Yesterday’s post (rant), Teachers & Technology, reminded me of a desire I’ve had for a long time to integrate threaded comments into my blog. The rather rambling article attracted 18 comments, some responding directly to the original article, and others responding to the comments of other readers.
For those who may not know what is meant by threaded comments, it derives from discussion boards, where an original message is posted and readers respond to that message by clicking the [reply] link — similar to blogs’ [comment] link.
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| Figure 1 |
However, in a threaded discussion, each response or reply also sports a [reply] link, so that readers can reply directly to the response of another, creating a new thread of conversation. Threads are usually distinguished through indentions, like figure 1.
As you can see, by indenting the responses of another response, individual conversations (or threads) can be easily identified and followed. Of course, it isn’t always so simple as conversations can be embedded within conversations — threads within threads. But it’s usually better than a single stream of comments arranged chronologically rather than logically, as is usually the case with blogs.
I’ve known for a while that there were plugins for WordPress (my blogging engine) that would add threading to its comments, but I have not been able to get them to work, in the amount of time I was able to devote to experimenting. Yesterday, however, in my efforts to relax (remember, programming is usually relaxing to me), I spent some time with Tinythread by poet, theorist, and idle rambler, Preston Mark Stone — and I got it to work. It was very nice, probably a little Ajax in there.
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| Figure 2 |
The only problem left was that in activating the threaded comments, I had installed over my ReCaptcha plugin, which had been preventing spam comments. Bummer! And I really like the story of ReCaptcha (see Re-Capturing Books through Captcha…). So I deactivated Tinythread and re-installed ReCaptcha.
This morning, around 3:30 AM, I awoke with desire. I wanted both threaded comments and ReCaptcha. So I got up and reactivated and re-installed Tinythread, and then searched through the comments script used in ReCaptcha, looking for the specific code that caused the captcha code words (from undigitized books) to appear. Then found the spot where threaded comments were displayed within the Tinythread code, and inserted the Recaptcha. It didn’t work at first, but with some fine tuning, well, I’m happy now. Sleepy — but happy! (see figure 2)
I’m not entirely sure it’s working 100%, so let me know if you encounter any glitches.
My only question is, will you release the modified tinythread + recaptcha code once the bug hunt is over? This is a solid plugin I’d like to have!
Chris
Chris, I certainly agree with you, but to be honest I’m mostly just trying out the threaded comment feature! And since my posting yesterday was “honored” (with tongue firmly in cheek) to be exhibited as David’s Figure 2 today, I thought that I’d see how this went.
Congratulations, David, for working out both scripts together! I do know that the more scripts we try to combine, the exponentially more conflicts we often encounter….!
Just found out that my blog is now crashing IE7 for some folks, including me. It appears, however, not to be tinythread, but one of the listing that I installed in the side bar last weekend.
The work continues.
I read the two most recent blog entries to catch the thread. Previously, you spoke of teachers who are not required to step up to the plate and choose not to do so, perhaps out of fear. I am happy to report that I met a teacher this summer who took 5 graduate level courses with the common theme of integrating technology into her program. Here was a teacher who previously struggled to use email but became proficient managing multiple email sites, published a PowerpPoint, made an impressive iMovie, developed a wiki, and discovered dozens of ways, exciting ways, to bring her classroom into the digital age. It’s never too late and never say never.
Now, here is today’s 2 Cents Worth content where you demonstrate how you tackled something that was difficult for you–at your level of proficiency. You could easily have said, “I wanted to do this, so I did, and here’s the change and tah dah! … instead, you took us through the process of having set a goal failed at it, giving yourself time, and then persevering to accomplish the goal.
Some of this web. 2.0 stuff is clunky. It chews up your time and spits it out. Some of us find new technology compelling and some greet these changes with dread, But the good news, the great news, is that if a teacher is a novice and has not been welcoming of tech in the classroom, all it takes is a summer to turn on and tune in. I think I respect the struggle and the striving, as much as the result.
Thank you for remarking about your struggle, if tech leaders only show end results and not how they got there, novices will compare and be intimidated rather than challenged.
Hi Dave,
I’m the developer for the tinythread plugin. I abandoned active development long ago due to time constraints, life changes, etc, but I’m thinking about rewriting the plugin from scratch. Is there anything you’d like to see incorporated in tinythread that isn’t there now?
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