Patch release 88.2

[astronewt]

A patch release has just been put out. It fixes a few of the major problems with expanding threads and other AJAX-y style problems with the new commenting form. We also wanted to let you know about the tickets that have already been filed regarding the commenting form (so you can see if problems you're seeing have already been reported or not) and

Comments

[scryren]

We will be making an S2 commenting style that mimics the display of the original/previous S1 commenting pages.

Right now only paid accounts can have customized comment pages. Will the old S1 style comment pages be available for all accounts or just paid?

[astronewt]

I've put in a ticket that customized comment pages (that exist right now) be made available to all account levels, so hopefully that can be done soon.

Then, for the new thing they're going to do to mimic the old S1 style, I've just made a note to ask about that in regards to account levels as well. I would assume it would be for everyone, but it's also the kind of thing that gets overlooked, so I want to be sure. Thank you!

[ratatosk_knight]

Will you be fixing the issue with customized comment pages breaking if there is a thread that is too long? Because right now if there is a thread that is too long, everything below it is invisible and inaccessible, rendering a great number of my own posts useless because I can't get to half the threads in them.

The new style is not an option for me because it triggers my migraines, so now I am stuck with content that I have paid for but can't even get to.

EDIT: here is an example of what I mean. There are at least five threads with other people beneath the one with hotheadedidiot that don't even show up in customized comments.

[stoppedhiding]

The code for that is very simple. If you add the following to the custom CSS box in the Customize Journal section, long threads will no longer break.

.comment-wrap { margin-bottom:.5em; min-width:35%; }
.layout-inner{overflow:visible;}
.entry-comments-text {overflow:visible;}

(andrusi is the one who informed me of this!)

It's so simple, it almost feels like the current behavior was done on purpose by LJ. Either that, or they're ridiculously incompetent.

[scryren]

They probably left it out because overflow and min-width have (or had) major cross browser issues, specifically with IE. I don't even think IE supports min-width but it's been such a long time since I've tried to use min-width.

[stoppedhiding]

Oh yeah, people actually use IE. That makes sense, thanks!

[scryren]

Cross browser compatibility: if you had some, people wouldn't be having so many problems with your code.

Welcome to the ridiculously incompetent list. Derp.

[stoppedhiding]

Me? I'm under the impression the problems people are having are because I barely know what I'm doing, but okay. Aside from the overflow stuff, what exactly am I doing that's not cross-browser compatible?

(And if you did mean the overflow stuff, people were having problems before I added that, so...)

[scryren]

Your time would be better spent editing the code to stop the indenting after a certain length. If you pull up any S2 layer source code you'll see that...

var int indent = ($c.depth - 1) * 25;

...controls the rate of the indent. The default indent width is 25px per comment. A quick Google search brings up examples from Smoothsailing and FlexSqu comms. I'm going to steal the next line of code from Comment indenting: Stop horizontal scrolling.

var int indentstop = 13;
var int indent = $c.depth <= $indentstop ? ($c.depth - 1) * 20 : ($indentstop - 1) * 20;

Indentstop is set to 13; that tells LJ to stop indenting after 13 comments. The next line tells LJ to keep indenting until it's greater than or equal to indentstop (13). The rest tells it to indent at a rate of 20px, which is what sarken has changed it to instead of the default 25px

[stoppedhiding]

I see! Thank you for the tip. I really don't think I have the necessary skills to pull off a custom theme layer, but maybe that will come in handy for someone else. (Although, wouldn't stopping indenting after a certain length make it hard to tell which comment something is a direct reply to? Or am I misinterpreting what you're saying? I'm picturing a reply winding up at the same level of indentation as its parent, which would make it look as though it was a reply to its parent's parent.)

Don't think I've ever "screamed" about how horrible LJ is, though. I've been a bit snarky, which I think is justified since I've been here for ten years now and sunk more than a thousand dollars into the site over that period of time, but there's been no screaming from me.

But, again, thank you for the advice.

[scryren]

Not thirteen total comments, but thirteen indents deep. Edit: I think I misunderstood. I see what you're saying, but I would need a thread where it's not the same people replying directly one after another to test it on.

[ladyasul]

Actually, I think the problem they're referring to is a little more complicated than overflow visibility.

What's going on here is, after a certain point, the S2 system, at least on the layouts I've tried this with, simply stops generating html and cuts off the page prematurely. Load the link they provided, view the source, and scroll to the very end... and then please note that while the div is closed after the comment, divs for the main page content itself are not closed; the browser automatically figures in the missing /div tags. There should be 453 comments on that post, as reported by the footer of the entry, but I see far, far fewer, no matter where I try to scroll to find them. Hitting control-F and entering "(local)" reports only 126 instances (read: comments) found on the page

[ratatosk_knight]

Yep, that's exactly the problem. No matter what I do, the other comments simply ARE NOT THERE in S2.

[ratatosk_knight]

Oh wow, thank you so much! I tried poking around a bit with the custom CSS but wasn't able to find anything that worked, so this is awesome.

Sadly, at this point I feel like either of those options is equally possible...

EDIT: ... except it doesn't seem to fix the issue of all the other threads simply not being there...

[anonymoose_au]

Oh wow! That totally worked! :OD

Thanks so much and to andrusi too! I'm going to put this on all my S2 pages (I quite like the S2 style, but the long thread breaking thing is quite annoying).

[scryren]

Thank you for that. I know we always whine like a bunch of insane cats when you guys change anything.

My only other concern with how it will be implement is below...

I'd like to be able to tell LJ, in my account settings or the journal style page or what have you, to use the fake S1 style only if the journal is using the default LJ comment page. I do not want the fake S1 style to override my paid style on my journal's comment page or another user's paid style on their comment page.

My logic behind this is that I personally have a paid account but lots of the people and communities I follow don't. The old comment page was very friendly for reading fics to the point that I only used style=mine when the person was using a high contrast layout or at night when I need a low contrast layout (my fault for not buying a monitor that I can adjust the backlight on, I know).

Basically, I prefer reading comment pages in LJ's default style, but I don't want the customized fake S1 overriding my paid S2 style.