New Site Feature - Testers Needed | Fri 23 Oct 2009 | Blog

New Site Feature - Testers Needed

There's a new feature on codestore I'm hoping you'll find useful. You can now get email alerts when there's a reply to your comment.

This works by virtue of the threaded comments system I've implemented recently. Without that there's no way it could work, as it would be unaware of whether a reply was intended for you or not.

Whether you'll use the feature or not remains to be seen. All I know is that I'd use it if it were on other blogs.

Why?

I'm not really a big poster on other blogs. Mainly because I find it such an ineffective means of communication. When I do post something it's often in the form of a question to which I'd like an answer. So I have to remember to go back there from time to time and scan all subsequent comments to see if there's an "@jake" from anybody (hopefully the original author).

Oftentimes I find myself giving up on getting a reply and stop going back. Even on this site when I'm replying to a question aimed at me I find myself wondering if the answer will ever be read by the person who asked it. Sometimes, if they've left an email address, I'll email them a link to say "I replied to your question".

Wouldn't it be much easier if you could just wait for the reply to drop in to your inbox! That's what you can do here now.

Notes: Only one email is sent at a time, so there's no CCing of all in the chain. If you chose to hide your email address then it will always remain private from the others in the thread. I take your privacy seriously.

Testing

If you're up for it you can help me test it by replying to this blog and choosing the option to be alerted to any subsequent replies. I'll then reply and you then reply to say if you did or didn't get an email or if you have any suggestions for improvements.

Comments

- Jake Howlett
- Posted on Fri 23 Oct 2009 05:13 AM
Any reply to this will send an email to me. Hopefully

Reply to this comment
1. - Dragon Cotterill
  - Posted on Fri 23 Oct 2009 05:47 AM
  Yes, I like the new Reply box that appears. There have been some good changes to this site over the past few days.
  We should all take note.
  
  Reply to this comment
2. - Klaus Terman
  - Posted on Fri 23 Oct 2009 06:29 AM
  Test
  
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  1. - Jake Howlett
    - Posted on Fri 23 Oct 2009 06:34 AM
    test?
    
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    1. - Klaus Terman
      - Posted on Fri 23 Oct 2009 07:04 AM
      It works :-) Nice feature
      
      Reply to this comment
  2. - Sean Cull
    - Posted on Fri 23 Oct 2009 08:20 AM
    #hello
    I would rather not have the option to make my email public
    
    Reply to this comment
    1. - Jake Howlett
      - Posted on Fri 23 Oct 2009 08:33 AM
      huh? you'd rather it defaulted to hidden or that the option wasn't there and just always hid it?
      
      Reply to this comment
      1. Sean Cull
        
        Posted on Fri 23 Oct 2009 09:02 AM
        
        Strange, I can see your ( Jake's ) response above via the email but not when looking at the article on the web.
        I guess as long as you are sure that it can't be spidered by spam bots it is ok to have it
        On a seperate point I would rather be brough back to the complete thread but to an anchor link to the relevant response. Bringing people into only their portion of the thread will create lots of private conversations which may overlapp with other responses to the article
        
        Reply to this comment
3. - John Fazio
  - Posted on Fri 23 Oct 2009 08:24 AM
  Comment count? Your Total appears different then actual.
  
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  1. - Jake Howlett
    - Posted on Fri 23 Oct 2009 08:34 AM
    In what way John? Is it the hidden ones (below level 2 of thread) that you can't see perhaps?
    
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    1. - John Fazio
      - Posted on Fri 23 Oct 2009 08:38 AM
      On your homepage it states 51 comments.
      I count 29.
      This was added from my iPhone!
      
      Reply to this comment
      1. John Fazio
        
        Posted on Fri 23 Oct 2009 08:41 AM
        
        Never mind... the nesting keeps going so I'd have to expand everything get the overall number. Maybe add a total at the highest response level so we know where the conversations are happening?
        -John
        
        Reply to this comment
4. - Patrick
  - Posted on Mon 26 Oct 2009 12:35 AM
  Yet another test...
  
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  1. - Jake Howlett
    - Posted on Mon 26 Oct 2009 02:02 AM
    You should get an email about this reply Patrick
    
    Reply to this comment
    1. - Patrick
      - Posted on Mon 2 Nov 2009 09:36 PM
      Yup, got it.
      Nice new feature.
      
      Reply to this comment
- Mark Teichmann
- Posted on Fri 23 Oct 2009 05:43 AM
Aye, testing now.
Btw did you know that there is no repository for nuclear waste available all over the world by now?
Of course you know, but I think it is one of the most serious crimes being committed at our children nowadays that there are still nuclear plants running and being built.
Thus having said I think there may come some replies by mail soon ;-)
C'mon,
Mark
P.S. Hamburg - Celtic 1:0

Reply to this comment
1. - Jake Howlett
  - Posted on Fri 23 Oct 2009 05:51 AM
  Woh there Mark. That's way too political for this site ;o) Politics *and* sport!
  
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  1. - Mark Teichmann
    - Posted on Fri 23 Oct 2009 05:54 AM
    you are right. I am not a real soccer fan either. But I am reading 'Crime' (the new Welsh book). There good ol Ray is a big Hearts fan.
    But until now I did not get any mail. How often will your mail agent run? Or am I only getting a mail on a direct response?
    
    Reply to this comment
    1. - Mark Teichmann
      - Posted on Fri 23 Oct 2009 05:57 AM
      now I got a mail, containing my own post. I would suggest to filter out mails to one's own address.
      But I got no mail from your answer until now!?
      Maybe a security thing? I only have the right to send mail to my own posts?
      
      Reply to this comment
      1. Mark Teichmann
        
        Posted on Fri 23 Oct 2009 05:59 AM
        
        now testing the response link...
        did you know that I am a great supporter of Slow Food?
        (I hope this is not too political again :-) But even testing has a price ....
        
        Reply to this comment
      2. Jake Howlett
        
        Posted on Fri 23 Oct 2009 06:02 AM
        
        Woops. One bug - doesn't send email alerts if it's me. Fixed. You should get an email about this alert now?
        Yeah I'll filter out replies from being sent to yourself. How though? Matching IP address or email (no guarantee it will be entered both times the same though).
        
        Reply to this comment
        
        Mark Teichmann
        
        Posted on Fri 23 Oct 2009 06:14 AM
        
        now it works.
        I would suggest to filter for matching mail.
        One other thing: It would be good to set the checkbox 'send me an email...' either once per thread or it should be remembered if I use the 'Reply'-link in the mail. Usually I want always or never mail replies per thread.
        
        Reply to this comment
        
        Jake Howlett
        
        Posted on Fri 23 Oct 2009 06:28 AM
        
        it now filters on IP and email. If you reply to this you shouldn't get an email about it?
        
        Reply to this comment
        
        Mark Teichmann
        
        Posted on Fri 23 Oct 2009 06:41 AM
        
        let's try it.
        Another thing that I recognized: The 'Show more of this thread'-thingy is really useful. But often I have to click on it several times in one thread. It would be nice to have it act like 'Collapse All' or 'Expand all' on one tree of the thread.
        
        This reply is already 8 levels deep and so replying at this level is disabled.
        
        Mark Teichmann
        
        Posted on Fri 23 Oct 2009 06:45 AM
        
        the filter seems to work as expected.
        good job, Jake. Things are really quick when you develope in Notes :-)
        
        This reply is already 8 levels deep and so replying at this level is disabled.
2. - Rob
  - Posted on Fri 23 Oct 2009 12:09 PM
  Testing: I clicked on the reply button in the comment rss feed and it took me right to "Add your own response here". I'll tick the "Send me an email ..." also.
  By the way, did you know that there is a world-wide repository for the waste products from coal fired power plants? You're breathing it now.
  And, yes, you did provoke me to answer. Thanks. Good one!
  Peace,
  Rob:-]
  
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  1. - Jake Howlett
    - Posted on Fri 23 Oct 2009 04:33 PM
    You should get an email about this reply then Rob?
    
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    1. - Rob
      - Posted on Fri 23 Oct 2009 04:55 PM
      Got it!
      
      Reply to this comment
      1. Rob
        
        Posted on Fri 23 Oct 2009 05:04 PM
        
        Oops! I replied above using a browser at a client location that I haven't used to comment on your blog in over a year. It has an old cookie with my old domain name, dowork.com, which I sold. (That's a long and strange story. If you go to that page you might get a hint of how strange it is.)
        I didn't even notice it until I posted. Well, I'm updating my cookie with this post.
        
        Reply to this comment
        
        Jake Howlett
        
        Posted on Sat 24 Oct 2009 02:03 AM
        
        I'd have solve the domain too if they came asking!
        
        Reply to this comment
- Dragon Cotterill
- Posted on Fri 23 Oct 2009 05:45 AM
Testing? Yes, always ready to help.

Reply to this comment
1. - Jake Howlett
  - Posted on Fri 23 Oct 2009 05:50 AM
  You should get an email about this reply Dragon? In it is a link you can click to add a subsequent reply...
  
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  1. - Jake Howlett
    - Posted on Fri 23 Oct 2009 06:03 AM
    Right. Second time lucky. Did you get an alert to this one?
    
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    1. - Dragon Cotterill
      - Posted on Fri 23 Oct 2009 06:06 AM
      Yep. Got an email to the second one. Did I not click on "send me an email" on the first one? Or is this small insect removal?
      
      Reply to this comment
      1. Jake Howlett
        
        Posted on Fri 23 Oct 2009 06:14 AM
        
        Yep. One small insect removed.
        
        Reply to this comment
- Nick Hopkins
- Posted on Fri 23 Oct 2009 06:03 AM
Top Stuff Jake.
Hoping to be replying shortly

Reply to this comment
1. - Michelle O'Rorke
  - Posted on Fri 23 Oct 2009 06:09 AM
  Hopefully Nick will get a reply to his comment as a result of mine. Does the feature only send emails when someone replies directly to your own comment, or to any additions to a comment "thread"?
  Always happy to test web sites as I manage to break so many with an apostrophe in my name ;-)
  
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  1. - Jake Howlett
    - Posted on Fri 23 Oct 2009 06:12 AM
    Alerts should be sent to anybody who wants them at any level up the thread. Made sense to me. Is that what you'd expect it to do?
    You should both get an alert to this (assuming you chose to).
    
    Reply to this comment
    1. - Michelle O'Rorke
      - Posted on Fri 23 Oct 2009 06:17 AM
      I have got everything so far. My question is more - would Dragon get this because it is another 'branch' separate to where he posted a comment?
      
      Reply to this comment
      1. Dragon Cotterill
        
        Posted on Fri 23 Oct 2009 06:20 AM
        
        No, I didn't get an email. Didn't think I would. I suspect Jake is walking up the Document.Parent list firing off the emails as he goes.
        
        Reply to this comment
        
        Jake Howlett
        
        Posted on Fri 23 Oct 2009 06:27 AM
        
        Exactly right. Walk up the thread like so:
        while parent.isresponse
        'send email?
        set parent = db.getDocumentByUNID(parent.parentUniversalID)
        wend
        
        Reply to this comment
  2. - Nick Hopkins
    - Posted on Fri 23 Oct 2009 06:12 AM
    Michelle's reply duly arrived in my inbox.
    Jake this is top stuff.
    Publish Please
    n
    
    Reply to this comment
  3. - Dragon Cotterill
    - Posted on Fri 23 Oct 2009 06:12 AM
    And now the question is, do Nick *and* Michelle both get this comment?
    
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    1. - Nick Hopkins
      - Posted on Fri 23 Oct 2009 06:14 AM
      I did. Michelle?
      n
      
      Reply to this comment
      1. Nick Hopkins
        
        Posted on Fri 23 Oct 2009 06:19 AM
        
        You might want to have a look at this. Getting a reply to my own response to Michelle...Whatever - You'll sort it.
        This is fantastic stuff. Well done Jake.
        n
        
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        Michelle O'Rorke
        
        Posted on Fri 23 Oct 2009 06:20 AM
        
        Are you building your own "Google Wave" here?
        
        Reply to this comment
        
        Dragon Cotterill
        
        Posted on Fri 23 Oct 2009 06:22 AM
        
        Nah, if he was building Google Wave, he woul dbe submitting the comments back via Ajax and showing everything insitu without the round trip to the server.
        Ooops, now I've given him more ideas to play with.
        
        Reply to this comment
        
        Michelle O'Rorke
        
        Posted on Fri 23 Oct 2009 06:25 AM
        
        That was just what I expected. Next question though - the comment box is now only about 2" wide. What happens to the layout when / if the comments get another few more levels deep?
        
        This reply is already 8 levels deep and so replying at this level is disabled.
        
        Michelle O'Rorke
        
        Posted on Fri 23 Oct 2009 06:27 AM
        
        Ahah! Last question answered! No more comments allowed
        
        This reply is already 8 levels deep and so replying at this level is disabled.
        
        Jake Howlett
        
        Posted on Fri 23 Oct 2009 07:00 AM
        
        Google Wave it ain't Michelle.
        Although I know Google said to themselves "What would email look like if it were invented today" and out popper Wave.
        In my own little way I'm wondering "What *should* blog commenting systems look like today"...
        
        This reply is already 8 levels deep and so replying at this level is disabled.
- Michelle O'Rorke
- Posted on Fri 23 Oct 2009 06:22 AM
Getting lots of emails, very fast, and Google is grouping them as a single conversation which works very well for this single topic as the sender and subject are the same.
Because of that, maybe you should add the blog topic / heading to the subject.

Reply to this comment
1. - Jake Howlett
  - Posted on Fri 23 Oct 2009 06:31 AM
  Good thinking Michelle. So gmail will only group emails about the same blog entry? Will add it in in the next revision.
  
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  1. - Michelle O'Rorke
    - Posted on Fri 23 Oct 2009 07:05 AM
    Next version is posted already? That was quick - the email for your comment above was grouped separately from the previous ones, which is great.
    I think Notes 8 also uses similar logic to group conversations.
    
    Reply to this comment
- Tommy Valand
- Posted on Fri 23 Oct 2009 06:29 AM
All your replies are belong to my inbox!

Reply to this comment
1. - Jake Howlett
  - Posted on Fri 23 Oct 2009 06:33 AM
  well, this one at least?
  
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  1. - Alan Harris
    - Posted on Fri 23 Oct 2009 09:42 AM
    The Mutt's Nuts !
    
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  2. - Tommy Valand
    - Posted on Fri 23 Oct 2009 10:38 AM
    Yup.. Worked. Came to my inbox (not spam)..
    
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- Alex Hernandez
- Posted on Fri 23 Oct 2009 07:21 AM
Hi Jake, I'm just testing.
.::AleX::.

Reply to this comment
1. - Jake Howlett
  - Posted on Fri 23 Oct 2009 07:23 AM
  Reading this in an email Alex?
  
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  1. - Alex Hernandez
    - Posted on Fri 23 Oct 2009 07:38 AM
    Kinda Cool!
    Congrats
    .::AleX::.
    
    Reply to this comment
    1. - Jake Howlett
      - Posted on Fri 23 Oct 2009 07:50 AM
      Wait 'til you see the next feature - reply directly to the email to post a response... although I've got it working I don't know whether to use it. It's a whole "can of worms"
      
      Reply to this comment
      1. mdmadph
        
        Posted on Fri 23 Oct 2009 01:45 PM
        
        I'd keep that can of worms closed!
        
        Reply to this comment
      2. mdmadph
        
        Posted on Fri 23 Oct 2009 01:46 PM
        
        What I would like is for the target of my website link to not be "http://www.codestore.net/store.nsf/" when I enter it into this form (it's just a habit of mine never to bother typing the "http://" part of my blog URL, and thus it never works here! :P ).
        
        Reply to this comment
  2. - Sean Cull
    - Posted on Fri 23 Oct 2009 08:21 AM
    ummm
    
    Reply to this comment
- Alejandro M
- Posted on Fri 23 Oct 2009 08:33 AM
Hi Jake,
"CODESTORE.NET" is every day more robust, useful and friendly.
Congratulations !
;)

Reply to this comment
1. - Jake Howlett
  - Posted on Fri 23 Oct 2009 08:36 AM
  Thanks Alejandro! Useful and friendly yes. Robust? I'm not so sure...
  
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  1. - Alejandro M
    - Posted on Fri 23 Oct 2009 09:03 AM
    Jake,
    It might be useful to know how many are comments and few answers.
    Example:
    " 53 Comments (21) responses"
    What do you think?
    
    Reply to this comment
- Cor E
- Posted on Fri 23 Oct 2009 09:20 AM
Nice feature!

Reply to this comment
- Rob
- Posted on Fri 23 Oct 2009 12:27 PM
Okay. Looking good. Now some more feature requests.
1. Button at the top to expand all comments in the thread. My mouse finger got tired clicking on each and every response.
2. Button on each comment to expand all replies to that comment.
3. Button at the top to collapse all replies in the thread.
4. Button on each comment to collapse all replies to that comment.
5. Tick box at top to send me email on each and every comment in the whole thread. Basically a subscribe check-box. I should be able to come back and turn it off whenever I want.
6. Emails sent should have an unsubscribe link to turn off any emails.
Wow! That's a lot of details but I think it makes this a well rounded set of features.
By the way, if you have a "mail-in comment" feature, will it accept messages from anybody? If it does it sounds like a SPAM magnet.

Reply to this comment
1. - Jake Howlett
  - Posted on Fri 23 Oct 2009 04:40 PM
  All very good points Rob. Those which weren't already on my own list of to-dos are now.
  I can't imagine the mail-in feature becoming a spam target. Unless lots of sites do it I don't think the spammers will spend time working out how to flaunt it. To work they'd need to know the UNID of an existing reply.
  If it did become a problem then I'd just have to apply the same spam-filtering rules to the mail-processing agent as to the actual form. Which itself is pretty basic -- is the blog itself older than X (4 at the moment) days and/or does the body of the comment contain "link=" or "href=", which catches 99% of it.
  
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  1. - Rob
    - Posted on Fri 23 Oct 2009 04:52 PM
    Good points about the SPAM. The only mail-in databases I've done were on company intranets and accepted any message addressed to it. Using a UNID to qualify it sounds pretty bullet-proof.
    One other suggestion. You might consider storing the "Send me an email ..." tick along with the other data. I'm guessing that people who want to be notified will want it all the time.
    
    Reply to this comment
- Aaron Hardin
- Posted on Fri 23 Oct 2009 01:33 PM
SWEET!!!

Reply to this comment
- John
- Posted on Fri 23 Oct 2009 03:25 PM
Nice feature (as usual), but how about making this feature exclusive to registered users. The registration process could then include an email verification part. Otherwise i might consider dropping a controversial comment using my mother in laws email address ;-)

Reply to this comment
1. - Rob
  - Posted on Fri 23 Oct 2009 04:46 PM
  I don't think Jake wants a registration system beyond just saving your data in a cookie. So there's never been anything preventing commenter from putting in someone else's email address.
  
  Reply to this comment
- Jan Schulz
- Posted on Sun 25 Oct 2009 09:10 AM
Thanks for this feature! One less site to check back for answers to my comments :-)
If you want anotehr feature: subscribing to other questions or whole articles by mail... Sometimes there are really interesting articles and comments, which I want to read. And then foregt to check a few day after to see if there are new comments...
can someone at IBM please implemtn the sam, so that (almost) all Notes blog get the same feature? :-)

Reply to this comment
- Prafull Kumar
- Posted on Mon 26 Oct 2009 02:03 AM
I once implemented this feature and never found any problem with the agent throughout the warranty period of 6 months. The traffic was slow, about 3-5 mails per day.
I am testing the feature and shall keep you updated.

Reply to this comment
1. - Jake Howlett
  - Posted on Mon 26 Oct 2009 03:55 AM
  You should get an email about this reply Prafull
  
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  1. - ben perales
    - Posted on Mon 26 Oct 2009 04:21 AM
    Not to be outdone, Jake. Here's my test to this new feature!
    Ben Perales
    
    Reply to this comment
    1. - Jake Howlett
      - Posted on Mon 26 Oct 2009 04:29 AM
      And here's my reply to your test Ben
      
      Reply to this comment
    2. - ben perales
      - Posted on Mon 26 Oct 2009 04:37 AM
      It worked! I got the reply, Jake.
      
      Reply to this comment
      1. Prafull Kumar
        
        Posted on Mon 26 Oct 2009 05:59 AM
        
        It works...great.
        Yes, I too faced this issue with IE 6. Maybe, time to upgrade to 7 or better still Firefox.
        
        Reply to this comment

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Although your email address isn't required it is protected from spambots if you choose to provide it and not to hide it. My right to remove commercial, irrelevant or posts I just don't like is reserved.