An update on the 'Mad Men' commenting problem
Let's work the problem, people
Peggy and Don go to the diner.
Over the last several weeks, a lot of you have, understandably, complained about issues with commenting on the "Mad Men" posts - specifically, with some comments appearing to disappear and others being duplicated. I've insisted repeatedly that our web designers were working on this, and it looks like we've finally licked the problem.
Without boring you with the technical details, it looks like the problem wasn't that comments were disappearing, but that once the number of comments passed a certain point ("Mad Men" posts get more comments than anything else on the site, by far), two things began to happen: 1)Comments began to appear out of chronological order, and 2)Some comments began duplicating themselves, further mucking up the order. As far as we've been able to figure so far, no comments were lost; they just weren't where anyone was looking for them, and the duplicates only complicated any attempt to look.
Both of those issues have been resolved, and I skimmed the comments on the most recent post, where it now looks like everything's in the proper order.
That said, I want to be sure we've actually licked the problem. It's entirely possible that comments have disappeared, and in such a way that they don't even appear under the hood where the programmers and I can see. So if it looked earlier in the week like one of your comments vanished and you remember roughly when you posted it, would you mind taking a look to see if you can find it? If everything is where it was supposed to be, then the fix has taken. (And we'll remain diligent in case it pops up again.) But if comments are still missing, then our people will keep digging deeper.
I understand that this is frustrating. We're doing what we can, when we can.
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Comments
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Login or create a HitFix account Login Signupkarenx
September 9, 2010 at 10:01PM EST Reply to CommentFor what it's worth, I found everything where it was supposed to be, including a comment that had disappeared from the third page. Thank you so much for working on this!
Al
September 9, 2010 at 11:09PM EST Reply to CommentI'm seeing a lot of missing names. I'm guessing the names are missing only for "guest" commenters, though it looks like it's affecting Facebook accounts as well.
Al Well, there's my guest name. Never mind.
September 9, 2010 at 11:11PM EST7s Tim
September 9, 2010 at 11:43PM EST Reply to CommentI really liked the scene where they listened to Sterling Gold.
7s Tim <-----That comment was supposed to appear in reply to the Mad Men post, and now it popped up here instead! At least it finally showed up, but this might mean you have bigger problems than you thought....
September 9, 2010 at 11:43PM EST7s Tim In all seriousness, i never really had a problem with posts disappearing, just that sometimes it would take awhile for them to hit(fix), which made it seem that they dropped out.
September 9, 2010 at 11:45PM ESTdtor
September 10, 2010 at 9:04AM EST Reply to CommentI've had a couple posts disappear completely-- including one I specifically made on "The Rejected" where I predicted Dr. Miller was not really married. I remember because the next week this very fact was revealed on the show and I didn't even get to say "Ah ha! I knew it!" because the evidence had evaporated. The following week I tried to post again under my facebook account, thinking this might make a difference, but this one disappeared too. In both instances I saw the post show up at the time I made it only to vanish later.
sepinwall But if you go back to that post, is that comment there now? I'm assuming the fix should have dealt with all Mad Men posts, not just the one for "The Suitcase."
September 10, 2010 at 9:05AM ESTdtor
September 10, 2010 at 9:06AM EST Reply to CommentAnd both posts remain MIA. I just checked.
dtor
September 10, 2010 at 9:12AM EST Reply to CommentAt least with the facebook one, it came up on my profile (even though it disappeared from this site), so I knew I wasn't losing my mind.
I used Ctrl+F to search for "dtor" on all the pages attached to the "Rejected" review and got nothing. I didn't search through every single post. Don't know if that would have made a difference.
chuchundra
September 10, 2010 at 9:23AM EST Reply to CommentWell, I still can't login and stay logged in. Is anyone else having this problem?
belinda I can stay logged in when I reply to stuff, but at the dashboard on the top of the website, it will still say "LOGIN" even though I already am logged in. It's weird.
September 10, 2010 at 9:39AM ESTHope the issue is fixed though! I remember for one of the MM post I was looking for a post someone else wrote that I read a day ago, and I couldn't find it and thought I went mad because I was convinced I read it yet I couldn't find it.
So...glad to hear that I'm probably not crazy.
chuchundra
September 10, 2010 at 11:07AM EST Reply to CommentTest
chuchundra So it seems I'm logged in, it just doesn't say that in the top, right bar.
September 10, 2010 at 11:18AM EST
September 13, 2010 at 6:27PM ESTrowan729
September 10, 2010 at 1:06PM EST Reply to CommentAll of my posts on the last Mad Men review have returned, even the ones regarding the commenting issues. Thanks for getting this fixed, and the conversation on that reivew actually makes sense now! Hopefully no problems this Monday for the new episode!
Angela
September 11, 2010 at 4:26AM EST Reply to CommentIt figures. I just posted my first bitchy complaining post on last weeks "Mad Men" a few minutes ago, and stumbled on this afterwards. ::blush::
But it's been bothering me so much I wrote you a personal letter about the problem with suggestions (so it wasn't just a rant by any means.) Then I gave feedback to Hitlfix, and then found this!
On the aside, may I please ask that we go back to your commenting rules about doing a "find" search before posting a comment when there are so many?
Or even if there aren't many comments it would be nice if people read them first before posting the same thing someone else just said (more than a few times). For instance, in "SOA" last week I read "It was probably an obit for Gemma's Mother" too many times in a row. Some may have been people posting close together, but many had time stamps far enough apart to that show it was either a system glitch so people didn't know other people had already posted the same thought, or people not bothering to read the comments first before posting one.
Plus how does it look to new viewers? You have the smartest commenters but if I was a a brand new viewer coming here for the first time, I would not be impressed.
Ok, let's see how next Sunday night goes. My rant is over and I'm really happy that were on to bigger and better things here at Hitflix. Yay!
Angela
September 11, 2010 at 4:30AM EST Reply to CommentIs there a way where more people could find this? I sure would have liked to see this sooner than I did. I come here almost every day for Alan's reviews, so I don't know how I missed it. :(
Repost!
belinda
September 12, 2010 at 8:13PM EST Reply to CommentSome housekeeping queries:
1. I know you've been adding specific tv shows on the sidebar (so they're easier to find, which is great, thanks) - is it possible to add in a category for your interviews (those are really tough to find under the search function, and hitfix is not the most user friendly when it comes to looking for specific posts that aren't in the categories that already have the sidebar - so it would be really, really helpful) - or perhaps some miscellaneous categories (like 'comedies' or 'dramas' or ''variety show' for all the shows you don't regularly cover but you write about from time to time?
Also, is there some kind of secret pattern to the order of the tv shows on the sidebar you already have up? *scratches head*
Thanks!
sepinwall The pattern is "the order in which I added them" (or, in a few cases "the order in which the system added them automatically"). We're looking into how complicated it would be to make it alphabetical or something more logical.
September 12, 2010 at 8:32PM ESTAnd I'd like for the interviews to be easier to find. We're working on some ideas on that.
cgeye
September 12, 2010 at 9:49PM EST Reply to CommentIn truth, since we lost Sundays, I've stopped commenting, let alone reading past page 1. The conversation's aged by the time I can get to it Monday night, so it doesn't seem worth it.
Also, Ajax is a pain that doesn't stop being painful -- if it allowed sign on through Google.... but I know, competition.
By the by, why do the Viagra commercials aired on Mad Men have a blue tint, when one of the more notorious side-effects beyond priapism is seeing everything in blue?