We were glad to see our old comments for the last four years appear on the new profiles, but then we got a new set of problems.

1. Classmates who don't want them are having to go in and delete each one at a time. Before comments just scrolled away never to be seen again. Is there a way for classmates to mass delete them? I am not sure I want the responsibility to be able to delete all over the site en mass as I am not sure everyone wants them gone now that they have them back.

2. For two of the last four years we have gone into the comments and said we were decorating for a birthday or special event and would code in a background in the message. The profile would then have balloons or baby bottles or whatever. These background enhancing messages would scroll away and the background would disappear. If it didn't, we would go in and manually delete the comment. Do you see where this is leading? Yes, with the old comments, we have old backgrounds everywhere! We are faced with the problem of going through thousand of comments looking for the coded message. Is there a way to at least put the newer messages first to make the coded ones easier to find?

3. The admin who did the background coding would like to continue doing so. Right now she has no idea where or how to insert the code in. Any ideas on this? We used to hit the source button, paste in the code, hit source, and write a comment and post. Is anything like this still possible?

Thanks...Maggie

I will inquire.

I will summarize the problems noted and give some thoughts:

1) There is currently no "mass delete comments" feature. Currently the classmate can delete any comments not desired, or if no comments at all are desired, classmate can click Edit Profile and turn off the commenting ability entirely.

2) Well that's certainly interesting. Honestly I don't think I've ever seen anyone put in background images on comments. Neat idea though. Can you give me a classmate name to go look at so I can get a good handle on this?

3) It's actually not possible in the new system. My best advice if you want to continue this exact commenting system with backgrounds is to click your Preferences link and revert back to the exact profile format you had previously. I don't foresee adding a background image feature to the new commenting system - it just wouldn't be feasible. Like I said though, you've got the option to switch back if you want to continue using comments as you always have previously.

Comments accept html. For example, tables with background, image links, etc.

So it's possible to do more or less what they did before.

To Margaret:

Have the admin compose in html (or compose in the editor, switch to source and copy the code shown) and then just paste in the comment area.

(edit: highlighted what to use to get "html" in a comment.)

Now there is much to say here. So many ideas running through this thread.

Backgrounds:

Mike Bachelder on my 67-68-69 site has a birthday background. This is the comment where the source code is....

Margaret Ann Swanzey 2 years ago
Just stopped by to decorate for our birthday!

That was two years ago. When that code is gone, then the background for last year pops up and the next comment has to be hunted down again.

Since as admins we cannot delete the any of the old comments, just new ones, we will have to involve the classmate in the background removal. We have a game plan for this if classmates will participate. I guess if they don't, the egg (background) will be on their face (profile)!

After all of the removal process, I doubt if we will even try to post backgrounds.

Editing/removing old comments:

Correct me if I am wrong, but it appears to me that turning off comments would remove old comments, but also prevent new ones from being posted. SO....What would happen if they turned them off and then turned them on again? Would the old comments return? Would the classmate just be in a bizarre comment circle? I have no qualms about telling them that if they don't want them, then they can take the responsibility of removing them. I was hoping there was a simple solution I had not discovered.

We still would like to see the old comments listed newest to oldest.

Jack...

We don't compose HTML.We copy and paste.
And how do I find source on the new comment style?

Brad:

I love the new system! No switching back for us. I am just trying to overcome some technical difficulties. Thanks for making us social!

Maggie

I highlighted my prior post to make it clearer. Just use your CC editor

Margaret Ann Swanzey wrote:

Not sure what you mean by "background". If you meant a page, no. If you meant a table, yes. Test Only has a sample comment on the bottom done in html the way I described earlier. Test Only is an unlocked guest.

Margaret Ann Swanzey wrote:

I only have comments turned on for the bottom otherwise it's a tad messy. In that format, admins can't delete any comments on the bottom - new or old Can you delete comments with the Profile Option

Users also can't delete (or edit) their own comments on the bottom. I'm assuming this is an oversight. It's been mentioned a few times. I can delete any LIs though.

Quote:

Turning comments Off prevents the posting of comments. Turning comments Off also makes them not show. They are still there. So yes if you turn them On again, they pop back. (Have done that checking out how choices look.)

Date sequence of posts is typically an option. Reverse sequence can get a tad confusing if there's a "thread". For example, this topic. If there are random unrelated posts, makes no difference.

Quote:

Yes, new system with options added is nicer looking. Now to overcome some technical issues

Quote:

Well, Jack, thanks for your input.

Backgrounds

I actually got this metodology right here in these forums: We would look for a wallpaper online that had a specific code in it. Then we would go to a profile, hit source, paste in the code, hit source, write and post a comment. Suddenly the wall paper would be on both sides of the profile in the area that on most sites is a solid color. We did this for birthdays...balloons, cupcakes, whatever we fancied at the time. Test only has a b/w photo there. As I said, we will probably drop the idea now. Our problem now is that with old comments back, every classmate now carries a birthday wallpaper around his/her profile. We are searching for a simple way to remove the comment that carries the code since we cannot delete the original comment as before.

I put up the classmate profile because Brad had asked me to do so.

Admin Editing Powers

Since we are still operating under the original change and are only now looking at making alterations, and you have comments only at bottom, I think we are talking about apples and oranges when it comes to what an admin or classmate can do to delete or edit comments. In my format, I can do anything the classmate can do except delete the old messages from the previous format which contains the comments we want to delete because of the backgrounds.

Comment Order

As the old comments from the previous profile comments are oldest down to newest, they are in the reverse order of the original postings. This is a little weird.

Comments Off

Thanks for the info based on your experimentation. That is what I assumed would happen. Now I don't have to do it.

In Closing:

I feel that my questions have been answered by you and Brad. I know what can and cannot be done and now I can begin to solve my problems. None are insurmountable. I will preserver! Thanks all!

Maggie

Oops, unless you are logged in you can't see profile Comments even for an unlocked profile. But I redid it in Test Only where you can see what I meant.

I posted it on the TOP as an LI. Same thing as in Comment area - works the same.

You should be happier since it is limited to just that comment. Balloons, colors, etc are limited to just that specific comment. (The B/W photo is just one more regular photo, not a comment.)

The prior background thing for a profile is probably a quirk of the old table style (must have put a background in the table). The new format basic layout does not use tables.

My comment choice is just one of the choices given. Comments limited to the end vs everywhere. IOW, it's just an different comment option. Should not have any different delete options.

For kicks I set option to ALL comments and discovered I still can't delete comments at the end. It labels them as "old comments", yet I made them Today. So that's a bug - the same one you are mentioning about "old" comments. Post in bugs or I can.

Exactly how (in non geek words and symbols) did you get the blue in the comment?

:

The blue is a background image for the "table". It's a copy of the one on the home page bottom. I literally copied that code and modified for an example.

CC editor does not support images for table backgrounds, but it's pretty easy in geek words. Looks like this<table background="http:yourImageLocation" ... other code, text, etc ... </table>

Plain background colors and everything else there can be done via the CC editor.

You can probably get about as fancy as you do on your other pages within the width space constraints of a comment. Best use is for users to post images maybe?

Margaret Ann Swanzey wrote:

Thanks, Jack. I will play with that!

Watch out, world... Margaret is playing with coding!

:::waving::: Hi there, friend!