Sidepodcast

Enhancing F1 Conversation in 2010

Just prior to the start of the new year, we discussed site performance improvements and plans for the future, specifically those related to the start of the 2010 F1 season. Today, with less than 12 days to go before action gets underway, we're adding significant enhancements to commenting functionality.

This morning we released updates to the site that make every single post across the whole of Sidepodcast "live enabled". That means whenever you read a post, or browse through comments relating to it, you'll be notified when anything new is added to the conversation. You no longer need to refresh the page to pick up new comments, the site does all the hard work for you.

Click to view pending.

Keeping It Real-time

In practice, whenever new information is posted, a pop-up notification will appear near the top of the window to let you know there are unread comments. Clicking on the notification will take you directly to the relevant information. Similarly, when contributing to the conversation, comments are added to the thread without the need for a page refresh. If you don't interact with the page for a period of time, updates will pause until you return.

In an ideal world, this is the system we would loved to have in place two or maybe more years ago, it's how the internet should work. Feel free to try out the process by leaving a comment below.

So Last Year

Ever since we started live blogging races back in March 2008, we've been looking for better and better means of commenting on events. Originally, we and many others, spent our days endlessly hitting the Refresh Page button, before the introduction of bespoke solutions such as the Live Commenting, Live... Thing and the Realtime Doohickey.

We now have the ideal means to further the F1 conversation. It is open, accessible and, most importantly, on by default to everyone who browses Sidepodcast. It just works.

Hover and click to share on Twitter.

One or Two More Things

In addition to the live updates, we've also made commenting easier and more social. Much like individual posts on the site, you can now share comments using Twitter. Hover over any comment and select the "share this" link to post to your microblog.

Not only that, we've added shortcut key combinations to speed things up. Shortcuts work in two modes. When you are typing a comment, the "Ctrl" modifier key provides the usual shortcuts you'd expect from a word processor. When the comment box is not in focus, single key presses perform various navigation actions.

Please note, that we're still working through the best use of key combinations and the above are subject to change. Finding memorable combinations of useful shortcuts that work across all browsers and operating systems can be tricky. Feedback in this area, is greatly appreciated.

More Than Words

It should be noted that, as with anything online, the more recent your browser the better your commenting experience will be. We're still testing, tweaking and improving as we go, and we're aware there are plenty of issues still to overcome. Mobile browser support can be, at best, considered experimental, and we're still working through various issues with older desktop browsers. It is also questionable whether the new functionality isn't an overkill on archived posts, again we'll adjust as we learn.

We are very pleased to have rolled out this new functionality before the F1 season begins. We're now able to create any number of threads for live events, sit back and join in the fun. Live commenting for every F1 session this year will begin in less than two weeks, just as it did in '08 and '09. This time around, though, joining in could not be easier and there is no excuse for not taking part.

We will see you in the comments.

People Who Listen to Sidepodcast, Also Listen To...

Not so long ago we discovered the online music recommendation site last.fm had introduced the ability to create "groups", or areas on the site for like minded individuals to share musical tastes and ideas.

Given that we're prone to signing up to anything with a login button, we created a Sidepodcast Music Group, admittedly with no real clue as to what use it might serve.

Quickly however, this proved to be something of a special idea. In essence, anyone with a last.fm account can join the group which allows you to take part in audio related discussions and to see what other Sidepodcast listeners are enjoying at any particular moment in time.

That's all well and good, but the really cool feature the group offers is that any songs you listen to get added to the weekly Sidepodchart - calculated every Sunday, as all good music charts should be. Having a chart gives us a good idea of what tracks people who listen and contribute to the show also consume, as well as highlighting those who actually have some taste when it comes to music.

There are currently 18 members in the group, including ourselves, and after about three weeks The Beatles top the chart which also features, Beck, Kings of Leon and The Ting Tings. Wonderful stuff but clearly none of those are our doing.

If you're interested in seeing what the F1 community listens to, check out last.fm/group/sidepodcast, and why not sign up while you're there?

Must Comment Monday

You may have heard us mention it on the show, and you may have noticed us littering comments around the web yesterday, but what does it all mean? Must Comment Monday is back!

What is it?

You see these things all the time: Photo Friday, Talky Tuesday, Question Saturday. Some of them are genuinely cool things to take part in , and some of them are just a way for people to come up with ideas to fill their blogs. Sidepodcast doesn't like to miss out on anything, so we're resurrecting one of the best: Must Comment Monday.

This is something that I came up with, back in the days before Sidepodcast - those long, long hours spent thinking about things other than Formula 1. What was that like? With the demise of my personal blog, Must Comment Monday went out the window as well. But it was a good idea, and that's why we're bringing it back.

What does it mean?

Everybody loves to read blogs, but sometimes it's only when you feel exceptionally compelled that you might leave a comment. Comments take extra time, and does anyone read them anyway? As a blogger, I can tell you that comments are about 70% of the reason why we blog. The rest is all about having a platform to moan about Mosley or brood about Button.

Here at Sidepodcast, we live to read your comments. You guys add so much to the conversation and are incredibly intelligent, picking us up when we're wrong, and teaching us things we don't know. In my case, that's quite a lot.

Anyway, Must Comment Monday is an attempt to make commenting a part of the routine. Each Monday, every F1 blog we read, we're gonna comment on. It's as simple as that.

Are there rules?

Generally, I stick to a few rules:

1. You comment on a Monday, therefore the blog post should be from Monday. If there's more than one post that day, you only need to comment on one, but feel free to do more if you want.
2. You don't have to comment on blogs that require you to sign up/log in.
3. "I agree" or "Right on man" is not really adding anything to the conversation, and is therefore not really in the spirit of the game.

What do I have to do?

Nothing. You can sit back and revel in the improved conversation.

Or you can take part, join in the fun and make Monday your commenting day. If I'm not convincing you yet, here are two more things I'm gonna try.

First, leaving a comment can seriously make someone's day. You can be happy in the knowledge that you made a blogger smile. You might start a conversation, make new friends, revel in a new found social circle.

No?

Okay, fine, then we've made you a button badge:

Isn't it pretty? You can't possibly resist the button badge.

Must Comment Monday. You know you want to.

Facebook Application for F1 Minute

Building upon the success of the F1 Minute Wordpress Widget and continuing our obsession with all things Facebook related, today we're announcing the Facebook Player for F1 Minute.

In Profile

The application builds upon the idea that anyone can share F1 Minute and has been designed for Facebook users looking for free Formula 1 content to add to their pages.

We've already installed it onto our profile, so if you're curious how it looks and works feel free to take a peek. At the moment it's sitting on the widest part of the page, and looks a bit like this:

Installation

You too can add the player to your profile by heading to the application page and following the instructions. The player will be automatically added to your profile page.

In addition to the wide display, the audio player can also be dragged onto the left-hand side of your profile, where it automatically resizes and looks a bit like this:

More information and support is available on the F1 Minute site. We're still writing the documentation though, so the page is a little sparse right now.

Feedback

As ever, this is a new thing for us and we're learning as we go. The application is pretty stable, so if you're feeling adventurous, please feel free to give it a tryout.

As mentioned, we'll be writing some help text shortly. If there's anything you'd like to see added or changed then please comment here, on our profile page or even on the ever popular Sidepodcast group.

Finally if there's any way in which we can make sharing F1 Minute even easier for you, just say so. There are plenty of plugins, widgets and social applications in the pipeline, but we can always squeeze in a few more.

Anti-Social Formula 1?

During this week's show we discussed the pending launch of official social networking sites from F1 teams Honda and Renault.

In the end, little came of earthdreams.info, but as our discussion was mostly based on speculation we can't really blame the team for that. It may still happen, but at the moment it doesn't look as though there will be much social dreaming from Honda in the short term.

Fan Site

Renault on the other hand did manage to launch their site. I couldn't access it until today, a full two days after its promised debut, but I'm in now and that's all that matters.

My first impression is that it's a little bit underwhelming. My own stupidity got the better of me when I struggled to create an account because "United Kingdom" wasn't on the list of available countries. Eventually I twigged that "Royaume-Uni" was the choice I needed and access was granted.

It's here that the problems really started though, because while I can happily upload images and create new blog posts, everything appears to require moderation. Even uploading an avatar becomes a very slow process - one hour after sending a picture, I'm still looking at the default image. I appreciate the need to prevent copyright infringement, but a little trust wouldn't go amiss.

Beyond the usability problems, there isn't much else to shout about at the moment. It's a fun experiment and I'm glad the team are trying, but essentially there's just not much to do on there right now. This isn't the revolution we were hoping for.

All is not Lost

There's a small light at the end of the tunnel though, because with uncanny timing Ram Rao commented on F1 Minute earlier today, suggesting that we should check out Force India's official fan club, known as Club Force.

Now this site is more like it. Registration is easy, updates are instant and there's plenty to play around with, including calendars, groups and video uploads. You don't have to log in to look around and our mini site should be available to all.

We're still experimenting with this one, it has the potential to be a great fan resource and we'll no doubt be discussing it more during the show next week.

Others

If there are any other team sites we should be looking at, or you think are worth promoting please do let us know in the comments.

Also if you're already using any of the above, please add us as friends and tell us what we've missed.

Update: If you're looking for our Renault fan site profile, you'll find it here.