brice
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Post by brice on Feb 2, 2007 15:58:18 GMT
Tom, now that you've got a permanent forum... it would be great if the front page comments could get archived here. It could be done so simple: When you do your last comment update before the comic updates, just cut and paste the entire comments text off the main page. Stick it in a new thread as a single post, and then lock the thread for posterity. You might follow the current convention and name it "[nnn] Comment Archive" or whatever. One thread per page like the Story Discussions. Actually you wouldn't need to lock the thread since the entire comment list would be in a single post by you -- no one could mess with the original.
What do you think? No coding needed. A simple hack solution. I'd volunteer to do the cut and paste, but I can't guarantee I'll always be up at 3am to catch that last comments update.
Anyone else have any objections? or better ideas?
I'm mostly thinking that in the future new people will come to GC and go back to the archives, but they will be missing all of the wonderful spontaneous comments from the front page. I don't know how many people would look here to find them. The best solution would of course be an archive script and backing database on the main site. But that requires work.
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brice
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Post by brice on Feb 2, 2007 16:04:01 GMT
...here's a few of my favorites so far from [200]. This is straight cut and paste. Yes the formatting is crappy, but it's readable. The entire list can be done in one cut.
Stopping around barefoot is so much more fun when you've got your psychic friend along to carry your shoes. Amaretto, 02.02.2007, 12:18am # So I'm guessing her brain doesn't work when wet, and thats why the bad things in her head went away. Stick Zimmy in a cloths dryer and she'll be back to her old self. Normandie, 02.02.2007, 12:26am # Dude. This is great.
Hehe, see how she's stomping on a spider in panel 1 already? I love it.
Wow. Panel 3 for the win. Obviously for Zimmy, but on a personal note, Gamma kind of looks like my kid sister. Hair and everything.
The love between those two is infectious. You feel good just seeing it. It's more than symbiosis, that's for sure.
Ahhh. Monday doesn't seem so far away now. Ocafi, 02.02.2007, 1:42am #
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Post by Tom Siddell on Feb 2, 2007 16:50:50 GMT
I have saved all comments to date in an archive which I have access to. One of the reasons I don't have comments on old pages is because the archive is for the comic, not comic&comments. This might sound picky but having comments locked away in the comic archive for everyone to see gives them a sense of permenance that doesn't sit right with me. It would get to a point where someone reading the archive wold feel the comments were required reading whereas, if they are intrested infinding out more, I would prefer they came to the forum and asked about it. I made the forum as a separate place for discussion that the comments area couldn't provide. If you want to discuss the comments themselves, or paste a comment you enjoyed, then please feel free (make a thread about them if you want), but I don't personally see much merit in pasting every single comment as public record. Now that we do have a forum I would find it much more valuable to have a thread of discussion on each page (as we have now) rather than a thread of pasted comments which weren't really meant to be permenant anyway.
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brice
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Post by brice on Feb 2, 2007 17:34:34 GMT
Fair enough.
I did think a bit about the dynamic before suggesting this. The great thing about the front page comments now is that they are so spontaneous. That's hard to replicate in a forum setting. There's hundreds of visitors that lurk but don't post. On the front page you get many more people posting. It's simpler, it's right there, and people don't have to fit their thoughts into any ongoing thread.
I won't be picking any favorites to archive here. That would impose too much of my own judgement onto other people's comments. I would never know if that's how they wanted their comments to be used. I'll simply continue to enjoy the ephemeral while it lasts.
But I will disagree with you a little about whether the front page comments "were meant to be permanent". I think people in general expect the internet to be permanent. Or rather, they don't usually expect their contributions to disappear in short order. Your front page comments are almost like email to Tom which you make public for a while. I like reading the spontenaity that comes from that. But it is a very unusual arrangement.
The comments and the forum allow people to see what other people have seen in your comics. It adds richness to the experience. It's more than just questions and answers about storylines. The forum is great for finding answers. But much more varied emotion comes through in the comments. Someone going back to the archives loses that aspect of the experience.
The ephemeral nature of the comments does add something of its own, something I can't put my finger on right now. Too bad we can't have our cake and eat it too.
Thanks for your answer.
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