Glitchy commenting

Typepad is a lot less reliable than the others.

In the latest endless thread Nerd of Redhead made a comment (#139):

SciBlog doesn't seem to be telling TypePad that it needs to return the e-mail address. That started when they added then new items to the menu.

Movable Type login works fine until I comment on another scienceblog. Then I get silently unregistered, and need to login in again before commenting on this blog again.

I've consistently had good results using my LiveJournal login. When went to log in just now, I saw that MT is apparently now accepting Google Accounts as well. Maybe we'll see if that works later.

Oops. Rather than "silently unregistered", I intended "silently signed out".

Movable type makes comments unkillfileable for me. Anyone who uses it is immune to killfile and I am forced to scroll down an inch every time I don't want to read someone's comment! Come on, I have things to do!

I haven't had any problems ever since the "Remember personal info?" box has appeared. It tells me that I'm not signed in, but my comment always seems to go through. Perhaps Typepad is lying to me when it tells me that I'm not signed in (like it is now), but as long as I can comment, I don't care.

Type pad sux rocks.

BS

I suspect wetware:
I have managed to log in
If I can do it....

I had to change the TypePad account to automatically share my e-mail. I saved that change, and logged in successfully here at Pharyngula.

I can do it.

Now I will try preview. Ok, type pad seems to be working. It didn't work all day yesterday until late evening.

BS

I've been using Movable Type with no problems other than it takes a while to load the comment.

I'm currently signed in using Typepad. A minor problem I've noticed is that I sometimes need to sign in more frequently than in the past. Occasionally, when I'm actually already signed in, the "Leave a comment" section doesn't reflect that. In that case, if I click "sign in" in the "Leave a comment" section, the system then seems to remember that I'm already signed in -- it gives me the "Thanks for signing in..." notice *without* my having to sign in again.

I'm using Safari as a browser, and Mac OS X, version 10.5.8

I'm usually using Google Chrome... Movable Type - Good. Type Pad - Bad.

After logging in to TypePad, the page says I'm signed, but when I'm redirected to this page it doesn't recognize me. Yesterday I opened a Movable type account and it seems much more reliable.

Oh hey, looks like they fixed the OpenID login at least (mine was one of the emails yesterday).

yayy i can comment !

I love you Cuttlefish!

-----------------------

Re: registration;

Maybe it's beginner's luck, but Typepad has worked flawlessly for me on the rare occasion that I comment. This is the only blog I have ever registered/commented on that uses a registration service. (I don't get out much.)

-running FF on XP Pro

I haven't had any problems (yet) with Movable Type.

I'm using a Google login and it works fine. Perhaps one of these days I'll get fancier. Like not first/last-initial-plus-nonfunctional-permalink fancy.

I'm signed in with Movable Type. This time around, using a different email address, I was able to register with MT and get a confirmation email.

I tried registering with Vox. It sent me a confirmation email and told me I was good to go, but SB and/or Vox won't let me sign in here.

I don't comment very often, but I always use OpenID, with no apparent glitches.

I am signed up with MT and TP - I click the link above the post where it says "Sign in to comment, or comment anonymously." - and it "just does". I am with Cuttlefish. If I can do it, I am stumped why others are having problems.

Is it perhaps because I am using Chrome and not FF or... shudder ... that OTHER browser that people use? (no, not Opera. The other one. NO.. not that one either... The one from ... you know - THOSE guys....)

In theory, I should know all about this stuff, but I don't.

JC

I think I have three accounts/names now (not playing games, I swear, just trying to find one that works) and Movable Type works the best for me. I did have to request a second confirmation email before I could sign in; the first one went MIA.

Live Journal worked before, now it doesn't.
Typepad seems to have let me in this time.
Having to negotiate an extra hurdle or two has
caused me to reapply a maxim of Will Rogers:

Never miss a chance keep your mouth shut.

This has no doubt been suggested before, but:

Why not implement captchas? I'm skeptical that merely requiring registration is going to keep the spam at bay very well for very long, especially when so many different kinds of registration are accepted.

i didnt have any problems, but ive got some feedback...MAKE THE GODDAMN LINKS IN YOUR POSTS OPEN IN A NEW TAB!!!!!!I'm tired of having to click back a million times when I follow the endlessly meandering links!!!

@PinkSlayer
Use your middle mouse button to click on a link and it'll open it in a new tab (works with firefox and internet explorer at least).

I use Typepad/Typekey, and I've only once had issues commenting, and that was before the current lot of registration.

PinkySlayer:

Try holding down the apple key (on a mac) or the ctrl key (on a pc; or is it alt?) while clicking a link.

There is absolutely no reason for most webmasters to force links to open in new tabs. In fact, it bespeaks a kind of insecurity.

ctrl-clicking opens a new tab for me. This is especially useful as I have a ctrl button on my mouse. I have always wondered how Mac people get by with one button when four buttons seems barely adequate, but that's for another thread.

Years ago, I switched some preferences so all links opened in a new window. There was practically a riot -- people hated it. They wanted to be able to control whether they got a new tab or window.

So it isn't going to happen. Right click or command-click on a link to get a new tab -- it also has the virtue of working on every site you visit.

I've encountered no problems with the commenting/registering system. :)

I guess I'm just lucky.

Or more deserving?
I'd like to think so. ;)

Movable Type seems to be working for me.

Seriously? I can comment??? Okay, now that is cool. I was expecting to be shut out for months like the last time. Thanks! to those who mentioned Google -- that's what I got to work.

So, while I'm hot and loose -- give me something to Pharyngulate!

Clearly the Google and Yahoo OpenID logins leave something to be desired. I don't even recognize my own login here, so it seems they've taken obfuscation a tad too far.

Eek. Why was I thinking that my old user name would appear? Oh well -- I'm xebecs, for what it's worth.

Vox seems to work... once I retrieved my password! (The hazards of creating an account and then not using it for years.)

I've not had any problems with openid.

Movable Type works fine for me.

Had 0 issues using Google Accounts.

Sweet.

Typepad is actually working like a charm for the first time since I originally registered, years ago!

If we could just make a registration system that requires the registrant to answer 5 basic questions about evolution...

Aw, sure, PZ, ya reply to completely unhinged repeat suggestions about links but not to my suggestion about captchas?

Trolls are nasty, but they sure do get all the attention.

</tongue-in-cheek>

I tried registering with Vox. It sent me a confirmation email and told me I was good to go, but SB and/or Vox won't let me sign in here.

From memory I had to add Pharyngula as a 'registered site' to my Vox profile, but I might just be making that up...

If we could just make a registration system that requires the registrant to answer 5 basic questions about evolution...

That would be brilliant. Even just some yes/no questions like "Can random processes create information?" It would irk some of the creationists so much, heehee...

I think a captcha system would be fine. I've even suggested it to the techies, way back when. I had them on the old site, and even had my own dictionary of captcha words, which was fun.

But it's out of my hands here. We had the pros from sixapart cruise through to fix up problems...and no captchas.

to answer 5 basic questions about evolution...

Clever concept. Would be fun to see it used against Creationist trolls. Put 'em in purgatory when they get annoying and then every time they want to comment, they have to learn a little more about the science. Maybe make it multiple choice just to reduce the daily effort.

Pity it wouldn't be practical.

I like my new "Author Profile Page" surname. It feels like a (very strange) family reunion or something.

clicked on OPENID and pasted "https://www.google.com/accounts/o8/id" ...Error

then saw the GOOGLE down the bottom, worked just fine

Using Opera in XP, I have had no problems with Typepad (especially when asking to "remember" logging in). The "sign in" link keeps working w/o having to leave the Pharyngula site - and signs in within 0.1 seconds every time.

Had trouble before, but was having Firefox problems of all sorts, then switched to Opera - and the bad stuff went away.

Typepad has always worked flawlessly for me (here and elsewhere)...I must be lucky!

I don't really like the Google accounts option though..

It feels a little weird for it to sign me in without asking for my password. Presumably, this is because I'm signed into gmail, but it's still weird.

Movable Type doesn't seem to be terribly reliable. It's what I'm currently using, largely because I'm not keen on attaching my full name to these (or any) online posts, but it doesn't work well from my experience. When I tried signing up the first time, I used this display name as my account name and gave my standard home e-mail, but I never got the first verification e-mail sent to me, and any subsequent attempts to send it failed (possibly because there is already a CTC somewhere else in the system). Changing the account name and sending the e-mails to a GMail account seems to have fixed the problem, though it's a shoddy fix if I've ever seen one. Typepad seems to just glom onto your Facebook page, which is a little too invasive for my tastes.

I have no problem registering. Movable type works fine. It does log out every day or so.

Some of my browsers are crashed by Pharyngula, two of them including IE. The solution was to turn off a lot of scripting in the browser but then a lot of other stuff like email doesn't work.

One other browser works well for reading. It can't comment though although it could before the commenting system was "fixed". Hitting comment yields an invalid request message, whatever that means.

Score 3 browsers, none of which work completely. Some browser/settings work sort of, some don't.

You won't hear about the other people who can't comment...because they can't comment. This is costing sciblogs a lot of traffic.

Sciblogs is the only site where all these peculiarities happen. I would suggest that the website people fix the bugs. And test everything before they install them.

PinkySlayer | December 10, 2009 9:53 PM:

i didnt have any problems, but ive got some feedback...MAKE THE GODDAMN LINKS IN YOUR POSTS OPEN IN A NEW TAB!!!!!!I'm tired of having to click back a million times when I follow the endlessly meandering links!!!

Different users have different needs and different expectations. The builder of a website cannot know the varying needs and expectations of all users, and cannot know whether it's more convenient for a link to open a new window, a new tab, or open in the same tab. This is exactly the sort of thing the web site should never attempt to control.
On the contrary - the browser should provide an easy way for the user to control whether a link is opened in new tab, or a new window, or not. For example - using firefox, if I want to open a link in a new tab, I click the middle mouse button. (In most browsers this is configurable.) This is totally under my control; no need to bother web site builder, and that's the way it should be.

I like the 5 questions. and I signed in via Safarli on a Mac OS X. I've never had a problem.

The Google sign in appears to be working quite nicely.

raven:

Firefox + NoScript (+ AdBlock).

NoScript lets you selectively disable javascript, so that it's turned on only for sites you trust. (and not even for the ones you trust, if they don't require it-- javascript is a hyooooge security problem)

I'd be surprised, though, if any of the scripts here caused either Firefox or Safari to crash. (barring any malware infections of either your computer or the scienceblogs site)

Hi, Katkinkate here. I can get google to work, but it gives me this silly web address instead of my name. Will try the others out

Using Typepad with Opera for a few months. Never had a problem so far.

It is no doubt that the system is a mess...some have no problems..but methinks that is a minority.

Mostly it is a drama and oft times just impossible to work the logic cos there is no logic to work.

Apparently I am signed in....but that can vary...mostly it is in a state of indecision...it asks me to sign in then when I do it tells me I am already signed in and to stop being silly...so I post a comment and then it tells me to sign in again....ad infinitum...

A major revamp...tis the only way...trying to plug the leaks and holes can only go so far...at the moment it seems the patches on the leaks and holes have also sprung leaks and holes.

And for the sake of simple sanity and Beelzebub's jammie cord please add an edit function ...tis the 21st century and not beyond the wit of man...but apparently beyond the wit of SB's administration.

Testing moveable type ...

As my user name might suggest, I find MT rather unacceptable.
No.
I find it to be a TOTAL AND UNUTTERABLE PIECE OF INSUFFERABLE CRAP!!!
Q: I mean, what login system would automatically give me such a pointless, intrusive, INSANE user name as the above?
Without asking me?

A: Moveable Type.

Q: How do I edit my display Name?
A: No help from MT. None whatsoever.

A wizard who knows the relevant incantations to change it from this impenetrable shit to "Michael Kingsford Gray" would be most welcome.

I ask myself, as a computer programmer who started out in 1973: What the fuck is wrong with software developers that they cannot such BASIC stuff absolutely PERFECT in the intervening 36 years, eh?
I'd sack the bleedin' lot, I would.

Whoa! This is new. An attempt to submit a second short (one line) comment within a minute of the first, gets this error message:

Your comment submission failed for the following reasons:

Too many comments have been submitted from you in a short period of time. Please try again in a short while.

Return to the original entry.

Other than that, Moveable Type seems to work.

I can comment, but I rarely have anything clever to say. :(

@ Stagyar zil Doggo
Please inform me how you managed to get it to 'work' to the point where it displayed your moniker correctly?
(A feat achieved by computers in the 1950s)

P.S. I dare not 'sign out' for fear that I might be required to hand-type the ludicrous name that I have been assigned, in order to log in.
And I also fear that should I abandon this totally insane monker, that I shall be barred from re-registering based on the obvious fact that my email account is already associated with an existing account.
This has been a source of frustration that has rendered Kirk Cameron's most outrageous transparent FRAUDS a mere irritant.

I still can't get in with typepad today. It's the email exchange part which is going wrong somewhere between the two.

@ the google user with the URL for a name in #66:

I and "Stagyar zil Doggo" have a tiny logo of a spanner (or handcuffs or something) next to our names because we have accounts created directly with MovableType rather than referencing openID etc accounts held elsewhere.

You might be better off asking kaessa (of post #57) what the procedure is for google since that may be the same type of google login as yours but is definitely shorter in its display name!

Logged in with typepad ok.....No errors for weeks

Although blockquote still sucks. This:

Your comment submission failed for the following reasons:
Too many comments have been submitted from you in a short period of time. Please try again in a short while.
Return to the original entry.

is the part of #64 that should have been blocked. But the commenting system across scienceblogs seems to screw up <blockquote> tags in an unpredictable manner. I got it to work (at least in preview) this time by using <br> tags instead of line breaks.

@66:

I just created a moveable type account, and then validated it with the link they sent my email address. Of course, everyone's experience seems to be different.

Perhaps you could create a throwaway email address and try out one or more throwaway moveable type accounts (don't use your usual moniker - its liable to be rendered unusable if things don't work) to figure out what works for you.

The submission time error has nothing to do with the blockquote tag.It's just a protection against flooding.I guess.

367

"I dare not 'sign out' for fear that I might be required to hand-type the ludicrous name that I have been assigned, in order to log in.
And I also fear that should I abandon this totally insane monker, that I shall be barred from re-registering based on the obvious fact that my email account is already associated with an existing account."

Absolutely poignant and a sad but current state of affairs...

It is completely insane on a leading world blog forum that this nonsense is tolerated by the users.
And the administration seem incapable of rational thought.
This system is extremely poor, and will continue to be sub standard for certainly the near future, indeed only through a complete and fresh rewrite of the software will we see the back of this débâcle.

Anyway you have my sympathies for your irritation, and unfortunately an all to common one on this sad excuse for a text based service.

The submission time error has nothing to do with the blockquote tag.

I didn't mean to imply a connection. Just an enumeration of two separate issues.

So far, Vox works for me, without a single error message. The only problem is that it forces me to pretend I had a blog. I deleted the automatically generated, deeply stupid URL, but Vox didn't care.

What the powers that be should introduce is a...

CAPTCHA!!!

(Unless they want to go to the "trouble" of using more elaborate and even safer methods of keeping the spambots out. Lots and lots of possibilities were listed last time you turned registration on or off. Still, a simple captcha would keep out the vast majority of spambots.)

"I dare not 'sign out' for fear that I might be required to hand-type the ludicrous name that I have been assigned, in order to log in.
And I also fear that should I abandon this totally insane monker, that I shall be barred from re-registering based on the obvious fact that my email account is already associated with an existing account."

Absolutely poignant and a sad but current state of affairs...

That's true... but why would anyone want to sign out instead of just staying signed in for as many months as possible? Is it a shared work computer?

but why would anyone want to sign out instead of just staying signed in for as many months as possible?

You can only stay signed in on a computer that keeps cookies, which is unsafe, especially given the fact that 90% of computers run Windoze.Cookies are bad for you...:-)

This: [...] is the part of #64 that should have been blocked. But the commenting system across scienceblogs seems to screw up <blockquote> tags in an unpredictable manner. I got it to work (at least in preview) this time by using <br> tags instead of line breaks.

This depends on your browser!!! Or maybe on preview or something!!!

Which is of course insane in itself. Anyway, I don't preview because I know preview screws all manner of things up, and I use IE for Windows and Safari for Mac; I've never had any problem.

Except for one thing: the first blockquoted paragraph, the one that is in smaller font size and smaller line spacing instead of being formatted like the rest of the text, extends all the way to the first empty line ( = two successive hits of Enter). Any paragraph breaks ( = single hits of Enter) within this are removed by the moronic software and must be replaced by <br> tags to show up.

This is tolerable, but still deeply, deeply stupid. It's as if the webdesigners had believed that nobody would ever quote more than one paragraph! TSIB.

I see your point David but I was under...probably an erroneous impression... that public forums suffer band width issues...if everyone remains signed in then the processing gets slower to continental drift then flowing mud!

As it happens being a completely hedonistic punk...I try and remain signed in...cos otherwise grief my way comes next time a rant formulates and requires expulsion on PZee's blog....

I can't stay signed in any more. It keeps kicking me off every few hours (/ posts?) with MovableType (which is the only one currently letting me in reliably). It used to be more like a couple of days for old TypeKey to age off.

MAKE THE GODDAMN LINKS IN YOUR POSTS OPEN IN A NEW TAB!!!!!!I'm tired of having to click back a million times when I follow the endlessly meandering links!!!

Right-click on the link and then select "open in a new tab" or even "open in a new window".

If you're stuck on a Mac and can't right-click, do Command-click instead. That opens a new tab. Alt-click downloads the target, and Ctrl-click opens a menu that corresponds to some of the rest of right-clicking.

if everyone remains signed in then the processing gets slower to continental drift then flowing mud!

Oh. Staying signed in has an impact on the site? That's... not logical. ~:-|

I was advised to create a gmail account and then create a Movable Type login with that address - it seems to have worked okay.

Typepad has been flawless for me.

PZ, Your last few entries (on the main page) have the BLACK HIGHLIGHTING for some reason, making them hard to read. Maybe bleed-over from the formatting from the kook website? ...

What is the point of CAPTCHA when the forum "spam" is not automated? This won't stop the various types of trolls. Forcing them to create a new login every time they get banned slows them down (and outright stops the truly stupid).

I signed up for a new MT login but still haven't got the confirmation email, and google does this weird shit. It's not like I"M DOING IT WRONG.
Sorry, been 4 hours now, getting a bit ratty.

Wow. Tab-lovers who don't know how to use tabs.

TypePad seems to work fine, except when ScienceBlogs does not respond properly. I had a chain Yahoo > OpenID > TypePad, but I can go straight through OpenID on the combo box now. Occasionally ScienceBlogs gags, regardless of method.

Yahoo/Google/OpenID people with the "obfuscated" names - set a display name. That will fix the annoying URL.

If registration is an issue, why don't you create a single account and allow anyone who emails you access to it, neatly side stepping the registration while still having a measure of protection. Of course it will lose a bit of individualism, but at least people can still post and include their usual usernames in the post.

If you start to experience spam from that account as some duplicitous git got hold of the account details, ban that account, and set up another. Possibly email the new details out to those you deem "trust worthy".

It's not ideal, but it might be a start.

Frankly, I miss the "trolls".

Oh and will you be getting access the Nat Geo IT department to deal with these things?

Use Opera: right-click + drag-down = link opened in new tab.

Mousegestures = love.

(I have no clue what account I'm using anymore. I just click the little "sign in" link and that's it.)

Testing the comment system...

For those of you getting weird id's for movable type, scroll down to the bottom of the post, log in with your MT id. At the bottom you'll see "Thanks for signing in, . Under leave a comment. That ID should be a link. Click it, change your display name and click save.

#93

"(I have no clue what account I'm using anymore. I just click the little "sign in" link and that's it.)"

Ditto ;-(

I'm currently signed in using Typepad. A minor problem I've noticed is that I sometimes need to sign in more frequently than in the past. Occasionally, when I'm actually already signed in, the "Leave a comment" section doesn't reflect that. In that case, if I click "sign in" in the "Leave a comment" section, the system then seems to remember that I'm already signed in -- it gives me the "Thanks for signing in..." notice *without* my having to sign in again.

Yes, I have that, too (at the start of every new browser session), and I didn't last time registration was required.

The funny thing is that it's a lie. I just double-posted on the endless thread because I was allegedly not signed in, submitted, interrupted, "signed in" the way you describe, submitted again, and it had got through both times with my profile attached. ~:-|

I have always wondered how Mac people get by with one button when four buttons seems barely adequate

In fact, they don't. That's why the latest generation of Mac mice finally has two buttons which just happen to be hidden under one cover so you can still see it's a Mac mouse designed by Apple in California™.

"Things should be made as simple as possible, but not any simpler." – Albert Einstein

Posted by: physicalist1 | December 10, 2009 10:51 PM
I like my new "Author Profile Page" surname. It feels like a (very strange) family reunion or something.

As you can see here, I don't get to see it. I suppose only people with certain types of registration see it.

Some of my browsers are crashed by Pharyngula, two of them including IE.

Which versions??? Pharyngula has never crashed my IE8 (…and neither has practically anything else).

If registration is an issue, why don't you create a single account and allow anyone who emails you access to it

Because there are hundreds of thousands of us…?

The SciBlogs sign in appears to be timing out locally after about two-three hours. Then it wants you to sign in again. But if your (in my case TypePad) verifier still has you signed in and you attempt to post without the notice of being signed in, the SciBlogs software appears to do a local sign in automatically. My observations.

Heh. I was going to say that TypePad doesn't ever give me any problems, though I only ever used it a few times before PZ made the sign-in optional a month or two ago.

But when I went to sign in just now, I got a message from TypePad saying I wasn't allowed to sign in because I was not allowing my e-mail address to be shared and this site requires it. Of course, no matter how many times you try to sign in after that to update your account, it won't let you. Catch-22 anyone? However, you can get into your account (after an error message pops up saying you can't log into /dashboard), by using the following URL without any of the associated ScienceBlogs trappings:

http://www.typepad.com/services/signin?is_typekey=1

That lets you into your TypePad account, where you can tick the box that allows your e-mail to be shared. End of problem.

I presume that's mainly what people were complaining about re. TypePad?

How about glitchy blog-loading?

There seems to be a tag or two left open on the latest Rapture post; the same heinous effects spill down the rest of the front page and it keeps crashing my browser. I'm at work and using a less-than-current version of IE, so perhaps there's an issue with my browser, but it's not that old and it never had problems with this site before.

I have been using my TypePad account. It worked fine at first. Then it informed me that I was not allowing my e-mail address to be shared. Not true because every time I signed in, I checked "Yes". But it was not even allowing access to that option. So I finally broke down and started yet an other account with MovableType. Let's see how long I can sign in before this bloody system gets whimsical with me yet again.

When PZ first turned on the obligatory sign-in again (a couple of days ago now) I managed to get in with typepad - just the once! Ever since then it has been failing even to ask me the "do you want to share your email" question. So, naturally, I then get a login failure. However, rigging the URL by hand to generate the question still only gets me back to the big error page of death.

As far as I can tell, sign-in here is about as broken as it ever was - and perhaps more so, since various options have gone away altogether! I fail to see what SixApart imagine they've fixed. All I can see are some unhelpful cosmetic tweaks to the sign-in forms.

physicalist1:

I like my new "Author Profile Page" surname.

David Marjanović:

I don't get to see it. I suppose only people with certain types of registration see it.

I think it must be down to your browser setup. On viewing the page source, I see the words are not part of the normal page text but are instead alt text for a logo image which doesn't exist in the specified location. So people whose browsers show alt text in lieu of images will see that alt text (as a block, as if it were an image) and other people will see nothing - or perhaps some missing image place-holder picture.

SEF, hi,

The trick in my post at #99 gets you back into your account so you can tick the 'Share my e-mail' box. Just sign in with the following URL:

http://www.typepad.com/services/signin?is_typekey=1

That leaves off the bit about you coming through ScienceBlogs.

Hey, I know 'tricks'. That must make me one of them darn tootin' liberal Gore-bull scientists!

...Gore-bull warming scientists, even.

I know how to operate the typekey account - the problem is the ScienceBlog bugs!

Well this is new. Clunky, but new. Suddenly I can sign in with an old Google account but I get this unpronounceable name.

I have absolutely no idea why. Sorry.

Ron Sullivan

Those still having problems signing in with typepad

As per #10 and #104.

Go to Typepad and sign in
Go to your account information
About Under your screen name and e-mail is a button "share e-mail"
Make sure this button is clicked
Save using button just below.
Exit typepad
Now try signing in from here

Used the google account in movable type. If this appears, it worked.

Movable type on it's own couldn't seem to get the email verification to work. Very odd.

Testing, testing, testing.

tap-tap Is this thing on?

This is not a real test...

Comment 98 appears to be correct.

I'm at work and using a less-than-current version of IE, so perhaps there's an issue with my browser

Yes. ScienceBlogs (or, rather, its ads) started making real trouble on IE7 shortly before IE8 came out. IE8 has no problems.

people whose browsers show alt text in lieu of images

Oh, yeah, that's it. Both Safari and IE show placeholder pictures of the right size.

Just got TypePad to work thanks to Nerd of Redhead, OM. It took some finagling to find the checkbox but once checked all seems well.

Google sort of works; there's a few weirdnesses.

Isn't asking which works better like asking someone with a group of people, a small number of which ride bicycles, what car they drive to work? Anyone that can't get it to work at all isn't posting.

But, seriously, its a toss up with me. I think I got the movable type thing to work "once", typepad, I can *usually* get to work, when it isn't broken into a million pieces. In all cases, sometimes the way back "in" to science blobs shatters, and I get a page full of garbage (not even a sane error list, or something, but stuff with XML in it..), and no log in at all. In short, its a mess, was a mess, and will be a mess, for the foreseeable future.

What? I told them to make sure there were no weirdnesses. The hammer is gonna drop if they don't take care if the problem before these weirdnesses get into weirdness protection.

In short, its a mess, was a mess, and will be a mess, for the foreseeable future.

Mess without end, amen.

SEF

As far as I can tell, sign-in here is about as broken as it ever was - and perhaps more so, since various options have gone away altogether! I fail to see what SixApart imagine they've fixed. All I can see are some unhelpful cosmetic tweaks to the sign-in forms.

Did SixApart actually do anything? I assumed the problems signing in were just general SciBlog problems like we've been seeing ever since they told us months ago that they were "updating" and "improving" the website.

Somebody definitely did something - at around the time that PZ claimed the SixApart squad were being called in. It just doesn't look to be very helpful to me. Eg:

1. The comment box at the bottom of the page had its text slightly reformatted (moved to be more untidy and also made smaller, I think). This happened very early on.

2. The sign-in for typepad (TypeKey) now insists on using email as a login (alongside password) rather than allowing choice of email or login name.

3. Some other login options were added to the existing set but their pictures are missing from the Sb server.

SixApart also runs Typepad. The right hand not knowing what the left hand is doing?

Still laughing about comment 116 :-D

The comment box at the bottom of the page had its text slightly reformatted (moved to be more untidy and also made smaller, I think).

Made a lot narrower (compare any other ScienceBlog), and that was a bad thing. Do you hear me, Overlords?

SixApart also runs Typepad.

They (or their founder) actually ran / wrote (or whatever) most of the original login options in one way or another!

David Marjanović @79:

Thanks for the hints on using <br> tags in blockquotes. Another problem I've had is that sometimes the first paragraph of a post is displayed with a negative indent. Any clue for getting around this?

As far as I can make out, someone must have messed with the typepad (TypeKey) interface within the last couple of days - to make it go from working to not working. They seem to have reset some account stuff somehow in the process of tampering with it.

Incidentally, getting back to the proliferation of options and their current lack of comment-labelling logo images (eg made from each site's favicon), I repeat my (much) earlier request:

Someone somewhere needs to create a login provider with a name like "Signing Questionable Users" so that we can all have a squID login with an adorable little cephalopod logo on all our comments.

Alternatively, PZ can hack into the Sb file space and simply change the current set of file images (including adding the missing ones!) into various squiddly dudes.

PZ: This is what's happening to me

Q:
...His comments require you to register with Movable Type. I tried to do it through the Movable Type register prompt that comes up with his comments page. I get the message "Before you can sign in, you must authenticate your email address. Click here to resend the verification email." But I never receive the verification email.

A:
Sounds to me like the admin of the blog in question has not set his "System Email" in "System: General Settings"

Have him click on system overview / settings and check there is an email address in the box there.

If he doesn't configure a sending address, people who register will not get an email.

They seem to have reset some account stuff somehow in the process of tampering with it.

I agree, hence my post #109.

It's worse than that - they'd also tried to turn me into an UnSAnian instead of having UK English selected! It's rather disturbing that they managed to mess with the account settings of users that way at all though.

We know what and when it happened. The remaining question is whether it was a widespread typepad/TK effect (ie some software update local to them) or something connected with the act of logging into Sb/pharyngula. We'd need some non-posters to check their account status.

Testing typepad. Boy, this is bad. A whole day to figure out how to get in here. All these commenting systems are clunky, non-intuitive, and buggy. I had the same problem with MT as commenter #126 above. Most frustrating not to be able to log in, get a confirmation email, or even let anyone know you can't log in.

Typepad still not broken for me.
What's with this option to comment anonymously, when did that appear? It's not working, tho, I tried...

I've been able to comment well. However, for some reason the comments on your blog, PZ, specifically keeps crashing my browser. (it doesn't happen when I visit other SBs.)

MovableType is the one working consistently for me. Typepad is apparently spending another day sulking with multiple errors - eg that whole page of errors which one gets on auto-returning to Sb after typepad thinks you've successfully logged in (because, in the meantime, Sb has forgotten who typepad is)!

NB For those who've missed previous conversations and mistakenly think the typepad login problem is all about the email handover and people not having setup (or re-setup after the system somehow unset them!) their TypeKey accounts, this is just a small part of what the Sb error page of death looks like:

An error occurred: Can't locate CODE(0x1f4cf160) in @INC (@INC contains: /var/www/vhosts/scienceblogs.com/cgi-bin/mt/plugins/CommunityActionStreams/lib /var/www/vhosts/scienceblogs.com/cgi-bin/mt/plugins/Textile/lib /var/www/vhosts/scienceblogs.com/cgi-bin/mt/plugins/TypePadAntiSpam/lib /var/www/vhosts/scienceblogs.com/cgi-bin/mt/plugins/ActionStreams/extlib /var/www/vhosts/scienceblogs.com/cgi-bin/mt/plugins/ActionStreams/lib /var/www/vhosts/scienceblogs.com/cgi-bin/mt/plugins/mixiComment/lib /var/www/vhosts/scienceblogs.com/cgi-bin/mt/plugins/feeds-app-lite/lib /var/www/vhosts/scienceblogs.com/cgi-bin/mt/plugins/StyleCatcher/lib /var/www/vhosts/scienceblogs.com/cgi-bin/mt/plugins/WidgetManager/lib /var/www/vhosts/scienceblogs.com/cgi-bin/mt/plugins/WXRImporter/lib /var/www/vhosts/scienceblogs.com/cgi-bin/mt/plugins/FacebookCommenters/extlib /var/www/vhosts/scienceblogs.com/cgi-bin/mt/plugins/FacebookCommenters/lib /var/www/vhosts/scienceblogs.com/cgi-bin/mt/plugins/Motion/lib /var/www/vhosts/scienceblogs.com/cgi-bin/mt/plugins/MultiBlog/lib /var/www/vhosts/scienceblogs.com/cgi-bin/mt/plugins/spamlookup/lib /var/www/vhosts/scienceblogs.com/cgi-bin/xplugins/FieldDay/lib /var/www/vhosts/scienceblogs.com/cgi-bin/xplugins/Bob/lib ...) at (eval 4544) line 1.

Movable Type is working fine for me, too.

SEF #133

When I could use TypePad I'd often see the Wall o' Text error. Once I saw it 31 times before SB would finally let me sign in.

NoScript lets you selectively disable javascript, so that it's turned on only for sites you trust. (and not even for the ones you trust, if they don't require it-- javascript is a hyooooge security problem)apartments