News item page layout - comment box not to be open by default

[GilesGibson]

Dev platform.

Having a look at the layout on the screen for a news item.

Visually I find it hard to see where the news item actually is. The comment box dominates. Any chance of just having the little button under the news item for "add comment" and then if you click, then and only then do we get to see the full add comment system.

Also (oops, adding a second issue to a github issue, naughty me) - should there not be the button or at least the label saying "comments 12" or similar, assuming comments have been enabled for that news item.

[djwesto]

Answering your second question first, the "N Comments" link was moved to sit at the top of the second column under the user name and publishing info. (look for the green zero with "comments" underneath).

Now the first question: part of your problem here is simply one of scale – the news story is only a couple of sentences. When we designed the site, we assumed that your news stories would be the length of actual news stories. If you're not writing news stories, I'd argue this isn't really a news story.

Are you actually suggesting this is a news story? To me, it looks like an update on an older story and might be better entered into the system as an update to that story.

I take your point about the collapsible comments box. @pmackay is there any quick way you can think of to make that box collapsible like the collapsible field sets in the node edit form?

But @GilesGibson, even if we were to do that, this page would look ridiculous because it has almost nothing on it.

Simple solution: write more copy.

[GilesGibson]

Re: position of N comments. Not sure why it is over with the author, I assume it isn't a total of comments that the author has received, it is about the news item and comments the news item may have received. Should be under the news item next to "add comment" button.

Re: layout. I realise that having more text in a news story would help but we cannot always control this. as they say for newspapers - isn't it amazing that there is just the right amount of news every day that fits into the paper.

If there was a way of doing an update to a story that would be good, a feature we hadn't thought about - need to add to backlog (see what I did there, was kind to you).

I think the standard elsewhere is to have a collapsed comments box, can we keep it happening with news items, pretty please.

[djwesto]

The N Comments thingy is in the position we agreed we'd move it in earlier conversations about the layout of this page.

Don't think of that area at the top of the second as "The Author" – it's actually the area showing all the metadata about the article like publication date and time, as well as number of comments. I would argue that number of comments belongs at the top because it's important info about how much conversation the piece has provoked. So it should stay at the top.

However, I agree it's important to show it next to the Commenting tools too so @pmackay is investigating whether we can have a second instance of it there too.

@GilesGibson, will you add a new WishList issue for this idea of Story Updates or perhaps it could also be handled with a Series field for stories which fit into a series?

We'll also investigate solutions for this collaposed comment box idea. One alternative which will take less time is to adjust the design to give it more room and push the comments box further away from the actual page content. At the moment it's a bit of a mess.

If we were to "collapse" the comments box, what would you hope to see? Something like this that you'd then click on to twirl down the commenting tools box?

[GilesGibson]

Re: comments box - open or collapsed.

I suppose I was thinking of it looking a bit like the forum postings - under the news item there would be the "n comments" icon then the "add comment" icon alongside. If the news item had comments enabled (decision by the author when written), then these two icons would display. If comments disabled then they would be there at all or replaced by an icon stating that "comments have not been enabled for this news item".

Given that there may be dozens of comments for a news story it may drop down the page for ages - may need to have a "show more" button at the end of X comments. Add comment would be at the bottom of whatever list of comments is being shown.

[pmackay]

Comment box has been simplified and reduced in height. Collapsing the form either involves custom coding or another module, so would favour putting that on hold for now.

[GilesGibson]

Happy to park for now. However, it is not ideal, makes the page full of unnecessary bits, reveal when users want to see it, don't leave it hanging there.

Also - not sure what the background was to having the number of comments icon up next to the author rather than tucked in below the news item to encourage people to read them. We now have the add comment item open and waiting below a news item but to see the rest of the comments (and engage in a the conversation/debate) you have to go back up to the top right hand corner of the screen, click there and then back down to where the comments are.

[pmackay]

I propose we try to have an "add comment" link in the same place as the social media icons, but when clicked it goes to a separate page to fill out a comment form. This is typical drupal behaviour if the comment box is not included on the page by default.

[GilesGibson]

Problem there is that the writer is then visually removed from the context. Having the article that they are commenting on above them to read for reference is useful.

[pmackay]

If you had to pick current state or going to a separate page to enter a comment, which would you pick?

[GilesGibson]

Neither is good, looks a bit naff either way. Is this a Drupal issue?

I suppose the best of the two wrong answers is to leave the comment box on the page it refers to.

[pmackay]

Just done a bit of testing and found a way to remove comment box but looks like content is shown as part of entering a comment on a new page, so win win.

[GilesGibson]

is it on OL?

[pmackay]

yes.

[GilesGibson]

what is the url of OL? Could this be kept somewhere on the github or is it already there. having difficulty tracking all the various site addresses, be great to have them listed on github.

[pmackay]

Have added notes here https://github.com/folklabs/hernehill.org.uk/wiki