Live Commenting : Reloaded
One of the most frequent requests we get these days relates to Live Commenting, and the perpetual aggravation of refreshing the page to see if anyone has said anything new. It’s not the hardest thing to overcome, literally just a key press in fact, but it is inconvenient nonetheless.
The other time we’ve noticed similar problems is during live video broadcasts. Posting a comment in that situation resets the video stream meaning everything goes dark until the page reloads. That isn’t just irritating, it’s virtually unusable, and as we’re planning on doing more live shows, it’ll only get worse.
Which brings us nicely to the live commenting solution we’re introducing today.
Background Tasks
Preventing page refresh problems requires loading content in the background, under the browser covers, and seamlessly updating the window. This site runs on Wordpress and there are a couple of plugins which can assist in this area, but none of them really did what we wanted, so instead we built our own live commenting system and you’ll find it sitting here:
A word of warning though – the word “beta” features atop the page for a good reason. It’s early days and not everything will work as expected (or maybe at all). For starters you’ll need to have yourself a reasonably modern browser to even look at the page.
Assuming the page loads for you, you’ll see the screen split into four panes. Top left offers a list of recent posts, while the top right pane should be large enough to display streaming video. Lower left is the place to write comments, while the bottom right panel offers the continually updated comment stream.
The final checkbox labelled “Follow incoming comments” will continually scroll through messages as they arrive. It’s off by default, but it’s worth a click if you prefer a completely hands-off experience.
On Standby
As we’re talking about a beta service there are some issues to be aware of. Significantly there’s no comment preview facility, neither can posted messages be edited. The comment input boxes fail to retain personal details after you close your browser, and finally, we’re not even sure if the thing will stand up to a full race weekend.
The usual Sidepodcast experience for you there then!
At the moment we’ve no idea if the new system should be integrated into the rest of the site, or whether it works better living in it’s own hermetically sealed world. If you’re quite happy with the way the existing system has been working so far, please do say so. We’re not planning on changing anything on that front at present.
Please feel free to post test messages on this thread, and let us know what you make of it all – useful, useless or something in between?
Incidentally, queued text is currently scheduled to arrive every 60 seconds. Presumably that’s fine for day-to-day usage, but we’ll probably drop the figure to something like 10 seconds when live events are occurring.
July 26th, 2008 at 23:42 #1 - Jordan Allen said:
@Me.
You miight want to limit this live commenting thread to people within a 5 block radius, as it is hanging from my computer in the sun-dried tundra of Canada.
Bloody Beta.
July 26th, 2008 at 23:47 #2 - me said:
hehe
when you say hanging, you mean “have to quit and restart”, right?
how far does it get before it does that? can you see the list of posts for example?
July 27th, 2008 at 00:02 #3 - lou said:
Brilliant idea ‘me’, must have taken some work too. Works ok on my laptop, except on the screen shot above there is a scroll bar… I don’t seem to have that on mine, so i can’t scroll through the post or the comments.
Oh, I have just received a notice/alert thing saying ‘there was a problem retrieving the XML data’ I have noo idea what that means……
July 27th, 2008 at 00:02 #4 - Dom said:
Hmm. Not a huge fan of beta myself. (Nor is my computer)
I’m on a XP and I can only see the first part of the post and the few comments that fit into the boxes. Can’t scroll down.
July 27th, 2008 at 00:28 #5 - Steven Roy said:
It loaded fine on my computer first time and I like the layout. It won’t let me post comments from it though.
July 27th, 2008 at 00:30 #6 - me said:
cheers lou, will investigate.
you’re using ie7 on vista if i recall?
July 27th, 2008 at 00:31 #7 - lou said:
yep.
July 27th, 2008 at 00:32 #8 - Steven Roy said:
About 5 minutes after I tried posting I the same XML message as Lou and I am using IE7 and Vista too.
July 27th, 2008 at 00:33 #9 - me said:
sounds like it might be a similar issue to lou’s there dom.
this is what we’ve tested on so far:
- mac / safari 3
- mac / firefox 3
- windows vista / ie7
- windows vista / safari 3
- windows vista / firefox 3
don’t have xp, but will do our best to get to the bottom of it.
July 27th, 2008 at 00:36 #10 - me said:
yay and boo
hmm, not seeing that but will check the log files.
appreciating all the help!
July 27th, 2008 at 00:38 #11 - lou said:
I shall check if it does the same on my desktop computer (it uses XP)
July 27th, 2008 at 00:40 #12 - Felipe Leite said:
Nice piece of work, me! It worked fine on a FF3 in winXP.
I would only change two things:
- the panels’ positions: I think it would be beter to keep both “content” panels on the left side instead of the right side. I think it is usual to read from left to right, so I think it would be more natural if the “reading” section stayed on the left side of the page
- the height of hte bottom panels: during a live event, we usually read the post itself once and won’t read it anymore. And the comment panel is too small. What I would do is to increase the height of to something like 700px to fill the entire screen, so I would keep the page scrolled down hiding the post itself and I would see only the comments and post a comment panels.
These are just minor tweaks that I believe would improve this already excellent solution you came up with! Congrats!
July 27th, 2008 at 00:41 #13 - lou said:
yeah it does the same on my desktop too.
July 27th, 2008 at 00:46 #14 - me said:
cheers felipe.
originally, that was where it was located. but that meant the scrollbars were in the middle of the page, and it didn’t look right. it’s not a problem to swap them back again though.
for races that’s true. but when we do live video, the focus will presumably be on the content window.
we may need two layouts here, because we’re really trying to solve two separate issues. hmm.
July 27th, 2008 at 00:47 #15 - me said:
just to confirm. you’re using internet explorer on your desktop pc too?
sorry to hassle, am building a big matrix of systems / browsers here
July 27th, 2008 at 00:51 #16 - lou said:
yep. sorry should have said. yep my desktop pc runs XP and uses ie7.
July 27th, 2008 at 00:58 #17 - me said:
thanks lou.
scrollbars should now be working in ie7 on vista (and i’m guessing xp). might have to exit your browser and reload to to see changes though.
July 27th, 2008 at 00:59 #18 - Steven Roy said:
I have scroll bars and they work.
July 27th, 2008 at 01:03 #19 - me said:
thanks steven.
July 27th, 2008 at 01:09 #20 - Felipe Leite said:
Maybe it’s just a matter of getting used to it. I don’t know how it is in UK, but here in Brazil it is very common to have web coverage to live football matches. This one happened today: http://aovivoesportes.terra.com.br/fut/seriea2008/1119-br/
Take a look at the layout. The left panel has the minute-by-minute coverage and the right panel has the teams line-ups. Transporting that to the sideposcast reality, we would have the left side with the comments, and the right side, smaller, with the post a comment panel.
BTW, my team won that match
Yeah, you’re right. I didn’t think about live video. Two different layouts would do it.
July 27th, 2008 at 01:10 #21 - lou said:
I have scroll bars on both computers
and they work 
July 27th, 2008 at 01:15 #22 - me said:
ahh, now that’s a nice layout.
okay, we’ll see what we can do with that. thank you.
July 27th, 2008 at 01:45 #23 - Journeyer said:
Well done, guys! Things are working for me so far.
It looks like a much more efficient way of running live commenting. Starting to compete with Keith’s live commenting, I see? 
July 27th, 2008 at 01:59 #24 - me said:
wonderful stuff.
it’s different though isn’t it? at least i hope so. lord knows we’ve no interest in competing with anyone. we’re probably closer to live.autosport.com which works along similar lines, and forumula1.net who’ve had their live chat running for something like two years now.
from our point of view we’re just solving problems the best we can. being unable to comment on live video really was becoming a bit of a show stopper for us.
btw: hopefully we’ll be doing a live video later today to road test the new toy… don’t tell anyone though
July 27th, 2008 at 02:11 #25 - lou said:
Later today as in early hours of the morning, or a more sensible time?
have just tried it on my desktop… it won’t post a comment either.
It still wont let me post a comment
July 27th, 2008 at 02:11 #26 - Jordan Allen said:
Me: I keep getting the message “Error on Page” at the bottom left hand corner of the Beta Version. Currently using HP desktop with vista and using IE7 as the browser.
Not much to go on, but we can still use the telegraph….
-.-. .-. .- .–.
July 27th, 2008 at 02:14 #27 - me said:
sunday afternoon (ish). you didn’t hear that from me though okay?
still working on it. seems fine here, but am looking through log files.
cheers jordan, i’ll keep looking into it.
July 27th, 2008 at 02:17 #28 - lou said:
hehe
ok.
July 27th, 2008 at 02:17 #29 - Steven Roy said:
One thing that is worth bearing in mind with any layout is that during a race a lot of us are already running split screens. I have video on top left with live timing below it and live comments on the right.
July 27th, 2008 at 02:25 #30 - Jordan Allen said:
@Me:
Receiving your Live Comments find and dandy.I like the current layout as eveything seems logically laid-out. Only problem occurs when I try to post a message with the live commenting beta system.
P.S. Please feed Carrier pigeon I have dispatched at 11:45 pm containing a copy of the message sent before 11:42 pm, which resulted in the “error on page”. Although it has a tailwind from a Hurricane to help it along, I expect to reach its destintation in a few more hours. Consider it payment on delivery. Has preference for “Whole Wheat” bread.
July 27th, 2008 at 02:29 #31 - me said:
my test from ie7. can you see me now?
July 27th, 2008 at 02:31 #32 - me said:
so a vertical layout would suit you best, correct?
i *think* i just mighta sorted that jordan. could you refresh and have another shot?
July 27th, 2008 at 02:31 #33 - Jordan Allen said:
No me, I can see your text quite clearly, but I can not see you until the videocam is plugged in!
July 27th, 2008 at 02:41 #34 - Jordan Allen said:
I am still getting that error on page message me.
Bear in mind that there is the Atlantic Ocean between us, so it is not like you are talking to Scott down the road.
If your North American fans have the same problem me, it seems that for me, I am better off under the old system, as it has the quicker refresher rate as well.
July 27th, 2008 at 02:45 #35 - me said:
very interesting that you should mention that, because the server is located in the states. you’re probably getting a better browsing experience than us.
i’ll keep poking around with code, because it would be nice if we can get to the bottom of it.
in terms of timescales by the way. we’re not assuming that this will be perfect in time for next weekend. but if we can iron out the bugs and add all the missing features back in by sometime in september i think we’ll be happy with that.
July 27th, 2008 at 02:50 #36 - Jordan Allen said:
Is it supposed to update itslef automatically becasue it is only shwoing as far as the 2:41 am message I have sent you.
July 27th, 2008 at 02:52 #37 - Jordan Allen said:
Me! I have found a problem. Beta version does not like my E-mail address.
July 27th, 2008 at 02:53 #38 - Jordan Allen said:
Does this work?
July 27th, 2008 at 02:55 #39 - Jordan Allen said:
Me! You have a ton of headaches ahead of you. I think that E-mail addresses can not start with a numberin your beta version. My abnormal E-mail address does not work but my stranger E-mail address does work with the beta version.
July 27th, 2008 at 02:56 #40 - Jordan Allen said:
let me see if my guess is correct.
July 27th, 2008 at 02:56 #41 - me said:
give me a clue what gives you that idea? only the ie bug i fixed awhile ago was related to this.
could you clear you browser cache and reload the page pls?
July 27th, 2008 at 02:59 #42 - lou said:
my email doesn’t start with a number, and it doesn’t work.
July 27th, 2008 at 02:59 #43 - Jordan Allen said:
Well, it appears that the problem seems to be that the beta version does not like E-mail adddress to start of as a number. I guess the older version went to a different spam filter.
How long is this site supposed to refresh itself me as it is quicker for me to hit butI hate typing in my name and E-mail address after each refresh.
July 27th, 2008 at 03:02 #44 - Jordan Allen said:
Sending message using E-mail 666381@ica.net
July 27th, 2008 at 03:06 #45 - Jordan Allen said:
Sending message using E-mail 666381@ican.net
Displays: Windows Internet Explorer
Please enter a valid E-mail address.
but Jordan_the_triphibian@hotmail.com does work.
July 27th, 2008 at 03:09 #46 - Jordan Allen said:
Using E-mail 666381@ican.net on a re-launched IE7 window.
I get an error message saying that I need a valid E-mail address.
Jordan_the_triphibian@hotmail.com seems to be consider a valid E-mail address.
July 27th, 2008 at 03:11 #47 - me said:
gotya. right, i can repeat that 100%. will fix asap.
cheers
July 27th, 2008 at 03:14 #48 - Jordan Allen said:
Why is not “me” in bed yet?
July 27th, 2008 at 03:23 #49 - me said:
because me’s dedicated to the cause. and also, if he’s being honest, because he’s having fun debugging software halfway across the world with you
think the email bug is squashed. if you would be so kind… please clear cache, refresh, and retry.
July 27th, 2008 at 03:25 #50 - Jordan Allen said:
Me! Whatever you are doing to my E-mail address (666 one) do to lou’s to so that she can share in the fun.
And if you want a mid-night snack, you might be getting some fresh “Pigeon Pie” via airmail…..
July 27th, 2008 at 03:26 #51 - Jordan Allen said:
Let us see the fruits of “me”’s efforts.
July 27th, 2008 at 03:27 #52 - Jordan Allen said:
Nicely done. “me”.
July 27th, 2008 at 03:28 #53 - me said:
it’s okay, it was my shoddy coding. should be fine for all email addresses starting with a number now.
i suspect i’ve probably broken something else in the process mind you.
re: the reload issue. the comments should refresh every 60 seconds. haven’t tested that bit on ie7 properly yet, so there may be something kooky going on there.
on my mac, i don’t ever appear to need to hit refresh now. the thing just keeps running.
July 27th, 2008 at 03:30 #54 - Jordan Allen said:
Well, me that nicely. I can use both E-mail address, and I am guessing that you are just typing up a list of valid E-mail address you get by your security settings on the old firewall.
July 27th, 2008 at 03:31 #55 - lou said:
Hope this works.
July 27th, 2008 at 03:32 #56 - Jordan Allen said:
Did you type anything in th elast two minutes casue I did not.
July 27th, 2008 at 03:33 #57 - me said:
umm, no. what happened was, i was checking on passed values to determine if they were strings or integers, but was only checking the first character (using parseInt).
therefore “6xxxx@xxxx.com” returned an integer value of “6″, which isn’t a valid email address.
July 27th, 2008 at 03:37 #58 - Jordan Allen said:
Well, once you fix lou’s E-mail address problem you can fix the non-reload issue in ie7!
July 27th, 2008 at 03:38 #59 - lou said:
July 27th, 2008 at 03:39 #60 - me said:
am on it.
July 27th, 2008 at 03:41 #61 - lou said:
I think it works…
July 27th, 2008 at 03:41 #62 - lou said:
It appears to only let me comment once, before I need to refresh the page
July 27th, 2008 at 03:41 #63 - lou said:
oh sorry scrap that. It’s fine
July 27th, 2008 at 03:42 #64 - Steven Roy said:
I wonder if this works
July 27th, 2008 at 03:44 #65 - lou said:
Well done ‘me’ you fixed it
July 27th, 2008 at 03:44 #66 - Jordan Allen said:
So “me” going to bed on a high note?
July 27th, 2008 at 03:45 #67 - Jordan Allen said:
Sorry folks, need to walk the dog. Bye.
July 27th, 2008 at 03:47 #68 - me said:
i’m not entirely convinced it’s sorted yet. but we’re getting there.
July 27th, 2008 at 03:52 #69 - lou said:
At least we can comment on it now
July 27th, 2008 at 04:02 #70 - me said:
i’ve added a chic looking info pane near the bottom of the page.
it’ll update with the last polled time, so you’ll know if anything stops working.
please yell if you don’t see things updating as expected.
July 27th, 2008 at 04:14 #71 - lou said:
Seems to be working fine
ok, I have finished the brochure/ leaflet I have been doing for the past 12 hours. I’m off to bed.
July 27th, 2008 at 04:19 #72 - me said:
appreciate all your help lou. and jordan, steven and anyone else who’s name i might have forgotten.
no doubt more bugs to squash in the morn.
July 27th, 2008 at 04:29 #73 - Jordan Allen said:
But this time, Daniel-san, use bug spray instead of fly-swatter.
July 27th, 2008 at 10:19 #74 - Lynch said:
TEST
July 27th, 2008 at 10:21 #75 - lou said:
anytime
July 27th, 2008 at 10:38 #76 - lou said:
Not sure if anyone caught it yesterday afternoon but ITVs coverage of the FOS was on. It’s on ITVs website if anyone wanted to see it but missed it.
Link: http://www.itv.com/CatchUp/Video/default.html?ViewType=5&Filter=23414
July 27th, 2008 at 12:14 #77 - Alianora La Canta said:
I have scroll bars, they work fine and there are no quibbles at this time
July 27th, 2008 at 12:14 #78 - Alianora La Canta said:
Checking to see if “incoming comments” works.
July 27th, 2008 at 12:15 #79 - Alianora La Canta said:
It does, so that’s me very happy for the practise on Friday
July 27th, 2008 at 12:46 #80 - Corey said:
It works for me too. I’m on XP using Firefox 2.0.0.16. I hardly use IE so don’t have IE7 but will give IE6 a try
Thanks for the link to the Goodwood show Lou. I thought there was no chance of me catching it as the brilliant IMeche had Formula Student on the same weekend
July 27th, 2008 at 13:36 #81 - me said:
given the problems you had with other f1 sites earlier this year, that makes me very happy to hear that.
good stuff. i’ll add it to me list.
things left to fix on my to do list for this week are as follows:
- make the layout customisable in order to fit around other windows (like live timing for example).
- new comments should fade in, rather than abruptly appear in the way the currently do.
July 27th, 2008 at 14:05 #82 - SteveintheUK said:
@me
The new Live Commenting (Beta) page seems to be working fine for me.
XP running FireFox 3.0.1 (2008070208)
XP running FireFox 3 beta rc1
XP running FireFox 3 beta 4
Xp running FireFox 2.0.0.16
Can’t see any video in the top left corner though?
July 27th, 2008 at 14:10 #83 - SteveintheUK said:
Thanks Lou, I’ll have to go watch that later.
July 27th, 2008 at 14:14 #84 - SteveintheUK said:
OK, Im just seeing if a comment left on the standard thread post will appear on the new Live Commenting page.
@ 14:14
July 27th, 2008 at 14:27 #85 - SteveintheUK said:
Well that worked really quickly.
@me
As some people seem to be having trouble loading this new, and you did ask, I think leaving this new page separate from the standard page would mean that it would be less likely to cause problems some of your visitor.
Just leave a link to this page in the Pages Links top left of the main page so people who can load this page can use it for Live Commenting during race weekends.
So when do you think you will be doing a live video recording today? I want to see if the video appears on the new Live Commenting page.
Oh and Thanks ‘me’ for putting this page together
July 27th, 2008 at 14:43 #86 - me said:
i think 6:30pm (ish). we’ve gotta be done in time for top gear
July 27th, 2008 at 14:55 #87 - Joe said:
Test.
July 27th, 2008 at 14:55 #88 - Joe said:
Woah, this is AWESOME! Works great for me, I’m on Firefox btw.
July 27th, 2008 at 15:02 #89 - lou said:
hehe. it’s the last one of the series tonight.
July 27th, 2008 at 15:08 #90 - me said:
is that it already? they’re never gonna last a whole formula 1 season are they?
July 27th, 2008 at 15:14 #91 - lou said:
yeah, it’s a short series this time. 6 eps i think.
July 27th, 2008 at 15:17 #92 - Alianora La Canta said:
True. But there’s usually two series a year. Still not a whole F1 season, but 12 episodes isn’t quite so bad.
July 27th, 2008 at 15:21 #93 - me said:
if 6 of them are during the off season, that’s not a whole lot of use either. mind you bernie appears to be bending of backwards to help them, so maybe we’ll see a two part f1 championship in a few years time?
July 27th, 2008 at 15:28 #94 - lou said:
Don’t top gear usually do a series with about 10 eps in don’t they? it’s just this series thats so short, no idea why though.
July 27th, 2008 at 15:32 #95 - Steven Roy said:
Talk about an easy life. 6 episodes constitutes a series? It’s not like they have the hardest job in the world anyway so they could put a little effort into it.
New comments are updating perfectly BTW
July 27th, 2008 at 16:28 #96 - Steven Roy said:
Just watch the FoS on the link Lou gave. I nearly jumped out of my seat when they were showing the dragsters. The guy in the white Stetson is the double of Jim Hall who used to wear one as well. Very spooky. Jim Hall did some F1 in the early 60s but is best known for his Chaparral sportscars and being one of the most inventive racing designers ever. Some of Colin Chapman’s great ‘ideas’ were nicked from Hall’s cars
Great to see the real Stig still doing it in his 60s. It’s one thing for a race driver of that age to take a car up the hill but its a whole different matter to still be hanging it out on a rally stage.
Not that I am remotely interested in i but I didn’t see the skating area when I was there. I think in future the Festival is going to have to be a two day event and sod what my legs think.
July 27th, 2008 at 16:40 #97 - Alianora La Canta said:
Usually, six are in the spring and six are in the autumn. Don’t know why they’re not doing that now.
May 25th, 2009 at 18:41 #98 - Now About Those Movable Boxes | Sidepodcast : Your Weekly F1 Podcast said:
[...] back in the summer of 2008 we introduced a live commenting system, which was designed to help follow comment conversations without requiring incessant browser [...]