A Note to the Main MuNuvian.
Dear Oberhaupt MuNuvian,
Permit me a wee grouse.
First, let me express my admiration for anyone who understands cyber things well enough to pilot contraptions like servers and such. I wouldn’t know an SQL from a style sheet. Still, I, like many, if not most, of us techno-stoopids, can’t understand why computers can’t do exactly what we want when we want. This is why many Geeks lose patience with us and why many tech support peeps run high bar tabs.
Here is my wee grouse.
Many of my pals are MuNuvians. Because they are such good writers, they often inspire me to leave a comment. You know how that works. You read a good post, and instantly a witty, interesting and engaging comment comes to mind. You write the comment and sometimes even buff it up a bit to get a nice gloss on it. When you think you’ve got it right, you click “submit†or “post†(whatever). Only THEN, do you learn that Mu.Nu is being spammed and comments are not being accepted, and, what’s worse, your comment is forever lost.
Believe you me, I understand the evil that is spam, and I understand that sometimes you just must shut stuff down in order to deal with it. However, it sure would make me a much happier camper to know that comments are shut down before I take the time to compose a Pulitzer Prize caliber comment. Or, tell me that comments are not being accepted but not vaporize my comment, thereby permitting me to save my unquestionable work of literary art for later transmission. Know what I mean?
Then again, I realize that, in the big picture, a lost comment is about as important as a pimple on a flea’s heiney, and that what I would like might be instantly recognized by the cyber-cognoscenti as impossible, but thanks anyway for listening.
Sincerely,
Jimbo, the Techno-Humble Cyber Supplicant
YES!
fluffy the spam hound or some such…drives me to drink. actually, i was just looking for an excuse to drink. damn spam! cheers!
Comment by shoe — January 30, 2007 @ 8:27 pm
If it’s a really witty, well-thought out reply, try selecting & copying it just before you hit submit, then it’s still “there” and you can just right-click and “paste” it in again if it boots you out or the spam bots eat it.
Pain in the ass?
Yep.
Just like having to click the “Permalink” on any mu.nu sites to have it “remember” you.
Comment by Lisa W. — January 30, 2007 @ 9:13 pm
well, not all MuNu sites. Some have actually fixed that particular glitch. Like mine.
There are some changes coming to MuNuvians that should help with the Fluffy issue. Hopefully soon.
Believe me, shoe ain’t the only one pissed off.
Comment by caltechgirl — January 30, 2007 @ 10:07 pm
I have found that the best way to do comments on munu is the hit the “permalink” instead of the “comment” button on the post. This brings up the entire post on its own page with the comment box at the bottom. Type in your comment, hit send… if you get the “we’re dying of spam” message… hit the “back” button on your browser. Viola! message is still there – wait about 10-20 seconds and try submitting it again.
I seem to have more problems on the comment pop-up boxes (which have no back button to save your comment) than on the comment box in the permalink. When I use the permalink I seldom (not never but seldom) get that annoying spam message.
For those who don’t show a comment box on the permalink… I have no words of help. As CTG says – we’re moving too a new bloggy system very soon – I intend to be a beta tester so I can get rid of the buggy Movable Type.
Comment by Teresa — January 30, 2007 @ 10:36 pm
… I am terribly sorry, sir…..
Comment by Eric — January 31, 2007 @ 8:01 am
Hey Jim,
This may or may not work for pop-up comment boxes, depending on a variety of factors, but in general you can press ALT + LEFT ARROW (at the same time) to move backwards in a web page, even if the back button is not visible. You might be able to get back to your message text that way, and in general it can save time if you are (like me) too lazy to move the mouse to the back arrow.
N.B. Pressing ALT + RIGHT ARROW moves you forward in your browsing, a la the forward browser button.
Comment by Auskunft — January 31, 2007 @ 8:18 am
Oh how I can relate to this!!
Comment by Richmond — January 31, 2007 @ 3:55 pm
That is one of the biggest pissers-me-off-ers, ever.
Funny you should write about it (quite eloquently) on the day that I was damned near close to smacking my monitor with an iron frying pan after my witty comment on some Tennessee Stud’s blog (I won’t name names) was vacuumed up into Fluffy’s anal corridor…relegated to the great cyber pile of dog doodie, forever.
You speak for all of us.
Comment by Erica — January 31, 2007 @ 9:31 pm
I, too, have taken to using the Permalink page to leave my comments on Munuvian blogs. Pain in the ass? Not near as much as having to be logged in to leave comments on Blogger.
Me, I vote for Haloscan.
Comment by Elisson — February 1, 2007 @ 12:26 am
No shit!
Comment by Velociman — February 2, 2007 @ 9:49 pm
Before hitting post:
CTRL+A
CTRL+C
Now if it gets lost, you can still paste it in again once you open up a new comment window.
Comment by Harvey — February 5, 2007 @ 10:30 am