LWN feature request:: FlorianFilter [LWN.net]

LWN feature request:: FlorianFilter

Posted Apr 11, 2011 13:22 UTC (Mon) by mckay (subscriber, #2782)
Parent article: Groklaw shutting down in May

I wish LWN had a feature where you could filter out comments by a given author, plus any followup discussion. Then I wouldn't have to waste my time wading through the wothless discussions that occur every time Florian Mueller trolls the site. Numerous times I've seen articles posted here (and elsewhere) that had lots of comments, and I've thought "Oh, there's a lively, interesting discussion going on", but it turns out that most of the discussion is just Florian stirring things up in the process of massaging his own ego.

to post comments

LWN feature request:: FlorianFilter

Posted Apr 11, 2011 13:38 UTC (Mon) by corbet (editor, #1) [Link] (7 responses)

LWN has exactly such a feature; you'll find it in the My Account area. Suffice to say that this conversation has increased the use of it.

LWN feature request:: FlorianFilter

Posted Apr 11, 2011 15:32 UTC (Mon) by yoshi314 (guest, #36190) [Link] (1 responses)

only for subscribers, though.

LWN feature request:: FlorianFilter

Posted Apr 17, 2011 17:13 UTC (Sun) by jzbiciak (guest, #5246) [Link]

<voiceover>Membership has its benefits.</voiceover>

LWN feature request:: FlorianFilter

Posted Apr 11, 2011 15:59 UTC (Mon) by farnz (subscriber, #17727) [Link] (2 responses)

Unfortunately, it's useless for my needs; the resulting filtering only applies to my view of the page, not the view of other people who I might send a link to. While this article happens to be one where I'm not likely to link people to it, I still can't justify paying for LWN when I can't send a safe link to an article to a colleague, without risking one of these useless flamewars breaking out in the comments and reflecting badly on me.

Perhaps you might like to consider providing a way for subscribers (maybe even just the top tier) to send a link to any LWN article complete with their filtering pre-applied? If you did so, I would be in a position to reconsider my decision to cancel my LWN subscription.

LWN feature request:: FlorianFilter

Posted Apr 11, 2011 17:49 UTC (Mon) by foom (subscriber, #14868) [Link]

Or perhaps something much easier: an article view without inline comments *at all*. You can kind of get that already by adding /rss to an article url; however, it doesn't work for long-form articles. Those only show the article summary, not the whole thing.

I still don't really understand the big deal though; I don't know anyone sensitive enough that they'd care (or consider it reflecting badly upon me) that the informative and interesting article I sent them had some random comments attached to it. Unless I was a participant in a flamewar in the attached comments, perhaps. :)

I mean, even mainstream news sites have comment threads inline these days, and those...wow...those can get nasty. But I simply don't read them unless I'm in the mood for abuse.

LWN feature request:: FlorianFilter

Posted Apr 17, 2011 17:17 UTC (Sun) by jzbiciak (guest, #5246) [Link]

You could always print to PDF and send them that instead. Send them the link too with a proviso that it hasn't been pre-filtered, and trust them to be competent enough to sort wheat from chaff.

LWN feature request:: FlorianFilter

Posted Apr 11, 2011 16:05 UTC (Mon) by mckay (subscriber, #2782) [Link]

Thank you, I don't know how I missed that feature. I now enjoy LWN even more than I did before!

LWN feature request:: FlorianFilter

Posted Apr 11, 2011 21:42 UTC (Mon) by gus3 (guest, #61103) [Link]

Well, at least the Mark of the Beast appears *before* the comment. That does make it easier for us poor souls who can't subscribe (yet).

LWN feature request:: FlorianFilter

Posted Apr 11, 2011 16:06 UTC (Mon) by FlorianMueller (guest, #32048) [Link] (2 responses)

A more accurate portrayal of those situation is that I make reasonable points and then get asked lots of questions, and get attacked, too. So I try, within reason, to respond and clarify.

LWN feature request:: FlorianFilter

Posted Apr 11, 2011 16:18 UTC (Mon) by nowster (subscriber, #67) [Link]

http://www.donotfeedtheenergybeast.com/

LWN feature request:: FlorianFilter

Posted Apr 12, 2011 12:30 UTC (Tue) by clump (subscriber, #27801) [Link]

You make "reasonable points"? Like the following?

In other words, we talk about a person who apparently would have liked to become a lawyers but failed to get there, and who missed some other important perspectives that "she" would have needed to provide holistic analysis of the issues "she" covered.

So what does "PJ" bring to the table? A blog full of rants that never had any actual effect on a decision -- it was just a propaganda device all the time.

It's beyond me why anyone would wish to engage in such character assassination. The only explanation I can present is that you're hiding a conflict of interest, and therefore your "reasonable points" and "blogs" are paid for.

Failure to *unequivocally* disclose conflicts of interest shows lack of ethical integrity for anyone willing to engage in such behaviour, and anyone low enough to pay for it.