Post the problems you’re having with comments on this blog here
Scrape TV
Dear gentle blog folk,
Many of you have lodged complaints that there’s something screwy with the comments lately. This post is an effort to find out from you, with some specificity, what’s going on so we can diagnose the problem.
Please keep this in mind: When you post a comment, it appears on your screen as if it has posted to the blog. But that is only a screen trick on the poster’s computer. The comment won’t appear to anyone else until I formally “approve” it (and there can be lags with this). If you refresh your browser it will disappear until after I have approved it.
If you’ve noticed problems with already-approved comments disappearing, below is the information we need.
……………………………………..
1. Give us a link to the thread it happened on, and the time it happend.
2. Describe in detail what happened. Such as, “I posted a comment,” it appeared, then it disappeared, or whatever.
3. If you can copy & paste the comment, please do that.
4. Tell us whether you refreshed your screen just before it seemed to disappear.
5. Tell us when it “reappeared.”
The fact is, the comments have been coming in in droves lately, and I’m unable to always tend the “pending comments” queue. That’s just a reality of my job. So there may be lags between when you post a comment and when it shows up.
Thank you for your help with this matter.
-dan
February 24, 2011 - 4:12 PM
The biggest thing Ive noticed other than all the shutdowns,is the “comment” box displays something that has yet to be posted.It seems to go there first…
“Welcome to second class citzenship for Virginia’s women.”
WELCOME BACK
Welcome back, your dreams were your ticket out
Welcome back, to that same old place that you laughed about
Well the names have all changed since you hung around
But those dreams have remained and they’ve turned around
Who’d have thought they’d lead ya
(who’d have thought they’d lead ya)
Back here where we need ya
(back here where we need ya)
Yeah we tease them a lot cause we got them on the spot
Welcome back, welcome back, welcome back, welcome back
Welcome back, welcome back, welcome back
Sebastion
Next time I will try to capture the details (thread, message, etc.).
However, in general:
– sometimes when I click on “Submit Comment” button I get back “Firefox can’t find the server at blogs.roanoke.com.” error message. Those comments were always lost. (BTW I also get that message sometimes when just browsing. I have other links up that continue to work well while continuing to get the error message for the RT. So, my assumption is that it is on your end.)
– sometimes it appears that the messages are held until approved. In any case they are not available for an extended period.
– sometimes the comment counter (bottom right of the OP for the thread) show more comment approved than show up — mine and/or others’ comments are missing. Repeated refreshing normally brings them up. However, on occasion I have to close the tab and reconnect to see the missing comments.
– Maybe related?? sometimes the whole blog comes up in a squirrelly format which then changes to the normal format while browsing.
FWI My comment above showed up as soon as the screen reappeared after clicking the “Submit Comment” button.
The problem is intermittent.
Conversely, my second comment to this thread has not shown up after I manually refreshed the screen three times.
Go figure.
DaveH,
If you’re refreshing the screen before I’ve “approved” the comment, it would not show up.
Two more refresh tries and all three earlier comment are now there — albeit the third one failed to appear after clicking the “Submit Comment” button.
Re: #6
Dan,
Huh?
Sometime I can see my own comments for quite a while before you approve them.
Sometime they are there as soon as the screen refreshes itself.
It used to be when you hit “submit” the screen refreshed itself and your comment was visible. Not any more, sometimes it takes several hits of the refresh button to see it, if it comes back at all. After the comments are approved, a snippet of the post used to appear in the right hand comments box and you could click on them to load the page. That feature doesn’t work anymore, either. Sometimes when you click on an approved comment the page loads but the comment won’t be visible until you hit refresh several times.
I haven’t had any problem with lost comments, they all appear eventually.
Get a Mac for cripes sake.
Thank you, Art. I’ve forwarded your message on to Roanoke.com, along with your new e-mail address. You may be hearing from them.
Re: #9
Forgot that one.
Would add that it is also intermittent. For example in this thread although the thread opened, the comments were not there until refreshed.
OTOH, when I clicked on,
“Love NRV: Disgusting that Virginia has been hijacked by ludites, religious freaks and morons. Keep your white, old…”
it opened the thread and took be directly to the target comment.
DaveH is right, Dan. Our comments appear before you approve them, it’s just that now you have to hit refresh (sometimes a few times) for them to show up.
@11
Agreed, it is intermittent, but it’s happening more often than not. The
comments seem to be appearing whenever they want to. Also the approved “comments” column used to be in chronological order, now they just pop up at random.
Dave,
Some versions of Firefox have trouble running multiple tabs. When the server is down, IE: “Firefox can’t find…” any comments submitted are lost to the ozone. Not sure which OS you’re running but you might try a different browser.
Re: #13
Absolutely!
More often that not.
Not like it was awhile back.
Hey folks,
Roanoke.com has been reviewing the issues you’ve cited. At this point, it appears to be something beyond our control. It’s happening with other blogs powered by WordPress, too.
Google these terms: wordpress time lag comment sync approve
…and you’ll see what I’m talking about.
–dan
Get a Mac for cripes sake.
Amen to that!
Walker, I have a Mac. I still encounter problems with the comments.
#17 Lori’s right, Walker and Art. I use both a Mac and a PC and have exactly the same problems with comments on both.
Re: #14
I’m running Windows 7 home Premium with Firefox 3.6.13.
Don’t think it is at this end:
1) I can navigate other sites with similar functionality (such as vBulletin™ Version 4.0.5) and with the same exact multiple tabs open at the same time w/o problems.
2) Folk using other OS are having the same problems — see #18.
Dan, what happened to the “ALL” tab under Categories?
It is still on others on RT.
Stories are more difficult to find now… I noticed that weeks ago. If what you’re looking for isn’t in the “Recent Entries” section, you have to go search through the month.
Chris, the categories were reorganized alphabetically, at the request of several readers of this blog.
The best way to search the blog that I know of is to use the search function just to the right of my handsome mug.
Re: #22
As far as I can tell, that only looks at your OPs for the threads — not our or your subsequent comments.
For example a search on “nullification” only brings up a 2009.11.16 thread missing the more recent uses of the word.