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Report Website Bugs Here

By Jeralyn, Section Blog Related
Posted on Mon Oct 16, 2006 at 03:08:31 PM EST
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If you have any issues with the new site, logging in, commenting or anything else, you can report them here.

Remember first to create a new account with your old (or different, your choice) user name and a password. You should get a screen right back that says "user created." User names must be letters, numerals or spaces.

If you don't see the link to create a new account it is here.

You can set your display preferences to suit you. For example, the number of entries to display on your home page. The ones immediately preceding that will show up in the middle right column under "older entries."

You can also set how you want comments displayed, flat, nested or threaded. I prefer nested. You can reply to a specific comment now, as opposed to the whole thread of comments.

You can also view all your comments, but those written before scoop won't come up under your name until we build a function that allows you to "claim them."

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    Report Website Bugs Here | 62 comments (62 topical)
    Time glitch (none / 0) (#1)
    by Patrick on Mon Oct 16, 2006 at 04:37:39 PM EST
    When I change my display preferences to Pacific Standard Time, then try to view articles, no articles appear on the home page, just the header, advertisements and stuff on the right.  When I click "Reset Preferences"  it all comes back...I can access individual articles by clicking on them in the recent comments section but that's it.  Hope this helps.

    -P

    Timestamps have been updated (none / 0) (#8)
    by hillct on Mon Oct 16, 2006 at 06:05:21 PM EST
    I'm not sure if Patrick posted before or after I took steps to resolve this issue. This comment is as much a test as to let you know the issue is being corrected.

    -- Colin

    Parent

    Re: Timestamps have been updated (none / 0) (#36)
    by Patrick on Tue Oct 17, 2006 at 10:30:11 AM EST
    Colin,

        I just tried again to change "Display preferences" then changed EST to PST and after saving the preferences, reloaded the main page. It was blank again, except for the header, ads and other items on the right side.  In order to get them back I went back into "Display preferences" and clicked "reset preferences".  So it's a different bug, or I'm doing something wrong.  

    Parent

    Re: Timestamps have been updated (none / 0) (#55)
    by hillct on Sat Oct 21, 2006 at 02:59:51 PM EST
    Patrick,
       Can you reproduce that effect? I can't. Logically one would have nothing to do with the other.

    -- Colin

    Parent

    Order of "Entries with Recent Comments" (none / 0) (#2)
    by roy on Mon Oct 16, 2006 at 04:39:09 PM EST
    IIRC, this used to be sorted strictly in the chronological order of the comments posted, oldest at the top.  Now it appears to jump around a bit:

        * [#] Patrick
        * Welcome to the New TalkLeft
          Posted on Mon. at 12:56 AM
        * [#] Edger
        * Another GOP Congressman Getting Investigated
          Posted on Sun. at 07:37 PM
        * [#] Dadler
        * Bush's Former FDA Chief to Plead Guilty
          Posted on Mon. at 04:24 PM
        * [#] Edger
        * Verdict in Saddam Case, Announcement Nov. 5
          Posted on Mon. at 08:55 AM
        * [#] Mreddieb
        * Defender Lynne Stewart Gets 28 Months
          Posted on Mon. at 10:53 AM

    On the bright side, the new comment editing hoodoo appears to be much nicer about keeping non-HTML formatted text pretty.  Above is just copied-and-pasted from the front page.  

    Order of Entries (none / 0) (#5)
    by Patrick on Mon Oct 16, 2006 at 04:58:08 PM EST
    Roy,

       I recall it sorted by the 5 most recent threads with comments, then the most recent comment in that thread.  But what do I know.  I'm just happy to have my name back

    Parent

    Re: Order of Entries (none / 0) (#56)
    by hillct on Sat Oct 21, 2006 at 03:02:42 PM EST
    The order was resolved a couple days back but the issue was, the order of comments was correct, but the date displayed was that of the story, not the comment. Didn't imediately identify it as there were other items that required attention.

    Parent
    A couple more issues (none / 0) (#3)
    by roy on Mon Oct 16, 2006 at 04:51:21 PM EST
    1: The times under "Entries with Recent Comments" are not correct, at least not all the time.  My comment above was really posted at 04:39:09 PM CST, but from the front page it's shown as:

       # [#] roy
       # Report Scoop Bugs Here
       Posted on Mon. at 04:08 PM

    2: If I go to "User Preferences" and select either "User Info" or "Interface", there's no preferences to set.  Just two buttons, "Save Preferences" and "Reset Preferences", which don't appear to do anything.  If the preferences which would go here have been disabled, it would be cleaner to just remove the useless pages.

    Re: A couple more issues (none / 0) (#57)
    by hillct on Sat Oct 21, 2006 at 03:04:45 PM EST
    Item 2 was addressed a few days back. The URLs contained extra fields which reflected page names that didn't exist.

    Parent
    kvetches (none / 0) (#4)
    by Sailor on Mon Oct 16, 2006 at 04:56:52 PM EST
    These could be user initiated problems;-)

    My handle is no longer a link to my blog, even tho I entered my blog URL in the 'homepage' (?) part of the signup process.

    What is "Signature Behavior"?

    Why do we have to post a subject? Isn't the subject the subject of the post? I can see maybe the freedom to edit it but to always have to put it in seems redundant.

    All in all I think there are too many choices at the initial level. As a designer of GUIs I say let the sophisticated user access such items, but the standard and new user should have a simple interface that they can expand on later.

    This should be easy

    JMHO.

    Re: kvetches (none / 0) (#11)
    by hillct on Mon Oct 16, 2006 at 06:29:41 PM EST
    I've put automatic comment subjects in place. Top level comments will use the title of the story to populate the subject field. Any comments which are replies to earlier comments will use the parent comment subject to populate the new comment subject field.

    Comment signature behavior defines how changes to your comment signature defined in your user preferences impacts earlier comments.

    Retroactive signature behavior causes any comments posted when that behavior is in effect to inherit any changes to your default signature after the comment is posted.

    Sticky signature behavior should cause any somments posted while this mode is in effect to retaing the signature in use at the time the comment was posted regardless of changes to your default signature after comment posting.

    -- Colin

    Parent

    and once you comment ... (none / 0) (#6)
    by Sailor on Mon Oct 16, 2006 at 05:04:10 PM EST
    the page you get back only shows your comment, not all the comments, so one has to go back to the main page and hit comments again.

    Obviously the new site has many advantages for you ... not the least of which is many of us will give up and your job gets easier;-)

    Re: and once you comment ... (none / 0) (#13)
    by hillct on Mon Oct 16, 2006 at 06:39:35 PM EST
    Sailor,
       Let me know if the new behavior is better or worse.

    Obviously the new site has many advantages for you ... not the least of which is many of us will give up and your job gets easier;-)

    What other issues have you encountered? Please post below and let me know how we can improve the site.

    -- Colin

    Parent

    RE: and once you comment (none / 0) (#7)
    by Edger on Mon Oct 16, 2006 at 05:32:33 PM EST
    Sailor, I've found a workaround for that problem. To post a comment I right click on 'Post a Comment', or on 'Reply to This', open it in a new  tab or window (depending on your browser). Then post my comment. Then go back to the original tab or window and 'refresh'.

    Seems like a lot to go through but it saves a lot of frustration.

    Post-coomment redirection back to the story (none / 0) (#9)
    by hillct on Mon Oct 16, 2006 at 06:08:56 PM EST
    I've modified the default comment posting behavior to place you back on the story page after commenting.

    -- Colin Hill
    Scoophost.com

    Parent

    Re: Post-coomment redirection back to the story (none / 0) (#10)
    by Edger on Mon Oct 16, 2006 at 06:22:13 PM EST
    Colin - I think what Sailor meant is that after you click 'Post a Comment' you cannot see the comments above - only the post - and people regularly cut and past bit of previous comments and italicize or blockquote them then respond to them, in their new comment. So It's nice to have all the comments above the comment box to be able to do that.

    Parent
    Re: Report Website Bugs Here (none / 0) (#12)
    by Edger on Mon Oct 16, 2006 at 06:34:36 PM EST
    Where did the 'Recent Entries' on the home page go?

    Re: Report Website Bugs Here (none / 0) (#14)
    by hillct on Mon Oct 16, 2006 at 06:40:58 PM EST
    I'm working on re-arranging the timestamps (not as trivial as it seems). It will be back shortly.

    -- Colin

    Parent

    Re: Report Website Bugs Here (none / 0) (#15)
    by Jeralyn on Mon Oct 16, 2006 at 06:43:44 PM EST
    Edger, it's now called "older entries." You control what's displayed there by setting the number of entries to display on your home page. The 7 immediately preceding that will show up in the middle right column under "older entries."

    Parent
    Re: Report Website Bugs Here (none / 0) (#16)
    by Edger on Mon Oct 16, 2006 at 06:49:54 PM EST
    I see it Colin. I was looking for the '[#]user name' links. I always found then very handy because they linked directly to the last comment, and you could see at a glance on the home who made the last comment in a thread.

    I know it sounds like one of those 'that's the way it's always been done' things, but is it too much trouble to bring it back? This is only a suggestion - it's not my site.

    Parent

    Re: Report Website Bugs Here (none / 0) (#18)
    by Edger on Mon Oct 16, 2006 at 07:10:26 PM EST
    Actually Colin, no. 'Older Entries' is just that: 'Older Entries'. Right now it shows Saturday October 14th  entries.

    There was a "Recent Entries' list on the home that showed newer threads. It's gone, unless it's only gone for me?

    Parent

    Re: Report Website Bugs Here (none / 0) (#19)
    by Edger on Mon Oct 16, 2006 at 07:22:23 PM EST
    Sorry, Colin - It used to be called 'Entries with Recent Comments' or 'Recent Entries'. It's been there all day, till about 45 - 60 minutes ago.

    Parent
    Re: Report Website Bugs Here (none / 0) (#20)
    by Edger on Mon Oct 16, 2006 at 07:24:06 PM EST
    I just looked ---- you're way ahead of me, Colin! :-)

    Parent
    Re: Report Website Bugs Here (none / 0) (#17)
    by Linkmeister on Mon Oct 16, 2006 at 07:09:39 PM EST
    When you pasted the links into the right sidebar, you inadvertently copied the old MSNBC URL to get to  Altercation.  There might be a few others that ought to be checked when you have time.

    Re: Report Website Bugs Here (none / 0) (#21)
    by Jeralyn on Mon Oct 16, 2006 at 07:49:26 PM EST
    Thanks, I fixed the Daily Fixes section and updated the links.  The other sections seem right to me.  Much appreciated.

    Parent
    Re: Report Website Bugs Here (none / 0) (#22)
    by Edger on Mon Oct 16, 2006 at 07:59:29 PM EST
    It appears that if you turn off "Rate comments" in 'User Preferences: Comments' you can't turn it back on again...

    Re: Report Website Bugs Here (none / 0) (#58)
    by hillct on Sat Oct 21, 2006 at 03:11:09 PM EST
    You should be able to re-enable comment rating at the same place in comment preferences. I'm guessing your comment reflects the issues around the prefs pages navigation that were resolved a few days back. Please confirm.

    Incidently, also in comment preferences, you can convert the ratings display from radio buttons to a select menu. The default was recently changed to use the select menu.

    -- Colin

    Parent

    Re: Report Website Bugs Here (none / 0) (#24)
    by Che's Lounge on Mon Oct 16, 2006 at 09:26:10 PM EST
    So Colin.

    Can I get my apostrophe back?

    Che's Lounge

    Re: Report Website Bugs Here (none / 0) (#25)
    by Jeralyn on Mon Oct 16, 2006 at 09:29:04 PM EST
    Che, you can't have an apostophe in your user name, only letters, numbers and spaces.  How about Che s Lounge or Lounge by Che?

    Parent
    Re: Report Website Bugs Here (none / 0) (#26)
    by Edger on Mon Oct 16, 2006 at 10:01:47 PM EST
    Hey, Che? CHEs LOUNGE? Has kind of a PRESENCE to it. ;-)

    Re: Report Website Bugs Here (none / 0) (#27)
    by Sailor on Mon Oct 16, 2006 at 10:19:25 PM EST
    I guess every beta version takes some work ... I'll try again in a  couple of weeks.

    Not obvious what to do (none / 0) (#28)
    by MSS on Mon Oct 16, 2006 at 10:29:13 PM EST
    sorry - on Firefox, and it's not obvious when you click "comments" what you're supposed to do, where you're supposed to sign in

    Found my way back to the main page, scrolled down, found the sign in link and remembered my info.

    not easy yet

    Re: Not obvious what to do (none / 0) (#30)
    by Jeralyn on Mon Oct 16, 2006 at 11:07:15 PM EST
    You have to create a new account.

    Parent
    tried to post on "Connecticut debate" (none / 0) (#29)
    by MSS on Mon Oct 16, 2006 at 10:32:32 PM EST
    try to post on the Connecticut debate story (no wonder nobody has done so) ... there is no "post" link to click anywhere on the page -- just all the preferences for how you want to view your comments

    Re: tried to post (none / 0) (#31)
    by Gabriel Malor on Mon Oct 16, 2006 at 11:33:39 PM EST
    Um, I'm seeing it fine on Firefox 1.5.0.7.

    Parent
    Re: tried to post on ... (none / 0) (#59)
    by hillct on Sat Oct 21, 2006 at 03:26:56 PM EST
    We made the comment link a lot more prevelent on the page. hopefully that will help.

    -- Colin

    Parent

    Re: Report Website Bugs Here (none / 0) (#32)
    by Edger on Tue Oct 17, 2006 at 12:46:50 AM EST
    For MSS --- I just posted a test comment there
    You should now see the words "Post a comment" as the last thing on that page.

    Re: Report Website Bugs Here (none / 0) (#33)
    by Edger on Tue Oct 17, 2006 at 01:20:28 AM EST
    Just a thought here. The threads look slightly confusing, and maybe partly becuuse they are so "busy".

    When comments are short (1 or 2 lines for example) they are overwhelmed by more "stuff" on the page than there is "comment". It does kind of make it hard to look at and follow and understand perhaps.

    Here is a page on kuro5hin with comments (you have to scroll down to see the comments). kiro5hin is the original Scoop site. It's very clean and easy to follow.

    But if you look closely there really is only ONE differences: The comment display is "THREADED"... BUT - (2) they do not use the "Reply to this" line with the "RATE" radio buttons in it.

    It's a simple change from a page design/layout perspective, but takes away all the "busy-ness" and makes the pages so much more pleasing to the eye, and 'seemingly' easier to use.

    Just something to consider and think about. The old TL site coments were "FLAT" as well, and were clean and easy to understand and use.

    Maybe this is the root of a good part of the confusion and frustration people are having?

    Re: Report Website Bugs Here (none / 0) (#60)
    by hillct on Sat Oct 21, 2006 at 03:39:11 PM EST
    Edger,
       I was initially confused by your comment structure used on Kuro5hin is nearly identical to that used on the new TL, then I realized what you were describing is the 'threaded' display mode which is the default on Kuro5hin, as compared to the 'nested' display mode which is the default on TL.

       Visually, the threaded mode displays the full top level comments and only the title of child comments indented below them whereas the nested mode displays the full comment content for all child comments indented below the parents.

    -- Colin

    Parent

    Re: Report Website Bugs Here (none / 0) (#34)
    by forgetcolor on Tue Oct 17, 2006 at 08:53:56 AM EST
    Your RSS feed appears to have lost most of its content.  It only has the first sentence or so of each post.  Can you add back the content?  I don't mind if you serve ads in the RSS to compensate.

    Re: Report Website Bugs Here (none / 0) (#61)
    by hillct on Sat Oct 21, 2006 at 03:40:54 PM EST
    The default feed within Scoop delivers text-only content and only the first X words of the stories. This has since been altered and customized for TL to provide full HTML content.

    -- Colin

    Parent

    Re: Report Website Bugs Here (none / 0) (#35)
    by mindfulmission on Tue Oct 17, 2006 at 10:17:07 AM EST
    I hate the we now only get really, really short snippets of the post in the RSS feed.

    Is it going to stay that way?

    Re: Report Website Bugs Here (none / 0) (#42)
    by Jeralyn on Tue Oct 17, 2006 at 03:50:07 PM EST
    That's being worked on, a top priority.  Thanks.

    Parent
    Re: Report Website Bugs Here (none / 0) (#53)
    by mindfulmission on Wed Oct 18, 2006 at 10:54:53 AM EST
    Fabulous!  Thank you!

    Parent
    Re: Report Website Bugs Here (none / 0) (#37)
    by hgardner on Tue Oct 17, 2006 at 10:42:23 AM EST
    Help!  I fooled with my preferences and now get a blank first page.  Can anyone tell me 1) what I did and 2) how to undo it?

    TIA

    Re: Report Website Bugs Here (none / 0) (#38)
    by Patrick on Tue Oct 17, 2006 at 11:12:31 AM EST
    Hgardner,

        Go back to the "display preferences" page and click "Reset Preferences" at the bottom.  I've been having the same problem..It's in the first comments on this thread.  

    Parent

    Re: Report Website Bugs Here (none / 0) (#62)
    by hillct on Sat Oct 21, 2006 at 03:42:10 PM EST
    that issues has been addressed at this point. Please let us know if you encounter this issue in the future.

    Parent
    Re: Report Website Bugs Here (none / 0) (#39)
    by sarcastic unnamed one on Tue Oct 17, 2006 at 12:06:11 PM EST
    1) What has been really helpful to me in the past is the ability to read the previous comments while composing my own.

    Especially since I would often cut-and-paste and then quote verbiage from other comments so it was clear what my comments were responding to.

    Also, I would often hit "Preview" before I hit "Post" in order to read any additional comments that may have been posted during the time I was composing my own.

    2) The comment "rating" feature is in use on the TL Duke Forums and, from what I've seen, has resulted almost exclusively in infantile attacks and personal comments from one poster to another.

    Not to mention piles of wasted server space as the ratings themselves become topics of conversation instead of whatever the thread was about.

    Although it does seem that the rating feature has become "yesterday's news" there, and isn't used as much as it was in the past, I would hate for TL to devolve into the type pettiness that continues to define the Duke Forums, and I think the comment rating feature, among other things, is one of the prime causes.

    My vote would be to get rid of all the new and extraneous gee-gaws, keep the interface and look of the site as clean and as simple as possible, and just let the posters post as we've done in the past.

    Other that that, the site loads much more quickly now. Thanks!

    Re: Report Website Bugs Here (none / 0) (#46)
    by Jeralyn on Tue Oct 17, 2006 at 04:38:17 PM EST
    What has been really helpful to me in the past is the ability to read the previous comments while composing my own.

    Especially since I would often cut-and-paste and then quote verbiage from other comments so it was clear what my comments were responding to.

    If you set your comments to nested (which is now the default) and click on "reply to this" when you see a comment you want to respond to, the text of that comment will come up above the words "post comment".

    For example, I was easily able to see and quote your comment while writing this one.

    Parent

    Re: Report Website Bugs Here (none / 0) (#40)
    by scribe on Tue Oct 17, 2006 at 03:16:05 PM EST
    I'm also not really fond of the look and feel of the comments, if only because the name of the commenter tends to get lost in the other meta found nearby.

    But, more important to me is the linking feature.  I don't like the way it works.  Not at all.

    I'll copy a shortcut somewhere, for a link in a comment.  Then, I'll type the whole sentence or paragraph in the comment and, at the end, want to go somewhere in the sentence I just wrote to plop the link.  I'll set my  cursor where I want it, then click the link button.  The window pops up, waiting for me to ctrl+V the link URL into the window and hit return.  When I hit return, the link html code will pop up, but invariably at the end of the whole post, and then both the open and close will all run together into one. So, I'll have to scroll down, put a space in between the beginning of the code and the end of the comment text, then find the closing code for the link code and insert another space.  Only then (otherwise, it'll pick up text from the comment and drag it along) can I ctrl+X the opening and closing codes (separately) and repost them where I want the link.  

    The old system, which accommodated going back and inserting links, was much more useful.

    Re: Report Website Bugs Here (none / 0) (#41)
    by Gabriel Malor on Tue Oct 17, 2006 at 03:27:18 PM EST
    The trick is to highlight the text you want to be linked. For example, I want my link to go on the word "text" above. So, I highlight "text" and then click the link button, control-V the URL, click OK and I'm done.

    Parent
    Re: Report Website Bugs Here (none / 0) (#45)
    by Jeralyn on Tue Oct 17, 2006 at 04:34:34 PM EST
    There's lots of ways to include a link. The easiest is to highlight the text

    As Gabriel said,

    The trick is to highlight the text you want to be linked. For example, I want my link to go on the word "text" above. So, I highlight "text" and then click the link button, control-V the URL, click OK and I'm done.

    Placing a URL inside square brackets like this: TalkLeft will result in a link with any added words as a label.

    The buttons should work the same as they did on the old site.  I don't recommend using the cursor vs. the highlight.

    Parent

    Re: Report Website Bugs Here (none / 0) (#63)
    by hillct on Sat Oct 21, 2006 at 03:45:59 PM EST
    You also have the option to compose your comments in HTML mode which allows you to enter regular HTML tags as you would when composing a webpage. You're allowed to use any of the tags indicated at the bottom of the comment composition form. TO take advantage of this feature, select ''html formatted' from the menu where the default composition method is 'AutoFormat'.

    -- Colin

    Parent

    Re: Report Website Bugs Here (none / 0) (#43)
    by sarcastic unnamed one on Tue Oct 17, 2006 at 04:10:39 PM EST
    Oh yeah, I also don't think we need the ability to put a title or subject on our posts. The thread has a title, shouldn't that be enough? The subject line on a comment just makes it hard to find the name of the commenter.

    But, then again, I'm just a conservative with no capacity for nuance! :-)

    Re: Report Website Bugs Here (none / 0) (#44)
    by Jeralyn on Tue Oct 17, 2006 at 04:31:24 PM EST
    You don't have to post a subject.  That was changed yesterday. The subject is already filled in when you click on the post a comment link and its Re: the post title.

    Parent
    Re: Report Website Bugs Here (none / 0) (#47)
    by roy on Tue Oct 17, 2006 at 05:34:48 PM EST
    1: The "underline" function does not appear to work.  Using square brackets because angle brackets might confuse the formatting: I can click the underline button while wiring a comment, and it puts the [u] and [/u] in place like I'd expect.  However, in the preview I don't see underlined text, I see [u] and [/u].

    As for whether it looks that way after posting, this <u>text is supposed to be underlined</u>.

    Most blogs disallow underlining because it's tacky.  If that's the plan, the little button should be removed.

    2: When writing a comment, if I mouseover the button to  enter an e-mail address, the text that pops up is "Link" rather than anything to do with e-mail.  This is in Firefox, which doesn't handled images' alt text the same way as IE.

    Re: Report Website Bugs Here (none / 0) (#52)
    by Jeralyn on Tue Oct 17, 2006 at 09:47:28 PM EST
    Roy, the underline button works now I think.

    Parent
    Re: Report Website Bugs Here (none / 0) (#48)
    by Che's Lounge on Tue Oct 17, 2006 at 06:05:23 PM EST
    Lounge by Che? OK I'm just sticking with what's there. The devil's in the details, I guess.

    Close

    Definitely acceptable

    Absolutely necessary

    Re: Report Website Bugs Here (none / 0) (#49)
    by Edger on Tue Oct 17, 2006 at 06:26:31 PM EST
    The devil is definitely in the details. Writing many bad checks these days, Che? ;-)

    Parent
    Re: Report Website Bugs Here (none / 0) (#50)
    by Che's Lounge on Tue Oct 17, 2006 at 09:10:19 PM EST
    I gave HER all my money.

    Parent
    Re: Report Website Bugs Here (none / 0) (#51)
    by Edger on Tue Oct 17, 2006 at 09:18:04 PM EST
    Hey, you could do a lot worse with it!

    Parent
    Re: Report Website Bugs Here (none / 0) (#54)
    by Sailor on Sat Oct 21, 2006 at 11:09:10 AM EST
    The buttons don't work for Safari users. Can't see all the above comments when commenting, so responding to several comments is an onerous task, especially when everything has to be hand coded. My handle doesn't link to my blog. If I include a full link as my homepage I get: Homepage (Vidiotspeak) does not validate Yet if I click Vidiotspeak in the above it takes me to my blog. The subject lines that work fine in the original are blocked if they hit a 50 char max in a comment even tho the software put the subject in the comment. The top 3 were complaints I've had since the 1st day.

    Report Website Bugs Here | 62 comments (62 topical)