How’s commenting looking?


A crack team of programmers swept through the commenting code over the last several days, and cleaned up a bunch of stuff of an unspecified nature. Now the real test is in performance: is registration working any better? Let us know here.

Comments

  1. Beth B. says

    Ah ha! I can now sign in for the first time in several weeks!

    (I was initially worried to see zero comments for this entry, but I suppose I am posting my own a mere 5 minutes after it went online…)

  2. PaleGreenPants says

    Well, it still takes about 30 seconds to post a comment, so I say it’s still broke.

  3. Sven DiMilo says

    yeah, MT has worked fine for a while.
    You need to get one of those Googlites to try it. Ron Sullivan is one who comes to mind.

  4. Nerd of Redhead, OM says

    I was able to sign in with TypePad in one try this morning. Didn’t even have to leave a donut offering.

  5. David Marjanović says

    Extremely slow on most threads, not just those with several hundred comments (though of course it’s worst on those).

  6. JackC says

    Fast and painless.

    Does anyone have trouble reading Scienceblogs in general on a Blackberry (specifically a Storm)? This seems to have happened to me relatively recently – and is unrelated to login of course, but I have been waiting for at least a marginal oppoprtunity to bring it up.

    What happens to me is the page comes up initially and if I read fast, I can actually maybe get the gist of one or two topics – then the page refreshes as it completes its load and I get only the top bar and the little swirly thing at the bottom – no text.

    But…. Login is just perfect :D Thanks!

    JC

  7. lose_the_woo says

    I clicked the “sign in” link and it signed me in without needing to enter my username or password.

    I for one, will be very happy if signing in is finally fixed. I’ll wait and see how the rest of the week goes before passing judgment.

  8. SEF says

    The last few times typepad/TypeKey has been working, whereas only a few days ago Sb was still throwing up pages of errors for it – I’d very nearly commented as much on the previous “Warning” thread except that I wasn’t entirely convinced I had a statistically large enough sample of consecutive successes yet.

    I think it was earlier yesterday (UK time, so might be 2 days and the evening for the US) that I noticed on a refresh that they had messed with the formatting of the comment box area again.

    However, it was only just today (UK) that I noticed a thread again displaying the faulty nav-commenters.gif logo instead of correctly recognising and marking the posts of typepad/TypeKey users. So there’s a still a bug in there somewhere. And several of the other login logos haven’t been installed at all.

  9. Alpinist says

    TypePad logged me in on the first try! That has only happened once before and that may have actually been a dream!

  10. Sastra says

    Typepad will still not work for me, and it’s the one I used to use all the time. For the last several months it just gives me an error message and says that the site isn’t registered (??) Moveable Type won’t let me log in as anyone but PZMinion (I tried to re-register and accidentally put a typo in the email: it will never, ever forgive me for this, and holds my nickname hostage.)

    So I am left with Vox, which is okay, except I don’t have a blog, and I hate those stupid red bunny ears next to my name.

  11. ian.k.alexander says

    I can sign in using my Google account, which I must say is a very nice way to do it.

  12. David Marjanović says

    (The ads, of course, have little to do with registration, if anything. They just slow everything down.)

    Comparing comments 12 and 20 makes me smile.

  13. Sven DiMilo says

    I like the fact that the comment box doesn’t even appear until one is signed in. I imagine that this will be a good index of when registration is off.

    I see that Googlites now have a name instead of a Hot Mess, but they have all been assigned the surname Author Profile Page.

    incremental improvement…

  14. Whateverman says

    I’ve been unable to register or comment for a few months now, but things seem to be working. Send those developers a few cases of crackers and some vegemite; code wrangling into the wee hours of the morning builds up an appetite…

  15. Ibis3 says

    Hmm. Well, I hit the ‘sign in’ link and immediately got ‘Thanks for signing in’ and this window. Maybe I was already logged in?

  16. SEF says

    Ditto with the extreme slowness of accepting comments and returning to the updated thread.

    And the incarnation of this thread onto which I’m typing this comment has that nav-commenters.gif again (squashed into the 16×16 space that should hold the TypeKey/typepad one, while other account login types are shown correctly next to the names of posters).

    A few days ago I had a comment which had been accepted, and allocated a number on the left-hand list, not be visible in the thread for hour(s?) (despite repeated refreshes) until after someone else also commented on that thread.

  17. mike.s.young says

    Here is a test of Google. Sign in went ok, just curious what will come up in the username.

  18. cookieacct says

    I was able to sign in using my Google account.

    Previously I could not even see the sign in screen.

  19. charley says

    Suggested future questions: Does everyone here know how to read English? Do you have access to a computer?

  20. physicalist1 says

    Looks rather like the “Author Profile Page” silliness is still there for those of us who sign in using a Google account.

  21. Naked Bunny with a Whip says

    Oh, good. If people can sign in more readily, we won’t have to put up with these tiny, truncated threads anymore. Comment away, everyone!

  22. SEF says

    The “Author Profile Page” alt text (or blank placeholder for a missing image – depending on your browser) is likely to continue being a problem until someone uploads (into the /mt-static/images/comment/ directory) images with the names:

    google_logo.png
    yahoo.png
    aim_logo.png
    wordpress_logo.png

    Or at least that was the situation when last I checked what the HTML source code was expecting to be there. As fixes go, that would be an extremely easy one to do – unless there’s some ridiculous copyright / trademark to resolve before they’re allowed to upload versions of those particular websites’ favicon logos!

  23. Deen says

    It’s the same as before for me. I still can’t sign in with my Blogger URL as an OpenID (although that could possbily be a problem with Blogger). When I used typepad with my Blogger name it didn’t redirect me back to the thread. But when I went back to the thread using the “back” menu, and clicked “sign in” again, it immediately signed me in. So it works for me, for some definition of “works”. But like I said, it always used to do that for me.

  24. Andy Allen says

    Well, Typepad was a bit clunky, but no errors. It’s been working for me for a few weeks now.

    Good to know they didn’t break anything while they were up to their elbows in ScienceBlog’s insides.

  25. pasje says

    WordPress log on doesn’t work either for me.
    First it begins yelling that i need to be logged on, so i go to the wordpress site and log on, than it claims the following:

    WordPress.com

    You do not own that identity.

    While i am in my dashboard of wordpress in another tab of my browser.

  26. SEF says

    Yo, PZ, if I emailed you the logos for google, yahoo and wordpress (probably the blue rather than grey one) would you be able/allowed to upload them?

    I’m not sure which “aim” thing it’s meant to be, so I can’t do that one reliably. But no-one much seems to be using “aim” to login anyway (from the various thread checks I’ve done over the past months).

  27. Menyambal says

    Signed in with TypePad on first try, which is better than usual. But I still have to click sign-in here, wait for new page, click TypePad, wait for new page, click something else of TypePad, then do actual signing in.

    As I have said before, I made a text file with my sign-in data, some HTML code for commenting, and some handy symbols. I just copy-and-paste from that, which makes sign-in a little easier.

  28. louis14 says

    I’ve been a lurker for a year. I’ve never tried to comment as I’ve always been put off by the ongoing problems. Today I have signed up and logged on and posted this … let’s see if it works!

  29. https://www.google.com/accounts/o8/id?id=AItOawko7ZhjX7SorKLMEmWyS7o_BQB3drPVqSk says

    Works fine from my Google account.

  30. drmccoy.de says

    Slightly off-topic:
    Would be great if they would evaluate OpenID’s sreg (Simple Registration) extension. :P

  31. https://www.google.com/accounts/o8/id?id=AItOawko7ZhjX7SorKLMEmWyS7o_BQB3drPVqSk says

    Except my user name is screwed up.

  32. blackjackshellac says

    I can login, but then I don’t think I ever had a problem with that. We’ll see how fast posting goes.

  33. Tronzu says

    It is very slow.

    I think the actual posting is instantaneous, but you don’t see that.

    You only see it when you create a new tab of the page while you wait for the comment to “be posted”.

  34. One Furious Llama says

    Problem is, it has always worked for me…

    I changed my display now, logged out, logged in and it’s still working just fine.

  35. Martin Grondin says

    Registration process was fine. It looks like I am able to comment without a hitch. Pretty easy.

  36. blackjackshellac says

    Posting is very slow, it took 26 seconds to post my comment. And then it complained that I’d posted too quickly but didn’t bother to tell me what a reasonable posting limit was, or to return me to the edit control with my the text of my second comment. How do people have fucking conversations with these types of comments forums, I’m just way to impatient to bother with these things. I wanted threaded conversations like network news days, back in the day.

  37. Kausik Datta says

    Typepad worked after a long time! But I noticed yesterday that after posting a comment, it is taking a really long time. And it is not just at Pharyngula; other Scienceblogs are also similarly afflicted (I checked Orac’s, GrrlScientist’s and Ed Young’s).

  38. One Furious Llama says

    The powers that be might want to have a serious look at their profile update page (MT). Some of the fields don’t pre-populate when you edit and when you view profile it shows an error.

    Oh, but the commenting, that’s still working.

  39. Mel N says

    I created a new MT account and it seemed to go smoothly. Now I can add my snarky comments and not just read!

  40. https://www.google.com/accounts/o8/id?id=AItOawmZU8bjyyzHXwkE-kJ7LjNaM5j7YiKJPHg says

    Wish it accepted google accounts correctly though

  41. www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100000262338852 says

    Let’s see if my name shows up instead of the hash of URL and numbers I’m seeing now…

  42. bcoppola says

    Got in with TypePad for the first time in weeks!

    For you history/archaeology types, let me recommend a good book I’m just finishing up: Europe Between the Oceans by Barry Cunliffe.

    I have Schubin’s (sp?) Your Inner Fish on hold at my library.

    Also, I like Schubin’s classy comment re: the newly discovered early pre-Tiktaalik tetrapod trackway which was basically “Cool! Let’s look for more fossils!”. To me, that’s the scientific outlook in a nutshell.

    I guess that sums up the stuff I wanted to post but couldn’t.

  43. https://www.google.com/accounts/o8/id?id=AItOawlEIi5v7mzdbIuLNUa6X1N9WcVRwgkpW4c says

    I’m a Googler, and I’m in… I think. Let’s see what happens afte I hit the Submit button. :-)

  44. https://www.google.com/accounts/o8/id?id=AItOawlEIi5v7mzdbIuLNUa6X1N9WcVRwgkpW4c says

    Oh, that’s cute. Now you’ll all just have to learn to pronounce my cephalopod ID…

  45. Nerd of Redhead, OM says

    Hmm….If registration is turned on, how can those who are having problems signing in tell us of their problems?

  46. Sastra says

    ennui #76 wrote:

    I use Vox so that I can read Sastra’s blog.

    I have a blog??

    I didn’t know that. But yes, I see now that if I click on my name, it takes me to my blog. There’s nothing to read but instructions, but it is mine.

    What a lovely surprise. I just wanted some way to get on Pharyngula. I think I’ll wait to see if it surprises me with anything else. I must be careful not to post there, then, or it will ruin the experiment.

  47. elasticlogic.myopenid.com says

    Hey PZ! I would just like to inform you that you have atleast one fan in the Middle East. I’m a resident of Dubai and I am an avid reader of Pharyngula.

    Kudos also to the fanbase you’ve built up, because their comments make for some delicious brain food.

    – Rohit Nair ( http://www.thelogicgate.net )

  48. Armand K. says

    I didn’t have any problem signing in for a long, long time. The bug that annoyed me most is still present, as it seems: the disgraceful displaty of OpenID URL instead of name.

    OTOH, it used to take an eternity for page to refresh after hitting “Submit.” I suspect that also wasn’t addressed.

  49. ciphergoth says

    There are no comments at all from people who can’t comment no matter what they try, so, 100% success!

  50. https://www.google.com/accounts/o8/id?id=AItOawnwUDjsdeV8Vq5eVsXgg7ikzp7ZxAUwX4U says

    I am able to log in and comment from my google account. Success!

  51. Citizen Z says

    I am unable to sign in or comment;)

    (Isn’t this the internet equivalent of asking “Is anyone in the back unable to hear me?”)

  52. ikt says

    a crack team of programmers <- Are you 100% sure it's not: a team of programmers on crack? Regardless if they fixed the problems of some people all good.

  53. noam.zur says

    Ever since I found out I can sign in through google I stopped messing about with the other possibilities that weren’t working for me anyway. So – google still rules, all hail the mighty google overlords :P

  54. hznfrst says

    Comments have always worked for me, but they have always been slow to get posted.

    And would somone please tell me what OM means after some of your names??

  55. https://www.google.com/accounts/o8/id?id=AItOawlBtzBnH17TTSEy0GxjoKcp8dGPCuMt0hY says

    Google login working but hate the ridiculous ID string.

    Re #17 and reading from a blackberry: I have had the same problem using Opera on Windows Mobile for the last few months :-(

  56. Ryan F Stello says

    Definitely much better.

    Previously, I had to keep resetting my MoveableType password each day.
    ‘Twas about to submit a bug request yesterday, actually…

  57. maxh says

    Movable Type still dopes not like me. I can’t sign in and if I try to sign up it says I already exist.

    But TypePad seems to work and it never has before! W00t

  58. hyperdeath says

    Hmmm… How do I configure it so that my name links to my own website, rather than some generic Typepad user page?

  59. Tark says

    I can haz commentzez?

    Typepad seems okay, or it could just be the matrix…

    I do smell the bacon however, so I must be it.

    Tax Religion.
    Tark

  60. Brownian, OM says

    I have a blog??

    Zounds! I apparently have a Vox blog too, but the last entry is from 2006 apologising for the lack of recent entries.

    One day I’ll get around to cleaning up the detritus I’ve been leaving all over everybody’s nice clean internets, I promise.

  61. Brownian, OM says

    And would somone please tell me what OM means after some of your names??

    hznfrst, those are the winners of the monthly Molly awards. The OM stands for Order of the Molly, and the name is in honour of the late, irascible Molly Ivins.

    Here’s a list of all the intelligent, thoughtful individuals (and one smartass) who have been awarded Mollies.

  62. ElectricBarbarella says

    AHA! EB is back… ahh sigh, I was growing fond of my GothicGyrl.

    Movable type is still wonky, but type pad signed me right in with no problems. At least I know I have Livejournal to fall back on in case it goes wonky again.

  63. v.rosenzweig says

    Does Movable Type have a sysadmin?

    I tried registering, with a username that I had unsuccessfully tried registering a few weeks ago. It tells me that the account is disabled (presumably because the registration emails never got through), and that I should contact my system administrator for access.

    Or should I just pick a new username and hope I’ll remember it? (There are a few that I like but that are often taken by other people, including my initials–old Unix habit–and then there’s this one, an account name from college that nobody else ever wants.)

  64. Sastra says

    https://www.google.com/accounts/o8/id?id=AItOawlBtzBnH17TTSEy0GxjoKcp8dGPCuMt0hY Author Profile Page #109 wrote:

    Google login working but hate the ridiculous ID string.

    Yes, https://www.google.com/accounts/o8/id?id=AItOawlBtzBnH17TTSEy0GxjoKcp8dGPCuMt0hY Author Profile Page — I can see the problem. Calling you ‘https’ probably won’t help, because there are too many of you https.

    Until and unless this gets fixed, I’d like to suggest that google people routinely preface their comments with their preferred nick.

    Which probably won’t look anything like https://www.google.com/accounts/o8/id?id=AItOawlBtzBnH17TTSEy0GxjoKcp8dGPCuMt0hY Author Profile Page.

  65. Killer Bud says

    I have tried to sign up with no success in the past. I was able to confirm my registration and can now post as a official registered poster. Seems to be working on my end finally.
    Cheers,
    KB

  66. One Furious Llama says

    Hmm, it just occurred to me that fixing the comment system was not *necessarily* a good thing… This blog hasn’t exactly suffered from a *lack* of comments, ever.

    Still seems to be working though. Nice.

  67. https://www.google.com/accounts/o8/id?id=AItOawkUZsI8TvQZsSngwu3zBp76TM6_xKZ5YCE says

    testing from google, account name still looks $DEITYawful in preview

  68. Happy Tentacles says

    It’s been working much better for the past couple of weeks. Long may it stay that way!

  69. Owlmirror says

    Or should I just pick a new username and hope I’ll remember it? (There are a few that I like but that are often taken by other people, including my initials–old Unix habit–and then there’s this one, an account name from college that nobody else ever wants.)

    I recommend doing this. I created a new MT login, using a literal throwaway e-mail (a mailinator.com string), then changed the account profile to what I wanted, and it worked just fine.

  70. SEF says

    @ Sastra #122:

    The “Author Profile Page” bit is not attached to the rest of the junk URL version of an account name. It’s generated at your end by your browser from the ALT text specified with the google logo image name – because the google logo image file is missing from the ScienceBlogs directory! Not everyone’s browser shows the ALT text in lieu of a missing image. Some just show a missing image placeholder, eg a blank square or a box with a cross in it.

    However, under the current difficulties, it would still be a good idea for people who are stuck with long “random” URL’s instead of their usual nickname to open or close their posts with a nickname signature. I’m normally anti such sign-offs on websites which work properly, but this one unfortunately doesn’t work properly at the moment.

  71. aratina cage says

    The only change I have noticed as a Movable Type user is that the comment text box is hidden until I click “Sign in to comment.” and then I am signed in automatically and the text box appears.

    v.rozenweig #120,

    I tried registering, with a username that I had unsuccessfully tried registering a few weeks ago. It tells me that the account is disabled (presumably because the registration emails never got through), and that I should contact my system administrator for access.

    Or should I just pick a new username and hope I’ll remember it?

    After you register with Movable Type or TypePad, you can later change your screen name to almost anything you want. So presumably you could create a new commenter account and ditch the old one but still use your old screen name when commenting at Pharyngula.

    hyperdeath #112,

    Hmmm… How do I configure it so that my name links to my own website, rather than some generic Typepad user page?

    TypePad users can only put a link to their website on their generic TypePad user page (as you have done). Only Movable Type users seem to be able to make their screen names link directly to websites of their choosing.

  72. Deiloh says

    !@#$#@ oh hey, it works!!

    I’m not going to hold my breath, I’ve been burned so many times… burned I tell ya, burned!!

    I promise not to be this annoying in the future… maybe.

  73. nigelTheBold says

    Huzzah! I am nigelTheBold. No Perl errors. No refusal to allow me to sign in because I didn’t share my email address (the option to do so was not presented).

  74. pray11342 says

    Signed in. Lets see if I can post?

    For me typepad has always worked.

    However, it is not what a newbie would expect.

    If I try and sign in using the USERNAME I have at Typepad, I get nothing but grief.

    If I put my email address that I registered at Typepad in the USERNAME field, it logs me in first time, very time.

    And it displays the USERNAME from Typepad in the comments window and in the post. Never displays my email address.

    Still working.

  75. https://www.google.com/accounts/o8/id?id=AItOawlsjzdZ72Xv6OaHm401ZcXCNYx7u-fduUQ says

    Yes it works………Maybe computer code is a science after all

  76. https://www.google.com/accounts/o8/id?id=AItOawlsjzdZ72Xv6OaHm401ZcXCNYx7u-fduUQ says

    I am not to happy with my user name tho.

  77. kaessa.com says

    Still can’t sign in with Movable Type (won’t send the authentication email), or Typepad (gives me an error message when I try to sign in), and OpenID still displays my blog URL and not my user name.

    So.. yeah, I can sign in, but no, it’s not working any better for me.

  78. deriamis says

    @140: I think if you fill in your Google Accounts profile, that username thingy might clear up.

  79. John Harshman says

    Coincidentally, by some conservation law I had not previously been familiar with, commenting on Panda’s Thumb is now broken; attempting to comment on any of the last three posts (Uncia uncia, for example) leads to a “500 server error”.

  80. Paul W. says

    One thing I like is that it doesn’t give you a box to type text into until you’re logged in.

    Sometimes I used to type a comment and try to post it without thinking, then get thrown to the login thing, and once I logged in my text had disappeared. (AARGH!)

    That might have been a bad interaction with how my browser’s set up—I never sorted it out—but it’s nice that it doesn’t seem to be setting me up to fail in that way.

    It has seemed a little slow to actually process the post, but I haven’t been sure if that’s the site or my connection or what.

  81. https://me.yahoo.com/a/JGJsEuBur8mDz.13cjDeNqUYeIyFRNjiZd5N#63ec7 says

    Ok

    * login with google or yahoo works

    * it still gives awful userids

    * actually posting a comment still takes a bloody eternity

  82. Janine, Mistress Of Foul Mouth Abuse, OM says

    For all of the people who have commented on how long it takes to post, the messages are posted on the blog pretty much instantaneously. I just takes awhile for your end to go through it’s motions. It took so long for me to get back onto the blog, I usually would have Pharyngula on two tabs, that way I could get back to the blog. My latest statement usually popped up when I refreshed while that page was processing.

  83. keinsignal says

    OK I logged on with my Google account which was working before but showing up all screwy (some annoying boilerplate link text was showing up).

    So I previewed, looked OK, hit “submit” and got

    An error occurred
    close [Mon Jan 11 13:37:04 2010] MT.pm: Can’t call method “remove” on an undefined value

    Trying again w/out previewing now.

  84. timothy.green.name says

    Oddly, my OpenID login doesn’t work on some sites (notably StackOverflow), but it’s never caused me any problems here.

    However, my OpenID is set up to provide a nickname to the site, but Scienceblogs insists on publishing my OpenID itself, and not my nickname. Can that be fixed?

    TRiG.

  85. https://me.yahoo.com/a/NjpAsp0pj.R6xUs6AwI0z3sPNPdMSRU-#e7837 says

    Signed in with Yahoo…

    Steve_C

    the ID sucks though.

  86. eddie says

    Weird. i don’t see any link to sign in. Maybe that’s due to my mobile bro…

    Fuck me sideways! I got as far as the above after putting in my name and email. Suddenly the page refreshed and I’m now logged in. Good. Fast. Surprising.

  87. keinsignal says

    and that apparently worked. Although it did take me to the Preview page even when I hit submit which I’m guessing is a feature?

  88. eddie says

    re Paul W @153;
    That’s what it gave me yesterday but simply clicking the link signed me in straight away. Today I got the boxes for name, email, url and comment but, after doing the first two and some of my comment…

  89. truthspeaker says

    I am able to sign in with Typepad for the first time in weeks.

    truthspeaker aka balloonguy

  90. triskelethecat says

    Well, this is a test, using my google account. Of course, now things will come up with that email instead of my name. Oh well. I’m still me. And this is the first time in weeks I’ve been able to comment on Pharyngula from work (most of the sign-in sites are blocked by IT).

  91. Mike in Ontario, NY says

    Trying with moveable type. Historically, I can post, but it takes 30-180 seconds. Let’s see…

  92. plien says

    I haven’t had any problems with MT since i joined last week from being a lurker for some time.

    Only those google/yahoo http users are highly annoying. Why do some have a nick and others a ridiculusly long url? Could those with the url please type their nicks, it helps in threads.
    Thank you

  93. Mike in Ontario, NY says

    Yup, it took 45 seconds. Acceptable for my needs, but no detectable improvement.

  94. blf says

    The last two times I had to login (using Typo Pathetic), it has not given me a screenful of gobbledygook-error, but has instead simply worked. This is highly unusual, and hopefully now routine.

    The “login” seems to persist for 2–3 days, albeit each time I (re-)start the browser (FireFox 3.5 on Linux) I have to click the link. Bingo, I’m auto-logged-in, and it seems to stay that way (until the browser is shutdown). But after 2–3 days, I have to actually log in again. (I’m not using the “remember me” (or whatever it’s labelled) thingie in Typo Pathetic). This all Ok, albeit the 2–3 day apparent timeout strikes me as a bit long? (I don’t know if my dynamic IP-address changes or not?)

    I routinely moan at/about the SciBorg’s seemingly non-existent IT staff, but this time I’ll congratulate them: Things seem to have improved! Thanks…

  95. krc [clowersnet.net] says

    Hmmm, seems a little faster. Everything seems to be working, but then, I never had any problems.

  96. SEF says

    Well some people here are definitely managing to get Google logins (by their own reporting and by Sb’s assignment of logo image – albeit that the actual file is then missing!) which display a nickname rather than a ridiculously long URL.

    So it looks as though they’ve managed to do some sort of account setup (perhaps via Google itself rather than via the ScienceBlogs sign-in page) which the others haven’t done.

    We also have a genuine Yahoo user (complete with silly URL) for which Sb wants to display favicon_yahoo.png (ie a different filename than I previously noted from source pages – but still missing!).

  97. Louis says

    Well I can’t sign in via any means, let alone Moveable Type. I haven’t made any comments, including this one. In fact this has been the case for weeks.

    I see this as yet another attempt by the atheist, materialist, darwinist hegemony to suppress atheist, materialist darwinists like myself from commenting.

    {shakes fist}

    DAMN YOU! DAMN YOU ALL!

    No I haven’t been drinking…much…why do you ask?

    {sound of beer opening}

    Louis

  98. richard.brockie says

    The submit took around 20 seconds. One annoying thing is the the “Home” and “End” keys don’t work in the text field making editing the text using keyboard input klunky…

  99. mothra says

    I was able to sign up via VOX, but not with movable type or typekey. Google just leave googldy goo across the signature line.

  100. SEF says

    Of the current “Author Profile Page” people (I’m typing after comment #174):

    • wordpress_logo.png is needed for startlingmoniker, edivimo (with other apparent wordpress people actually using MT or OpenID to get in).

    • google_logo.png is needed for rlrrlrll, ian.k.alexander, mike.s.young, cookieacct, physicalist1, mikelatiolais, lorenzo.benito, residualecho, george.wiman, brunovs, noam.zur, v.rosenzweig, piratebard, petrander, deriamis, keinsignal, npmott, triskelethecat (and some people who haven’t yet sorted out their nicknames – who perhaps should ask the ones who have!).

    • favicon_yahoo.png is needed for the person who would be Steve_C (but other supposed yahoo people are really using OpenID to get in).

  101. 'Tis Himself, OM says

    Sign in has been better the past couple of days. However load times for comments are still incredibly long.

  102. https://openid.org/cujo359 says

    I’m going to guess that my OpenID URL will show up here, rather than my user name. Unlike some earlier commenters, I use the openid.org site. I doubt that will make things any better, but you never know.

    Yes, the URL shows up in the preview.

  103. https://openid.org/cujo359 says

    (Re: my #186)

    And yes, the URL is what shows up in the finished comment. Everything that was broke for me is still broke.

  104. richardrob.pip.verisignlabs.com says

    Agreed. OpenID sign in needs to request a user-name and so forth from the authenticating server. I’m not sure how keen I am to show everyone my my URL.

  105. Strangest brew says

    For a first time in like forever…I have not had to re-register every time I return after I leave the blog for more then an hour.

    I have decided not to wake up the gremlins that be, and do not sign out.
    This tactic never worked in the past, but hopes were always high, and always crushed.

    Seems that now it does, still not going to sign out though….just in case!

  106. Orion Silvertree says

    I’ve been lurking as a non-registered reader of Pharyngula for about a year now. I just signed up for an account, and the registration process went flawlessly. Quick and easy!

  107. trog69 says

    Finally, I’ve arrived! Just put the luggage over there; That’s a good lad. When’s happy hour?

  108. gilraenthecat#916d1 says

    Oh, my [non-existent] god! It worked.

    From Yahoo.

    Let’s hope it works again tomorrow.

  109. Benny the Icepick says

    For the first time in months, I have a voice!

    Moveable Type doesn’t send confirmation emails. Yahoo and Google mangle my name. TypePad seems to be the only one that works.

  110. spanner says

    Typepad worked for me. It has worked before, then not worked, but I mostly lurk anyway. I can’t keep up with you pheople ;-)
    So, here’s data, at least.

  111. https://me.yahoo.com/a/CoxkKJE0ro_mSac3sNN0spZuE9c7BxOsLw--#9ee78 says

    Trying my OpenID from Yahoo…

  112. https://me.yahoo.com/a/CoxkKJE0ro_mSac3sNN0spZuE9c7BxOsLw--#9ee78 says

    Well, other than the fact that the “Posted by:” doesn’t look anything like my name, I can log in and post, and the posts pop up pretty quick.

  113. speedweasel says

    Now the real test is in performance:

    They’re testing it on us, now, in a production environment? Haven’t these people heard of Release Management?

    Fuck it, lets just hope it works.

  114. https://www.google.com/accounts/o8/id?id=AItOawntDHl8YCS5exhZOAlQ2yoPEqqAyXNywpg says

    google login works but my alias at google doesn’t work

  115. speedweasel says

    ps. I’ll tell you what they haven’t fixed. That horrible 60 second lag when you hit Submit

  116. keeperofthepies#bd89a says

    As others have said, the Openid is kinda bugged it seems. Other than that, it’s working well.

  117. triskelethecat says

    Weird. Google (or, gmail, to be exact), signs in with my address, not the weird google address (http etc) that a lot of others are having trouble with. Wonder why? Used IE6 at work and Firefox (mac version) at home.

  118. ElectricBarbarella says

    Well… I just tried experimenting. I had signed in via typepad and posted above, then logged out and left the page entirely.

    When I just came back to it, I had to click on the sign in again and immediately the comment box opened up *without* redirecting to the typepad sign in page first. So that’s a good thing I guess.

    Oh and put me down as another who registered on moveable type and never received the confirmation email after asking for it several times.

  119. Gembird says

    …I’m here. I’m posting. Yes, the new system is working! I used Moveable Type.

    This is the first time I’ve been able to post EVER so hi, long time lurker here.

  120. Queequeg says

    Yup, it works! It does take ages to go through, but that’s much better than incomprehensible error messages :)

  121. qbsmd says

    Was anyone else amused by the sampling bias in the question? It’s almost like asking who here has internet access.

  122. chrisadamconnor says

    Was anyone else amused by the sampling bias in the question? It’s almost like asking who here has internet access.

    Well, given than the fact that there are a ton of people on this thread saying “I couldn’t get in before, but now I can” it seems like your analogy is pretty piss-poor.

  123. Frank Lovell says

    Sign-in is working GREAT, took me only a one-click 3 seconds just now (though I am one who has never found sign-in to be much of a problem). — Frank

  124. ded.reckoning says

    Another long time lurker here. As long as there’s a thread for testing posts, I figure it’s time to actually sign up someplace so I can comment…

  125. https://www.google.com/accounts/o8/id?id=AItOawnuObLX6yuJoXu_rZIZFmWBo9fQIEjZFb0 says

    Never posted before. Testing from google account.

  126. eddie says

    Now on my laptop, using firefox, and it gave no comment box until I clicked the ‘sign in’ link. I then went to MT and then tyoePad and back with no errors.

    Now I can’t think of anything to say :-(

  127. SplendidMonkey says

    My thought bubble is saying “Did the doorbell ring? Should I run now, or push the button again?”

  128. physicschick says

    Hi, this is my first time signing in and leaving a comment. Let’s see if it works.

  129. Krubozumo Nyankoye says

    It worked! At first there I thought it was a little like that “let me know if you don’t get this email”.

    Cheers,

  130. omnipasje says

    Ok.. did some more checking..

    Typepad – OK
    Livejournal – OK
    Yahoo – OK
    Google – OK

    WordPress – Fail :(

  131. arakrys says

    Testing google login.

    By the way “cleaned up a bunch of stuff of an unspecified nature”. You’re just like a former employer who’s bug reports often read “Arakrys, I’m seeing spaghetti code. Fix it!”
    (He actually meant some html popping up)

  132. arakrys says

    OK so after a heap of seconds it worked! Yeea!
    (but I sometimes managed to get through before)

    Just wonder why my name is lowercased and followed by ‘Author Profile Page’.

  133. Hairy Doctor Professor says

    I haven’t commented in months because of all the issues, but Typepad still remembered me and let me log in without any problems.

  134. 386sx for a hundred, Alex!! says

    Actually, it still takes a few seconds for the comment to “submit”. Bah I don’t notice much difference.

  135. ZeroKant20 says

    Just registered and signed in no problem from my iPhone. Also, first post here woohoo!

  136. SEF says

    @ arakrys #254:

    Just wonder why my name is lowercased and followed by ‘Author Profile Page’.

    Lower-case seems to be a feature of all the nicknames of Google accounts checked so far (see post #183) where people had managed to set a nickname at all. It looks to be systematic (but it’s unclear which end forces it). It may also apply the other newly imported account types. (TypeKey/typepad being older and MovableType being the “native” selection for ScienceBlogs.)

    The “Author Profile Page” bit is being displayed by your browser from the ALT text of the logo image for your account type, because the image file itself is missing from the ScienceBlogs directory. Other people see a place-holder box on their browsers instead of the text.

  137. tyronomo says

    Logged in fine via my Google account (using Chrome).
    Some of images for the login options did not show, but other than that. No Issue. Not that I have really had issues in the past… not that I post a lot anywhoo…

  138. komokda says

    So, yeah, Epic Fail that resulted in a little info:

    1) Your name is $RANDOM_STRING because you need to fill out a little info in your google profile (as others have pointed out). You can access that through the Settings.

    2) $RANDOM_STRING or your email address username seem to be the only two choices with Google. Even changing my Nickname to what I normally use for commenting didnt change anything – even though Google says “visible to the public as $NICKNAME”. Lame, but not ScienceBorgs fault.

    3) The “Author Profile Page” is, as others have suggested, a missing image. Nothing we (users) can do it seems.

  139. Legion says

    OK, works fine except for the ugly drop shadows on the headline font. Were there always headlines and we just never saw them before or are they new?

    If it’s the latter, go back to the regular font, sans drop shadow.

  140. efrique says

    Sign-in via google.

    Some minor oddness, not obviously better or worse so far, still working.

  141. Sven DiMilo says

    Testing, firefox in snow leopard.

    That is unnatural and *clutches pearls* indecent. For shame.

    It just occurred to me that I am commenting on a blogpost about commenting on blogposts.

    gotta get a life

  142. Carlie says

    Legion – I never noticed the shadowed font until the last Firefox upgrade.

    My login on Moveable type is fine, so I haven’t tried typepad. Using the latest Firefox in Windows 7. Submission still takes a long time, though. I do like that now there isn’t a fakeout comment box that mocks me when I fill it in, then it turns out I’m not signed in yet and it disappears.

  143. webriggs says

    It wasn’t obvious, but I’m trying this with Google, and it looks like it’s going to work.

  144. devnull73.myopenid.com says

    works for me. but it did before, so its more like “hasnt been broken for me”.

  145. Kamaka says

    Twice in a row…I guess that means I’m optimistic this works.

    Typepad has been terrible for me, maybe one out of ten tries have I gotten in.

    Perhaps I’ll post a bit more often again.

  146. mythusmage says

    How’s commenting looking?

    As disorganized, off topic and unfocused as ever.

    Pharyngulites, the 1st graders of the commenting world.

  147. https://www.google.com/accounts/o8/id?id=AItOawmRjbXoDgCq4N0aNWT2Z2RtB4Mm9CbDVys says

    Now how do I get a user name that doesn’t contain the whole alphabet? Can’t find it on the google sign in.

  148. coralline.oz says

    (normally I use a different authentication method) Trying the google sign-in, just to see what all the fuss is about.

  149. blacksteel42 says

    Just tried to create a profile in movable type from the sign in page. It never sends the verification email. Same thing happened last time. Google login works OK.

  150. Emmet, OM says

    Thus spake Brownian,OM:

    Here’s a list of all the intelligent, thoughtful individuals (and one smartass) who have been awarded Mollies.

    I know I haven’t been around for a while, but singling me out like that is uncalled for!

    :P

  151. https://me.yahoo.com/a/SaqGVG0xvJEQVwURVamS3DTCdvov0BLhXK1jOsYPPJQ-#b4893 says

    Ya know, you spend years and years formulating a really clever user ID, like MikeM, and it gets replaced… With what?

    I’m pretty sure I can’t pronounce that.

  152. dave.linkston says

    I haven’t tried signing previously, with so many complaints I didn’t bother.

    Using google it works

  153. Rebelest says

    Typepad worx for me for teh first time in months!

    Pats on the back to the SciBlog programming geeks!

  154. https://www.google.com/accounts/o8/id?id=AItOawncr0FDc8gdl7yJBz0SJ15D0etcTIOtL0s says

    Google still calls me unpronounceable names, but hey. If I ever get the time and patience to squirm through to the Preferences hole, maybe I’ll be able change that. Meanwhile, well, I sneeze a lot. Maybe that’s how it’s spelled.

    Ron Sullivan
    http://toad.faultline.org

  155. Sven DiMilo says

    Status bar sez:

    Waiting for researchblogging.org

    for about a month.
    “Why?” one wonders.

  156. idlemind says

    Typepad remembers me from yesterday. Wonder if logging in using Google no longer puts up a blast of ugly?

  157. Atheist Chaplain says

    The obvious problem here is that those unable to sign in will be unable to comment.

  158. https://www.google.com/accounts/o8/id?id=AItOawmzM-iiHkSGaGEZp2kujAPKeSFWr7JQjVQ says

    Excellent – piece of the proverbial. :-)

  159. blacksteel42 says

    A few hours later and still no movable type new user verification email from the register page.

    I am on the bottom of the world (NZ) but it shouldn’t take this long.

  160. smellyoldgit says

    Hello.
    Cursors don’t show up in the log-in boxes.
    Praise the FSM if comment shows.

  161. Occam's Machete says

    I tried replying yesterday, but Movable Type turned into Carol Beer.

    ‘Computer says no…’

    Today it reverted to business as usual: I can log in and comment, but only after going through the password reset routine.

    MT has never once recognised my username and password. I reset it to the same password every time, and every time I try to log in it has amnesia and I have to reset.

  162. maddogdelta says

    Last step in the test.

    For the first time I was able to create an account and log in…

    Now let’s see if it works for the comment…

  163. triskelethecat says

    Woo hoo! It remembered me from work yesterday (back at work and using IE6). No problems with firefox in snow leopard at home (sorry, Sven…you can go back to your fainting couch with your pearls. I’ll bring you some smelling salts, poor dear).

  164. Strangest brew says

    Type pad works here all fine and dandy…three times in a row…some record!…no where else though…sigh!

  165. DLC says

    I’m already registered, and on my pc the process to sign in includes just clicking a link.
    (yeah, I’m lazy, I let anybody dump cookies on my PC)

  166. https://www.google.com/accounts/o8/id?id=AItOawkh3PQt4Bv67D-HaQtp_J7eZ0IUS08o-4Y says

    Test, Google account works for me as well. Did not try it before, so not sure if anything improved.

  167. ElectricBarbarella says

    Ahh very good. It is now the next day and I just tried to comment –so far, working very well. All I had to do was click the “sign in” button and type-pad automatically logged me in without redirect or anything (again).

    So, so far, it does appear to be working quite nicely for type-pad and livejournal.

    So let this be a record that Electricbarbarella is GothicGyrl (and vicey versus) should anything ever happen.

    ~~Toni

  168. pjvloon says

    MT still won’t send me confirmation e-mail; TP sent me a link to reset my password but following that link give a “page not found” error (lovely); now trying Gmail but I’m not sure how to get my nick back.

  169. https://www.google.com/accounts/o8/id?id=AItOawkdk7Db1qx2KhoffR_x7XpUn-vlwKkCnAg says

    Oh boy, but I have this silly-looking code for ID.

  170. https://www.google.com/accounts/o8/id?id=AItOawl3TpOVyxxwCT5cVU3M80c_cpxoMBZmiOQ says

    Well… only thing that sucks is that the user-name gets screwed up when the login method is “Google”

  171. glowball says

    Typepad still works, yay. Never could get Moveable Type to cooperate. Won’t mess with it again, don’t need to proliferate unusable usernames. :)

  172. nicholas.laux says

    Seems to be working. But this seems like a bit of a self-fulfilling prophecy. If it wasn’t working, it’s not like someone could leave a comment saying as such.

  173. cuco3 says

    Seems to work OK using my LJ name, which it didn’t use to, (at least not consistently). It’s a different name than I’ve been posting under previously, but at least it cuts the proliferation of identities.

  174. susan.cogan says

    if this comment makes it, it’s the first one I’ve been able to post in more than a year.

  175. Left Handed Atheist says

    Finally, success!

    Not able to log in using WordPress, though I have used it elsewhere. Tried 3 times this morning to set up a user name through Movable Type, but they never sent the promised e-mail to complete the process. Type Pad, however, is a winner.

    Cheers.

  176. Peter Magellan says

    4 seconds from clicking the “Sign in” link to getting the login fields; another 5 or 6 to get to the comment box and the “Thanks for signing in” message. Seems fair enough to me, given my knackered old PC and BT “up to 8 megabits (but all you’ll ever get is 1.2, sucker!)” connection…

  177. Peter Magellan says

    … and just over a minute for the post to appear after I clicked the “submit” button. Not quite so good.

  178. SmilingSkeptic says

    Ah yes. Took about 30-40 seconds for it to complete the post, but slow response is SO much better than silence and error messages! Maybe I can ease up the exclamation points!

  179. https://www.nostrum.com/cid/identity/pck says

    When logging in via OpenID I have to login in twice because when I return from the login process the first time it still “sign in” where comments should be, but when I do it again exactly the same way it works the second time.

  180. spaninquis says

    I don’t know why it put my login name and “AUTHOR PROFILE PAGE” there. Seems a bit redundant.

  181. Leigh Williams says

    One odd glitch: I signed in with Typepad on the “Oh, God, we are afflicted” thread, yet still had to fill in my name and email. No errors.

    I come here to this thread, and I’m already signed in with Typepad.

    Now, I haven’t had any problems with Typepad for several weeks (other than going through 4 or 5 screens). So, I dunno.

  182. bignose.pip.verisignlabs.com says

    I’m able to sign in using OpenID, but the resulting displayed identity is wrong: it’s incorrectly using the transient identifier that is only valid for a single session. It should be displaying the “claimed identity” (the persistent identity I use when requested to sign in).

  183. ihedenius says

    I never had a problem logging in. I just click ‘sign in’, click Opera magic wand -> in.
    Maigc wand obviously is the ‘remember password’ feature.

  184. SEF says

    I was noticing the remaining registration icons appearing too. Amusingly, they haven’t got them quite right (eg for transparency) and they haven’t been consistent with the sign-in page choices. So emailing up-to-date properly transparent PNGs to PZ hasn’t helped after all.

  185. SEF says

    Another day of consecutive sign-in success.

    The person + speech bubble default icon does still keep replacing the TypeKey/typepad one though.

    While, obviously, one wouldn’t see the people who still can’t sign in and comment(!), there are definitely more and different names signing in and posting with the various account types (apart from AIM). Which suggests it’s working better for quite a lot of people.

  186. SEF says

    I’ve been (reluctantly) investigating Yahoo – since I do have a Yahoo account via Flickr and it still seems to be making a mess of most people’s ID’s.

    • The Yahoo setup pages are a mess. They behave really badly, not just counter-intuitively.

    • Yahoo’s default settings policy seems to be to expose the user (account holder) to as much danger as possible.

    • The nickname field, which you get to set on what looks to be the closest thing to the original profile settings page, is not used here! How utterly pointless.

    • The Account Info page shows some of what you’ve set and has links to other things to set but some of those bomb you out of Yahoo when you go through them instead of taking you back to that menu page. Bad form, Yahoo.

    • A Yahoo account can have up to 6 aliases which act something like nicknames for message boards. Contrary to some wibblings I found on the internet, these don’t appear to have their own profile settings or choices over what account information is visible/shared. They can somehow be made to pass email onto your main account email but also allow people to track you down! However, you’ll still want one for here.

    • The yahoo account must first be enabled for openID use. What you get when you try to do that is a list of possible IDs you can activate (checkboxes not radio buttons so you can do more than one). The first is the long URL junk string with which most people have turned up here. The second is your real Yahoo account ID – which it advises you not to pick because it’s dangerous! After that come any aliases you’ve already set up.

    • When you then try to sign-in on ScienceBlogs using the Yahoo method, you get another chance to activate openID but the button above that leads you to the choice of your pre-activated ones. Again the first will be the messy random junk one. But you’ll also be offered your preset aliases – with only a small amount of hexadecimal junk tacked onto the end of each.

    • There’s no need for people to be so doubtful about how their post is going to appear here – because the way it greets you back at ScienceBlogs (above the comment entry box at the bottom of the thread) already shows you the mess it’s planning to use.

  187. SEF says

    Then can you tell the other google users (back in #57/61, #77, #83/85, #100, #109, #125, #129, #140/3, #149, #204, #216, #240, #293/5, #316, #322, #340, #347, #350) what they need to do to get a sensible display name?

    Is it simply that they haven’t set up their google profile at all? Or is it, as with Yahoo, an issue of the normal account profile information not being used?!

    Judging from #154/6, the same sort of Yahoo problem shows up when those people are actually signing in via the OpenID option.