it takes time to get used to new stuff, and I know that I’m not that eager to change these days… and then because explaining WHY is complicated, and painful, and too much work….. etc.

But for purposes of feedback – crude as it was, I think it was easier to carry on good, complex, multi-person conversations in the old format. It’s just WAY more work in the new one; which does, indeed, prevent me from participating sometimes.

It’s partly a matter of brain and optical physiology- in the old format, you could see more entries simultaneously, and yes, the brain works that way. You could search for people or ideas in the thread very rapidly, and effectively. Tellingly, I have yet to TRY to search for anything in the new format. Maybe it’s easy? Dunno. I haven’t been motivated to find out. The multiple thread format is a big barrier.

I also don’t have much to offer by way of constructive suggestions for improvement; I understand the need to change, and the limitations imposed by new hosts, etc. Just; so you know- I miss the old community; and I find I’m not adjusting well to the new format. 🙂

Sorry.

And; gezelle : “I never posted on the old board because of the close-knit community…I never felt like new voices were welcome” – !! I’m wounded!!

🙂 I do know people who found the group intimidating. But if you hung around long enough, you could have observed plenty of new voices being welcomed. Sure, idiots and phonies get nailed. But plenty of naive sillies got tons of tutoring, too; from people with more patience than I have. I was glad they did, anyway. 🙂 So, welcome, and nyah nyah nyah.

March 9, 2012 at 10:56 pm #1485

Reverse Engineer
Member

I originally began writing on the Peak Oil message board. After being Banned there, I wrote on other Boards and Blogs, most notably TBP for a while. So I have a lot of familiarity with both formats.

The Forum format provides a lot more flexibility than the blog comments do. As mentioned, readers can begin their own threads, and you can sort the information contained inside better.

Anyhow, by coincidence we set up very much the same type of organization on DD, and making it all user friendly takes time to do, and it also takes the users willingness to move on. We’ve had a decent dropoff in posting from our regular members because the new board is just too BIG for them, they liked the small private Yahoo Group we occupied.

As to why I never posted on TAE before the new platform got dropped on, it had nothing to do with the chummy nature of the people posting. I simply couldn’t post, I couldn’t get the Open ID to work. Thus I avoided being Banned from TAE all these years. LOL.

I’m making up for lost time now. 🙂

RE
https://www.doomsteaddiner.org

March 9, 2012 at 11:16 pm #1486

Greenpa
Participant

And, I am feeling just very dense at the moment. I found something cool; wanted to pass it on- and I have, literally, just spent 4 minutes trying to figure out WHERE and HOW to put it up here…

Gack. Just give me an open box I can put text in. I finally hit a “reply” button; but have no idea where this will really go….. see? I’m dense. Depressing!

Anyway! Here’s the news! Greek credit default swaps ARE triggered!

https://dealbook.nytimes.com/2012/03/09/greek-credit-default-swaps-are-activated/

But it still doesn’t mean they’re going to be PAID apparently. The contents of that article are more confusing than the comments format, even….

March 10, 2012 at 12:19 am #1490

Reverse Engineer
Member

Greenpa post=1086 wrote:

Anyway! Here’s the news! Greek credit default swaps ARE triggered!

https://dealbook.nytimes.com/2012/03/09/greek-credit-default-swaps-are-activated/

Recent photo of the Doorman at the BIS

RE
https://www.doomsteaddiner.com

March 10, 2012 at 1:45 am #1492

JoeP
Member

gezelle,

…”made good” and moved to greener pastures and their Mc mansions elsewhere…

Nice post. The quote above made me think of the the couple my spouse and I are visiting next weekend. in ’05, they lived in a .5M home on an island in SC. Hint – there is an Elton John song that shares this name. Then they flipped to a 1.4M house and this basically became their “retirement plan”. Really, this was all of it. They are both over 50 yrs old. They were really loving RE then. The jumbo loan paperwork was done in ’06 (took awhile to build this huge complicated facility I guess) so I think you could say they bought at the top. They recently rented out the “frog room”. This made me think of the quote I guess. I was wondering if any of the “recent influx” are moving into the McMansions – this would be a positive as far as capacity utilization goes.

The have a shower “on steroids” in one of the upstairs bathrooms. Lots of jets and pressures and knobs. I’m sure it wastes a lot of good water too.

March 10, 2012 at 1:54 am #1493

JoeP
Member

Forgot to add – Zillow has the house at about 750K today.

March 10, 2012 at 1:18 pm #1505

scandia
Participant

@gezelle…I am smiling as I imagine the gezelle ( young and graceful ) in conversation with me, the gezette ( old and stiff ):)
Re ” the learning curve ” I couldn’t agree more! As one who missed out on formal education this curve has been steep and exciting.And Ash’s recent articles cause me to stretch yet again. I truly feel I have blossomed as a personality because of TAE and many on the board who took the time to teach.

March 10, 2012 at 3:20 pm #1508

gezelle
Participant

Scandia, “gezelle” is very much tongue in cheek!
It is a friends definition..gezelle the feminine of gezer….a title I proudly hold.
I can still double dig a garden plot and shovel the boatloads of snow we have here , just a mite slower than before.
It’s all good!

March 10, 2012 at 4:25 pm #1510

JoeP
Member

This looks like a pretty good evaluation of the Greek CDS situation:

Greece Has Defaulted – Which Country In Europe Is Next?

But for now the buck has been passed on to those that issued the credit-default swaps. As mentioned above, the ISDA says that there are approximately $3.2 billion in Greek credit-default swaps that will need to be paid out.

However, that number assumes that a lot of hedges and offsetting swaps cancel each other out. When you just look at the raw total of swaps outstanding, the number is much, much higher. The following is from a recent article in The Huffington Post….

[indent]If you remove all hedges and offsetting swaps, there’s about $70 billion in default-insurance exposure to Greece out there, which is a little bit bigger pill for the banking system to swallow. Is it possible that some banks won’t be able to pay on their default policies? We’ll find out.[/indent]

Yes, indeed. We will find out very soon.

If some counterparties are unable to pay we could soon see some big problems cascade through the financial system.

March 10, 2012 at 5:42 pm #1512

el gallinazo
Member

Skipbreakfast

The main forum window has exactly what you want….I think. It is the recent topic tab, second from the left. And it is arranged in descending order of most recent posts and gives the id of last poster. Check it out

Reverse Engineer

Eliminating Open ID accessibility only went back to last September and was part of the attempt to reduce Butthead’s disruptive activities. Unfortunate that it kept you off.

Greenpa

The Official Thread for Open Comments was an attempt to reinstitute the old Blogger family approach. But in the end, this herd of cats must vote with its feet. I have been remiss in using it myself for that purpose.

For everyone,

I find tabbing my browser is a great aid in navigating the new blog structure. This is done by right clicking on a link and choosing “open link in new tab.” You can read what you want, then close the tab, and you are back to the original link page in a fraction of a second. I assume almost every one knows this already, but…….
I usually keep at least 5 tabs open on my TAE window at any time. Saves a lot of time. Same deal for my ZH window. It does require a bit of RAM though to work well. I have 4 GB which maxes out my 3 year old laptop.

BTW, one of the founders of The Firesign Theater died this week, Peter Bergman. Sad. I must credit them with helping to maintain my insanity during my youth.

https://www.latimes.com/news/obituaries/la-me-peter-bergman-20120310,0,6089210.story?track=icymi

March 10, 2012 at 5:51 pm #1513

Greenpa
Participant

“Greenpa

The Official Thread for Open Comments was an attempt to reinstitute the old Blogger family approach. But in the end, this herd of cats must vote with its feet. I have been remiss in using it myself for that purpose.”

Yeah, I was guessing, but- it’s still not the same. See; I just replied to another comment of yours elsewhere- thinking it would appear where it could be seen- but- nope, it’s on a different thread, no longer visible in the Comments Compendium…..

Sigh. And my other comment was so brilliant, too.

March 10, 2012 at 6:05 pm #1515

Glennjeff
Participant

Greenpa,

You seem to be settling in ok with the new format, I find it real easy to navigate now and I did read your comment on the other thread. A good exercise in patience for a week and then home sweet home. Like el gal said use “recent topics” and open several tabs.

March 10, 2012 at 8:13 pm #1520

Reverse Engineer
Member

el gallinazo post=1112 wrote: Skipbreakfast

The main forum window has exactly what you want….I think. It is the recent topic tab, second from the left. And it is arranged in descending order of most recent posts and gives the id of last poster. Check it out

The issue with Recent Comments is the listing format. You can’t scan through all the comments simply by scrolling down the page, you have to click the link to each one separately.

I am going to try to resolve this with Peter by creating a page which accepts dynamic updating, then give the user access to that page either through a Tabbed Widget or a Popup Window accesible off the Homepage of DD. The page will pull its content from the forum DB in Chronological order of posting.

Reverse Engineer

Eliminating Open ID accessibility only went back to last September and was part of the attempt to reduce Butthead’s disruptive activities. Unfortunate that it kept you off.

I don’t remember when it was that I last tried to post a comment on TAE, but I never really followed commentary here, just read the articles. Anyhow, after getting my ass booted off TBP I just holed up with my friends on Reverse Engineering, tired of the process of repeatedly being banned from OPBs (other people’s blogs). I just write too damn much and I have a tendency to overwhelm a board because of that. DD resolves this problem for me. Now I just link back to my longer stuff and say “Go read this” on DD instead of over-cluttering OPBs with what I write.

Anyhow, better late than never to arrive here on the shores of TAE, and in fact its probably better that this happenned because chances are you folks would have Banned me also. Everybody else has. LOL.

RE

March 11, 2012 at 1:00 am #1532

JoeP
Member

Probably remedial reading to many here, but well written:

Capitalism’s New Money Addicts
Author

Posts