Sigh - TPM's reputation for technical incompetence continues
Why oh why does TPM continue to accept a level of technical competence lower than what so many other sites do?
Why does my login page continually ask me WHICH sTiVo I want to log in as, when only one works? And then hijack me to the edit profile page from which I then have to click "back to original page" and then find the article I wanted to comment about?
And why does this "Create Entry" page have a nice WYSIWIG editor (such as USED TO be seen here for comments) but comments has an inferior "roll your own html" text editor - which I find out today doesn't even work? I tried to surround a two-paragraph quote in blockquote tags and found that only the first was blockquoted. I had to enter another pair of tags for the second paragraph. At least I THINK I had to do that. Maybe just your preview page is broken. But geez, when are you guys going to fix the basics?
And why did my session "time-out" after ten minutes on, just as I pressed save?
Why does my login page continually ask me WHICH sTiVo I want to log in as, when only one works? And then hijack me to the edit profile page from which I then have to click "back to original page" and then find the article I wanted to comment about?
And why does this "Create Entry" page have a nice WYSIWIG editor (such as USED TO be seen here for comments) but comments has an inferior "roll your own html" text editor - which I find out today doesn't even work? I tried to surround a two-paragraph quote in blockquote tags and found that only the first was blockquoted. I had to enter another pair of tags for the second paragraph. At least I THINK I had to do that. Maybe just your preview page is broken. But geez, when are you guys going to fix the basics?
And why did my session "time-out" after ten minutes on, just as I pressed save?
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The original software (back in 2005) was great wasn't it? I have no idea why Josh changed it. I suspect it has something to do with ad revenue because nothing else makes any sense.
May 23, 2009 10:34 AM | Reply | Permalink
Having an editor for comments like the blog editor would be nice as it would encourage more professional looking entries which would enhance the look/feel of the whole site.
May 23, 2009 11:35 AM | Reply | Permalink
I would like to see the ability to look at a persons bio, mentioning how long they have been posting.
In that way I/we can reject every barking dog nipping at us.
Truly focusing on those, who have something to offer or have been around long enough to receive the courtesy or respect of a response?
Not the new batch of hit and run posters, whose objective is to bring TPM down to nothing more than a vulgar, hate filled site, that the rightwing can use to discredit our Home, TPM.
(1 Corinthians 5:6) . . .Do YOU not know that a little leaven ferments the whole lump.
Elevating TPM benefits all of us. If we want to be heard as a force for good.
May 23, 2009 1:10 PM | Reply | Permalink
Why is it that only you seem to be having the timeout problem? Check your browser security and cookie settings for TPM, and if there are any time-limiter rules set. If you use some sort(s) of net security software, check those settings also. Maybe the problem is caused by your ISP provider. I've never seen this problem reported before, which leads me to believe it's not TPM's fault.
When I've looked into to members' log-in conflicts closely, I've always found the problem was initially caused luser-side. Maybe sometime in the past you attempted to create a new sTIVo member account instead of just logging-in to your existing one? Next time you are at your "Edit Profile" page, clear and retype your email (it is a valid address, isn't it?). Then reset your password to something new. Are you storing your TPM password in your browser, or do you use password software? If so, check to see if you have multiple entries for TPM listed.
The blockquote bug is actually quite common on websites that allow that html element to be used in comments. A blank line defaults to a paragraph break. Both blockquote and paragraph are HTML block elements. When you submit or preview your comment, the HTML cleaner comes in, and closes the blockquote before the new paragraph break, because it views nested block elements as an HTML coding error. The work-around is to code in a double line-break for each paragraph:
<br /><br />
and then remove all hard linebreaks (created using the keyboard enter key) from the blockquote.
May 23, 2009 2:34 PM | Reply | Permalink
He is not the only one to experience what he mentions. I wonder if you are the only lucky one...
May 23, 2009 10:17 PM | Reply | Permalink
It isn't so much a factor of luck, but instead of reflexes and intuitive actions acquired from being a geek who has been wired for longer than most. I've looked into many complaints about logging into TPM, and they have always turned out to be caused by user action, although some of the actions are not rel=ally deserving of blame. Are you having timeout problems your log-in becoming invalididated after some period of time? I've not heard of this problem before, and I have tried to help TPM users resolve site problems many times. There is an intermittent bug, that will sometimes show you are not logged-in when a new page loads, but if your hit reload, that bug resolves and the new pageload.
I am willing to help you resolve problems at TPM, gratis, on my time. Post description if the problem(s) here. I'll keep an eye on this thread for updates, at least over the next few days. It might help a great deal if you also note your OS, Browser (including version #), and any security software running on your comp (anti-virus, spyware, internet, etc).
Also, this previous blog post by Rowan Wolf, is an HTML code cheatsheet, that can aid in formatting posts/comments a TPM.
May 24, 2009 2:24 AM | Reply | Permalink
Oh, I forgot. For full user functionality at TPM, a user needs to follow at least one other member. This has been a long-standing sort of bug in Moveable Type codebases.
Pick a user, any user, go to the user's home page, and click on the "Follow Me" link in the profile. If you are uncomfortable having your Follows being public, go to Josh Marshall's TPM user page and follow him. that's about as neutral as you can get.
May 24, 2009 2:37 AM | Reply | Permalink