Posting comments from an iPhone or iTouch.

March 26, 2009 4:03 PM

Live preview with iPhone/iTouch?

I have an iTouch. When using it to make comments on the site, there is no live preview option. No biggie, but what that means is that the user is forced to preview every comment, before being able to post it. Not a major issue, but in longer threads, say over 50-75 comments, depending on the length of cmments, it gets old real fast because you have type the comment, then hit preview and wait for the page to load again, then hit post and wait for the page to reload for a second time.

So...would it possible to include live preview with the iPhone/iTouch, or baring that, enable immediate posting of a comment instead of having to hit preview?

posted by Brandon Blatcher (staff) to Feature Requests at 4:03 PM (24 comments total)

Sure, I just shuffled things around so iPhone users can post directly or preview if they want.
posted by pb (staff) at 4:28 PM on March 26, 2009

Cool, that works. Thanks man!
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 4:43 PM on March 26, 2009

Yay, you have to believe he is magic.
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 4:45 PM on March 26, 2009 [1 favorite]

Sure, no problem.

We disabled live preview on iPhones/iTouch quite a while ago because it slows down how fast you can type. There must be some JavaScript weirdness with Mobile Safari. So we thought it'd be good to force Preview, but yeah, it's a drag on long threads.
posted by pb (staff) at 4:47 PM on March 26, 2009

Yay, you have to believe he is magic.

True story: I rewrote that thank you comment a couple of time because I thought it sounded to gushy-omg-your're-awesome-are-you-a-god.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 5:15 PM on March 26, 2009

I considered asking for this but I kinda thought no one else would care. Obviously I was wrong.

Also: pb is amazing!
posted by Bango Skank at 5:23 PM on March 26, 2009

I want a pb for my house.

"Hey, my faucet is leaking, the upstairs window is drafty, and the basement is a mess."

10 minutes later...

"OK, all done."

Seriously dude, are you married, because I could probably coerce my husband into some kind of alternative arrangement.
posted by desjardins at 6:50 PM on March 26, 2009 [1 favorite]

that did not sound right.
posted by desjardins at 6:51 PM on March 26, 2009 [1 favorite]

The outside voice is tricky, eh?
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 6:55 PM on March 26, 2009 [1 favorite]

I am thanking Brandon for posting this pony request, and pb for producing said pony, from my iPod touch.

On preview: oh wait
posted by rtha at 7:04 PM on March 26, 2009

Thanks to asker and doer alike!
posted by mds35 at 7:11 PM on March 26, 2009

Also, pb can you lower my cable bill?








(worth a shot, eh?)
posted by mds35 at 7:12 PM on March 26, 2009

Yay!
posted by empath at 7:42 PM on March 26, 2009

I like the mobile.metafilter site on my iPhone, but I still can't figure out how to go back a page to load more than the most recent 10 or so posts. I understand that being able to post there is problematic for whatever reason, but is there any way we could get some "older | newer" buttons? Or maybe even just an increase in the number of posts that show up on the page?
posted by sergeant sandwich at 8:08 PM on March 26, 2009

Sorry sergeant sandwich, we're not planning any changes to mobile.metafilter. That site was a sort of proof-of-concept prototype that didn't ultimately prove itself. We found that the standard site works well on the iPhone, and we don't want the extra overhead of maintaining mobile. So it's frozen where it is.
posted by pb (staff) at 8:53 PM on March 26, 2009

pb once lowered my duck bill
posted by cortex (staff) at 9:40 PM on March 26, 2009

Rabbit season!
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 10:19 PM on March 26, 2009

pb is your new bicycle. If you can get over the fact that he drank your milkshake.
posted by blue_beetle at 10:59 PM on March 26, 2009

Duck Season!
posted by ninthart at 1:25 AM on March 27, 2009

The summer camp I worked at for many years had an unofficial tradition wherein, after tables had been cleared at a meal, if the campers thought the directors were taking too long to ring the bell and start announcements, they'd start chanting extraordinarily annoying things. While the standard was just "Ding! Ding! Ding" over and over (to indicate that it's time for the bell to be rung) eventually some of the staff started seeding them with much more creative chants, usually involving call and response.

To wit:

(sung to "We Will Rock You)"
Call: "Gotta be, gotta be, Domino's!"
Response: "BUFFALO WINGS!"

Call: "Is, [camper's name] here?"
Response: "YES!"
Call: "How are you, [camper's name]?"
[camper]: "I'M FINE!"

We'd also spontaneously break out into songs, with "Rock and Roll Part 2" and "The Stonecutters' Song" being the favorites.

All of this, however, paled in comparison to the one call and response that was certain to end the meal and elicit an angry reprimand (to the staff when the campers were gone) to NEVER DO IT AGAIN.

That call?

Call: "DUCK SEASON!"
Response: "RABBIT SEASON!"
(Repeat)
posted by SpiffyRob at 7:00 AM on March 27, 2009

I'm loving this live preview thing. Now I, too, can make HTML errors and follow up with "oops, looked fine in live preview," yay!
posted by subbes at 8:21 AM on March 27, 2009

Oops, the change was adding the post button: the concept looked fine in Live Preview.
posted by subbes at 8:24 AM on March 27, 2009

Just a heads up, the iphone 3b beta (which uses Nitro, er, Squirrel Fish Extreme) for javascript in mobile safari has some serious performance increases for Javascript stuff. So Live preview may be feasible in the future for iPhone users.
posted by mrzarquon at 10:45 AM on March 27, 2009

It's too bad that the mobile site isn't going to see any improvements. Of all of the sites I use that have mobile versions, the MetaFilter one is both one of the nicest and the greatest improvement over the regular site for mobile users.

Please reconsider the "older posts" button mentioned above; it's the only glaring flaw!
posted by ChrisR at 6:36 AM on March 28, 2009