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Letter From the Editor: New Commenting Functions on the Daily Reader
Our Technology team here at the Daily Reader has recently launched some changes that make the site easier and more enjoyable for readers to interact with. I don't know how they accomplished it. In my imagination, they sat up nights drinking tequila and arguing about how to make the commenting process easier and better. They studied impossibly complex manuals and plasma-induced Star Trek laser circuitry while chanting incantations to the harvest moon until they figured it out.
In reality, Greg, John, Joe, and Andrew are laid-back guys who did this work at their keyboards like anybody would, but because their accomplishments are so incomprehensible to me, I imagine them in more romantic circumstances, perhaps sailing the Caribbean in a pirate ship and waylaying good ideas, hauling them aboard, and hightailing it back to Smokingpipes Island.
"Arghh and shiver me timbers," says Project Manager Andrew Robison. "We wanted to revamp the entire thing, arghh, because it felt like our blog-comment system was like posting sticky notes on a town center message board, and that's no fun." He didn't say arghh or shiver me timbers at all; I made that up. But the rest is true. "We looked at other social media platforms where you can reply to people's comments and add little reactions, and we wanted to develop something like that for our readers."
In the past, commenting on a post and responding to other comments was pretty ponderous and lackluster. Comments just stacked up, and if you were responding to something in particular, you had to reference it in your comment. Now, however, comments are threaded, so it's easy to see the train of thought in a reply chain to the original message.
Simple, one-click reactions to comments are now also available. "Of course," says Andrew, "we could have done something simple with the reaction icons — you know, the blog-standard emojis: happy face, frowny face, thumbs up, thumbs down, heart. But being Smokingpipes, we do things our own way and add our own flair. So we decided to throw in our own little characters."
The "thumbs-up" icon, for example, is flicking a lighter, and the happy and frowny faces are smoking a cigar and a pipe, respectively. All it takes is a click of the mouse to register approval, amusement, or skepticism. Numbers accrue next to these emojis to reflect multiple submissions.
"We thought these changes might improve the ease of engagement with our posts," says Andrew. "They allow readers to see when people are reacting to their comments and, if they like, pursue a conversation about the given topic."
The main feedback we have regarding our posts is the comments, so they carry weight and import. We depend on them to know what subject matter resonates with our readers, and, honestly, when we've worked hard on a piece and poured our creativity and energy into it, and the response is good, it energizes us to push even farther on the next. If folks don't care much for a particular post, we need to know that too.
But more importantly, we now have a reasonable avenue for conversations to evolve following an article or video. We have a lot of very savvy readers who can add important information to an article or bring up questions that should still be addressed. We'd like to see a dynamic community build and thrive here, one where we all benefit from the knowledge of our fellows. We hope you'll be part of it.
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Comments
Glad to see SP always improving.
Excellent upgrade!
I recommend changing the frowny face. It isn't indicative of the joy of pipe smoking. It seems to be the face of the guy who got an estate pipe that only Erinmore was smoked in - that ghost never leaves.
I very much agree with Linwood and Mark. I couldn't have said anything better.
I second Linwood, adding that there is also an implied “smoking cigars is a GOOD thing, but pipes? Well, not so much.” We have read Marshall McLuen and know “the medium is the message,” so if this is intentional it’s an interesting way to encourage cigar sales to pipe smokers, if ethically suspect.
I'm with Linwood on this topic. A sad face with a pipe clenched in its teeth is a very problematic symbol. I suggest the Smokingpipes technical team chant more incantations to the harvest moon to inspire a more fitting emoji.
Maybe the pipe should be broken, contributing to his dismay.
The biggest news this week is the closing of Sutliff. Does anyone have the inside baseball?
There is a longer thread on a certain magazine forum which includes comments from someone purporting to be a Sutliff employee.
What?! Sutliff is CLOSING?
Yes to the emojis!
I like to see Smokingpipes always striving to move forward with customer awareness and think this is a great way to have that connection.
A great solution to a problem that was ... there.
Now, it would be nice if the search feature had an option to ignore the parameter in the descriptive write-ups. (This causes several non-related hits to appear.) And, if there was a way to filter between Fishtail and P-lip bits ... it would be perfect .
The ability to further streamline search results would be very handy. When looking for a birth year pipe (or one to commemorate an anniversary, birth of child, et cetera) I have to look through a lot of pipes that are not relevant to my search, simply because some company or another happens to have had a significant event or change or new series in the year that I am looking for.
Looking forward to using the comment section on "stuff" , though I would really like for there to be a chance to rate pipes as well--new ones, perhaps by marque.
Bill
@Linwood @Mark Irwin Guys, I hear where you’re coming from but ultimately we’re talking about fun, little emojis here. I think it’s worth pointing out that many pipe smokers also enjoy cigars and the same is true in the opposite direction. There was a time where the best tobacconists in the world took pride in offering excellent selections of both pipes & pipe tobaccos, and cigars. It's a shame when any shop, online or physical, chooses to actively ignore one or the other and we simply refuse to do that. It’s not like the laughing face has a cigarette in it’s mouth…
So Smokingxigars it is!😊 I remember enough internet cigar outlets that had a small pipe tobacco selection — but it’s still a curious choice, esp. given the fact that customers aren’t given the choice to opt out of the cigar emails. Most other etailers allow specific parameters to be set on which types of emails their customers want, proving that it is a widely used practice.
And in the spirit of FUN- truth about the cigarette laughing face. It would be perfect if the site was actually called smoking CIGARS dotcom-
BUT it is smoking PIPES !
Yeah, perhaps above pipe smokers might to be a little ‘sensitive’ but in a world where their preferred nicotine intake device is already the least respected-it grates a bit to come to the world’s premiere PIPE website which pipe smokers support & again see it…
I do SEE the point being made.
All comments meant for dialogue & discussion, no actual harm or antipathy is meant by the words of above statement. G’day to all
I really like the new commenting system! It’s so much easier to join conversations and react to others with just one click. The custom icons, like the lighter flicking and smoking faces, give it a fun and personal vibe.
I'm not sure the best forum for this but I would be interested in a post about what you guys know (/speculate) about the upcoming closure of Sutliff, etc.
On a different tack, I would also enjoy seeing your space, a short 5-10 min video of the office and the warehouse would be interesting.
I like the emojis and everything; i would agree that maybe there are two happy faces, one with a pipe and one with a cigar and then have corresponding sad faces with maybe a broken cigar, etc.
I am well over 60 years of age so, don’t quite understand all of this. All of these faces and stuff. But, if it’s good for everyone else, I am all for it.
Great article Chuck- entertaining as always. Many thanks to the team for the work done to update the system. It is great, other than that stogie emoji! 🤔