Nitpicker's dashboard

A comment on the update "We want comments about our new comments feature" in Get Satisfaction:

Eric, you have just demonstrated another problem. Too easy to duplicate comments by mistake. Why limit the author's edit/delete time? That seems silly here. – Nitpicker, on May 19, 2008 00:51

A comment on the update "We want comments about our new comments feature" in Get Satisfaction:

Right. See all comments. Time stamp comments. I'd rather let any reader wikify any topic so that the top part is the summary on the topic, revised continually. – Nitpicker, on May 19, 2008 00:46

A comment on the update "We want comments about our new comments feature" in Get Satisfaction:

Ahh, I think you are requesting a PrivateComment to a reply. Why not use a click on the name to bring up a Private Comment labeled message form to do that? – Nitpicker, on May 19, 2008 00:39

A comment on the update "We want comments about our new comments feature" in Get Satisfaction:

But wait, comments may have content, too. Please don't hide them. Indeed, why not include the entire reply and all comments in the email to all topic subscribers. – Nitpicker, on May 19, 2008 00:34

A comment on the update "We want comments about our new comments feature" in Get Satisfaction:

OK, but please make a link on EVERY topic to where the philosophy and operation of replies and comments are discussed as if in the user's manual. Transparency, yes. – Nitpicker, on May 19, 2008 00:29

A comment on the update "We want comments about our new comments feature" in Get Satisfaction:

Aha! These comments are PUBLIC and in line where they belong. Applause! – Nitpicker, on May 19, 2008 00:25

Nitpicker started following the update "We want comments about our new comments feature" in Get Satisfaction.

A comment on the update "We want comments about our new comments feature" in Get Satisfaction:

Side comments are called asides. Use italics? Indent them to the right? – Nitpicker, on May 19, 2008 00:24

Nitpicker replied on May 18, 2008 05:49 to the question "How do comments differ from replies?" in PBwiki:

Re Guy Fawkes reply: What is a dashboard and how do I see one, especially mine?

Wouldn't it make sense to have a note on each comment and reply text box that comments are private and replies are public.

Actually, I would far prefer that both were public and that both accumulated at the bottom of a wiki page where the top was a coherent article explaining the import and meaning of the accumulated answers. Wikis are wonderful at this sort of accumulation of refinements.

Nitpicker replied on May 17, 2008 21:41 to the question "My comments are gone!" in PBwiki:

Is this fixed in PBwiki 2.0?

I think of wikis as keeping a history of changes so they can be understood, reverted, and attributed. If PBwiki does not do this, I would consider it a bug and report the problem to the authorities for prompt repair.

Nitpicker shared an idea in PBwiki on May 17, 2008 21:32:

Reorganize the discussion for one topic (at a time)

Responses to a question or problem often seem disorganized. How could that be improved?

IDEA: Provide a WIKIFY button for each topic, to make a new wiki page for this topic.

Result: When a reader notices that a topic discussion seems badly organized, they can press the WIKIFY button. That copies the entire discussion, including tags, into a new wiki page, ready to be named and reorganized by that reader and any other. New public replies to the topic would also appear as new comments at the bottom of the wiki page, ready to be integrated into the better organized discussion there.

New readers of the topic would see a link to the wiki page prominently displayed at the top and bottom of the topic and possibly other places as well. The wiki page would automagically get links back to the reply by reply topic to let readers see how it originally developed, in case they care.

Nitpicker replied on May 17, 2008 20:58 to the question "How do comments differ from replies?" in PBwiki:

Why some responses show up and others do not:

I was confused when someone referred to a question from Paul. The topic had been started by Paul, and several responses by Paul were also shown in the topic. The response just above the one I was reading was from Paul, but the "question from Paul" was referring to the topic initiation. I responded to express my confusion and eventually, weeks later, I got a private comment explaining why I had been confused. I hope I won't offend anyone by making it public here:

Eric Suesz commented on a reply in I just submitted a help ticket. Now what?, a question about PBwiki.

Nitpicker: You can either reply to Paul's original question -- this overall topic -- or you can add a comment. Replies go to everyone; comments go only to the person you're leaving a comment for. Hope this helps.

-------

Oh, REPLIES are PUBLIC but COMMENTS are PRIVATE.

But, in this case, I have made a private comment rather public.

Nitpicker asked a question in PBwiki on May 17, 2008 20:45:

How do comments differ from replies?

How do Get Satisfaction topics work?

Some responses show up and others don't. The discussions under each topic seem disconnected and often don't seem to make sense when read in sequence.

Why is this so disorganized?

How could it be improved?

Nitpicker replied on April 22, 2008 03:43 to the question "Is this a den of criminals?" in PBwiki:

Thanks Rachel, your pointers were bang on. I do love librarians.

Near as I can tell, those of us who quote an entire message and are NOT Get Satisfaction staff ARE criminals until GS grants US the rights that they grant themselves. In particular, if I were to mass copy a complete conversation even into a PBwiki page, without explicit permission of the authors and/or PB and/or GS officials, I would be violating copyrights. I personally doubt that anyone would sue me or that it would be sustained in court if they did, but formally, each of us who copies an entire message is at risk. We would all be saved if the terms of service specified that contributions were subject to the Creative Commons License. I recommend it. And bless Larry Lessig and the EFF for their selfless efforts for all of us.

If that doesn't happen, then I probably won't undertake to move stuff to a wiki, but instead I will just continue to bitch and moan about the ways that GS would work better if it were a wiki than it does as a forum. I would feel more constructive in the other medium. Tough.

I hereby assert that all my words are declared to be governed by the Creative Commons License. Feel free to copy them for any purpose including as horrible examples of this or that.

Nitpicker replied on April 21, 2008 19:15 to the question "Is this a den of criminals?" in PBwiki:

Copyright law says that everything is copyrighted by the author upon being written and there are massive fines for unauthorized copying unless it's considered fair use. But there are not clear lines about fair use. Better ask your attorney. Wikipedia deals with this by rules and practices shown on virtually every page. You probably should as well.

On this page, if I make my window 100 percent of screen width, then I can eliminate the horizontal scrolling, but the left edge is covered by my dock. HTML was designed to allow web pages to fit to the given window. Why do you defeat that and virtually demand that all 1024 pixels be devoted to your page? That is rude and offensive to me. I think it IS that bad. Would you care to take a vote?

PBwiki pages work well at various window widths and they allow a discussion to be refined and improved instead of just getting longer like these pages.

Nitpicker asked a question in PBwiki on April 19, 2008 22:38:

Is this a den of criminals?

Is it OK to copy a discussion, or parts of one to a wiki?

Why is it OK to quote anyone's posting? Isn't anyone who does that subject to vast penalties for violating the automatic copyright of the author? I agree that would be absurd, but the law is an ass.

There are so many dumb problems with this forum that I want to move any interesting discussion into a pbwiki page and avoid using these overly wide pages at all.

Nitpicker replied on April 19, 2008 15:49 to the question "I just submitted a help ticket. Now what?" in PBwiki:

This is a response to "Reply to Paul Singh's question"

WHAT QUESTION?

Here is the beginning of what Paul said just above the quoted phrase above:

Joana - I'm sorry you're frustrated. ....

There is no question in it.

AQRRRRGH.

A comment on the question "I just submitted a help ticket. Now what?" in PBwiki:

When I comment on a comment, there seems to be no indication of what I am commenting on. I said "HOW?" but without the connection to the thing I was referring to, it makes no sense to anyone. Is there some reason for this to work in such a useless way? When this is all about wikis, and wikis don't have that kind of problem, why don't we use wikis for this discussion instead of this mess? – Nitpicker, on April 19, 2008 15:40

Nitpicker reported a problem in Get Satisfaction on March 13, 2008 19:38:

Dashboard disorganizes conversations, and worse.

When I get to my dashboard, my conversations are all mixed up. I don't get no satisfaction.

Call me for advice on how to make it work well, assuming you care.

Nitpicker replied on March 13, 2008 19:15 to the question "I just submitted a help ticket. Now what?" in PBwiki:

HOW? Where is that link? Much too often, the next step is not there.