Saturday, November 15, 2008

Importing/Exporting Author Ratings

Aaron wrote:

I read CR on multiple computers. Is there a way to export/import my author settings from one browser to another?

I knew this would come up, but haven't wanted to invest the time in writing the code to make it pretty. It would be best to make them roamable, but to do so simply would require a server, and of course tinfoil starts buzzing the scalp when that word is mentioned.

In the meantime, here's the way to do it:

Enter the text 'about:config' in your Firefox url bar. This will take you to a page that looks like this:

Press the "I'll be careful, I promise" button. Then, in the text box that shows like this:



enter in 'crc'. The window should then look like this:


Right click on the preference 'extensions.crcompanion.authorRatings', and select 'Copy Value'. Then paste that text into a file, email, etc. You've now exported your ratings.

To import, do exactly the same process on the destination computer, but instead of saying 'Copy Value', say 'Modify', and paste the text you somehow got to this computer into the textbox that pops up. Press OK.

That's it. You will need to reopen any comment windows you had open to get the new authors.

Greasemonkey Users

FYI: nullpointer points out that CR Companion and Greasemonkey kill files don't play well together. I'm not going to be supporting this scenario, sorry.

Feature Suggestions

Thought I'd open a thread specifically for suggestions (hat tip schnaps).

Friday, November 14, 2008

Hash Error on Download

Here's a handy tip from Function over on CR:

Function writes:
If you are getting file hash error when installing the firefox addon, you need to enable third party cookies for installation to succeed. Preferences > Privacy > Allow third party cookies.

You can disable them again after installation. I would suggest disabling them unless you have a very good reason not to.

Wednesday, November 12, 2008

Some Tips on Rating Authors

You can rate authors in three ways:

Click on the rating link that appears before "writes:" in their message. This will cycle through all possible ratings, from Unrated to Good to Very Good to Excellent to Irritating, and back to Unrated.

Right click anywhere within their message. A list of possible ratings appears at the bottom of the menu.

Right click on the author in the authors list to the right. Same list appears.

Monday, November 10, 2008

Announcing CR Companion

CR Companion is a Firefox extension designed to help manage the ever increasing traffic in the comments section of Calculated Risk.



With it you can see who's posting, rate authors, and show only posts matching your ratings. You can also show only posts containing links, or posts containing specific text.


By clicking on an author's name, you can move to their closest post (backwards, if you hold the shift key down). This is convenient for seeing the posts of your favorite authors when you're in a hurry, and also provides a way to navigate back to a referenced post.



In addition, CR Companion includes the Mortgage Pig New Post Notifier (MPNPN). The MPNPN diligently scans the CR post horizon so you don’t have to. You’ll never have your genius ignored on a stale thread again, and you just might get there before Nemo.


I wrote CR Companion when the traffic on Calculated Risk began to spike, and other areas of my life suffered trying to keep up. I offer it to all of you as my small contribution to what has been a source of great solace, humor, and learning. I hope you find it useful.


To try it out, go to its page on the Firefox extension site. You'll see the following dimmed button:



CRC is in sandbox ("experimental") mode, which means it hasn't been extensively tested or reviewed. I’ve been using it for a bit on Firefox 3.03, and no longer see any obvious bugs, but YMMV. Because of this, for now you'll need to create a basic account on the Firefox site before downloading. Sorry for this inconvenience. As soon as (if?) CRC receives some positive feedback, it will get out of sandbox jail, and this won't be necessary.


Click on Log in, and follow the directions on creating a new account.


Once you've installed it and restarted Firefox, CRC's side panel should show up whenever a CR comments page appears, either in a tab or its own window.


Let me know in the comments if you have any suggestions or bug reports.


Happy browsing!