Markus Merz's dashboard

A comment on the problem "My TwitterFeed to identi.ca is looping over and over." in twitterfeed:

Zach, thanks for your answer. Pls. check out the related issue 'Group admin issue: Manage bots posting to group' on trac: http://laconi.ca/trac/ticket/1692

An identification of bots and an optional following specific handling of single bots would be an enhancement for our not so ideal world.

In an ideal world everything would work perfectly smooth :) – Markus Merz, on July 29, 2009 21:52

Markus Merz replied on July 29, 2009 17:46 to the problem "My TwitterFeed to identi.ca is looping over and over." in twitterfeed:

The effect was seen by me multiple times.
@evan mentioned a 'server queue' problem which lets dents slip through BUT sends back an error to the client.
I am also seeing the same problem in #Twhirl from time to time.

Markus Merz replied on March 17, 2009 01:37 to the question "Can't add Google News RSS" in socialmedian:

For the record: Using a redirected feed via URL shortener (I think I used bit.ly) did the trick. The original feed was added to the sources. I deleted it later again because I prefer the output from my own aggregator.

Looks like it is some 'simple' form or transmission issue. Length?

Markus Merz replied on March 17, 2009 01:21 to the question "News Network not updating. Added topics yesterday and now no updates" in socialmedian:

OK. Just for the record. 15 days ago was the last reaction. Thanks guys.
I always hoped you would look into the issue. Well, AFAIK nothing happened at all.

A couple of days ago I deleted a bunch of topics and also deleted a bunch of sources.

The news network seems to be working again. I won't touch it in the near future. The experience is frustrating. I really don't like to hear me talk like this.

I am definitely not happy with the support experience and seeing some other critical technical issues doesn't make me happier.

SocialMedia gets a status/recommendation downgrade from a bad 2 to the worst possible: 0

A comment on the problem "From now on ... you must login using Facebook Connect" in socialmedian:

Scott, my priority right now are the äöüß issues with a) topics and b) cutting of articles after the 1st äöüß in the title. You should find the issues on your dashboard.

I solved the not working/updating news network in a DIY way by deleting a bunch of topis.<irony>Thanks for your help and technical analysis of the problem</irony>.

This facebook issues are absolutely secondary for me.

It looks like the connect issues had been a temporary glitch and maybe the comment went to dev/null because of irritated tabs in Firefox.

The usage of the Facebook avatar picture is kind of 'bad user respect' but should be easily solved.

I really can't understand why you always insistent on a call. I don't like synchronous communication and I normally also don't chat. I try voluntarily to describe reproducible cases in my free time and you can start to reproduce the issue whenever you feel like. If you are not comfortable with this procedure then SocialMedian should not choose the getsatisfaction solution which I like very much. – Markus Merz, on March 17, 2009 01:04

Markus Merz replied on March 16, 2009 22:13 to the problem "From now on ... you must login using Facebook Connect" in socialmedian:

OK. After finding the SM app - It is in the 'authorized' section and does not show up under 'lately addded/used' - and deleting it on Facebook I tried again:

@socialmedian (not following me) Yep, there it is. Expected the app under 'lately used' or whatever it is in EN. I am using DE environment.
@socialmedian OK. Standard u/p works again. Will try to get the merge dialog again.
@socialmedian OK. Now I get the two step connect dialogs incl. merge.
@socialmedian OK. Only one "successfully merging" mail received.

I will test the Facebook connect and esp. check for loops and double status messages.

Points open:

To be watched: WTF? After somehow logging in via my Facebook cookie (I believe) I wrote a comment on SM and guess what happened? It disappeared and I was logged out.

Not OK: WTF? A minor issue but one might call it a big personal/ego case. My Socialmedian avatar is gone and the not square (!) Facebook profile picture was shown distorted on SocialMedian.

This is getting personal: WTF? Not to mention the other bugs I reported and where nobody seems to work on solving the reproducible bugs since weeks.

Markus Merz reported a problem in socialmedian on March 16, 2009 21:46:

From now on ... you must login using Facebook Connect

Preamble: SocialMedian is down on Status 0 (Zero) now.

I got 4 (four) mails telling me proudly:

Congratulations on successfully merging your socialmedian account with your Facebook account.
You can now instantly and easily share news with your Facebook friends!

Please note: Your previous socialmedian username/password combination has been disabled. From now on when you log on to socialmedian you must login using Facebook Connect.

WTF? I was only testing Facebook connect and did not even see the merge dialog once.
WTF? After somehow logging in via my Facebook cookie (I believe) I wrote a comment on SM and guess what happened? It disappeared and I was logged out.
WTF? A minor issue but one might call it a big personal/ego case. My Socialmedian was gone and the not square (!) Facebook profile picture was shown distorted on SocialMedian.
WTF? Not to mention the other bugs I reported and where nobody seems to work on solving the reproducible bugs since weeks.

Scott, could you please beam yourself down into the machine room and start working on the 'below light speed drive'. I don't expect warp speed.

Send to identi.ca/twitter/friendfeed/socialmedian etc.:

#SocialMedian @socialmedian 1st case of forced #facebook connect usage. WTF? How to get back to u/p log-in? WTF? Seriously in bad mood now.

OK. 1st reaction via twitter:

socialmedian @Markus_Merz that's how fb connect works. to remove facebook connnect go to facebook and delete the socialmedian application

@socialmedian I don't even see the SM app on facebook.

@socialmedian I was also never asked if I accept the SM app & repeat: I never saw the merge dialog.

I am going to Facebook now to check/look for/install and hug/delete/shoot/destroy that SM app.

Markus Merz replied on March 02, 2009 15:00 to the question "News Network not updating. Added topics yesterday and now no updates" in socialmedian:

Hi Scott, four important points:

A) The news network is locally restricted to Hamburg.

B) Looking at the way how articles are lifted to the news network frontpage from the sources I realised that the 'topic' (as word or phrase) has to be covered in the feed item.

So I started to add topics and everything worked fine, well, until the updates stopped working.

B.2) As you may have noticed I use two aggregator services as main sources (Google News & Rivva). Those sources only deliver very short excerpts which is totally OK for me but I must add many topics to have a higher chance that the articles are lifted to the news network frontpage.

C) Not allowing special characters like äöüß in topics is another huge problem!

D) Re.: "Perhaps we can work on cutting that number down and sticking with only highly relevant topics"

In general:

I see a conceptual problem inside the SocialMedian content architecture because you are using topics as categories and not as tags.

Topics as categories are OK but you should allow tags to scan the incoming sources for relevant keywords.

D.2) Allowing sources to go through would help

If a source for a news network could be added unfiltered (option) this would make life much easier.

Let me explain: Now I add a source and the feed will be filtered for topics.

Why can I not add relevant 1st class sources which are lifted to the front page without being filtered for topics.

2nd class sources which deliver general input should of course still be filtered.

Markus Merz gave praise in socialmedian on February 28, 2009 19:24:

Rated SocialMedian 2/10 until problems are resolved.

Check my getsatisfaction dashboard for SocialMedian issues.

Markus Merz replied on February 28, 2009 19:21 to the problem "Frustrated: I can't help but SocialMedian has huge problems" in socialmedian:

OK. Go ahead and roll out a #1 VIP priority treatment for all my issues. Thanks :-)

Markus Merz started following the question "Sharing news with a News Network - not appearing" in socialmedian.

Markus Merz reported a problem in socialmedian on February 28, 2009 19:14:

Snip: Max length of 300c is calculated/reported after sending

Adding a short note is a nice feature but if there is a max length of 300c I definitely need a character count!

Markus Merz reported a problem in socialmedian on February 28, 2009 19:04:

SocialMedian: Handling of special characters is frustrating

SocialMedian: We have a problem! Your handling of special characters is suboptimal. Headline shortening at special characters is, well, frustrating.

Example: http://www.socialmedian.com/story/325... "Checkliste f" is not the headline I expect.

I am talking specifically about öäüß

Related: The same issue exists for topics.

As it is now I can't add eg the German word for 'street' Straße like in 'Lohmühlenstraße' as topic. Or our beautiful lake in Hamber the outer alster: Außenalster.

Markus Merz reported a problem in socialmedian on February 27, 2009 20:24:

Frustrated: I can't help but SocialMedian has huge problems

a) Spam. A deactivated account should by all means be deleted from the news database. Instead eg team07 still shows up and the clips are still present.

b) Marking a spam clip irrelevant or 'don't like' clips it to my timeline. Very bad.

c) News Network not updating: I created a local News Network with a huge stack of topics and some sources. Not updating anymore

d) Support is not acting: Re. the not updating News Network I 1. filed a report on getsatisfaction 14 days ago and 2. also contacted Jason Goldberg via Mail (recommended by a support guy) and Twitter - The situation is not solved nor explained to me.

PS: This is the absolutely worst support experience I ever made with a company on getsatisfaction!

My status: Frustrated

Markus Merz replied on February 27, 2009 19:28 to the question "News Network not updating. Added topics yesterday and now no updates" in socialmedian:

Hello SocialMedian! Is someone checking that problem. The issue is 14 days old now.

If there is a limit regarding the number of topics that limit should be either communicated or eliminated.

But letting the status stay as is is more than frustrating!

I thought the boss aka Jason Goldberg would hungrily jump on that bug but nothing has happened!

Markus Merz marked one of arvin's replies in 83 Degrees as useful. arvin replied to the idea "Auto refresh of homepage". Markus Merz and 2 other people think it's one of the best replies.

Markus Merz replied on February 23, 2009 12:18 to the question "News Network not updating. Added topics yesterday and now no updates" in socialmedian:

Still dead & no updates in timeline. Sent a reminder via mail to Jason.

Markus Merz replied on February 19, 2009 13:21 to the question "Can't add Google News RSS" in socialmedian:

Google News: Complex search feed is not accepted

Feed: http://news.google.de/news?svnum=10&ned=de&rec=0&aq=f&hl=de&scoring=n&q=%2BHamburg+%2B%22St.+Georg%22+-Pfadfinderschaft+-Utah+-Burgundy+-DPSG+-St-George+-Bocholt+-George+-Heidelberg+-URC&ie=UTF-8&output=atom

As you see the feed is working fine. It took me weeks to refine all the '-' items. So, please guys accept the feed.

Error: Sorry, we were not able to identify an RSS feed in the URL that you submitted. Please enter a valid RSS feed URL. Please report a bug if not working.

It doesn't mattwer if it is the ATOM or RSS version.

Markus Merz started following the question "Can't add Google News RSS" in socialmedian.

Markus Merz replied on February 18, 2009 21:27 to the question "News Network not updating. Added topics yesterday and now no updates" in socialmedian:

Jason, the news network is in the initial message:
http://www.socialmedian.com/network/hamburg-hh-st-georg-news