Disqus - Friends of boogle

Re: I wish Fruity Freaks was real.

Matt — Fri, 31 May 2013 14:41:17 -0000

Okay, we are TESTING DISQUS TODAY. Some notes:

1. I didn't want nested, but looks like it's the only way. Let's see how it goes.
2. All comments are duplicated locally so if this doesn't pan out, yes, I can switch back without losing stuff.

I realize that this is a major change from the norm, but let's see how it goes and figure out if it's a good thing or not. Please give it time to settle!

The good news is that:

- You can sign up with Disqus and get your own funky avatar of your choosing.
- You can comment by logging in with pretty much any of your social media accounts.
- And other things I'm currently forgetting as I try to figure this all out!

Re: I wish Fruity Freaks was real.

Matt — Fri, 31 May 2013 14:56:05 -0000

Nice detective work!

Re: I wish Fruity Freaks was real.

Matt — Fri, 31 May 2013 15:06:04 -0000

It worked!

Re: I wish Fruity Freaks was real.

Matt — Fri, 31 May 2013 15:31:56 -0000

Hi John, the font should be the same font that the articles are in. Let me know if you're seeing something different!

Re: I wish Fruity Freaks was real.

Matt — Fri, 31 May 2013 15:53:55 -0000

Just checked my Mac - I see it now. I'll see what I can do. Personally, I find the lighter font more legible than my normal one! I will also use this opportunity to see how a mult-reply comment looks on this. My big fear!

Re: I wish Fruity Freaks was real.

Matt — Fri, 31 May 2013 16:12:51 -0000

Thanks everyone for giving Disqus a tryout! I am... cautiously optimistic. It looks like the things that I'd want differently CAN be made differently, if I frick around with the code long enough.

For the moment I'm going to leave "new comments first" as default. Of course, on older entries, it was always newest comments last. So if you ever find yourself on an old thread and want to see it in the original order, it's as simple as changing "Newest" to "Oldest" right above the first comment.

Re: I wish Fruity Freaks was real.

Matt — Fri, 31 May 2013 16:59:31 -0000

I'm going to at least try to edit it so that the nests only extend "a little." I can deal with the nests (threads, whatever) -- I just don't like how they keep pushing further right. :)

Re: I wish Fruity Freaks was real.

Matt — Fri, 31 May 2013 19:13:44 -0000

Let's give it a shot for a few days and see what's what. :)

Re: I wish Fruity Freaks was real.

Matt — Fri, 31 May 2013 19:17:14 -0000

I despise the voting thing, if I can figure out how to remove it, I will. Disqus seems very stubborn. :)

Re: I wish Fruity Freaks was real.

Matt — Fri, 31 May 2013 19:24:45 -0000

They're loading fine for me but we'll keep an eye on it. If it tanks I can always roll it back. I do love seeing everyone's faces, thought. Or in your case, Satan.

Re: I wish Fruity Freaks was real.

Matt — Fri, 31 May 2013 20:06:55 -0000

The downvote thing is stupid so hopefully we can all just learn to have blindness to it. :)

Re: I wish Fruity Freaks was real.

Matt — Fri, 31 May 2013 20:21:04 -0000

I don't know how Facebook has let it go on like that for so long now. I mean, it's just AWFUL. It makes no sense. Sometimes they're in order. Sometimes they're not in any order, with one person's sixteen replies sitting above/below everything else, arbitrarily. How could they not fix that?

Re: I wish Fruity Freaks was real.

Matt — Fri, 31 May 2013 22:43:16 -0000

I didn't research the current availability, but I know that they at least USED to be available all year. But then it slowly whittled down to only Chocula (even Franken Berry was tough to find), and these days, I only spot them around Halloween. But during the season, they make up for lost time by being in every supermarket and department store, in wildly huge numbers.

Re: Dinosaur Dracula’s 1st Birthday!

Matt — Sat, 01 Jun 2013 00:09:25 -0000

Hey guys:

If you missed the scoop in the last thread (not that you can’t see it now), I’m giving Disqus a shot for the comments system. I’m fully aware that there’s some bad points to that, but I’m hoping the good points will outweigh them. If they don’t, I can always switch back, but let’s see how it goes for a few days and try to make the most of it while we do.

One big benefit is that you can now login in any way you choose. You can sign up for a custom ID with Disqus. You can login with Facebook or Twitter. Or you can just post as a guest, if you don’t want the paper trail. You can even use a custom avatar, which, I have to admit, adds a lot for me.

I was against nested comments, but that’s how Disqus works – and let’s see if we can make it work for us.

If I saw no upside to this change, I wouldn’t have done it. (And believe me, it was way less complicated in MANY WAYS not to do it. I gain nothing from the switch; the hope is that it will make the community aspects better.)

Disqus is pretty stubbornly set in its ways, but I’m investigating ways to tweak this-and-that and make it all flow a little better, too. If it all ends up working, sweet. If not, it isn’t irrevocable!

Re: Dinosaur Dracula’s 1st Birthday!

Matt — Sat, 01 Jun 2013 01:44:13 -0000

I never had a reason to speak "Disqus" aloud until today. And what came out was "discus."

Re: Dinosaur Dracula’s 1st Birthday!

Matt — Sat, 01 Jun 2013 01:50:53 -0000

Brian, check out the last song on the jukebox. It was either going to be #1 or #50, and I decided it worked best as a closer. :)

Re: Eight Great Monsters!

Matt — Sat, 01 Jun 2013 02:57:17 -0000

Pick up the Marvel Essentials Warlock collection. It's like 15 bucks on Amazon. Has Strange Tales #180 along with so much wicked Warlock/Magus/Thanos stuff. You'll love it!

Re: Eight Great Monsters!

Matt — Sat, 01 Jun 2013 02:59:39 -0000

It's so weird because I don't even consider it a clone and my "ripoff" wording was too strong. It's more like it was made by people who just LOVED Star Wars. I mean, the stuff they ripped off was so vague -- the bounty hunter sequence especially. It's a trip to watch the film now because even if I always thought "Star Wars" when I saw it (Skeletor's Emperor-like arrival at the end of the movie was tough to ignore), there are so many little winks that I missed as a kid.

Re: Eight Great Monsters!

Matt — Sat, 01 Jun 2013 03:00:28 -0000

I still remember watching the episode where Bam Bam made the announcement. "SCREW YOU, EIGHTEEN VILLAINOUS MANAGERS! I'M GOING WITH OLIVER!"

Re: Dinosaur Dracula’s 1st Birthday!

Matt — Sat, 01 Jun 2013 03:04:20 -0000

Thank you all for the good words! Here are smilies: :) :) :)

But no, seriously, thank you, you've made the wild week leading up to this worth it. :)

Re: Dinosaur Dracula’s 1st Birthday!

Matt — Sat, 01 Jun 2013 03:05:50 -0000

HA! Love it. I even love the alternate yellow bandages! It's like the Mummy Shark Mortal Kombat palette swap. Thanks!

I had no idea that images turned up like that on Disqus.

Re: Dinosaur Dracula’s 1st Birthday!

Matt — Sat, 01 Jun 2013 03:21:40 -0000

I was certainly going to Wildwood when that Drac was there, though I'm not sure I remember him. My main memory is of just sitting somewhere near the castle, and being so exhilarated/scared by the blasting music. I'd eventually go on the ride (dozens of times; both versions), but nothing will top the memories of just looking at it and *hearing* it.

Re: Eight Great Monsters!

Matt — Sat, 01 Jun 2013 10:41:38 -0000

I hate that one specifically because I was in anti for the sake of anti mode. Yuck! If there's a good joke somewhere in that trash, great, but don't pay attention to my suggestion to avoid!

Re: Dinosaur Dracula’s 1st Birthday!

Matt — Sat, 01 Jun 2013 11:21:13 -0000

Thank you again Cliff for all of your incredible help this past year!

Re: Eight Great Monsters!

Matt — Sat, 01 Jun 2013 11:25:48 -0000

I didn't know about that. IT'S WORTH IT. Reading Essential Warlock, there were so many bits I ended up tracking down online, because the lack of color was a bitch. These stories were *incredibly* colorful so yeah, definitely worth it. For Kray-Tor alone!

I of course loved Starlin for his '90s stuff, but reading the older classics really made me understand why people are so into him. The earlier Warlock stories are just so well-written and OUT THERE. (Random fourth wall breaks, Adam basically being a self-loathing psychopath, Pip being incredibly awesome, etc.)