January 21, 2008
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Comment Replies
I remember the first time I saw the letters “RYC”. Someone explained that RYC = Regarding Your Comment… and that RYC was needed because Xanga didn’t have a built-in reply feature for comments. If you wanted to reply to someone’s comment, you had to go searching for a random post on that person’s account and then start your comment with “RYC”.
Sometimes that works nicely. But other times it doesn’t work as well – like when you’re having a topical discussion on your blog and RYC’s are flying all over the place from random people’s Xangas!
So Joe built a reply feature for comments! To reply to someone’s comment, just click the “reply” link next to that comment. A special link will appear in the comment box that looks something like this: @joe. Then when you post your comment, that user (in this case, joe) will get an alert over email or into his Universal Inbox… so he’ll know to look for your comment
.
Check it out! I’ll start with a particularly insightful comment on this post, and then you can reply to it below… hope that gives you a feel for how it works. – Marc
Comments (143)
First!
nice work guys, this is a loooooong overdue (but much appreciated) feature!
@marc - second, btw
@marc - good stuff! i like how it’s gonna show up in the universal inbox.
@marc - you’re right, that was a very insightful comment. thank you for sharing…
@sean - haha, nice use of the Eruption of Awesome… that mini is so choice
THANK GOD!! PRAISE THE LORD!!
I f**cking hated RYC.
@sean - WOW this is great!
When will you allow us to edit the content on our universal feed back page?
Like you aren’t doing enough already. 
@marc - Okay I replied to sean when it should have been to YOU! Now how do I take it back. lol
@angi1972 - We’re absorbing all the feedback we’ve gotten, and prioritizing away. That’s definitely something that’s bugged me too!
@john - Thanks John! I am not really in a hurry… just sending a little harrasement your way.
@marc - wow it’s starting to look pretty crowded with @ here and @ there. any idea on whether there’ll be threaded comments? or indented? looking for better organization.
noticing that my email client is threading reply notifications for replies to the same comment… very cool
@angi1972 - Haha, that’s a “little” harassment?
@marc - Nice!
@john - Oh yeah.. Should I do more? :-b
I wonder if this’ll universally replace replying to comments via posting on other people’s Xanga’s. That’s still my prefered method (call me old skool) but this is a great feature for those who wish to have the option. At least now I’ll know when someone replies to my comment on a particularly popular Xanga entry.
@booyahman - yah, we’re def considering other types of views for this feature… we just wanted to start with something simple and straightforward.
@marc - nice
larry
Great feature, XangaTeam!!
@john - yes! so it looks like you can turn a single site into a forum of sorts… & ryc more than one person…oooo I used than LOL
omg people are going to LOVE this. thanks xanga.. team.
I agree – people will love it. Very insightful! …. and I think it is great that Xanga keeps finding ways to improve.
@john - Mmm…I love the word insightful.
Having just used the ‘reply link’, what would be really useful is if your ‘reply comment’ appeared in their “comment box” too
….hmm hope this makes sense.
i noticed the reply feature earlier, right before you made this post.
also, will someone please make a post on thexangateam using the word “ghetto” ??
Hmm… I don’t see it..not sure if it’s me..probably is…*
@marc - That’s great! I really agree with the random RYC being out of place… thanks!
I will make use of this feature!
Now if only you had a delete/edit button next to the comments.
always something new on xanga yay!
@marc -
quite insightful -)
@seedsower -
boo haha gotta love xanga’s hard work huh?!
@rayray714a -
You betcha! I love Xanga and appreciate all their work!
@marc - congrats to you and joe!
good stuff and feature. xanga keeps getting better.
@marc - omg, i love this already
@marc - Fantastic. Thanks for doing this.
@sean -
I completely agree. I’m positively thrilled by this development!
@marc -
FUN!
You guys are really earning your keep this year….keep it up!!
@marc -
I’m testing this to see how it works. It could be good. I always wish people would follow the conversation at the place where the post and comment first took place. I always check to see if anyone has commented after me so I can keep up. But maybe I don’t comment as much as many people, so it’s easier for me to keep up. I only comment when I have something to say, not to just say hello.
@Mystic_Xingjing - o.o Interesting
@auntlada -
Testing replying to my own comment to see what happens.
@marc - cool, thank you.
@auntlada - Not getting any notice yet. How long does it take? Does it only work with the new beta private site thing (which I hate and refuse to use until forced to, and then we’ll see)? I haven’t got a message or an e-mail yet.
@marc - nice one! woot! woot!
@auntlada - hi… you won’t get an alert if you’re replying to yourself (presumably, you are already aware of that reply
)
@marc -
Duh. I didn’t think of that, but it does make sense. It would be nice if there were a way to test these things, though, without having to drag in innocent bystanders to help. I don’t know how, but it would be nice.
Either way, the result is cool. I hope it does cut down on the ryc phenomenon, although that does lead to some interesting sites sometimes. (It’s a bit like wikipedia; you just start following links and don’t know where you might end up.)
that makes no sense.
MAKE SOMETHING WHERE YOU CAN CHANGE YOUR USERNAME WITHOUT MAKING A NEW SITE!!!!!!!!!!
Thank you so very much!
Holy cwap. This is awesome.
We have needed that feature for quite sometime! Thanks!
Hahah. That took me a while. I thought RYC meant replying your comment… although that is bad english. Well at least now I don’t need to remember what it means.
this was much needed.
good grief, i’d always get annoyed when someone is posting an RYC seemingly “off topic” in a post of mine because i operate in thread/message board style. at least the visitors can see in what context the reply-comments are made when they’re in follow up to the relevant post..
let’s give this a whirl.
one of the many reasons why i like xanga. constantly making tweaks to improve it just a little more each day.
thanks for the welcoming
I’ve been waiting for this feature for some time now! Yay!
@venice -
Venice, I was thinking exactly the same thing.
I tried it out without really paying attention to the description of what it did, and was very surprised to see my own comment in my own feedback – And I hate commenting on my own posts. LOL I’ve done it maybe 3 times in two years.
But then if they did that, there would be a double message for the recipient; an email with the reply, AND an email showing a new comment.
So I’m not sure about it. I know it takes a bit of getting used to newer ideas, and I may be “old school” like CapnHowdy.
I can see great uses for this though, so Thanks again, Xanga!
thanks for finding yet another function 2 make using X better.
this can be fun!
Yea, good idea!
Ummmmm, I fail to see what is so insightful about “First!!!”, so I really don’t have much RYC to add.
@marc - very cool!
#62…um I guess I’m a bit slow here…haha
This makes Xanga so good
I would never admit when I used to see a RYC on my blog when I made a comment on someone elses blog
It would take a while for me to understand how this works and get used to how to used it properly
Why are some of my subs posts showing up in a large blue font? This post, for instance is showing up that way.
@skanickadee - is it possible that one of the posts in your subs used a large blue font… and forgot to close their font tags? that could cause the issue…
@marc -
Xanga is always improving, I am trying to keep up with all the new stuff you done so far this year.
Just for this and to get rid of some of my credits - Huge eprops, great idea Xanga Team and many thanks to Joe as well
I really like the upgrade but I would like to see the reply go to two places, into my entry and into the newest entry to be read at the person commenting site. I think getting a reply without having to go back to a site to see if someone replied per a comment would be the absolute best, the pièce de résistance
this feature is awesome. I wish it worked with the iPhone though.
-ray leeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee
LittleEgypt - I think this reply will show up in two places: here on this page, and also in your universal inbox (and email inbox): http://www.xanga.com/private/homemain.aspx
We’ll also be adding it to the Feedback Log over time, I believe…
@jigg - We’ll do some testing on the iPhone… it’s just JavaScript, so it should work in most browsers.
@marc - you rock!
Very nice, replies showing up in the email box is wonderful. You fellas are really on top of the how to. I shouldn’t be so amazed as I have always felt this group is very smart. Thank you for proving me so very right.
Looking forward to see what is next for our Xanga blogs
Xanga has been going up and up in making it easier to use and fun
Cool, but I would like it better if you clicked “reply” and it sent the reply to their page instead. =D
I still don’t understand this… Then again, I’m awfully slow with all things internetty.
Yeah, we should be able to delete the comments we leave on people’s sites.
But this is really nice
@MsJYang - Hey MsJYang – hopefully this gives you a sense for how the reply feature works! It does send something to your site.. you can see it here:
http://www.xanga.com/private/homemain.aspx
@john -
I thought, perhaps that it was somehow related to that box that says, “You’re checking out the new beta Subscriptions page…” because that is where I noticed it first but maybe that was affected by something like that and not the cause. It seems to have
stopped so all is good.
BTW, I like this new feature.
The idea is supperb!!!
I always thought RYC was “Returning Your Comment” as sometimes a return comment has nothing to do with the content of the post you put it under. I’d put RYC in front of it so other readers of that post wouldn’t think I was a crazy person who read the post wrong or something. My mistake.
Let me just say think you.
i hate putting a political arguments as a comment on someones poetry site. it just messes up their posts real comments. I like this, it keeps the debates were they started.
*Thank you
The new reply button is great!!
I would like to have the same facility on my new private page to select or take away modules as with my public site.
I would like to be able to add a Java code module to my private site and my public site.
Hello. For one day you went back to having the email notifications being on a post by post basis. And right when I was about to say thank you I found out that you had switched it back to being on a user to user basis. Why?
THANKS JOE lol… umm, when u guys having live chat again???
thanksss
Hmmm, not so sure I’m liking it . . . . yet.
<li class=”MsoNormal”>I’d like to see @username reply in said Xangan’s comments instead
<li class=”MsoNormal”>I’m curious to see how this’ll affect Xangans’ Inbox; especially those w/a large fan base
<li class=”MsoNormal”>SPAM blockers, I’d imagine many of these @username emails will be blocked
<li class=”MsoNormal”>Will the email to @username tell said Xangan which of my posts the @comment is on/in? (If Xangan hasn’t checked email messages for 2 weeks, will the email identify in which of posts the @username reply is, so 2 weeks later Xangan can drill back and read it?)
Oops! Sorry’bout that . . . that’s what happens when I try to use bullets in comments
Don’t forget to add that for photo comments too
@AcidSam - thought I’d reply to your comment, so you could see how the feature works!
@silentcrisis24 - O yeah…it’s pretty insightful.
whoa thats neat
I think a good idea would be if something showed on my “home” page the replies I got from comments.
@ekin - Yup, that’s exactly how it works! Are you using the new private page?
http://www.xanga.com/private/homemain.aspx
I think we shouldn’t have to deal with the annoying advertisements on everyone’s sites.
@marc - great new feature! except maybe ONE more suggestion… why don’t you cascade all the “reply” comments so it’ll be easier visually to see who replied and who didn’t?
Great idea, you guys just keep turning them out, don’t you?
very cool. I just noticed this today that someone commented me back and I thought it was just a feature that I hadn’t noticed before.
wow! i could’ve used that feature all day today and saved myself the trouble. lol
@marc - cool!
@marc -
Awesome idea there! Thumbs up to Xanga:)!
nice!
WA~~
THZ YOU!!
@Mystic_Xingjing - just checking out the reply thingy.
@mcdaniel37 - we try, we try
.
@marc -
I think it’s pretty neat! But to be honest it’s a little overwhelming for me, seeing extra links below the post. Although maybe it’s because I lack sleep right now.
In any case, basically awesome. [Oh and yes, I'm totally picking at this post by cleverly putting this mini to use. ;b]
Sweeeeeeeeet.
@marc - gee I wonder where you thought of that… this is cool. I like it.
Thanks,
Ok I feel stupid but have nothing to do with this blog. I probably should write email or something but I got some complaint here.. I have a lifetime for my site, I paid for it but yet I am forever seeing the ADS. I got curious to see what happens if I tried removing it. It takes me to the page of PAYING for the site even when I already paid for it.
Why???
Thanks so much for this! I’ve been waiting years for Xanga to implement this, because “ryc” was a really unwieldy system that lost the thread of conversations.
@john - ach so! Ok, I like that the email does link the comment/reply to the original . . . I might use it more often. Thank you for sample replying.
I see I can also reply to someone else’s comment on your site . . . is this so? That’ll be interesting.
@AcidSam - And, I can reply to my reply . . . I need a life.
uhh, 114th!
@AcidSam - Yup, exactly like you said on both counts
. Except one note: when you reply to yourself, I don’t know if you get an email alert. Presumably you’re aware of that one, haha!
the reply feature works great on weblogs…but I didn’t see it (or I’m blind)…on photo/audio/video comments….
@edlives - Yah we’re making sure it’s all good on weblogs before we port it to other comment types…
@john - wow…that was quick…thanks. LOL
Brilliant.
TeraLink Was Here!
@john - You’re right . . . I didn’t get an email w/my own reply, but I did get yours just now . . . you’ve all put lots of time into this, good job! Thank you!
I have been wanting this for so long.
@hapax23 - replies randomly
@marc -
I really like this feature now. I didn’t at first, because I wasn’t sure how it worked. But I like it a lot now.
@momofjenmatt - Awesome! Spread the word… post about it on your site
@john - I plan on it look for it tomorrow. A bit too tired and non articulate tonight. It could be up early am.
This is already a great idea! xD
I really like this feature. Now, if you guys could just find a way to give us the option to delete messages from the inbox with a “check box” feature or something like it without having to open each one to delete them, that would be great. I have mondo messages in my inbox because trying to delete them all…I don’t have the patience to open that many to delete them one at a time. [grins]
@marc -
127th!
Thank you for the feature. It’s very much appreciated.
@marc -
much easier, thanks, but I don’t see my comment on their page right away? Is there some sort of delay?
@CEagle90 - Hi! The comment appears on the page where you submitted it (where the conversation is unfolding), but the specific user to which you replied also gets an *alert* (either by email or into the new “Universal Inbox”, or both) letting them know about the reply
hi team i just wanted to drop bye and say hi and i love xanga so much today i was on for about 3 hours uploading pictures so comment back guys
-Hady Marina
@marc -
OHHH, I get it. sorry…. thanks
i’m bored!
I just discovered this and I think it is high time and an excellent addition to xanga!!!
When I reply to a comment, the cursor starts my comment on the next line. It might just be my broken browser (I’m not too nice to Firefox, it’s broken other webpages before). I was just wondering if anyone else was experiencing this. I still love the reply feature, though.
Awesome. I had been wishing Xanga would do something like this.
One little thing – Could you guys document this in the help files? I’ve unfortunately been tied up w/ other things lately, and when I came back to comment, I was surprised to see the @User. I searched Help for help, and could find nothing mentioning this nifty new feature.
today is the first time I feel the force (or simply usefulness) of this function!!
thx!
Sometimes the Reply Link doesn’t work… @.@
thx
thx
Hey
Hey