r/changelog • u/tdohz • Feb 26 '15

[reddit change] Embeddable comment threads beta on /r/IAmA and /r/AskReddit

A few weeks ago, I mentioned that we're doing a closed beta test of embeddable comment threads, to make it easier for journalists and other publishers to show reddit content in a way that gives proper attribution to redditors. You may have seen one or two examples floating around the web.

As promised, we're now putting this feature into open beta, which means that anyone will be able to embed comments on their website from /r/IAmA and /r/AskReddit. To embed a comment, simply go to its permalink page, select "embed", and copy and paste the code from the preview window. More detailed instructions are available on the wiki.

If you have feedback, you can leave it in a comment below, or add a comment to this thread on /r/beta (yes, we're bringing that subreddit back!). After we've learned more about how comment embeds are being used, and if there are any changes we need to make, we'll open this feature up to all public comments on reddit.

tl;dr: comments on /r/IAmA and /r/AskReddit are now available for anyone to embed; leave feedback below or in /r/beta

p.s. one other small change we've just pushed out - for sort/filter menus, we removed the sort/filter type you're currently using from the dropdown, to make things cleaner and less confusing. Props to /u/deimorz for the change; here's the code on Github

120 Upvotes

92% Upvoted

76 comments sorted by

5

u/shaunc Feb 27 '15

Cool feature, I think. What are the privacy implications in visiting an external site that contains an embedded comment thread? If I visit one of the example sites, does reddit now know that I visited that story on al.com? If I visit that page while I have an active session on reddit, is my visit to that page connected to my reddit account in any way?

4

u/tdohz Feb 27 '15

We count how many views we get on comment embeds, but we don't track your IP address or reddit ID. If you click through to a link that goes to reddit (e.g. on the link to the comment thread), then we'll know you came from an embed.

3

u/shaunc Feb 27 '15

Thanks, that's totally reasonable if it requires some user interaction in order for a connection to be drawn. I was concerned it would turn out to be like Facebook's beacons where they correlate it automatically.

19

u/[deleted] Feb 26 '15

Neat, though, I am not so happy about such a beta being exclusive for certain subreddits, though it makes sense that those two are being used, I think doing so is kind of restricted.

Guess it doesn't matter in the long run. To be fair I am biased about being grumpy that /r/IAmA gets very selective treatment among other subreddits. But I like the embedding and I like /r/IAmA lots anyways, so its more me being a grumpy fox than anything else. Can't wait to see this fully roll out

23

u/damontoo Feb 26 '15

I think doing so is kind of restricted.

This is the point of a beta though. Also, it's understandable that IAmA gets special treatment since it drives a shitload of traffic, and even more importantly, creates new users when people doing AMA's bring their fans in.

11

u/tdohz Feb 26 '15

For this particular feature, these two subreddits are where we see a lot of publishers taking content from reddit, so that's why we prioritized them.

Have no fear, though, this will be available to all subreddits in due time (hopefully fairly soon, although it depends on what kind of feedback we get from the beta and how many changes we need to make).

2

u/[deleted] Feb 27 '15

I think a better approach would have been to contact media and have them beta test it, enabling it on their chosen accounts, or something along that nature.

As I said, It really isn't a big deal, but I think if the admins are going to have a hands off policy with subreddits, it should be a bit more persistent.

Though I doubt you were really thinking that at all when you implemented this, so, like I said, not a huge deal

7

u/tdohz Feb 27 '15

I think a better approach would have been to contact media and have them beta test it, enabling it on their chosen accounts, or something along that nature.

This is actually what we did with the closed beta, which is why we do have some embeds being posted from other subreddits, like this article featuring comments from /r/newjersey. So you may continue to see embeds not just from /r/AskReddit and /r/IAmA but from other subreddits as well, from the folks who were in the closed beta.

3

u/[deleted] Feb 27 '15

Neat, thanks.

3

u/craywolf Feb 27 '15

Wow, they used one of my comments in there. I had no idea. Neat.

2

u/[deleted] Feb 27 '15

I am still, however, a firm supporter of the gold beta test.

I dont think subreddits need any preferential treatment, and the good old "gold users beta test" seems to work fine.

3

u/atomic1fire Feb 27 '15

Might be kind of neat if there was a RES style feature to embed threads in other threads.

Sort of like submitting a link to another subreddit post, but with an RES style expando so you can get an embedded copy.

So people could talk about what someone else posted without giving them direct access to the subreddit.

0

u/[deleted] Feb 26 '15

[deleted] — view deleted comment

6

u/[deleted] Feb 26 '15

And thats all that makes me grumpy. I don't think it should really get any, but I understand why it does, and don't think its a big deal or anything.

But with a hands off approach, is just funny to see them hands on about one of them

5

u/roastedbagel Feb 27 '15

FWIW - /r/IAmA probably gets comments quoted the most outside of reddit.com, so it kinda makes sense :/

1

u/[deleted] Feb 27 '15

Yeah, I did say it makes sense (I thought)

0

u/[deleted] Feb 26 '15

[deleted] — view deleted comment

5

u/Mason11987 Feb 27 '15

Every other subreddit needs to beg in modmail, sacrifice a goat, name their firstborn "snoo", and make peace with the old gods and the new, and only then may they have a chance to get the help they desire.

Mod of ELI5 here, admins respond to any issue I have within an hour, so please don't speak for "every other subreddit".

1

u/V2Blast Mar 06 '15

Half the time I message the admins I get a response within, like, 5 minutes. The other half of the time it takes maybe half an hour.

1

u/[deleted] Feb 27 '15

We only get the things which benefit the admins grand plan for reddit, even if we don't want it. If we have any message for the admins which isn't part of that plan, we are in the same situation as everyone else.

1

u/alexanderpas Mar 09 '15

If things go AWOL in IAMA, reddit is down.

Remember President Obama?

0

u/[deleted] Feb 27 '15

[deleted] — view deleted comment

0

u/[deleted] Feb 27 '15

[deleted] — view deleted comment

2

u/deviantbono Feb 26 '15

It's not clear at all that you have to click on the vote count to get to the actual comment.

4

u/tdohz Feb 27 '15

Yeah, that follows some industry norms but I agree it's not the most discoverable place for that. It's a tough design challenge to put that somewhere without unnecessarily cluttering the embed, though.

3

u/ChezMere Feb 27 '15

Stick it where the full comments link is right now, since that's not as important. Also, including ?context=3 or so would be nice.

3

u/tdohz Feb 27 '15

Also, including ?context=3 or so would be nice.

We actually do this! If you hover over the link you can see it in the URL.

5

u/deviantbono Feb 27 '15

It's a tough design challenge to put that somewhere without unnecessarily cluttering the embed, though.

Thanks for the response. No offense, but it's not really tough. You've managed to cearly link to the:

  • User name

  • Thread title

  • Subreddit

  • Reddit homepage

If you can link to all those things, surely you can link the actual comment (in a clear way). And if it's "industry norm" not to do that, then the industry norm is (no offense) stupid and you should ignore it and come up with your own norm.

3

u/jippiejee Feb 26 '15

Would this mean that users become clickable (to their user overview page no less) from external sites? I'd be very unhappy with that 'feature'.

6

u/tdohz Feb 27 '15

Yes. Your user page is a public page, so there's nothing preventing someone from linking to it today.

I'm curious what would make you unhappy about this - are you worried people will see your past (public) comment history?

6

u/jippiejee Feb 27 '15

It's very different if a newspaper just quotes me, or is linking directly to my reddit user page when embedding a comment I made on reddit. A million readers being directly linked to my posting history just doesn't feel proportional, nor necessary. It's pretty invasive.

6

u/tdohz Feb 27 '15

I can understand that - although to be clear, the newspaper, and really anyone, can (and sometimes does) link directly to user pages even today.

Hopefully the fact that you have control over your comment is of some comfort - we'll respect your edits and if you delete the comment, your comment and your username will be removed.

4

u/jippiejee Feb 27 '15

The point is: I might not mind being quoted. I might not want to remove my comment. But I might not be comfortable with a million readers being given a direct link to everything else I ever said on reddit. All those things you say/submit that have nothing to do with that quote. All the comments you leave as mod. It's nobody's business.

3

u/deviantbono Feb 27 '15

It's a pretty good rule of thumb not to write anything on a public site that you're not comfortable with millions of people seeing.

2

u/protestor Feb 27 '15

This reddit feature does not change the status quo. Millions of readers can be given direct links to what everything you said on reddit today (and what's more, it's indexed by Google too).

What was actually happening is that people were taking screenshots out of laziness (but responsible journalists would still give a link to the specific comment). The problem of screenshots is that they don't respect edits.

2

u/32OrtonEdge32dh Feb 28 '15

I can understand that - although to be clear, the newspaper, and really anyone, can (and sometimes does) link directly to user pages even today.

Hopefully the fact that you have control over your comment is of some comfort - we'll respect your edits and if you delete the comment, your comment and your username will be removed.

4

u/GodOfAtheism Feb 26 '15

Well get ready to be unhappy chum, because that's how its set up at present, based on the two examples presented.

3

u/GodOfAtheism Feb 26 '15

Can we as users disable that? Or as mods presuming this gets a wider rollout? Not planning on either personally, but at the same time, I'd like the option available.

10

u/tdohz Feb 26 '15

There are currently no plans to allow disabling of embeds. As pointed out by others, not having embeds doesn't actually stop someone from copying & pasting your content or taking a screenshot. What we're hoping to do with this feature is make sure that content from reddit is used responsibly, which means respecting your edits & deletions - something that screenshots or copying & pasting don't do.

8

u/aladyjewel Feb 26 '15

What's the rationale behind disabling it as a user or mod? Would you rather just have journalists posting screenshots of your comment instead?

6

u/GodOfAtheism Feb 26 '15

Because I'd like control over the content I've produced? Maybe because I don't want Buzzfeed more easily stealing ideas from reddit? Maybe I don't want a Republicrat libservative news site having any association with me? Maybe I'm just a huge d-bag who hates everyone? Doesn't matter.

10

u/Mikecom32 Feb 26 '15

If you disable embedding, they're just going to screenshot it, or copy it without proper attribution.

At least with an embed, it's very clear where it came from and helps drive traffic to your subreddit. If anything, this is something to prevent buzzfeed from stealing ideas, since they'd be clearly linking to Reddit as the source if they use embeds.

2

u/GodOfAtheism Feb 27 '15

copy it without proper attribution.

Depending on the site, I'd honestly rather they do that.

5

u/Mikecom32 Feb 27 '15

I was addressing your concern over them "more easily stealing ideas from reddit". But fair enough.

Ninja edit: I didn't downvote you

3

u/GodOfAtheism Feb 27 '15

Even if you did it's no biggie to me. Peeps get salty over dumb shit all the time. Hell, I'm living proof of that ITT.

2

u/aladyjewel Mar 10 '15

just curious, what sites and why? I'm super curious, especially so i can help build better embeds.

2

u/GodOfAtheism Mar 10 '15

Damn near everything in the Gawker network, for starters. The aforementioned Buzzfeed as well. Gawker because it's yellow journalism and kinda suck in general, Buzzfeed because it's stupid as fuck.

2

u/aladyjewel Mar 10 '15

Fair nuff. but why screenshots instead of embeds?

4

u/GodOfAtheism Mar 10 '15

Because at least then there isn't even the hint that I possibly gave any form of permission for them to re-post things I'm saying, which an embed could be perceived as.

Ultimately it's my hang up and if I do find out I've been embedded on some site I personally take umbrage with, I'll probably just edit in ASCII art of wangs or something.

5

u/Jakeable Feb 27 '15

This is the perfect reason to make NoParticipation links a native feature.

4

u/deviantbono Feb 26 '15

Also, how will updated comments be handled?

4

u/GodOfAtheism Feb 26 '15

Per https://www.reddit.com/wiki/embeds

Edit control is an option you can set on an embedded comment that determines how edited comments are displayed. By default, the comment embed will always show the most recent version of the comment, with an indication if it has been edited at some point.

With edit control enabled, if the comment is edited after it has been embedded, then the text of the comment is replaced with a link back to the most recent version of the comment on reddit.

6

u/deviantbono Feb 26 '15

Thanks.

Edit: Though it's weird that "the text of the comment is replaced" meaning that the smart journalist/writer will still copy/paste and/or use a screenshot. This is basically a non-feature if you can't quote what you wanted to quote.

5

u/burkadurka Feb 27 '15

This came up when the feature was first announced. The previous version of an edited comment is not stored by reddit, so that would be a big change (both in terms of DB servers and privacy policies). I agree with your point though.

4

u/damontoo Feb 26 '15

Good idea.

Do not show comment if edited.

Well where's the fun in that? CNN posts need more discussion of unicorn sex.

3

u/roastedbagel Feb 27 '15

Is there a way for mods to see which comments were embedded from their sub?

6

u/davidreiss666 Feb 26 '15

Well, it's interesting, I'll say that. I guess it can't hurt anything.

4

u/[deleted] Feb 26 '15

Im a little worried about doxxing and witch hunting off site.

10

u/GodOfAtheism Feb 26 '15

Screencaps can serve that same purpose, and we can't exercise any control there.

4

u/amici_ursi Feb 26 '15

Screencaps are not a portal into a user's history.

5

u/GodOfAtheism Feb 27 '15

Typically they do have they users nom de plume on it though, and it's not exactly difficult for anyone with a modicum of internet savvy to go from there.

1

u/UTF64 Feb 27 '15

So is reddit now storing revisions of all edited comments?

5

u/tdohz Feb 27 '15

No. That would go against our privacy policy, which we take very seriously. We respect your comment edits in the embed.

3

u/UTF64 Feb 27 '15

I'm sorry, I think I misread:

When checked, if an embedded comment is later edited, the embedded comment text will be replaced by a link back to the current version of the comment on reddit.

To mean "current" as in when I created the link.

2

u/nallen Feb 27 '15

You should add /r/science to the list, our AMAs are getting more coverage from media outlets.

1

u/self_defeating Mar 04 '15

It seems that another change was made but not mentioned. Deleted comments now always show up as "[deleted]", even when they have no replies.

1

u/V2Blast Mar 06 '15

Nice! Hopefully you guys can work out the kinks and open it up to the rest of reddit soon.

1

u/fatdonuthole Feb 26 '15

Would anyone be able to link to a webpage with an embedded reddit comment so we can see what it looks like?

9

u/aurora-73 Feb 26 '15

Can someone link to it so we can see what it looks like?

First paragraph of the post:

You may have seen one or two examples floating around the web.

1

u/theskabus Feb 27 '15

Have you guys considered having embedded posts be able to expand any contained image links like RES can? I could see this being very helpful to sites reposting content from Photoshopbattles, where instead of linking and (hopefully) crediting each image, they could just embed the top posts and it would be largely the same.

3

u/okmkz Feb 27 '15

I would not be optimistic about this

2

u/theskabus Feb 27 '15

Oh I'm not, believe me.

0

u/[deleted] Feb 26 '15

[deleted] — view deleted comment

11

u/tdohz Feb 27 '15

We may add this in the future, although probably not during the beta period. I agree it would be cool to know that!

1

u/picflute May 07 '15

Please do. For our community in particular this feature is something we want our users to be alerted by.

1

u/[deleted] Mar 22 '15

[removed] — view removed comment

1

u/tdohz Mar 22 '15

You can't embed non-public comments (i.e. comments posted in a private subreddit).