[Pydotorg-redesign] Re: User comments on python.org

[Simon Willison]

amk at amk.ca wrote:
> I don't think SSIs are currently enabled, but it wouldn't be hard to turn
> them on.  However, I have two worries about this:
> 
> 1) Fitting the comments into the page design -- a page with a lot of
>    comments would be really, really lengthy.

The coolest way of handling this problem I've ever seen is on 
www.kuro5hin.org - load up one of their full story links, then select 
"dynamic minimal" from the Display menu and hit the "set" button. This 
causes all comments attached to an entry to be displayed as just the 
title with a blue arrow icon - clicking the icon dynamically loads that 
comment without reloading the page.

Despite using some pretty advanced Javascript, the technique works in 
both IE and Mozilla. Browsers that do not support the javascript (such 
as Opera) can still see the comments, but have to put up with a round 
trip to the server when they click on a link.

A less cool solution would be just to paginate the comments.

> 2) What if people post obscenities or harmful material?
>    Showing comments by default would be embarrassing; if you have to
>    explicitly choose to view them, this is less worrying.
>    Python.org has a really good Google PageRank, I expect, making it
>    a good target for link spam, so this is something to worry about.

The way PHP.net handles this is that ALL comments are placed in a 
moderation queue and only appear on the site once they have been 
manually approved. This solution would be a disaster if comments were 
meant for discussion, but on PHP.net comments are meant as annotations 
to the page in question hence it doesn't matter if there is a delay of a 
few hours bewteen the comment being posted and it going "live". I would 
suggest the same approach for Python.org.

I have to admit, much as I love Wikis I don't see that Wiki style 
functionality is the best way to go about adding user comments to pages 
of Python.org. Wikis are fantastic tools for fleshing out ideas and 
allowing a small group of smart, dedicated people to collaborate. User 
comments on a high profile site like Python.org are less of a community 
driven thing - people drop in to the site every now and then and maybe 
comment on a feature of the language they have just used.

Cheers,

Simon Willison
http://simon.incutio.com/