A Comment Logbook: Track your comments over time.

I have discovered one solution to keeping track of where you have been and the comments you have made so you can have a conversation with someone that can stretch over several days or even weeks. And it's easy too! Much improved over the last time I tried this, prior to the most recent upgrades of the site.

I don't think I am the only one with this problem, as I have seen it mentioned on the blogs and here on the foums. I am not able to get on, due to the time constraints of having a real life, sometimes for days or even weeks at a time, and it is difficult to try to carry on some semblance of a conversation with someone because of losing track of where that last comment was made. Scrolling through pages of blog entries after one or two busy newsdays to find one you're pretty sure you made a comment in, and then having to scroll through the comments to see if you have a reply, is frustrating, to say the least. I'm sure, since I have been tracking my comments, that the same thing is happening to others, as I will comment to their comment, and not get a reply in return after more than one or two days go by. So it's on to other stuff.

There are two variations on the same method: when NB did this last upgrade, the real beauty of it, as far as tracking is concerned, is that they built a "shortcut" URL into the subject line of every single comment. So all you have to do is "copy" that shortcut to a text editor and save it as "Newsbusters Tracker" or something like that. Those that are technically savvy will see how to do this immediately and may already have a better method. But for those who struggle with this stuff, like me, I'm going to line it out step by step. BTW, I use IE7, for what that's worth. This should work no matter what browser you use.

Variation #1:

1. Make a comment in NB.

2. Open Notepad (or Wordpad or Word or any text editor. I used to use Notepad 'cause it is strictly text and doesn't take up much memory. You don't need anything fancy and Notepad comes with Windows.)

3. Go back to your comment, hover the mouse over it (it will "light up"), and right click.

4. Go to "Copy Shortcut" in the box that appears. and left click.

5. Go to your text editor and after setting the cursor to a new line, go to the top and left click "Edit".

6. Left click "Insert Date and Time".

7. Space a couple of times and type in a brief synopsis of the subject of the blog/your comment/someone else's comment, then hit "Enter" to get to the start of a new line.

8. Right click to bring up the menu box, then left click "Copy".

9. The URL appears (gets pasted) in your logbook. To use that an hour, a day, or several days later, just paste that URL to the address bar, then hit "Go" (if you don't know how to "paste" get back to me. We all had to learn it sometime).

10. The comment you made "x"-days ago will appear and any responses to that subject will be below it. Don't forget to click "Save as..." and name your new logbook "Newsbusters Tracker" or whatever.

Variation 2:

Required: Edit Pad Lite, a free text editor that does a lot more than Notepad. Just download it and your comment locations can be recorded as live links!

1. Follow the above directions up to #9. When you get to #9, you will note that the URL is now a live link. Just "double-click" the link. No copying and pasting needed!

Note: the only glitch to this method is that as you add more comment links below, the old links sometimes get broken at the end of a line where it "wraps" to a new line. I have not been able to keep this from happening. Easy Solution: just place the cursor at the very end of the broken portion of the link, hit enter, and the entire live link is restored. Don't know why it does this.

I am going to attempt to include some example entries from my own log:

13/Sep/2007 11:09 posted 9-13 @0407 rt: Clay Waters article re: Dalton Trumbo and his communist activities. Gave reference to FrontpageMag article about radical left connections, ((http://www.discoverthenet... ), specifically ch. 3 "It has all happened before". Also referenced an AT article about the communist roots of islamists(http://www.americanthinke...), more info on Dalton Trumbo (http://www.discoverthenetwork...), and an article from Weekly Standard that was referenced in the AT article, that gave background on the communist roots of modern islamism.
http://newsbusters.org/blogs/clay-waters/20...

 

 

8/Oct/2007 10:19 rt TruthMonger re: civil discourse; breakdown; remaining civil in the face of civility; how the left is framing the debate; standing up to the left is not uncivil
http://newsbusters.org/forums/topic-dis...
8/Oct/2007 11:54 another rt TM re: anger management
http://newsbusters.org/forums/topic-dis...

 

8/Oct/2007 11:02 rt Tim Graham blog re: the difference between MRC/Limbaugh and Media Matters.
http://newsbusters.org/blogs/tim-g...
Another rt ten7's re: Hilary/MM/CAP strategy to destroy conservative voices
http://newsbusters.org/blogs/tim-g...

 

 

8/Oct/2007 11:24 rt bigtimer re: her being on NB first and handling trolls;
http://newsbusters.org/blogs/mark-fin...
from an earlier rt on a blog by finkelstein about Media Matters and Conservative Belle's discovery of Clinton people inside MM.
http://newsbusters.org/blogs/mark-fin... end

 

9/Oct/2007 9:17 rt blog about Chris Matthews hosting a Republican debate.
http://newsbusters.org/blogs/brad-wi...
10/Oct/2007 0:03 rt iveseenitall re: his comment to mine re: communism being behind what the left is doing. Several references given; see Dalton Trumbo entry above.
http://newsbusters.org/blogs/brad-wi... end
10/Oct/2007 9:31 rt mastersofdeceit re: his comment to my comments on the communist operations. He recommends reading "Masters of deceit" by J. Edgar Hoover, a book I was unaware of. ht.
http://newsbusters.org/blogs/brad-wilm...

 

9/Oct/2007 16:24 rt curious re: blog story by Ken Shepherd, Alerting Bin Laden's Compatriots (ABC): Al Qaeda Goes Dark Thanks to Network (ABC) and his apparent blaming of White House, i.e. Bush, for the leak.
http://newsbusters.org/blogs/ken-sh...

 

Note: the word "end" after some of the links was just an attempt to try to solve the problem of links breaking. Didn't work. Still have to keep an eye on the link before using it to see if it needs to be restored, as mentioned above.

I can go through weeks or months of old comments like this, if I am not stopping to reply to anything. It also comes in handy when you are trying to remember where a link to some article or blog that you need to use, is located.

Hope this helps, any comments, helpful tweaks, or better ideas appreciated.

nofate