8 ms·

Improved commenting with Markdown

65 points by Amorymeltzer 11y ago

mofle 11y ago
Power users can remove it by putting this in their user style: .toolbar-commenting{display:none !important;} Use with e.g. https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/stylish/fjnbnpbmkenffdnngjfgmeleoegfcffe https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/stylish/fjnbnpbmke...
- prezjordan 11y ago
  Or by adding `github.com##.toolbar-commenting` to your favorite adblocker's custom lists :)
- rasz_pl 11y ago
  Power users? how is disabling few icons empowering anyone? The space is still there, blank and wasted. Do you scratch all the button/knob markings off in your car because you are a power driver?
  - shampine 11y ago
    Power users, power buttons, power driving, power washing, power living. To each their own. If he wants to remove buttons, so be it.
browseatwork 11y ago
Is this why GitHub unicorned for a bit yesterday? I'm looking forward to the engineering blog post talking about what went wrong and how they fixed it.
cthulhujr 11y ago
>Have feedback on this post? Let @github know on Twitter. This probably isn't new, but I just noticed it. For shame.
rmchugh 11y ago
Disappointed that Github still haven't responded to the issues raised in the open letter a few weeks ago.
- nikolay 11y ago
  Yeah, that's pure arrogance! Time to reconsider GitLab or Bitbucket!
  - rglover 11y ago
    Not responding to group shaming isn't arrogance.
    - nikolay 11y ago
      It wasn't shaming, it was a voice of desperation! GitHub is an arrogant bunch. And I'm not saying this only because of the "Dear GitHub"!
      - deleted 11y ago
        [deleted]
      - digbyloftus 11y ago
        Writing a public letter to a business (of which you are not a customer) as if your problems are theirs to fix, is one of the most textbook example of "exaggerated sense of one's own importance" that I could possibly imagine. Those people were, and are, clearly not very important to Github at all.
        nikolay 11y ago
        Well, those people _are_ very important. If GitHub was a platform only of paid customers without the plethora of open-source projects by non-payings customers (which are important customers still even if they don't directly contribute to the bottom line), it wouldn't have a commercial success in this magnitude either. Anyway, it's an observation, I don't have data to back it up, but I see a lot of new projects actually starting with Bitbucket these days.
rmchugh 11y ago
Disappointed that Github still haven't responded to the issues raised in the open letter a few weeks ago.
nikolay 11y ago
Fugly and distracting!
- nikolay 11y ago
  Why the downvotes?! Okay, I use some strong language, because while Bitbucket is introducing Projects [0], GitHub is working on bells and whistles! In the time of Medium.com, we know there are better ways to allow formatting controls! I understand GitHub is in desperation to go beyond programmers, but this is a ridiculous expansion goal! [0]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10950730 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10950730
  - Freak_NL 11y ago
    > Why the downvotes?! Probably because of the needless profanity and lack of an explanation for your statement (my best guess, I did not downvote you). > bells and whistles These kind of features are completely unnecessary for developers, but are useful for the less tech-savvy team members. The markup is not hidden, so it provides a way to learn some basic MarkDown (good!). That in turn improves communication, which improves your product. Beware of the fallacy of believing that because someone finds the time to polish their product or add seemingly simple features, they don't invest resources in more complex features or research and development. These are not mutually exclusive goals, even though resources are by definition limited.
    - nikolay 11y ago
      It's a pipe dream - only technical people use GitHub and this is just a distraction. Instead of trying to keep their core audience in a world with a growing number of alternatives, they are trying to do the impossible - make this a Google Drive. That's why I on purpose used "fugly", because I'm tired of relying so much on unreliable people. But this will change.
      - macintux 11y ago
        Many technical companies use GitHub, and many employees of same are not particularly technical. There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, Than are dreamt of in your philosophy.
manachar 11y ago
Seems that Github is recognizing that more and more non-dev types are interacting with Github in various ways and are providing tools to help them out. I suppose it's fine, and certainly easier than teaching newbies Github-flavored markdown. One complaint: Using the aA icon to hide the different headers menu. Headers are not just "bigger text" as the icon indicates. They should use a different icon that indicates its for headers and has nothing directly to do with font-size.
kingosticks 11y ago
Using github regularly was what got me to learn markdown and I'm very grateful as I've found it useful in lots of different places. I'm not convinced this change was really worth doing, especially if it was at the expense of features people have been asking for.
- nilliams 11y ago
  I don't think that the belief that feature X was created at the expense of feature Y is a reasonable assumption. Who knows how this feature came about? It could have been a Githubber's 20% project, or weekend hack project, or largely down to a 3rd party library.
  - kingosticks 11y ago
    I didn't assume it was, I hoped it wasn't.
deleted 11y ago
[deleted]
gravypod 11y ago
This seems much harder to implement than a comment rating system so we don't see +1 spam.
- venning 11y ago
  I doubt that. This update is entirely client-side, while a rating system requires data management server-side in addition to the user interface elements. That doesn't mean ratings are difficult, just more difficult than this. Besides, the developers in place to build this update may not overlap at all with the developers in place to implement new rating functionality.
detaro 11y ago
Does anyone know a similar component/library to do something like this on your own website. Most I've seen try to build a full Word-like editor, without the markdown aspect?
- WorldMaker 11y ago
  I've not used it myself (yet), but Prose Mirror (http://prosemirror.net/ http://prosemirror.net/) is the one I have bookmarked and has been featured here on HN in the past and seems to be very full featured and from the demos it seems flexible everything from the full WYSIWYG-style editor that some users may want to this sort of simple toolbar over a Markdown field.

65 points by Amorymeltzer 11y ago

mofle 11y ago

Power users can remove it by putting this in their user style: .toolbar-commenting{display:none !important;} Use with e.g. https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/stylish/fjnbnpbmkenffdnngjfgmeleoegfcffe https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/stylish/fjnbnpbmke...

prezjordan 11y ago
Or by adding `github.com##.toolbar-commenting` to your favorite adblocker's custom lists :)
rasz_pl 11y ago
Power users? how is disabling few icons empowering anyone? The space is still there, blank and wasted. Do you scratch all the button/knob markings off in your car because you are a power driver?
- shampine 11y ago
  Power users, power buttons, power driving, power washing, power living. To each their own. If he wants to remove buttons, so be it.

browseatwork 11y ago

Is this why GitHub unicorned for a bit yesterday? I'm looking forward to the engineering blog post talking about what went wrong and how they fixed it.

cthulhujr 11y ago

>Have feedback on this post? Let @github know on Twitter. This probably isn't new, but I just noticed it. For shame.

rmchugh 11y ago

Disappointed that Github still haven't responded to the issues raised in the open letter a few weeks ago.

nikolay 11y ago
Yeah, that's pure arrogance! Time to reconsider GitLab or Bitbucket!
- rglover 11y ago
  Not responding to group shaming isn't arrogance.
  - nikolay 11y ago
    It wasn't shaming, it was a voice of desperation! GitHub is an arrogant bunch. And I'm not saying this only because of the "Dear GitHub"!
    - deleted 11y ago
      [deleted]
    - digbyloftus 11y ago
      Writing a public letter to a business (of which you are not a customer) as if your problems are theirs to fix, is one of the most textbook example of "exaggerated sense of one's own importance" that I could possibly imagine. Those people were, and are, clearly not very important to Github at all.
      - nikolay 11y ago
        Well, those people _are_ very important. If GitHub was a platform only of paid customers without the plethora of open-source projects by non-payings customers (which are important customers still even if they don't directly contribute to the bottom line), it wouldn't have a commercial success in this magnitude either. Anyway, it's an observation, I don't have data to back it up, but I see a lot of new projects actually starting with Bitbucket these days.

rmchugh 11y ago

Disappointed that Github still haven't responded to the issues raised in the open letter a few weeks ago.

nikolay 11y ago

Fugly and distracting!

nikolay 11y ago
Why the downvotes?! Okay, I use some strong language, because while Bitbucket is introducing Projects [0], GitHub is working on bells and whistles! In the time of Medium.com, we know there are better ways to allow formatting controls! I understand GitHub is in desperation to go beyond programmers, but this is a ridiculous expansion goal! [0]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10950730 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10950730
- Freak_NL 11y ago
  > Why the downvotes?! Probably because of the needless profanity and lack of an explanation for your statement (my best guess, I did not downvote you). > bells and whistles These kind of features are completely unnecessary for developers, but are useful for the less tech-savvy team members. The markup is not hidden, so it provides a way to learn some basic MarkDown (good!). That in turn improves communication, which improves your product. Beware of the fallacy of believing that because someone finds the time to polish their product or add seemingly simple features, they don't invest resources in more complex features or research and development. These are not mutually exclusive goals, even though resources are by definition limited.
  - nikolay 11y ago
    It's a pipe dream - only technical people use GitHub and this is just a distraction. Instead of trying to keep their core audience in a world with a growing number of alternatives, they are trying to do the impossible - make this a Google Drive. That's why I on purpose used "fugly", because I'm tired of relying so much on unreliable people. But this will change.
    - macintux 11y ago
      Many technical companies use GitHub, and many employees of same are not particularly technical. There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, Than are dreamt of in your philosophy.

manachar 11y ago

Seems that Github is recognizing that more and more non-dev types are interacting with Github in various ways and are providing tools to help them out. I suppose it's fine, and certainly easier than teaching newbies Github-flavored markdown. One complaint: Using the aA icon to hide the different headers menu. Headers are not just "bigger text" as the icon indicates. They should use a different icon that indicates its for headers and has nothing directly to do with font-size.

kingosticks 11y ago

Using github regularly was what got me to learn markdown and I'm very grateful as I've found it useful in lots of different places. I'm not convinced this change was really worth doing, especially if it was at the expense of features people have been asking for.

nilliams 11y ago
I don't think that the belief that feature X was created at the expense of feature Y is a reasonable assumption. Who knows how this feature came about? It could have been a Githubber's 20% project, or weekend hack project, or largely down to a 3rd party library.
- kingosticks 11y ago
  I didn't assume it was, I hoped it wasn't.

deleted 11y ago

[deleted]

gravypod 11y ago

This seems much harder to implement than a comment rating system so we don't see +1 spam.

venning 11y ago
I doubt that. This update is entirely client-side, while a rating system requires data management server-side in addition to the user interface elements. That doesn't mean ratings are difficult, just more difficult than this. Besides, the developers in place to build this update may not overlap at all with the developers in place to implement new rating functionality.

detaro 11y ago

Does anyone know a similar component/library to do something like this on your own website. Most I've seen try to build a full Word-like editor, without the markdown aspect?

WorldMaker 11y ago
I've not used it myself (yet), but Prose Mirror (http://prosemirror.net/ http://prosemirror.net/) is the one I have bookmarked and has been featured here on HN in the past and seems to be very full featured and from the demos it seems flexible everything from the full WYSIWYG-style editor that some users may want to this sort of simple toolbar over a Markdown field.