Commenting Update

In case you didn't visit here over the weekend, we've installed a new commenting system for JMG, courtesy of JS-Kit. You can now create a personal profile for yourself and include permanent links to your own blogs, your Facebook page, your Twitter account, etc. You can also embed YouTube clips and personal photos into your comments, as well as upload gravatars. Your responses to other readers are now nested below the originating comment. The old Haloscan comments have all been migrated into the new system, but only your new comments will show your new info.

There's also a WYIWYG text editor in there, but there are still a couple of glitches to work out - for example, block quoting doesn't work correctly and we don't have a preview pane yet. Comments are now showing below the text of the post. I'm hoping that we'll be able to go back to pop-up style comments boxes, but that may take a while. (I think there's a keyboard trick you can use to pop out the comments on your own. Anyone?)

Thanks go out to JS-Kit honcho Khris Loux and his engineer Phillipe, who worked out the install with me on a long conference call Friday night. I'm hoping the new system will prove a lot more stable than Haloscan had been recently, and more importantly, will be a little more fun for you folks and help send back more traffic from this here website thingy to your own sites.

UPDATE: It appears there may be a way to change the commenting order from "threaded" to "flat". I'm trying to see if we can make that your choice for any post, but if we have to pick one style for the entire blog, which would you prefer? Threaded or "nested" comments make it easy to see to whom one is replying, but "flat" makes it easier to see new comments.

New Commenting System

As you've probably noticed, we've installed a new commenting system here on JMG. A host of new features await you. You can vote comments up or down or you can mark then as "offensive." If ten or more of your fellow commenters find your message to be assholish, it will be collapsed. (Just like on YouTube.) Speaking of YouTube, you can embed clips into your comment, as well as photos. You can register as a JS-Kit commenter, use your old Haloscan handle, or be anonymous. Responses to previous comments are now nested within the original comment. Comments will be threaded at the bottom of the post for a few days, but we'll go back up to a pop up box after that. Unless you folks prefer the in-post style. Let me know.

UPDATE: Create your own JMG profile! Add your personal photo and links to your blog, your Facebook, your Twitter, etc.

Comment Count Wonky Again

Obviously, Haloscan is having another bad hair day. All comments are being recorded and can be viewed instantly, but the comment counter is often at zero or way off. I'm riding this out as Haloscan is in the process of transitioning to its new platform which will include numerous new features. You'll able to drop in YouTube clips, vote individual comments up or down, and there will be a WYSWYG text editor. Muddle through, folks. Sorry.

Comments Counter Not Updating

Haloscan is having its quarterly hiccup and the comment counters are not updating on today's posts. You can always use the "notify me" function and follow-ups to your comments will be emailed to you directly. We're all still waiting for Haloscan's much-touted upgrade, which was promised to us months ago.

UPDATE: The Haloscan glitch continues for all users. Your comments are being posted, but some of you may not see previous comments until you post one of your own. My apologies.

Tinkers To Evers To Chance

What a weird last few days on teh interwebs, a regular triple play of nonsense. First Haloscan crashes, then Google locked thousands of bloggers out of their accounts, then on Friday afternoon any site with the Sitemeter script on it would no longer open in IE, affecting many thousands of sites.

We got a heads-up from the CEO of JS-Kit, the new owner of Haloscan, who let us know that they are installing new features and better stability. Over at the Blogger, the always devious spammers had hacked their CAPTCHA program, forcing them to change their spam algorithm, causing the lockout. And Sitemeter's issue was actually related to a bug in IE. Bah humbug. Looks like everything is back to normal at the moment, but I thank the many JMG readers who sent puzzled emails. PS: Use Firefox!

Haloscan, Again. AGAIN.

Obviously the comments counter has been broken all day. Your comments are being saved but the counter isn't updating. Haloscan's new owners, JS-Kit, have been unresponsive to emailed requests for status info and to comments placed on their help forum. It's seriously time to get another commenting system. I'd hate to lose a half-million comments or whatever, but what are ya gonna do?

Haloscan, Again

Haloscan, which was recently acquired by another company, is having another meltdown. It appears that your comments ARE being recorded, but the pop-up comment boxes are showing empty at the moment. So damn annoying.

UPDATE: The problem appears resolved.

Haloscan On The Fritz

Sorry folks. Looks like Haloscan is having its semi-annual meltdown today. Hopefully commenting will be back up soon.

Haloscan Issue

Haloscan is having its quarterly meltdown. Comments appear to be posting OK, but the number count is not updating. My apologies. Hopefully this will be resolved soon, but in the meantime y'all will have to manually check each post for added comments.

More Haloscan Issues

Again, the commenting system on this here website thingy is acting up. I've noticed that Haloscan has added a widget that notes how many people are viewing an individual comment box. If that's the cause of the current issue, there doesn't seem to be a way to disable that function. Boo.

Haloscan Suckage

Haloscan has been most unreliable over the last few days, my apologies. Please try reloading the page until you get a comments link. Then if you're lucky, you can actually leave a comment. Grrrr.