comments
Latest
Facebook rolls out GIF comments to everybody
Facebook has had strange relationship with GIFs over the years. For a long time, they weren't supported at all, but as the social network grew, they came to Messenger and then to comments -- as long as they were shared via a service like Giphy or Imgur. Earlier this year, Facebook made things more official by launching a dedicated GIF button, but again it was hamstrung by the fact it only extended to a small subset of users.
Disqus wants to help rid the web of toxic commenters
In recent years, commenting services have come and go, but one has maintained a consistent presence on some of the world's biggest websites: Disqus. It's spent the past ten years helping brands and news media develop their own communities, while simultaneously amassing hundreds of millions of users of its own. The service is big enough that its commenting tools have been deployed on websites that host unsavory content, which it has, in turn, become associated with. Disqus has said it has no tolerance for hate speech but continues to host discussions on websites that promote toxicity. Now, it says, it wants to do more about it.
Facebook tests GIFs in comments like it's 1995
It's time for Facebook to fully embrace the animated GIF. The social network is about to start testing the ability to add GIFs to comments and your feed will never be the same.
Facebook comments are headed for a Messenger-like makeover
In order to keep people coming back, Facebook regularly debuts new features for small sets of users. Newsfeed posts, videos and Messenger have all regularly been experimented on, but the humble comments section has largely stayed the same over the past decade. That could be set to change, however, after BuzzFeed News confirmed that the social network is testing a new mobile layout that styles comments to look more like text messages.
Public Access' time is done, but a better Engadget community awaits
It's been just shy of two years since we unveiled Public Access, our grand experiment in community contribution. In that time, we've seen some excellent stories published on the platform by you, and we are grateful for those efforts. Today, however, we are moving the Engadget community in a new direction and will be shutting Public Access down this Thursday, March 9th. For those of you in the community, you can rest assured your contributions aren't going anywhere -- the links to your stories will remain live and shareable, even though your profile pages will disappear. That said, we will be removing all site navigation to Public Access stories, so you need to copy the links to your stuff if you want to be able to read and share them moving forward. And, if you have any questions, just email publicaccess at engadget dot com, and we'll answer them! While your Public Access profile will be no more, you can (and should) sign up for an Engadget account that'll let you continue contributing to the Engadget community by submitting comments and gadget reviews. We've got some new features (including new and improved profile pages) planned for our community that are coming soon, so sign up, tell us what you think, and enjoy the ride!
News site deters comment rants by making you take a quiz
It's all too easy for comment sections to get nasty, especially when people rush to spout off without having read more than the headline. How does a site prevent rants from showing up without resorting to cutting-edge tech? If you're Norway's NRK, the answer is simple: make people take a quiz. The news outlet is trying out a system that asks you to pass a short multiple-choice test, making sure you've at least had a cursory read-through before you share your opinion. It leads to more informed discussions, as you might guess, but it also introduces a brief delay that might give you a chance to cool down and write a more rational comment.
Alphabet fights 'toxic' comments with machine learning
If you've spent any time at all on the internet, you know that finding civil conversation can be a real challenge. Whether on YouTube, Facebook, Twitter or your favorite news site, trolls can often dominate and derail the conversation. Today, Alphabet company Jigsaw has announced that it is using its machine learning chops to combat the problem. Perspective, which launches today, is an "early-stage" technology using machine learning to identify "toxic" comments. Furthermore, publishers will have access to an API to include this technology on their sites in the hopes that it'll lead to better conversations.
All opinions are equal in BuzzFeed's new comment system
President Donald Trump's election win was shocking to many, which seems to say that Americans understand each other less than ever. Part of this disconnect may be a lack of exposure to opposing viewpoints. That's what Buzzfeed seems to think, and it's addressing this problem with something called Outside Your Bubble.
IMDb is shutting down its infamous message boards
IMDb's message boards were supposed to encourage discussion among movie buffs, but that's not how they've turned out. If anything, they've developed a reputation for haters and trolls -- you'll even find naysayers ragging on people who like Casablanca and Citizen Kane. And apparently, IMDb has had enough. The Amazon-owned database is shutting down the boards on February 20th after determining that they're "no longer providing a positive, useful experience" for most users. Data and traffic helped influence the decision, IMDb adds, suggesting that they weren't popular enough to warrant keeping around.
Google+ revives one of its most useful features: Events
Google overhauled Google+ from top to bottom in late 2015 to shift the focus to communities. The company has been tweaking the social platform since that change and today its announcing the latest updates. First, events are back on Google+. Starting January 24th, one of the more handy features the social network had to offer will return. The means you will be able to create and join events on the web, but the tool won't be part of G Suite right now.
YouTube gives creators more control over the comment section
YouTube comments have historically been a toxic cesspool, but Google's video platform is finally making some changes to give creators and money-makers even more control over the conversations that take place below their videos. Today, YouTube announced a new set of commenting tools meant to help creators engage with and build their communities.
ICYMI: Brain injury gadget, DARPA future plane and more
#fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-363435{display:none;} .cke_show_borders #fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-363435, #postcontentcontainer #fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-363435{width:570px;display:block;} try{document.getElementById("fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-363435").style.display="none";}catch(e){}Today on In Case You Missed It: Samsung has jumped on the preventing-brain-injury bandwagon, developing a brainBAND to light up to indicate the severity of a hit in contact sports. Meanwhile, DARPA is designing a new airplane that is a blend between a fixed aircraft and a helicopter. And NASA is about to begin using inflatable modules at the International Space Station, in case that's something humans can set up on the surface of Mars. We hit on a number of big stories this week, but you will definitely impress your friends if you know what happened to Microsoft's AI chat bot within 24 hours. As always, please share any great tech or science videos you find by using the #ICYMI hashtag on Twitter for @mskerryd.
Feedback loop: the best reader comments of 2015
#fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-987049{display:none;} .cke_show_borders #fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-987049, #postcontentcontainer #fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-987049{width:570px;display:block;}The stories we tell here at Engadget are meant to both inform and entertain. And when we're doing our jobs well, the work we do sparks impassioned responses and conversations amongst our readers and editors. We might not always be able to respond to your comments, tweets and posts, but we do read what you send our way. These are some of our favorite reader insights from 2015.
Hightail's new Spaces make it easy to annotate any kind of file
Remember YouSendIt? Late in the last decade, you probably send or received some big files through the service, perhaps of questionable legality. Regardless of how pirates may have used it, the company found success with businesses -- but as online storage became more and more of a commodity, the company rebranded as Hightail and started focusing on collaboration around those shared files. Today, the company is officially unveiling its new vision for collaborating on work projects, called Spaces. It's been available in Beta, but now everyone can give it a shot.
One login to rule them all: Welcome to the new Engadget comments
Our community of readers (that's you!) is of the utmost importance to us, and we're committed to making the Engadget experience the very best it can be. For three years, Engadget's been using Livefyre as our commenting system, and while it's not perfect, it served us well. We believe we can do better, however, and so it's time for a change. Our new commenting system was built in-house, by us and for you. That means we can and will be adding features to make it better as we go, and we want your feedback. This is just the first step in our plan to make Engadget the very best place on the web to not only read about technology, but also to talk about it with your fellow like-minded readers, too!
Google 'retires' G+ as a requirement, starting with YouTube (update)
After spending a few years plugging Google+ into all of its services -- even as users of those services complained -- Google is rolling that back. It started by breaking out Photos and Hangouts, and now YouTube is taking a turn by reverting the system that's been in place since late 2013. In a blog post, we learn that "soon" you will no longer need a Google+ account to upload, comment or create a channel, and even if you're just a viewer, your comments on YouTube won't appear on Google+ (or the other way around). YouTube is just one of the first products making this change, so you can expect it to stretch across the rest of Google as well. If you want to ditch your Google+ account now that it's no longer a requirement, another blog post says it will make doing that easier too (but don't try it right now -- we'll tell you when).
Scientists can build an early-warning system for trolls
Almost every website with comments suffers from trolls, people who like to spout obnoxious and irrational gibberish just to offend others. Since you can't just ask people to behave like human beings, a lot of time and effort is spent monitoring and policing this idiocy. Thankfully, the internet's long national nightmare may now be at an end after researchers from Stanford and Cornell developed an early warning system for trolls. After conducting a study that examined close to 40 million comments, it was found that trolls can be algorithmically identified before they've written 10 posts.
How Russia's 'troll factory' pumps out online propaganda
Russian blogger Marat Burkhard told Radio Free Europe that working in an infamous "troll factory" generating fake internet posts and comments was "Orwellian." "Whatever we're told, that's what we'll write about, no questions asked, and we don't want to know." Using the word "absurd" no less than five times, he detailed how a typical day went at "Internet Research," a company run by a Vladimir Putin crony. The team of around 300 employees reportedly puts out about 30,000 pro-Kremlin comments a day from fake accounts on Twitter, Facebook and websites like the New York Times. Burkhard took the job because it was an "adventure" and pays considerably more than a professional journalist makes in the nation.
Reddit now lets you embed comments on other websites
If you've ever stumbled across a juicy quote in a Reddit thread, you now have an easy way to share it on the web without losing context: Reddit has switched on support for embedding comment threads. All you have to do is visit a comment's permalink, grab the code and paste it into your blog or forum. You can include the parent comment to provide background, and there's a rather wise option to hide comments if they're edited -- your fellow redditors can't prank you by changing things after the fact. Give it a shot if you'd like to do more with that laugh-worthy AMA response than simply take a screenshot or post a link. [Image credit: Eva Blue, Flickr]
Dropbox badge and comments ease collaboration headaches
Remember that Dropbox badge we heard about in December? The ones that'll tell you when someone else is editing a shared file? Well, after a period of early access for some, that handy feature is now ready for the masses. If you're in need of a refresher, the badge allows you to see who is viewing or editing a file, and how long they've been at it. They can also be used to nab the most recent version of a file with a single click and grab a link for you to share the document.
