Wednesday, July 08, 2020

[Guest Post] Update of Converseful comment feature now allows for more conversations

[This post is written by Ben Alderoty from Conversful.]

Conversful launched on BackRe(action) at the end of April. For those that aren’t familiar with our name, Conversful is the app in the bottom corner that allows you to have conversations with other readers. It is still only supported on computers, so if you’re on a phone or tablet right now, come back another time to see what I’m talking about. Based on the feedback we’ve received from many of you, we have been working on some big changes to Conversful and are excited to announce these changes are now live for everyone on BackRe(action).



To participate in Conversful you will now need to create an account. You’ll be able to see a preview of the conversations happening without an account, but to join one or start your own you’ll need to create one. Accounts make it easier to find the right people you want to talk to and maintain those conversations over time.


Conversations on Conversful are still 1-on-1 and start with questions (formerly topics). Questions can pertain to a specific article you might be reading or a more general physics question you are pondering. Ask specific questions as those will elicit the best replies. When you post a question, it will remain open for a week by default and can receive multiple responses. These responses will come in the form of multiple threads within your Conversations tab.

Conversful now works both in real-time and asynchronously. If you see another reader with a green circle next to their name that means they are currently online. We’ll notify you via email if you receive a new message on Conversful when you’re offline. This way you’ll know when to get back on BackRe(action) to continue the conversation. You can control this setting in your profile tab by clicking the avatar in the top left corner of the app.


And that’s it! The app is still pretty simple as we wanted to make it as easy as possible to start conversations and enjoy the one’s you’re already in. We hope that the 1-on-1, private nature of Conversful makes it easy to say something if you’ve ever wanted to, but didn’t want to do so publicly. For all of the active commenters out there, keep commenting! We hope you can use us to continue your conversations and stray into off topic discussions that don’t pertain to a specific post.

As always, please send feedback and suggestions to ben@conversful.com. For those that have given us feedback thus far, thank you so much!

8 comments:

  1. I'll give this a go once I'm back at home where my laptop is. It looks like a nice idea so I'm curious to see how it works out in practise.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Maybe I will meet you there!
      The moderator would not publish a response I wrote to a question you asked me.

      It made me feel rude and disrespectful.

      Delete
  2. Most people want everyone to see their childish rants and angry screeds.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I've just tried it out and I didn't see any 'childish rants or angry screeds'.

      Delete
  3. My eyesight is not great and I read your blog with the zoom set to 200%. As a result, the blue "Share Your Thoughts" button occupies about half the width of my screen, obscuring over half of the text on the page.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi DAK,

      Thanks for pointing out; this doesn't sound good and I hope it can be fixed soon.

      Delete
    2. Hi DAK, thanks for this feedback. I just tried out zoom at 200% and saw what you were talking about. Let me see what we can do to get this back to a more manageable size when you're zoomed in.

      Delete
  4. I've just tried it out. It looks pretty easy to use and I'm glad to see a tech company take privacy issues seriously from the start.

    ReplyDelete

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