New Site Bugs?

Rather than spamming every comment thread with issues, list any other issues here and we'll see what we can do. 

I’ve had a couple readers complain that the Commenting form is no longer saving their name and email address. I can’t replicate the bug, having tried it on multiple browsers and my phone as an unlogged-in user. I’ll have the developer look into it, though.

Rather than spamming every comment thread with issues, list any other issues here and we’ll see what we can do.

FILED UNDER: OTB History
James Joyner
About James Joyner
James Joyner is Professor and Department Head of Security Studies at Marine Corps University's Command and Staff College. He's a former Army officer and Desert Storm veteran. Views expressed here are his own. Follow James on Twitter @DrJJoyner.

Comments

  1. Mu says:

    Keeps me logged in on my work machine, need to retype every time at home.

  2. Gustopher says:

    Pages sometimes show the state of comments about 5 minutes in the past. It initially looks like the comments are lost, but then they turn up again. Some kind of caching issue?

  3. Gustopher says:

    I need to retype about half the time on my iPad. Often when it is showing “no comments”, so it might be related to the potential caching issue.

  4. Andy says:

    I have to retype my name and email each time. I have an auto-form filler, so it’s no big deal.

  5. Mister Bluster says:

    Had to fill in name and Email for this comment even though earlier today on another thread those fields were filled in.

    2
  6. Mister Bluster says:

    test
    did not have to fill in name and email fields this time

    1
  7. Mister Bluster says:

    let’s me up vote my own comments whenever I attempt it.
    maybe the default for up vote and down vote should be -1.

    1
  8. Kylopod says:

    The site has been running nicely and quickly since its upgrade, and hasn’t redirected me to annoying spam/virus sites like it used to.

    One possible bug I’ve noticed: it sometimes has seemed to show an earlier version of the comments page, and I have to refresh to see new comments as well as new upvote/downvote scores.

    1
  9. Andy says:

    Not so much a bug as a suggestion – but it would be nice if the edit comment timer was a bit longer.

    1
  10. MarkedMan says:

    Not sure I see the pattern yet (re: retaining information). I’m posting this on my Mac, and it didn’t retain my information. Earlier today I posted something from my phone, and it did retain it, although I’m pretty sure it hasn’t in the past.

  11. Mister Bluster says:

    test
    had to fill in name and email again

    @Andy:..it would be nice if the edit comment timer was a bit longer.

    How about the rest of the day.

  12. mattb says:

    James,

    In terms of the commenting bug, its consitently not saving the info on the most recent Mozilla/Firefox beta Windows build.

    Also, this is a visual bug, but the OTB header on my mobile Android browser is wrapping in a way that initially takes up a good chunk of the screen. It’s an easy CSS fix.

    Beyond that, the site is running GREAT. Congratz on a very successful relaunch!

    [lol… I just wrote that it isn’t saving the information and then forgot to go back and fill it in.]

  13. Liberal Capitalist says:

    I kinda miss the fact that comments, that were dramatically upvoted or downvoted, showed in a different highlighted color.

    As a new feature, I’m not the only person that would like to have the ability to include an image.

  14. MarkedMan says:

    @MarkedMan: OK, on my Mac, once I filled it in for one post, it was filled in as I clicked around and opened other posts in new windows. Just now I closed all the windows and then reopened one immediately and the filled in information was still there. However, earlier I had closed all of OTB (but not the browser) and probably was away for 15 or 20 minutes and when I reopened OTB the information was not there. Hope that’s a clue for your web guru.

    1
  15. Mister Bluster says:

    Had to fill in name and email again

    @Liberal Capitalist:..As a new feature, I’m not the only person that would like to have the ability to include an image.

    I suspect that spambots like Bungles, Jake and JKB can’t wait to flood these threads with
    Pud’s ugly mug.

  16. Jax says:

    Small potatoes in the big scheme of things, but I’m not really loving the font on the comments. Or maybe it’s the font size, I don’t know, but I find them more difficult to read than the old site.

    Congrats on a pretty successful re-launch, though! And I do enjoy the articles on the right sidebar, that’s kinda handy.

  17. James Joyner says:

    @many: I’ll send Jason a note on the caching issue. I’m not seeing it but it seems common enough. Ditto the retention of user data.

    @Andy: I’ve made some tweaks to the comment editing plugin settings that might help. Among other things, I’ve enabled editing for 15 minutes vice 5. That should be enough time to fix typos and whatnot but not so much that users completely change posts after getting comments.

    @Liberal Capitalist: As noted in a previous post, our old comment voting plugin is obsolete. This one has fewer features but is functional.

    @Jax: It’s the same font, just bigger.

    1
  18. Erik says:

    On my iPhone the quick takes articles usually don’t show on the home page

  19. James Joyner says:

    @Erik: Yeah, that was a design choice but I’m pushing for another option. The Quick Takes concept as it applies to the main page doesn’t make sense for mobile. Too small. I think the better option is to, for small screens, draw from the “blog” feed but that causes some other issues.

  20. MarkedMan says:

    First, a positive: when I used to comment on my iPhone, the default width of the comment box was way too wide. If I resized to fit it all in the font was too small. Now it comes up exactly right.

    A negative: for some reason there appears to be a long delay before new comments show up.

  21. James Joyner says:

    @MarkedMan:

    A negative: for some reason there appears to be a long delay before new comments show up.

    I forgot to log this one with my developer. Done now.