all,
partly to combat the growing “comment spam” problem i will be upgrading the version of wordpress our blog runs on (i just deleted about 50 ads for cialis etc.). the look of the site and some functionality may therefore suddenly change–if this happens and you have trouble just email me. no content will (hopefully) be lost.
arnab
I’ve been trying to get a hold of that Cialis. Can you send all of those emails (spams as you commies call them) to me? I’m at mreynolds@gw.cowpie.edu
the upgrade itself is over–and as far as i can tell uneventful.
the “users online” link was a separate piece of code i’d added on to the previous version–will take me a bit to find a version compatible with this new version of the blog. (does anyone care one way or the other anyway whether we have it or not?)
now to figure out the anti-spam features of the new version. do also let me know–here or by email–if things have changed in your “post” view (as “admin” i get a slightly different view).
okay, i’ve installed something that apparently kills comment spam. let’s see if it works.
There is now a DASHBOARD feature which seems quite nice. But it seems mostly the same.
As far as the ‘users online’ thing, I kind of liked knowing that Arnab and i were looking at the blog at the same time. Kinda romantic-like.
okay, users-online is back.
upgrade update: with the new version of wordpress you have to click “publish” to make a new post. the “save” options are for making drafts or keeping a post private for some reason.
How? I do not see a “publish” button after finishing a post.
okay, should work now–i’d needed to upgrade your guys’ status so you could “publish”. i wonder what other surprises this version has in store.
tired of deleting variations on online casino ads i’ve changed the settings so that only registered bloggers (that is, us) can post comments. please tell me what you think of this somewhat drastic step. in its favor consider that if we’d thought of this at the very beginning we wouldn’t have to suffer through jeff’s crap.
Perhaps we can be more proactive as we encourage new members to join the blog. There’s no reason why this community cannot grow, but the casino nonsense (I figured it was some USC anarchist giving you all a hard time) is/was a distraction. If I had felt like posting and then was blocked, I’m sure I would have called Mike and said what the fuck. And he would have contacted Arnab and encouraged him to give the poor schmuck a chance, and my crap would still have made its way into the conversation.
goddamit! how the hell is this online casino crap getting past the “registered users only” setting? need to do some research.
for some reason mark is posting his questions about the upgrade to other topics. presumably so that there is a lower chance of my seeing them and trying to figure out the problems.
he asked:
“Arnab – I’m pretty sure we used to be able to edit our own posts (so that I could correct the spelling of words like amatuerish before all you PhDs snicker to yourself).
why that? ”
you should be able to edit your own posts now as well. all you have to do is click on “login”, then “manage”. the default view will be “posts” and you should see a link to “edit” next to your own posts. let me know if this is not so.
Actually, I mis-spoke:
I meant that I used to be able to edit my own comments on other people’s posts. I don’t think I can do that any longer.
(I was going to post this on the thread of House of Flying Daggers for obvious reasons – to annoy Arnab, but I’ve got a belly full of pork, and now I’m sleepy.)
lemme look into it
mmmmm belly full of pork
by the way, i have implemented yet another method that will allegedly stop our comment-spam problems. anyone want to put any money on it? preferably in an online casino?
also, now that only registered members can comment i’ve removed the restriction on urls in comments. including urls will no longer send your comment to a moderation queue–knock yourselves out.
Like Mark, I can’t figure out how to edit my comments on other people’s posts. Unlike Mark, I have a real job.
I have a real job!
kind of…
Ok, I don’t.
I tried to get Dayna to post here; first as a comments visitor, but now she’d have to become a “member” (snicker).
It does seem to get a little stale in here without the scent of a woman.
HOO-HA!
mark, let me know if you’d like me to add dayna to the crew–she doesn’t have to make posts if she doesn’t want to but she’ll be able to comment.
When will we be able to edit our comments on other people’s posts? Or are we able?
it turns out that this version of the blog software doesn’t allow anyone other than the admin (me) to edit their own comments. i have a request out in the wordpress developer community–maybe someone will figure out a way to add the functionality (it is opensource so people are constantly adding things).
in the meantime, if you have an edit you’d like to make you can do one of two things:
either send me the replacement comment (the entire new comment not just the specific edits) and i’ll replace it–or go ahead and repost the edit as a new comment and when i come across it i’ll delete the older one (maybe put a note at the top or bottom of the later one).
or be like me and write comments that are perfect the first time out and need no editing.
Arnab, why, when I visit the page, do I often get a lot of grey space at the top of the screen and the image (is that a header) and clever tag line (“ribbed for your viewing pleasure,” etc.) are missing. Am I the only one to whom this happens?
aha. like a dumbass i stuck an image i was playing with in the folder where the script that rotates the banners resides. should be fixed now.
i’ve re-opened comments to the world–so if you know anyone who you think wants to make any let them know. there’s a new spam-fighting plugin that i’ll be installing tomorrow, and if it works as advertised we should be fine.
sometime soon, and probably without warning, i will upgrade our hideously out of date version of wordpress to the latest, squeakiest. this may even make it possible for women to post to the blog. but i guess you can’t have everything.
i have also recently discovered that for some reason the idiot italian sends me blog related pleas at a yahoo email address that i check once every other year. you all know how to reach me via my employers so please use that email address.
I want to see the cialis ads. I just found a hot older woman who likes to sit together naked in matching bathtubs, watching the sun go down. Do you know how hard it is to find matching bathtubs outside, in just the right location?