Collective commenting systems in debugging sites

In this review, we analyzed several systems of collective commenting on web pages and tried to find the perfect tool for remote discussion and debugging of work-in-progress websites with the customer and other participants in the work.



In the work of any company a web developer, as well as a webmaster freelancer there is a stage of acceptance of work. Sometimes these are several stages at different stages of a project’s development. Of course, this moment is dearly loved by all. It requires not so much the knowledge of the business, as the well-adjusted interaction of all project participants

What did he mean? What and on what page does he want to change? Where is it that you have gone, is everything okay? Each designer / layout designer / programmer / content worker asked at least once with such questions when trying to transfer his work to a colleague for further project management or to a client.
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Systems such as The commentor , which allow you to add comments to images and point to specific parts of a picture with several simple tools, help with this problem. However, what to do if the work is already going on with a layered layout, or even with a ready-made site. Reduce the bureaucracy, reduce the time to collect bugs and edits possible existing services - collective commenting systems.

The review is made on the basis of our search for a system for implementation in the Nimax design studio, so we have certain requirements:

• Simple registration. Any client must cope with the registration and installation of the plugin (if there is one);
• The ability to comment on the page as a whole, comment on a specific part of the page, for example, a block of text or an image;
• Free Of course, we can allow ourselves a paid service, but we cannot impose it on customers;
• Notifications of received comments.

In the considered options, we will not pay special attention to social services, but concentrate on those functions that can be useful in debugging / commenting on web pages before submitting.

A print-screen is attached to the overview of each service, showing the solution of the same task using different services: commenting on a paragraph of text.

Twiidla

The closest in principle to The commentor service. It offers to create your own public or private room in which you can upload any image or open any site for collective commenting. Twiddla provides tools for drawing, placing various objects on the canvas of the site, as well as a live chat.

One room is a single canvas, so this service is not very convenient when commenting on sites as a whole or a set of pages. Unfortunately, in the free version you cannot create a private room, as well as save a public one, therefore all participants must be online at the same time to communicate. But you can get rid of these shortcomings for $ 14 per month and higher.



Official page: http://www.twiddla.com

pros

• Drawing on the surface of the site;
• Placing any objects on the work page;
• Does not require installation of plug-ins, cross-browser;
• Does not require registration.

Minuses

• Impossibility of simultaneous work with several pages in one room;
• A small number of functions in the free version.

Sidewiki

Service add-on for the Google Panel for creating public comments on sites. It allows you, having a Google account and a Google panel (for IE or FF), to leave messages to any public web pages. Comments are placed in the sidebar and refer either to the whole page or to a specific block of text. The service has its own API that allows you to create a script notifying the author of new messages. The site owner can also write their own special, administrator comments, highlighted in color and placed at the top of the list. Unfortunately, despite the prospects, at the moment the service does not have the possibility of private commenting, which makes using it as a visual bug tracker at public addresses impossible.



Official page: http://www.google.com/sidewiki/intl/en/index.html

pros

• Ease of use;
• Wide audience coverage using the “Google” panel;
• Service and help in Russian.

Minuses

• The inability to comment on images;
• The impossibility of commenting "on top" of the site;
• Lack of private commenting mode;
• Difficulties with the notification.

Reframeit

The service, similar to the implementation wiki, does not require installation of the panel, hides in the form of a plug-in (IE7 +, FF) and provides a sidebar similar to the Sidewiki, though much richer functionally. You can comment on the whole page, selected block of text or image. Messages can be left public or private, groups of reviewers can be defined (these can be project working groups), and new ones can be monitored. On the site "Reframeit" you can follow the new messages in certain groups and on the monitored pages. For the list of comments, the panel provides several display modes and filtering, but in general the interface can hardly be called intuitive, which can adversely affect if we are talking about transferring the site to the client, and not within the team.



Official page: http://www.reframeit.com

pros

• Ability to respond to comments;
• Private comments, with distinction into groups;
• Ability to work without registration, through OpenID;
• Ability to track comments that appear, including via RSS;
• You can comment on pages on internal / closed sites.

Minuses

• Subjectively, the interface can be complex for the client;
• The impossibility of commenting "on top" of the site;
• Developers warn about the status of an early beta for an IE plug-in.

Diigo

“Diigo” is a panel for IE and FF, a bookmarklet for Opera, Safari and Chrome. The main purpose is collective bookmarks, however, due to the possibility of commenting and highlighting (highlight) page elements, it is quite suitable for our tasks. For any page, you can leave messages, make selections and leave comments on selections. In addition, the context menu allows you to add an arbitrary number of stickers to any page. Notes can be placed above any element of the page or attached to a specific selection on the page, each of them can have its own comments, which are placed directly in its field. Inactive notes are minimized into small icons that are conveniently placed on the page, without fear of confusion.



Official page: http://www.diigo.com

pros

• You can comment on pages on internal / closed sites;
• Stickers can be placed on the site plane;
• There are official bookmarklets for alternative browsers;
• Ability to track comments that appear, including via RSS.

Minuses

• No serious ones.

Addatweet

FF plugin using OpenID Twitter ID and authorization to create a comment panel. We will not dwell on it in detail, because despite the possibility of leaving messages on a separate page, both public and internal, you cannot specify a specific block of text or an image. You can also not create private comments, but you can duplicate messages to twitter and respond to comments in twitter-style. This service is suitable for lovers of minimalism.



Official page: http://www.addatweet.com

pros

• Integration with twitter;
• Twitter minimalism.

Minuses

• Only Firefox 3+, IE plugin promise later;
• There is no possibility of commenting on individual blocks of text and images;
• No private comments.

Goozzy

The panel for the main browsers of the RuNet (Opera, FF, IE). Russian service with a pleasant design and competent approach to business. Allows you to create private and public stickers, as well as stickers for groups. Each note can have its own comments. The service does not require additional registration and everything is quite chewed up at the first entrance. Stickers remember their location and are not afraid of sites that are not accessible from the Internet.



Official page: http://www.goozzy.com

pros

• Service and help in Russian;
• The ability to work without registering through OpenID.

Minuses

• Plugin for IE in alpha status;
• Periodically there are problems with downloading sites and flash-plugin, which is justified by the beta status of the panel.

Among the options considered by us, each has its own advantages and disadvantages, it is more suitable in one way or another. As a result, we stopped at the Goozzy service, because it is very simple, convenient and has a Russian-language interface. For internal discussion of projects, we can afford to use the English-language service, but in most cases we do not have to communicate with customers. To discuss large and complex projects, our company uses Twiidla, because it allows you to comment and “paint” the site under discussion in any way.