6 ms·

BackType Launches Wordpress Plugin to Connect Conversations

29 points by konsl 18y ago

amouat 18y ago
I'm not too convinced at the minute. The problem is that everyone here (hacker news) is having their own little converstation about this and it's the same for reddit etc. When you stick all this into one list, you are losing context. What if someone replies on the blog to a hacker news comment? Good chance the hacker news reader will never see the reply. Perhaps it would be better if all the different comment systems were grouped independently?
- wesley 18y ago
  I agree on grouping the comments independently. That's easy to add and should hopefully be in version 0.2. But it will probably require some manual template editing.
- konsl 18y ago
  I'd agree that sometimes the comments don't work - that's why we let you control which sources you want to display. Regarding replies to comments: I'm not too concerned. People who write entire articles often don't see the responding conversation that happens on Hacker News. Conversations are fragmenting. Lots of people use plugins to pull in tweets and FriendFeed comments, so we thought we could give them all in one. Regarding grouping: We have an option to push all the comments to the end of the comment section, but we don't group them distinctly right now. We want to do that in our next release. Thanks for the feedback!
- philwelch 18y ago
  It would also be nice if tree-structured discussions (like HN) were preserved instead of just hacked apart into series of seemingly unrelated comments. Grouping together HN comments without the tree structure would be far less useful than respecting tree-structured discussions but intermixing trees from different sites.
  - omakase 18y ago
    Fully agree. Threading is high on our list.
dmix 18y ago
Will I have to uninstall Disqus to get this work? Is there a way to migrate to BackType's connect or combine the two?
- konsl 18y ago
  Unfortunately they don't work together. If you use our plugin with Disqus enabled, it will just show the "Summary" of activity above the comment section. Disqus has their own "Social Media Comments" you might want to look into.
halo 18y ago
So you're taking content written on other sites, scraping it without permission of the original authors or site owners, and reproducing wholesale on your site? This is unethical at best and outright illegal at worst.
- wesley 18y ago
  Backtype obeys robots.txt rules. That said, the value a system like this adds outweighs the cons for me.
  - halo 18y ago
    So what? A lack of a robots.txt rule doesn't imply "I can take other people's content, reproduce it wholesale, remove it from context, and put it on other people's sites or otherwise do what I want to it" does it? A lack of a robots.txt rule doesn't imply "I can ignore copyright law" does it? A lack of a robots.txt rule doesn't imply that the /author/ of the stolen content, perhaps with some suggestion of an implicit endorsement, wants it shown on some random 3rd party site does it? I'm sorry for being so old fashioned as believing in the simple concept that when I comment on site A it doesn't mean I automatically want it reproduced in full on site B, C, D and E. I'm sorry for being so old fashioned in believing that as the author it removes value from /my work/. I'm sorry for being so old fashioned for complaining when these "advantages" aren't "advantages" for me but rather some 3rd party company or blog who are trying to profit from my work instead, perhaps even suggesting some implied endorsement, and being so old fashioned to /dare/ raise an objection when they try and do so. Sorry for being so old fashioned that thinking that any company that is based around the concept of taking other people's content and reproducing it wholesale without considering the wishes of the copyright owners or authors is fundamentally flawed as a business and raises many dubious ethical and legal questions. Or, perhaps, I should put my objections in a more concise manner that you'll understand. How can I, as an author, do this: User-agent: * Disallow-Author: Halo Or, perhaps the bigger bolder question I want answered is /why/ should I have to do that, and what makes you believe you have the right to take my rights away from me? Why is it more acceptable to take this same prose and put it elsewhere as I wrote it as a comment instead of an article? And, no, "adding value" isn't a one-stop shop get-out clause; grave robbers added value as well, afterall. Oh, and your site doesn't seem to support people who edit their comments correctly; they appear as duplicates.
konsl 18y ago
The plugin works with Hacker News comments too - this conversation will be mirrored on our blog More info: http://www.backtype.com/plugins/connect http://www.backtype.com/plugins/connect
- bemmu 18y ago
  Is there a Firefox plugin so I could see conversations about whatever page I happen to be browsing now?
  - omakase 18y ago
    No, but I really want that to. We have a bookmarklet that is sort of similar, but not quite there. I know of one tool being built with our API, that will be released soon that solves this problem. We'll mention it on our blog when it comes out.
    - wesley 18y ago
      It's alive! http://convotrack.com http://convotrack.com
noor420 18y ago
thanks a lot backtype!

29 points by konsl 18y ago

I'm not too convinced at the minute. The problem is that everyone here (hacker news) is having their own little converstation about this and it's the same for reddit etc. When you stick all this into one list, you are losing context. What if someone replies on the blog to a hacker news comment? Good chance the hacker news reader will never see the reply. Perhaps it would be better if all the different comment systems were grouped independently?

wesley 18y ago
I agree on grouping the comments independently. That's easy to add and should hopefully be in version 0.2. But it will probably require some manual template editing.
konsl 18y ago
I'd agree that sometimes the comments don't work - that's why we let you control which sources you want to display. Regarding replies to comments: I'm not too concerned. People who write entire articles often don't see the responding conversation that happens on Hacker News. Conversations are fragmenting. Lots of people use plugins to pull in tweets and FriendFeed comments, so we thought we could give them all in one. Regarding grouping: We have an option to push all the comments to the end of the comment section, but we don't group them distinctly right now. We want to do that in our next release. Thanks for the feedback!
philwelch 18y ago
It would also be nice if tree-structured discussions (like HN) were preserved instead of just hacked apart into series of seemingly unrelated comments. Grouping together HN comments without the tree structure would be far less useful than respecting tree-structured discussions but intermixing trees from different sites.
- omakase 18y ago
  Fully agree. Threading is high on our list.

dmix 18y ago

Will I have to uninstall Disqus to get this work? Is there a way to migrate to BackType's connect or combine the two?

konsl 18y ago
Unfortunately they don't work together. If you use our plugin with Disqus enabled, it will just show the "Summary" of activity above the comment section. Disqus has their own "Social Media Comments" you might want to look into.

halo 18y ago

So you're taking content written on other sites, scraping it without permission of the original authors or site owners, and reproducing wholesale on your site? This is unethical at best and outright illegal at worst.

wesley 18y ago
Backtype obeys robots.txt rules. That said, the value a system like this adds outweighs the cons for me.
- halo 18y ago
  So what? A lack of a robots.txt rule doesn't imply "I can take other people's content, reproduce it wholesale, remove it from context, and put it on other people's sites or otherwise do what I want to it" does it? A lack of a robots.txt rule doesn't imply "I can ignore copyright law" does it? A lack of a robots.txt rule doesn't imply that the /author/ of the stolen content, perhaps with some suggestion of an implicit endorsement, wants it shown on some random 3rd party site does it? I'm sorry for being so old fashioned as believing in the simple concept that when I comment on site A it doesn't mean I automatically want it reproduced in full on site B, C, D and E. I'm sorry for being so old fashioned in believing that as the author it removes value from /my work/. I'm sorry for being so old fashioned for complaining when these "advantages" aren't "advantages" for me but rather some 3rd party company or blog who are trying to profit from my work instead, perhaps even suggesting some implied endorsement, and being so old fashioned to /dare/ raise an objection when they try and do so. Sorry for being so old fashioned that thinking that any company that is based around the concept of taking other people's content and reproducing it wholesale without considering the wishes of the copyright owners or authors is fundamentally flawed as a business and raises many dubious ethical and legal questions. Or, perhaps, I should put my objections in a more concise manner that you'll understand. How can I, as an author, do this: User-agent: * Disallow-Author: Halo Or, perhaps the bigger bolder question I want answered is /why/ should I have to do that, and what makes you believe you have the right to take my rights away from me? Why is it more acceptable to take this same prose and put it elsewhere as I wrote it as a comment instead of an article? And, no, "adding value" isn't a one-stop shop get-out clause; grave robbers added value as well, afterall. Oh, and your site doesn't seem to support people who edit their comments correctly; they appear as duplicates.

konsl 18y ago

The plugin works with Hacker News comments too - this conversation will be mirrored on our blog More info: http://www.backtype.com/plugins/connect http://www.backtype.com/plugins/connect

bemmu 18y ago
Is there a Firefox plugin so I could see conversations about whatever page I happen to be browsing now?
- omakase 18y ago
  No, but I really want that to. We have a bookmarklet that is sort of similar, but not quite there. I know of one tool being built with our API, that will be released soon that solves this problem. We'll mention it on our blog when it comes out.
  - wesley 18y ago
    It's alive! http://convotrack.com http://convotrack.com

noor420 18y ago

thanks a lot backtype!