This "x new comments," does it delete too?

June 28, 2011 2:13 PM

When the "x new comments" link is clicked, does it also magically pull out deleted comments as well?

I'm just curious. I never noticed, what with the sound of awesomeness distracting me and all.

posted by nevercalm to MetaFilter-Related at 2:13 PM (27 comments total)

I can tell you that it doesn't update the favorites count or best answers.
posted by 2bucksplus at 2:17 PM on June 28, 2011

No, it does not update the comments already in the thread, so if something has been deleted since you last did a proper load or refresh of the page, it won't disappear. Ditto for favorites counts on existing comments.
posted by cortex (staff) at 2:18 PM on June 28, 2011

I noticed that, and also that it renders some of the Greasemonkey tweaks something less than totally useful. I can't see how it would, but was wondering and we're not on a "Metatalk Silent Treatment" streak so I figgered I'd ask.
posted by nevercalm at 2:19 PM on June 28, 2011

Plutor just updated the Scroll Tag script to work with the Ajaxy stuff.
posted by shakespeherian at 2:38 PM on June 28, 2011 [1 favorite]

What about in the new comments? If you leave a thread open for awhile, come back to 65 new ones waiting, and one or two of those 65 were deleted, would they show up when you clicked to update the thread?
posted by Rhaomi at 2:56 PM on June 28, 2011

No, once they're deleted they won't be displayed on the site. The count will go down on the next update if it needs to if there haven't been more comments added.
posted by pb (staff) at 3:19 PM on June 28, 2011

Heh, I can imagine seeing "1 new comment, show," going to click it, and having it go *poof* before you can. No derails for you!
posted by Rhaomi at 3:50 PM on June 28, 2011 [1 favorite]

Imagine – I've seen it, my friend.
posted by koeselitz at 4:11 PM on June 28, 2011 [2 favorites]

The (x new) counts on the front page aren't connected to the in-thread updates in any way. Those front page counts are a best guess based on session time. Here's an explanation of how the front page counts work. It's not ideal, but we also don't want to store individual thread data for every member.
posted by pb (staff) at 4:36 PM on June 28, 2011

Today I found out that if you're viewing an FPP that gets deleted an Angry Red Box comes up telling you of this fact instead of the usual "click X new comments, show".

As I closed it, I thought to myself that I should have taken a screen shot to show how l33t I was for spotting this. Afterwhich I thought, "who am I going to impress with this fact?"

So I guess I came here to say "Dear pb and everybody, Way to handle all the cases. I liked your Angry Red Box. Love, Phredward".
posted by Phredward at 7:08 PM on June 28, 2011 [6 favorites]

I'm impressed. Of course I'm drinking again.
posted by Splunge at 7:17 PM on June 28, 2011

Today I found out that if you're viewing an FPP that gets deleted an Angry Red Box comes up telling you of this fact instead of the usual "click X new comments, show".

I also saw this the other day. Much like Adam Sander's buffoon when he saw his own asshole in the mirror, "It- blew- my- fucking- miiind."
posted by drjimmy11 at 7:40 PM on June 28, 2011

Interested parties should know there's due to be an Angry Red Box sighting soon in this thread.
posted by carsonb at 9:23 PM on June 28, 2011

I like parties.
posted by box at 9:25 PM on June 28, 2011

BOOM, there it is!
posted by carsonb at 9:34 PM on June 28, 2011

There was gonna be a party?


awwww...

shucks.
posted by The Whelk at 11:30 PM on June 28, 2011

Meatfilter: "I liked your Angry Red Box"
posted by Mitheral at 2:55 AM on June 29, 2011

Apparently I could have seen the big red box in the next thread (now closed), because I was about to type "This is good news to know as I don't often update my Greasemonkey scripts, so thank you, marsha56!!!"

But nope.

Kinda bullshit, that. Anyways, someone post a big red box, we peons would like to see, too.
posted by barnacles at 3:21 AM on June 29, 2011

I'm not sure that cortex is completely right. Yesterday I was reading a thread and when I clicked on the x new comments thing, the comment that popped up was that Jessamyn had removed a few comments. I loaded the thread again in a new tab to see what the deleted comments were by comparing the new tab to the old tab and found them in my original tab, but when it checked for new comments again, the deleted comments were gone in that (first) tab.
posted by Kimberly at 6:19 AM on June 29, 2011

As I understand it, the "load new comments" thing is incapable of rewriting the already displayed content, period; I'm not sure what happened there but it sounds like either tab confusion or an extra actual page load got into the mix.
posted by cortex (staff) at 7:26 AM on June 29, 2011

Yeah, cortex is right, we don't remove content once it is displayed on the page. But the idea of a "reload" is a bit different with the loaded content, especially when you use the browser back/forward buttons. I was trying to think of a good analogy and here's a stab at it. When you load a new thread for the first time there are a certain number of comments, let's say 10. Think of that like a page in a book. It's not going to change. As you click the "show new comments" link, we add in comments to the end of the page like post-it notes. Say you've done that a few times and there are now 15 comments on the page: 10 page comments, and 5 post-it comments.

Nothing is ever removed at this point. If you happen to click a link on the page and then use your back button to come back, the 10 page comments from your original load will be there. That was your starting point. And we left a note in the URL (the little #inline-12345 at the end) to tell the page how many post-it notes it needs to tack on just in case you use the back button. In that case, the page is requesting those tacked-on comments from the server again. If one of those five has been deleted, you'll only end up with four comments tacked on to the original 10. So even though there hasn't been an official reload, the inline comments portion of the page has been reloaded.

And this goes double for the iPhone. Mobile Safari constantly refreshes pages that aren't in view as you switch between tabs. So that could definitely lead to confusion about what is reloaded when.

If you're interested in why we do things this way here's a good article about using Unique URLs for different page states, and why you need to use them: Ajax Patterns: Unique URLs.
posted by pb (staff) at 8:19 AM on June 29, 2011

Just saw the Angry Red Box on a MeTa. Got startled, thought old MeTas never grow old (get deleted), they just fade away (get closed)...
posted by likeso at 9:19 AM on June 29, 2011

ack. die, not grow old. need food. need PIZZA.
posted by likeso at 9:51 AM on June 29, 2011

'Scuse me-- just wanted to mention that the "x new comments" link is called a Thingdoo.

thanks.
posted by herbplarfegan at 2:05 PM on June 29, 2011

I don't know if this matters, but the red box says "deleted" on MeTa posts which are closed.
posted by ODiV at 2:53 PM on June 29, 2011

Thanks, we fixed that up earlier today.
posted by pb (staff) at 3:23 PM on June 29, 2011

Thanks for adding the "deleted thread" warning. I've gotten burnt before when I've written longish comments on threads that never made it. Such lonely comments now. So sad.
posted by zachlipton at 2:31 PM on June 30, 2011