Edit flag for Other Users

I visit The Monastery irregularly and sometimes I reply to nodes or even write a node of my own (like this one).

While I'm editing/previewing my node, I sometimes see a comment for me go by in the CB, one that's I'd like to respond to. I was thinking it would be neat to have a flag after ones name in Other Users that indicates a user is in the process of editing a node and may not be able to respond unless they open another browser tab.

Obviously, this is a very low priority item.

Alex / talexb / Toronto

"Groklaw is the open-source mentality applied to legal research" ~ Linus Torvalds

Comment on Edit flag for Other Users

Replies are listed 'Best First'.
Re: Edit flag for Other Users by ambrus (Abbot) on Dec 10, 2007 at 15:37 UTC
I can respond to the CB even if I'm editing something and without using tabs. To refresh the cb, you simply press the preview button instead of the cb talk button; and to talk in the cb, you talk normally in the cb nodelet, then when the page loads, you press the back button. I believe this should work in any browser. (These days, however, any browser I use has tabs; and I use a cb client that's not tied to my browser.)	[reply]
Re: Edit flag for Other Users by goibhniu (Hermit) on Dec 10, 2007 at 16:13 UTC
I put last hour of cb (id://596792) in my personal nodelet. When I want to "capture current" CB stuff, I right-click -> Open in New Window. Then I can multi-task and follow CB in one window while continuting my preview-update-preview cycle in the other. I humbly seek wisdom.	[reply]
Re: Edit flag for Other Users by moritz (Cardinal) on Dec 10, 2007 at 15:44 UTC
I don't really see the use of it. Additionally it might be a bid hard to implement, because HTTP is a stateless protocol, and you can't know if somebody's editing a node or not. Sometimes I hit the "Comment On" link, and close the tab without writing anything. And sometimes I take 20 minutes for one reply without using any link in the monastery. So it's virtually impossible to get a good answer to the question "is $user editing a node".	[reply]
Re^2: Edit flag for Other Users by talexb (Chancellor) on Dec 10, 2007 at 15:54 UTC
Well, I think it's a useful feature, but I also agree that it's virtually impossible to know when a user is busy until they click on the Preview button -- so while they're writing their first draft, it's impossible for the web server to know that's what the user is doing. Alex / talexb / Toronto "Groklaw is the open-source mentality applied to legal research" ~ Linus Torvalds	[reply]
Re^3: Edit flag for Other Users by jdporter (Paladin) on Dec 10, 2007 at 16:00 UTC
The other (and I think more compelling) problem is that the Other Users content has significant lag, based on cached information; it is anything but real time. So by the time that new flag you propose pops up next to a user's name, they could have already posted that writeup and moved on. The other thing to consider is that being "busy" on PerlMonks entails a lot more activities that just drafting a writeup; you could be voting on considerations in Nodes To Consider, tweaking your various User Settings, sending private /msgs, etc. A word spoken in Mind will reach its own level, in the objective world, by its own weight	[reply] [d/l]


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