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News Article
Update to Series Comments
The comments section of the series page got an overhaul today to include user avatars and tighten up the design. If you go to a series page and the comments section looks absolutely terrible, that means your browser has cached the old layout files, and you should hit refresh to grab the new ones.

This was a primer project to get me back up-to-speed with the site codebase. Look forward to some more major updates in the near future!
Posted by monkeyvoodoo on 
May 9th 3:27pm
Comments ( 50 )  
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Comments (limited to first 100 replies)

» Panda on May 9th, 2011, 5:42pm

WHERE ARE THEY

(Caps for emphasis)

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» monkeyvoodoo on May 9th, 2011, 5:43pm

>This was a primer project to get me back up-to-speed with the site codebase. Look forward to some more major updates in the near future!

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» Panda on May 9th, 2011, 5:54pm

NOT FAST ENOUGH

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» shinshuu on May 9th, 2011, 5:51pm

either something is wrong with my firefox browser or the need layout need major touch up. and avatars are too big, the texts are both big and black, some bold. As well, it need a divider line or something to separate the comments. So far, it seem like a mess, very unappealing, much less wanting to read it.

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» Panda on May 9th, 2011, 5:54pm

Refresh.

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» Pikapu on May 9th, 2011, 6:01pm

Woo woo!
Thanks, monkeyvoodoo!

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» Fuzzee on May 9th, 2011, 6:27pm

Honestly, I don't care too much to see others' avatars in the comments. I just want to read their reviews. Could you make them (the avatars) smaller and so reduce the header size? You could even put the date on the same line as the name of the commenter.

Other than that, nice initiative, and thanks for the effort.

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» Fareki on May 9th, 2011, 6:36pm

Totally agree. The avatars take up too much space, and it would just drag out the length of the page. The new layout certainly does allow people to actually see the headers and titles instead of thinking they're a part of the review, but it's a bit too big.

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» makoz on May 9th, 2011, 7:26pm

x2. Make the header's height fixed. I'd say the rating box + the bottom portion of the header would make a good height.

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» makoz on May 9th, 2011, 7:31pm

lol forgot the most important...I like the change though, makes the page more lively.

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» monkeyvoodoo on May 9th, 2011, 7:56pm

Can't fix the header's height because the avatar image isn't a fixed ratio, and we're fixing the width of the avatar to 50px, so the height may change.

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» monkeyvoodoo on May 9th, 2011, 7:58pm

I've reduced the width of the avatar image to 50px, and decreased the font size for the comment title. :3

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» StarlightDreams on May 9th, 2011, 8:37pm

I like the new updates!
Yes for some change! Now someone go wake up Manick from his 3 year nap. :'D

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» Panda on May 9th, 2011, 11:10pm

Small steps. Small steps.

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» zeidrich on May 9th, 2011, 11:59pm

I don't think the white text with the light blue background for the ratings for each comment works very well. A darker text color or a darker background would make it easier to read. Thanks for all the hard work. I like the overall update. My two cents.

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» darkraiders on May 10th, 2011, 3:19am

The new comment system is ugly.
I don't like it at all.

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» darkraiders on May 10th, 2011, 3:20am

It seem i just had to reload sorry for that comment is look nice.

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» Alannaeowyn on May 10th, 2011, 6:02am

The second column of series info--image, author, genres, etc.--has been bumped down to the bottom of the first column, so that it's all one column. Has anyone else had this problem? (Yes, I did hit refresh. No change.)
Anyhow, keep up the good work!

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» lynira on May 10th, 2011, 6:50am

Yes, I'm having the same problem. I tried refreshing, logging out and back in, restarting my browser, clearing my browser cache, and deleting all my cookies, but it still hasn't gone back to the normal two-column display... I'm not sure what's wrong or how to fix it.

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» Lychee on May 10th, 2011, 8:00am

this.

I like the changes. clean look, don't mind the avatars, etc. except for the one column thing. manga cover images are now supersized, probably causing the column bump.

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» monkeyvoodoo on May 10th, 2011, 11:45am

What browser and version are you using? I test in 8 different browsers on Mac and Windows and can't reproduce this problem.

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» animefan14079 on May 10th, 2011, 4:26pm

It's the same for me as well. Everything is arranged in one long column. I'm using IE 7 btw. I tested this in Firefox and the page loads normally, but I prefer to use IE.

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» monkeyvoodoo on May 10th, 2011, 5:19pm

IE 7 was released on October 18, 2006. You should think about updating.

I've gone out of my way to get at an XP box that has IE 7 installed. I'll update soon with a fix.

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» lynira on May 11th, 2011, 9:54am

I'm using IE8 on Windows XP. But the problem seems to be fixed now; thank you!

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» dreamer00013 on May 10th, 2011, 6:32am

haha ^^ It only took me three times to get it properly! But hey, looks nice. Just don't like the avatars I~I

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» MewMan on May 10th, 2011, 8:15am

thx for the effort. i like the change. no problem for me at the moment.
keep up the good work!

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» NightSwan on May 10th, 2011, 9:37am

I take changes badly, so my opinion doesn't matter here.
But I do have a problem with everything being in a single line (series pic, recs, summary).
I prefer the old way, with the series summary being on the left side and the series pic & genres on the right.

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» matrixik on May 10th, 2011, 2:11pm

As long as changes go to good directions and don't break my GM scripts I support them smile

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» Yenoh on May 10th, 2011, 4:32pm

Waaaah, it looks so much better! I was wondering why it looked different and if I was missing something...but this is amazing (:

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» Mytskine on May 10th, 2011, 4:37pm

It takes too much space without adding any information. And these avatars slow down the page (the browser has to load all these images) for pictures I usually prefer not to see. IMO, displaying the avatars should be optional.

I don't want to be rude, but the new system is written with bad HTML. Using tables for presentation instead of CSS is a bad idea. All web (serious) professionals have been saying this for at least 10 years. The key principle is to avoid mixing presentation with the HTML structure. A few other details are, for instance, using empty anchors instead of ids (obsolete), or putting a "br" when div containers allow more flexibility.

I'd really appreciate a more compact design. As this table structure doesn't allow any powerful change of presentation, I've added a few radical lines to my custom CSS for m-u (most browser allow this). Here's this CSS, in case anyone is interested:

.comment_avatar,
.comment_useful,
.comment_meta,
.comment_author
{ display: none !important; }
.series_comment th { padding: 0ex 1ex !important; }
.comment_body { padding: 0.3ex 1ex 1ex 4ex !important; }

Please enhance the new comment system!

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» monkeyvoodoo on May 10th, 2011, 5:30pm

The HTML used for the new comments layout keeps with the convention used by the rest of the site. As someone who makes a profession of building web applications, and as the one working with the current source tree to implement these changes, I should be qualified to say that this was the best option, based on the situation. And actually, I removed some of the style-related markup from the existing HTML in the process of making these changes. It's not like I'm ignorant of good design practices.

To some (probably most) users, presentation is equally as important as—if not more important than—simply providing raw information. This change was intended to appeal to that crowd. It looks like you've already found a way to make the design more compact on your own, so I'm not sure what you're complaining about.

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» Mytskine on May 11th, 2011, 4:11pm

Sorry, I didn't mean to offend anyone. I often have strong POV on technical subjects and I don't know how to express them with "subtility". My english is far from perfect, and that doesn't help.

I'm complaining because I can't customize much the page design. This site is using tables most of the time, and the comment system is doing the same. I'd rather reorganize the blocks to have a more compact display, but as it is not possible, I decided to hide some data to gain space (I just kept comments titles and bodies). The site would be much powerful if there were less tables. It could satisfy both crowds craving for glowing presentation and spartan guys. It would even allow to use themes (like anidb). BTW, I also build web apps, though I'm more of a backend guy.

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» monkeyvoodoo on May 14th, 2011, 4:01pm

I'm not offended, I was just explaining that there was a reason it was done like it is.

Changing the site to reduce table usage would be a monstrous task that I'm not willing to undertake at the moment.

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» Fareki on May 10th, 2011, 7:11pm

Another thing I would like to add is to have the ratings be a little bolder and more noticeable. Personally, I like to look at what people rate the mangas, since this helps me make my own judgement about whether to read it or not. It doesn't have to be larger or anything, but being slightly more eye catching could help.

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» eriochrome on May 10th, 2011, 7:22pm

Now just re-color the background color for the spoiler boxes (to something lighter) and it'll be even better.

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» Kojiro_S on May 10th, 2011, 11:52pm

Looking good so far, IMO. The current layout may be slightly bigger than the previous one, but I like how it looks. Easier to find my own comments, too. biggrin

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» book_lover on May 11th, 2011, 1:41am

The new look is clean and fresh. I like it.

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» Mierten on May 11th, 2011, 6:23am

The centering in titles and genre is going overboard. They are easier to read when they are left aligned.
Thanks for keeping the site going and up-to-date.

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» Lychee on May 11th, 2011, 7:54am

yes, this too. left alignment on the comment titles. center alignment allows too much deviation in spacing....

thanks for fixing the one column issue. looking good

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» kaloo on May 14th, 2011, 7:15am

Yeah, it makes it kind of hard to go down a list of series, especially once you add in the list icons which just further unbalance it.

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» MangaGhost on May 11th, 2011, 9:54am

Text needs to be darker or font thicker in the body of the reviews, kinda like here in the comment section. It just comes across too faint and someone with weak vision, like myself has hard time reading it. Aside from that, I like that the rating was moved to the right hand corner of the review.

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» Gradonil_Ral on May 11th, 2011, 10:02am

Was this comment useful? Yes tickmark No xmark Report exclamationmark

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» monkeyvoodoo on May 11th, 2011, 2:33pm

Thanks for pointing that out. Not sure how that ended up there!

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» Toto on May 11th, 2011, 4:01pm

If you actually click on the report button it leads to, "Could not find that comment, or it has already been reported!"

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» monkeyvoodoo on May 12th, 2011, 10:28pm

This should be fixed now.

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» Marcos on May 12th, 2011, 11:00pm

So yeah,
The new idea isn't so good and the comments get too messy to read them without problems.
So my question is, could You make, as an another side project, a way for registered users
to disable this new way of displaying comments and revert back to the old way they were displayed??

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» Mytskine on May 14th, 2011, 10:39am

I guess it would be hard to make it an option. The new comment system is done with HTML tables, so its style can't be customized. Displaying comments the old way for some registered users would mean to have both codes in parallel. It would be a pain to maintain. It would also hurt the caching engines on the server (I suppose M-U use some).

IMHO, it's not because most of the site uses html tables that every new html block has to use them. It feels a bit like: "the old code is ugly so I can't write pretty code". Why not? Let's hope the next rewrite will use modern semantic HTML with some more CSS.

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» monkeyvoodoo on May 14th, 2011, 4:03pm

If you people saw the code I'm working with, you'd understand perfectly why I did it like this.

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» monkeyvoodoo on May 14th, 2011, 4:54pm

How exactly are they messy? They should look like this.

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» Toto on May 14th, 2011, 8:03pm

Could you possibly put the rating of the series opposite the "was this comment useful" question?

It seems to disappear (not literally) where it is now.

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