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How can we get back the comments on all our blogs?
I'm one of a small number of individuals with posting and moderation rights at TennisWorld, a very popular blog hosted by Typepad and accessible via tennis.com.
We have noted that on a large number of existing posts in TennisWorld, the comments made by readers are missing. In some cases they cannot be accessed at all; in other cases the first few comments can be found by clicking on "Next, then "Previous". In both cases, the full extent of the comments are inaccessible.
This issue applies to most of the posts written before the beginning of 2009 as far as we can determine.
The comments section at TennisWorld is a vital part of our site, and people often look back through older threads to see the conversations that arise surrounding various posts. In many case the whole point of the post is for readers to record their impressions of matches as they unfold. We assume that this is a software bug - the new software appears to have been inadequately tested before being rolled out.
We have blogs on our site going back to 2005, and the current situation amounts to wholesale destruction of a large part of our archives. This is a totally unacceptable situation, and we need to have this site content restored.
We have noted that on a large number of existing posts in TennisWorld, the comments made by readers are missing. In some cases they cannot be accessed at all; in other cases the first few comments can be found by clicking on "Next, then "Previous". In both cases, the full extent of the comments are inaccessible.
This issue applies to most of the posts written before the beginning of 2009 as far as we can determine.
The comments section at TennisWorld is a vital part of our site, and people often look back through older threads to see the conversations that arise surrounding various posts. In many case the whole point of the post is for readers to record their impressions of matches as they unfold. We assume that this is a software bug - the new software appears to have been inadequately tested before being rolled out.
We have blogs on our site going back to 2005, and the current situation amounts to wholesale destruction of a large part of our archives. This is a totally unacceptable situation, and we need to have this site content restored.
I’m very annoyed and frustrated
5
people have this problem
I have this problem, too!
Tell me when someone solves it.
The more people who report this problem, the more it gets noticed.
The more people who report this problem, the more it gets noticed.
The company marked this problem solved.
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Inappropriate?I also have this question. I very often refer back to previous posts for reference, and the comments and discussion are just as much a vital and fabulous resource as an original post. It would be very sad if so much intelligent analysis was lost. Please work to restore this content.
Thank you!
And thank you for listening to TW's other concerns and trying to adapt accordingly, it is appreciated.
I’m sad at the loss of content.
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Inappropriate?I would also very much like to be able to access (and search) older threads.
You, as a company, have been keeping TW's archives. It is extremely unacceptable if you lose them.
I’m anxious
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Inappropriate?The comments aren't exactly missing, but they appear in random order after multiple refreshes. This really hurts an on going discussion/conversation.
The inability to access email ids anymore is a big draw back, in my view. Interacting with fellow posters is a key part of this blog structure.
Thanks for looking into these.
I’m confused and frustrated
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This solves the problem
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thanks for contributing here. We're working proactively to get these issues fixed for y'all. -
Inappropriate?I think if you check some of the older blogs, you will find that all of the comments are missing. The somewhat unreliable current commenting environment is a separate issue.
I’m puzzled as to why this obvious bug hasn't already been fixed.
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Inappropriate?Sorry for misunderstanding your question, Rosangel.
I went back to a few older blog entries and yes, the entries are missing.
Like here: http://tinyurl.com/ddggn3
Please help us fix it. This is really disappointing. :(
I’m frustrated
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Inappropriate?TennisWorld is also not the only typepad blog experiencing this issue. Further, Typepad representatives have been made aware of this issue in January before the update was rolled out to TennisWorld.
I find the manner in which this update has been handled to be extremely unprofessional.
I’m frustrated
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This solves the problem
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You can say that again! We're paying for a beta product that isn't even as good as most free betas. I don't know what they do all day because it's been months and they've made little progress in fixing the problems. They never should have rolled out the update. Better to make people wait than to cause them this kind of frustration. They just make it worse by pretending that everything is OK. Remember the big outage when they took responsibility for what happened? Those were the days...
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if you're having issues with something in particular, I'm happy to help. Colleen and the rest of our tech support team are quite responsive and we DO want to help.
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That is my specific issue: that Typepad won't admit and take responsibility for *knowingly* putting out a faulty product. I hear that many of the bugs in the new system were identified during the beta period but they were obviously not dealt with before going live. That's just plain unethical.
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We believe in our products - we think they change the world. We work long hours, weekends, holidays. We don't ship products with any intent but to delight our users. Knowing that we have bugs now and are trying in earnest to fix them is the crux of the issue.
We love having communities full of comments. We're working hard to fix this. -
Well, there's a bit of a reality gap here. I don't doubt your enthusiasm, but the fact is that bugs identified in the beta phase were not fixed and rolled out with the supposedly finished product. No one expects perfection, but when basic things like text formatting don't work correctly there is something seriously wrong. Blogging is first and foremost about publishing text.
I am now using Windows Live Writer to blog because it does what Typepad Compose is supposed to do, but it does it flawlessly, with much easier image formatting, real WYSIWYG editing and real preview. (People have been complaining for years about Typepad's lack of a real preview function and it has yet to materialize. It's things like that that make me wonder what Typepad's priorities are.)
Typepad has some great features that I can't find elsewhere at a reasonable cost and/or effort, so I'm still here, but under protest, as you well know! -
Inappropriate?Everyone - I'm going to check into this and ask our engineers to take a look. I'll update this thread when I have more information.
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Inappropriate?From information that we've seen on other blogs hosted by Typepad, this issue has been raised before by some of your customers, as far back as October of 2008. It's staggering that it's still going on now. Also unbelievable that your company dared to roll out the new software not only without warning or consultation, but still containing four-month-old problems.
I’m flabbergasted
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This solves the problem
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Note that Typepad never responds to comments like these. They don't want to take responsibility for knowingly putting out a faulty product. It's the elephant in the Get Satisfaction room.
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Inappropriate?Can someone who has access to the weblog's backend let me know:
1. If the full comments are still accessible in Weblogs > Comments, inside the account
2. A specific post where this issue is happening? A link to the Permalink page would be most helpful.
3. What you're seeing with that specific post that's different from what was happening previously, aside from the actual pagination itself.
I need specific info so I can give that to our engineers. -
Inappropriate?Colleen:
Yes, the comments can still be viewed from inside the account, so they still exist in the database.
Here is a sample post from 2008 where this issue occurs:
http://tennisworld.typepad.com/tennis...
There should be 261 comments on this page according to the index page, but none appear. Previously they all appeared without any problem. If I click on "Next" and then "Previous" via the front end I can get the first 100 comments, but the rest are inaccessible. Clearly we want all the comments restored.
There are literally hundreds of posts where this same problem is occurring, some with far more comments than this post.
I’m still frustrated
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Inappropriate?Thank you, that's super helpful! I'll send all this info to our engineers right away.
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Inappropriate?By the way, I've just done an experiment on one of our older posts which could provide a clue to the problem:
http://tennisworld.typepad.com/tennis...
It's our rule to manage all older posts by closing the comments. I tried opening the comments up (which basically republishes the post). The comments all appeared. I was able to make a test post at the end. I've now closed them again - the first 100 still appear on opening the post, but not the rest. Obviously we don't have time to republish every post in our archives in this way (plus it wouldn't solve the whole issue), and plenty of comments are still missing.
Thanks for your attention to this problem.
I’m baffled
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Inappropriate?I now see (on going into the post once again) that adding the test post has had the effect of restoring all of the comments, via the "next" tab. I actually opened and closed the comments on this post twice - the first time the comments "hung" at 100, and nothing appeared on the next page. Second time around I added the "test" post at the end. This restored everything.
I’m still baffled
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Inappropriate?Ros - thanks for bringing this to typepad's attention. I too am dismayed that we may lose the comments on these older posts. There's been a lot of work on at TW to retain these comments and posts, and to facilitate searching, all of which is for naught if the comments aren't retrievable due to some software 'oops'.
Being able to refer back through our posts is vital to the TW world, and i look forward (ever so optimistically) to that functionality being returned to us.
JB
I’m sa and frustrated.
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Inappropriate?Hi Rosangel - since we're also talking this through on email, I thought I'd just add a short note here that we're actively working on this problem in both technical support and engineering. Thanks to everyone who's been contributing to this thread.
I’m thankful
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Inappropriate?I just wanted also reiterate a point that's been going on in the backchannel and bring it forward. This is a new, previously undiscovered bug that we're glad to be able to be working on for all of you.
We take immense pride in our products, and we also work around the clock to try to maintain a positive community for TypePad. Not just here, but all over the web. I understand exactly how important it is to have the tools you use work in an effective manner.
I appreciate everyone's input, but would also ask everyone to try to maintain a helpful tone for feedback, rather than an accusatory one. We love our community and deeply respect all the creative energy you pour into this.
We want to help you, which is why we're here.
I’m staying positive.
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Inappropriate?Hi all,
I've been doing some digging back to August 2006. This post
http://tennisworld.typepad.com/tennis...
may shed some light on the "zero comments" issue. I've notified Pete, Rosangel, Dominic and miz_ginevra offline on what I found, but it's possible that there's another issue at work here, not a Typepad engineering problem.
I spoke with Pete earlier this evening. He appreciates the work Typepad is doing to help us with these issues, as do I.
I’m wearing my technical hat
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Inappropriate?All - I've gotten word from our engineering team that they released a code update that they believe has resolved this issue. I've checked several posts over a few different years and the comments are loading for me.
If there is a particular posts (or posts) where you're still seeing the comments not loading, please let us know.
Thanks for your patience! We think this may have been a new bug that hadn't been reported to us yet so we really appreciate everyone pitching in with detailed information so that our engineering team could fix it right away and release the code update.
I’m happy
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Inappropriate?I checked some 2006 and 2007 posts, and had clean loads so far. Looking good right now. Thanks, and thanks to the engineering team.
I’m going to have to get a life...
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