by Marty S.
Member since:
June 28, 2006

enhancement idea for Gather

July 30, 2006 09:34 AM EDT (Updated: July 30, 2006 11:37 AM EDT)
views: 53 | comments: 29

when looking at articles, next to the number of comments each article has, it would be immensely helpful for those who like to follow conversations, if putting the name & date/time stamp of the last commenter were added.

If this has already been suggested, please forgive, but it seems to me like something that should be highly doable.

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Comments: 29

Cheryl W. Jul 30, 2006, 9:40am EDT
Yes, this is a very good idea........hopefully they will consider..
Genie H. Jul 30, 2006, 9:44am EDT
Good idea!
Spencer T. Jul 30, 2006, 9:48am EDT
Agree with you. Plus to add an edit feature for comments would be helpful as well.
Nancy S. Jul 30, 2006, 11:00am EDT
I agree. And I especially agree with the comment edit idea. How many of us have typed a comment in haste, then seen a glaring error? If we delete and repost it, other comments may have come in the interim, making it nonsensical.
Kevin (''The SiteWizard'') V. Jul 30, 2006, 11:07am EDT
Marty, For future reference, you might consider publishing suggestions for Gather management to the official Gather Group established for this purpose. That group is titled Building a Better Gather. You may also find it valuable to peruse the many suggestions already published there, to assist you in honing your ideas.
Marty S. Jul 30, 2006, 11:15am EDT
So kevin, I have submitted this to that group, but I assume it is moderated by someone.
Kevin (''The SiteWizard'') V. Jul 30, 2006, 11:24am EDT
I do not believe that members should have the ability to edit their prior comments directly, without the corresponding capability for other members to view all versions of said comment. There are tools that can easily be provided to members which can reduce errors or omissions in comments, such as comment preview, and spell check. This should mitigate many of the concerns leading to this suggestion. To allow members to change the text, and potentially the nature and related context of a previously published comment, would be unwise.
Marinela Kotsina Jul 30, 2006, 11:28am EDT
good idea !
Kevin (''The SiteWizard'') V. Jul 30, 2006, 11:42am EDT
Marty, The Building a Better Gather group is moderated by Gather staff. You should see it appear within the group (if your article's content is commensurate with the established premise for the group), as soon as it is reviewed. Usually this doesn't take too long (during a normal work week).
Marty S. Jul 30, 2006, 11:44am EDT
OK, Kevin, these three groups are the ones I selected for publishing this to. Maybe the other 2 groups are moderated and when reviewed, maybe they will show up.

Also, Kevin, I thought you were leaving Gather? What happened?

Publish this article to the selected group(s)
Building a Better Gather
Gather Points Forum
Member Discussion and Chat Forum
Marty S. Jul 30, 2006, 11:46am EDT
Thanks Kevin, I guess Sunday morning, Gather staff may be otherwise occupied. (sheepish grin).
Kevin (''The SiteWizard'') V. Jul 30, 2006, 11:50am EDT
Marty, technically I am still around (obviously). I happened across your article as I was assisting another member with a problem. I cannot leave Gather altogether until I have a transition plan in place for my groups. I am still awaiting an answer on this from Gather Inc.

The Member Discussion and Chat Forum group is also moderated. However as I am the owner for that group, I think I can be persuaded to approve your article. ;-)
Marty S. Jul 30, 2006, 12:00pm EDT
Oh, Kevin, I've reviewed most of the contents of building a better gather group and found relatively few suggestions as to how to improve the useability of the Andre' build.

Oh, thanks, Kevin. (for approving the article in Member Discussion and Chat Forum)

Why can't you just tranfer the ownership of your groups to someone like Nancy Spivey? Or me? Though if I were to assume ownership of the member discussion and chat forum, I'd have to make it unmoderated.

How does one post a message to the gather member discussion and chat forum group unless one is already a member of gather?
Kevin (''The SiteWizard'') V. Jul 30, 2006, 12:11pm EDT
Marty, no, you won't find many articles addressing the Andre build specifically. However, most of the suggestions already captured for the prior release are still applicable (like changes to comment functionality).

As for groups, members may be granted managerial privileges. However, true 'ownership' (and the identification thereof) cannot be transferred.

I don't understand your question regarding the chat forum group.
Marty S. Jul 30, 2006, 12:44pm EDT
It was rhetorical. There isn't a way that someone not a member of gather can post to the gather member discussion and chat forum (at least, as far as I know)

So, are you just unsure of how to leave gather without your content being deleted? What's wrong with just allowing the groups to fade away?
Marty S. Jul 30, 2006, 3:00pm EDT
YAAAA! It's now been approved for building a better gather!
Marty, I don't understand. There is already a date stamp - what is the value of adding the time? There is a 12 hour time difference between where I live in West Oz and New York, and I don't have any problems with comments.

Magi

P.S. Good to see you still contributing, Kevin.
La Lady Lisa Westerfield Jul 30, 2006, 8:36pm EDT
I don't like the idea. I don't want to know the exact time I or others comment on articles.
Marty S. Jul 30, 2006, 9:37pm EDT
No No No, not there. Fine, the time stamp is a bad component. I'm wanting the view when looking at articles, in addition to telling the number of comment entries, to also list the last commenter's name.
Marty S. Jul 30, 2006, 9:43pm EDT
For instance Articles > By Me > and it shows that some of my articles have 6 comments, some have 13, some have 20, well, I'd like to see on that page that lists my articles, who the last commenter on each of those articles was.

Do you see what I'm saying?
Kevin (''The SiteWizard'') V. Jul 30, 2006, 9:54pm EDT
Marty, what are your thoughts on the benefits of adding the name of the last commenter, as you are suggesting?
La Lady Lisa Westerfield Jul 30, 2006, 9:56pm EDT
I would like to know how many reads a particular article of mine receives. Not for any substancial reason, except my curriosity.
Marty S. Jul 30, 2006, 10:26pm EDT
Any easy way of seeing if I was the last one to comment on said article, or if more people have commented. Sure one can see the # increment, but it's another good feature that could be added. Plus, it might be interesting to see what stuff people are commenting on, as opposed to just the top 20 or so articles that contain biting attacks between other individuals, or whatever.

Lisa's idea is nice, but when the article gets refreshed, like when KEO issues 12 different responses to the 12 people who commented on her article, would probably drive up the number of reads. So, I'm not sure I'd trust the number of reads, at least as it is currently implemented.
La Lady Lisa Westerfield Jul 31, 2006, 12:01am EDT
Marty, to be honest, I don't think looking up our own articles counts towards the number of views - at least I would hope not. There is a way to tell the top 100 reads of the day's, week's, and month's articles on gather by looking up the most reads and then setting the curser to 100. What I would like is something less labor intensive.
John S. (arizona) Jul 31, 2006, 9:16am EDT
Kevin- I just hope Gather takes up your Index of Groups. It is by far the most useful thing I have ever used here. I have referred many, many people to it; even though out of date. (unless you have been busy?)
Marty S. Jul 31, 2006, 5:40pm EDT
Lisa, unique hits per day by IP would be a nice way of doing it, but I don't think that is how it is done. KEO seems pleased that her articles are always read so much. I think it has to do with the multiple refreshes by authors who post individual responses to each commenter.
Kevin (''The SiteWizard'') V. Aug 1, 2006, 1:12pm EDT
Marty, considering the nature of conversations on Gather, and the differences in how members converse within the comments of their own articles, I personally would find little value in seeing the name of the last commenter appear in any view, as you suggest. Instead, I would rather have a flag on my articles which identify when comments have been received subsequent to my last view of the article. This would be a tad more valuable to me, as well as technically straightforward.
Auntie Smedley Aug 1, 2006, 1:24pm EDT
We had a comments date/time stamp on our old forum, and I miss it terribly. It gave you an idea of when a conversation was started and/or ended, and whether the people are still online out there.

I hope Gather will consider adding this. It can't be terribly difficult, considering that they already date/time stamp the articles.
Marty S. Aug 2, 2006, 5:53pm EDT
Kevin, I'd like your idea as well, but that requires gather to keep track of what articles have been read by whom, and requires gather to maintain flags on when things happen. It's probably much easier from a programmatic standpoint to implement my suggestion.

Auntie, I agree. after all, they have time/date stamps on e-mail sent. so the data is there. probably normalized to Greenich Mean Time, and adjusted to each person's particular time zone.

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