I believe I’ve communicated this clearly enough - I can not figure out a decent way to get the UI built to support this workflow. It’s more complex than what I have now, and if I can’t figure out a simple way to allow it, it just won’t happen. I want to build it, but for the life of me I can’t figure out a NewsBlur-ish way to do it.
Okay, so maybe I’m missing something. What’s complex about adding a “Comment” button to shared items that don’t already have a comment?
2 Likes
Samuel, your only post in this thread not about unrelated privacy controls was to say “if you want to comment then share it” and people rightly said this was silly. All we wanted was to allow your followers to comment on your shared posts, regardless of whether you remembered to add the inelegant “//” comment.
Anyway, thanks at least for the clear answer that NewsBlur won’t do what we want.
1 Like
I’m still curious about what happens if multiple people share an item with a comment, and how that’s currently handled. If it’s sane, then automatically adding an invisible dummy comment to a share without a comment should make everyone happy.
When I first started using NewBlur for sharing articles, it was only after one of my friends poked me after a few shared stories of mine that I learned no comments were allowed on ones I didn’t initially comment on. It’s not expected behavior from folks coming from Reader, and there really is no indicator of this by default.
Right now, I see a whole lot of rogue ‘//’ comments instead of genuine ones. While it’s not the intended use of the feature, it’s what’s happening. I’d much prefer to see a comment button without inserted random characters being the workaround most folks use.
1 Like
the last i checked, it was more of an “i’ll think about how to fold this into the newsblur paradigm”, whereas now the answer is more bleak. if you can’t figure out how to get this to work, that’s perfectly fine. but if someone were interested in taking a stab at getting this feature working, would you be open to a github pull of that code? you’ve got a lot of people on your side here, and even if they’re dissatisfied with the current state of things, they’re eager to help out. would you be open to using that resource?
I don’t quite understand the design decision made here. I don’t share anything publicly - so everything I share is specifically intended to start a conversation amongst friends, even if I have nothing to say to begin with. At least I now know that I can use “//” as a workaround…
Why not give the choice to allow comments when sharing to begin with?
Just a simple checkbox, all other privacy controls can stay in place.
2 Likes
Completely agree with this topic. This really seems like a simple solution here unless im missing something.
I’ll +1 this. Right now I have to add a little comment like “lol” or “good read” if I want any sort of comments to follow
How about an option to allow friends (and maybe public) to comment on your story?
Many times I want to comment on a friend’s share, and I know the friend wouldn’t object - but I don’t want the share the story myself. I still want this feature 
Thanks for comment on this. I just launched this feature (and will be blogging it tomorrow morning). It’s on the web and will hit iOS and Android in due time. Thanks everybody!
1 Like
Woo! Thanks!
For those of us that don’t want random strangers commenting on their shares, this option isn’t about “free radicals,” it’s about our friends. What we want is the ability to have conversations about things online, without the inevitable public riffraff trolling. Conversations, between friends (and friends of friends on their shares) with real privacy controls. I’ve been reluctant to put comments on my shares because they are public. And the lack of privacy controls is the major reason my circle of friends from Google Reader have refused to make the switch.
I want the people I’ve allowed to follow me to be able to comment on my shares even if I didn’t leave a comment. And I want people who don’t aren’t allowed to follow me to have no idea those comments are happening.
5 Likes
Any follow up on this topic?
As I posted in the other topic on this question, it’s really important to be able to comment on the shares of your friends. This is what Google Reader allowed and if you can’t do it, it is exactly the sort of thing that will stop us from migrating to you. It’s making NewsBlur a hard sell to the old Reader crowd.
3 Likes
I don’t want to share the story because I want to comment on my friend’s shared story. I can’t reply to her shared story because she didn’t know that she had to add a comment when sharing her story in order for me to comment on it. Essentially, you can share a story without a comment, and that means that it’s closed for interaction from your friends. That’s unexpected and nonsensical, and without coming to getsatisfaction, I never would have known that the reason we couldn’t comment on each others’ shared items is because we didn’t leave initial comments on them.
10 Likes
I want the people I’ve allowed to follow me to be able to comment on my shares even if I didn’t leave a comment.
4 Likes
I don’t have much to add, other than everyone I know wants this feature. Furthermore, from a UI consistancy point of view, the expectation is that “shared story is commentable”. Whether or not it was shared with a comment initially is completely immaterial, and the fact that that makes a difference is a bad case of abstraction breaking/implementation leaking.
6 Likes