UPDATE: It’s getting worked on!
Comments still not functioning correctly for you? As Ben suggested, I’ve opened a complaint on GetSatisfaction.com to try to reach Gawker’s tech team. If the comment reply/preview feature is still broken for you (it seems to be working for some, not others), why not head over there and add your two cents to my complaint? [GetSatisfaction.com]
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In case anyone is wondering why this is Gawker’s problem to solve: as part of the sale of our site to Consumers Union, Gawker agreed to provide hosting and technical support for a year, or something like that.
@Chris Walters: That explains it better. Though oddly enough I haven’t had the reply problem…yet.
@Chris Walters: Seems to work fine with me. But why with the sale, did you not get a direct line to contact technical support?
@Chris Walters: So Gawker sells Consumerist, we get you and Carey back, AND one year of tech support? Can ANYONE find a downside there?
@SpaceBat_GitEmSteveDave: Tech support is only one year? And it’s not responsive, evidently. Also, awesome tribute to SpaceBat there.
@Chris Walters: I take it all attempts to reach the Gawker tech have failed? Where’s the love?
@Jonbo298: Wierdly enough, I have this issue at home, but at work the replying works perfectly.
@Chris Walters: Go see mac-phisto’s comment below. The problem is related to the ads on the page, using FF and adblock plus to turn off the ads fixes the reply problem, I just tested it myself.
@Chris Walters: You think as a writer for the consumerist you could have written a more coherent, less whiny service request.
If I was the IT guy reading your complaint I would take my time helping you out.
@godawgs7: If you were my IT guy and had that attitude about service requests, I’d fire you.
@Chris Walters: Even the good ones are a dime a dozen now days.
It’s really odd for me. The other day, I logged in and it just *worked*. For about 2 or 3 replies, then it stopped. I didn’t go to gawker.com first (a few people found that worked). In fact, the few times I tried going to gawker.com first, it still didn’t work. And as others have pointed out, it’s not browser-specific.
When it does not work, hovering my mouse over a “reply” button yields a URL of the story, ending in “#” (thus, “top of page”). I was thinking, if you guys told us how to munge the URL ourselves to force a reply into it, maybe that could be a workaround… until Gawker gets their shite together…
@humphrmi: I have been suggesting to many to manually erase that # and anything after it from the URL bar, then hitting enter. That seems to reload the page “anew”. Haven’t had any problems myself. I wonder if someone could replicate the problem repeatedly, to give a step by step “script” to tech support.
@SpaceBat_GitEmSteveDave: Egads…it works now. Thanks Steve!
@SpaceBat_GitEmSteveDave: That sometimes works for me, sometimes doesn’t. Maybe 70% of the time it works.
I’ve also had the experience when it works for a while and then – for no reason I can determine – just stops. I’m thinking it’s a sign I should stop procrastinating and get back to work.
@SpaceBat_GitEmSteveDave: That never worked for me, but Adblock did.
Maybe Gawker has the software programmed so it won’t work if you’re not looking at crappy artwork.
Ya there is some sorta of scripting error. Sometimes it works, and sometime it doesn’t. As a web designer myself this can be sometimes two scripts cancelling each other out or interfering.
But I know with IE8 right now, that status code is “Done, but with errors on page”
@LJKelley: I get problems up the wazoo at the office, more than half the time, I can’t even load the page, since some part of consumerists page seems to come from ak.connect.facebook.com and anything related to facebook is blocked at the office.
@QuantumRiff: No No, the problem at the office is that you are visiting this site and not work
Too much hassle. I’m not going to create and verify an account at getsatisfaction.com just to vote.
Why bothering Gawker when Consumerist is no longer part of that network? If there is a programing problem then it should be addressed based on the terms in the ConsumerReports/Gawker contract.
@MrsLopsided: If only this was addressed in the very first comment of this article, so that anyone reading it would know…
@MrsLopsided:
Why is the Consumerist still using the old Gawker blogging engine, CSS, etc? I find it to be horrible and full of bugs.
I think the Consumerist site needs an overhaul to something more efficient and less buggy.
This issue should be taken seriously!
Consumerist cant reach their own tech team? Oh the sickening irony
Hopefully it will be fixed soon.
@animatedantmo: Made me chuckle. EECB, anyone?!
@animatedantmo: LOL.
Gawker outsources support to Geek Squad!
“The more people who report this problem, the more it gets noticed.”
????
This sounds like a Consumerist story where if the company is exposed to enough shame they will finally fix the problem so many people have been complaining about.
It’s just really weird why it’s working for some people and not for others…and intermittently at that.
I’ve gotten so used to not hitting the reply button though! Do we have a cat for this?
I have one browser instance in which replying will work (it has the login status info in the black toolbar at the top) and one instance in which replying won’t work (no login info in the toolbar; the toolbar stops at “Most Recent” and the Most recent/popular/discussed selection won’t appear).
Not surprisingly, the page source is substantially different. It doesn’t seem like it should be rocket science to fix.
Sounds like a cookie program (domain set right) or session problem.
(domain not set right)**
I went through Gawker and reply now works, but I still don’t have a preview button.
@magic8ball: Preview no longer exists on gawker network. Dunno why.
For me, at least, the issue is intermittent…
fwiw, i added “adblock plus” to ff3 (search in add-ons…look for the stop sign ABP logo), subscribed to all the recommended lists & now i have no problems replying (i did before). i feel bad doing it b/c the CU content is gone, but it’s unbearable not to be able to reply sometimes.
it’s completely hosed in chrome & i only use ie for work sites, so i dunno what the dilly is there.
i’m guessing there’s scripting errors either in the ads or in the coding for the adspace.
@mac-phisto: This is a significant piece of information. I have adblock plus installed in FF and have never had a problem replying. The guy from comsumerist or mac-phisto should put this comment over on the getsatisfaction.com complaint, I think it would be helpful. Ad coding can be horrible and I would not be surprised in the least if this was related to the problem.
mac-phisto, maybe you could try turning ABP off for consumerist and see if the problem returns.
@TacoChuck: I just did that, I turned ADP off for consumerist and yes, then I couldn’t not use the reply button, turned it back on and then the reply button worked. This is a good catch mac-phisto, I doubt they will benefit from it, as they probably will never get your information, but you have made the most progress on the problem of anyone.
@TacoChuck: i’ll throw a reply over there. i figured i’d post it here b/c not everyone is going to click-thru.
@mac-phisto: They should probably ad a second star to your name.
@mac-phisto: Well, dang. That *did* work. I concur with the second star suggestion!
@mac-phisto: Wow. So the advertising screws everything up so badly, and it has been left broken for so long that it has actually motivated people like you and me to install ad-blocking software where they otherwise wouldn’t have bothered.
If there’s ever been any case of an ad campaign completely backfiring, this is the supreme example. This really should go down in history as a HUGE SCREWUP on somebody’s part.
@Mac-phisto: You sir, deserve a medal. THANKS! I can reply again. Wooo!
@mac-phisto:
FWIW, I was having the REPLY problem (Also, the “DISPLAY” and “MOST RECENT” drop down menus at the top were not working), so I deleted my cookies & cache, went over to http://www.gawker.com and actually logged in with my account, then reloaded http://www.consumerist.com — and reply started working again (as well as the Display and Most Recent drop down menus).
Dunno how long it’ll work, but if you’re having the same problem it might not hurt to try it.
@Southern: as of yesterday, the “most recent” was floating a few inches below where it should have been, in the middle of the article
I am just another one with the reply issue. I would have replied directly to the original message, but I can’t so… yeah…
Also to add, maybe this is a good incentive to look to transitioning to something different? I dunno… something with an edit maybe?
You know, another interesting concept? It seems to work correctly until I login… Then once I login, it won’t work at all anymore regardless.
Which brings me to mention, I can’t actually logout… Only real way is wiping the cookies, otherwise I can’t logout in any way.
Also, the things like Display, Expanded, and Most Recent? None of that works either…
reply never stopped working for me.
but the preview checkbox disappeared – why is nobody lamenting the death of the preview checkbox??? (or really, the death of the preview)
@gStein: Actually a number of people have been lamenting it.
@gStein: yep I wrote a comment asking people to include a p.s. in their letter requesting it back.
———-
HOLY COW ITS BACK!!!….at least for now…
It worked ONCE yesterday. The only time in like, a week.
@The_IT_Crone: @mac-phisto: Hey what do you know, this worked for me too. Thanks for the tip!
Reply has only worked for me maybe one time this past week.
HONK IF YOU DEMAND SATISFACTION
[/Simpsons reference]
Look, if you wanna comment properly, just go to the story, then change Consumerist.com in the address bar to Gizmodo.com or something like that. Reply should would because it works for the other sites.
@Bearded Rapper even though the whole Joaquin Phoenix thing …: See, like this.
@Bearded Rapper even though the whole Joaquin Phoenix thing …: And this.
@Bearded Rapper even though the whole Joaquin Phoenix thing …: Or this.
@Bearded Rapper even though the whole Joaquin Phoenix thing …: So we have to do weird workarounds to get a very simple thing such as comments to work? That’s…special. Gawker sucks
Still b0rked. Here’s what I put on the getsatisfaction.com thread:
Of course, the URL I entered got changed to a link by the Gawker software, and I wouldn’t have known that because I also have no $@&! show preview button!
Nothing like the company who got paid for you to help you tank because your site now irritates your users.
A year of tech support? So CU bought the extended warranty?
@Coles_Law: lol. totally relevant. XD
Commented over there. FYI, people, you don’t have to verify your account to comment.
Sometimes “reply to” works for me. Sometimes it sends me back to the top of the page with no reply window.
I’ve tried (as others suggested) going to a Gawker site first, signing in, and returning to Consumerist, but it has not made a difference.
At random times for seemingly no reason, the reply function will work for me. The randomness is annoying!
Hmmm, just tried, and it’s not working right now.
Wonder what happened to “break” the system that worked great for so long?
It has everything to do with the URL truncation when you click on a comment to reply. Often times I can’t get to subsequent pages on an article because there is a #c left on the end of the url, removing it solves the problem – I’m sure its the same problem. Check your urls. If it looks like there’s something funky going on, get rid of it and you can comment.
Time to EECB Nick Denton.
Though, it’s WAY easier to get back to the top of the page. My scrolling finger was getting fatigued.
It’s still not working for me here, but I’ve had problems on other Gawker sites as will, io9 and Jezebel. Never consistently, though.
Another with Firefox and Adblock whose having no problems.
However, has anybody else started seeing the “More Top Stories” link floating around amid the individual article or comments?
@floraposte: Argh. Who’s. Who’s. Who’s. Dr. Who’s. Cindy Lou Who’s.
@floraposte: I installed AdBlock and no problems. I guess Consumerist would care more if they were still worried about ad revenue.
I guess once a site doesn’t have to worry about cash, there’s no reason to care about quality. Sad.
It is time for a Credit Card Chargeback!
Can people please request that Gawker bring back the comment preview option as well.
Its gone for all gawker sites but was very helpful especially if you were using any html tags.
Have you guys found a piece of paper taped to one of your monitors at the office saying something like “Call me about your blog” with a phone number attached?
So we have to BEG to get this crap fixed? You have got to be kidding me. Why are you still using Gawker’s crap? They are being lame.
For those suggesting firefox and addbock plus, that’d be great, except … I’m stuck using IE at work. Making us do some weird workaround to get comments to work is unacceptable. They should work as they are made to work. Period.
To be honest, this is hilariously ironic.
@nakedscience: I’m using IE at work also, and it seems intermittently ok. Ok for now, it seems!
Wiping cookies & clearing the history and then re-logging in seems to work. Yes, still a workaround…. also, SteveDave’s comments about clearing the # at the end of the comments also seems to work.
One final workaround that I haven’t tried yet but may attempt next is copying the link from someone’s comment (which is in the timestamp) to artificially create a link to a comment, which might nest under it. Maybe. That actually sounds pretty silly as I type it out. We’ll see.
BTW, I still have a ‘preview comment’ button that seems to work.
Hah I agree with nakedscience. The bastion of consumer power and affecting change can’t fix a semi-critical problem over several weeks. Just ridiculous.
Yup, me too: it works around 10% of the time. (Safari, OS X)
@Trai_Dep: Holy crap, it worked.
Sorry. I’m randomly testing it. You win Trai_Dep! Your prize is this pointless reply that doesn’t add much to the conversation.
@Jabberkaty: I’m randomly testing it now, too. IE seems to be working ok (for the moment). At least for this.
If it punks out again, I may resort to copying the comment link (in the timestamp) and using that. It seems to work – but involves manually messing with it a bit. Whatever follows the # in the timestamp is what you want, and you just need to insert the ref code + author name and then close the tag.
@oneandone: Since the comments didn’t work for me AT ALL until now, I think it’s fixed. Woo-ooh!
@Trai_Dep: OH MY GOD.
Did they finally fucking listen?!
Still not working for me, in either Firefox or IE.
Reply is still not working for me in FireFox.
Banners? What banners?
Nope, not working in Firefox. Sigh. I had hope.
Not working in IE6 :{
Worked once for me in another thread, but still hasn’t since. Oh well.
I can’t do it in either IE or Firefox, either at home or work.
Installing adblock plus seems to have worked so far
ITS THE ADS! I disabled ad block plus on consumerist shortly before Consumer reports bought them. I figured anything I could do to help keep you folks paid!!
I just turned Ad Block Plus back on and bingo reply works. There is something in the consumer reports Ads that is causing it or so it seems to me. Try it!
@Red_Eye: replying to myself
@Red_Eye: Yup, I just turned on Ad Block and viola! A reply…