THE 2011-12 IPB COMMENTING GUIDE: Avatars and Threaded Comments
Hello, Comment Country! Today we’re going to take a few moments to look at the new bells and whistles on the site. Now that we’ve upgraded to the SNY theme, we’ve got a couple new features in the comments. If you’re not a fan of the new theme, don’t worry, we’re always working to improve and your suggestions are appreciated. For now — let’s take a look at how you can use threaded commenting to carry a conversation and add an avatar to your profile.
THREADED COMMENTS
In my opinion, the nicest new feature is the addition of threaded commenting. What this means is that you can now reply directly to someone else’s comment instead of replying to the post itself.
On the old site… If you saw a comment you wanted to reply to, let’s say comment #4, you would have to write your own comment at the bottom and when it posted, it would post at the bottom of the comment section. So if your comment was #51, you would be shouting all the way up the thread to #4 with the probability of the person who wrote #4 almost never seeing it.
On the new site… Now you can reply to a specific comment. There is now a ‘reply’ link directly under every comment. When you click that, your comment will be posted right under the comment you are replying to. This way, you can interact with and talk to other readers more easily.
Here’s an example. Gdmike replied to the original blog post. The two comments below it from Blizzard and IslesFan are indented because they are replies to Gdmike’s comment. The replies are indented and were posted the next day. This way, they did not get lost at the bottom of the comment thread.
ADDING AN AVATAR
Another new feature is that you can now upload an image to be your user avatar. The avatar is a picture that will appear next to any comments you make. Here’s how to upload an avatar.
1. We’ve added a new login menu on the left sidebar. If you scroll down, you’ll see a section called “Commenting Profiles”. If you haven’t already registered your account, click on ‘register’. Your password will be sent to you via email. If you’ve already registered, then click ‘log in’.
2. Once you are logged in to your account, you will be directed to your user profile page. Here you can upload an avatar, change your password and add other details to your profile. Everything is optional with the exception of a nickname and an email address.
3. To upload an avatar, scroll to the bottom and find the ‘avatar upload’ section. From there, you can select an image that is saved to your computer and upload it. Small and square shaped images work best. We do reserve the right to remove your avatar if it is not in good taste.
4. When you are finished, click update profile and you’re done.
If you need help with anything you’ve read, please leave a comment below.
