
Remember that old joke? Well, computer technical support is like that, sometimes. This week, I thought I’d try to combine my on-going technology journey (the one inspired by Pam’s Luddite Wannabe post) with an update on the mysterious case of the WordPress “Like” button. Yes, we’re still working on that.
One of the chronic problems in systems development is not understanding all the things that can go wrong (or right) with a process. Although I’ve written my share of software, the bulk of my career was spent designing systems and managing the development process. Communication skills are super important for these tasks, because you’re expected to translate between people who don’t want to know anything technical and people who spent their years in college making fun of business and accounting majors.
I once worked for a man who, in trying to complement me, picked on my staff:
“You’re different than most software developers.”
“How so?”
“I can talk to you. You have very good communication skills.”
“It’s necessary in this job.”
“Yeah, but your staff doesn’t have those skills, what’s wrong with them?”
“You’re talking about people who made a conscious decision to work with machines instead of human beings.”
“At least they’re good at that.”
Picking on IT people and their social skills is like shooting fish in a barrel. There’s an old joke about the subject:
“How do know if the IT guy you’re talking to is an extrovert?”
“When he talks to you, he looks at your shoes.”
It’s kind of true.
But, picking on IT people and their social skills is also unfair, unless you’re also going to pick on the business folks for not being able to gain more than a surface-level understanding of the computer on their desk – the one they probably use 6-8 hours a day – or the software running on that computer.
I have spent tens of thousands of hours talking to people about their job. I can’t remember the number of times I’ve started conversations by asking someone to explain their job to me. Then, as I watched them do their job, there were a gazillion sentences in the form of, “can you tell me what you just did?” and “why did you do that?” People do things – all the time – day after day – without realizing that they are following a logical workflow and/or making value-base decisions. Computers can do those things, easily, but they have to know all the steps in the workflow, and they have to understand the complete range of values and the results of all those judgements. Well, the programmer writing the software has to know those things. Next week, I’ll share some comical-ish results of not knowing enough.
My interaction with the WordPress Happiness Engineers to-date, has largely been an exercise in figuring out when this error occurs – what are the circumstances surrounding the inability of the “Like” button to load? Here’s what we know, so far:
It only happens on sites with custom domain names. I.E. https://noFacilities.com as opposed to https://nofacilities.wordpress.com
Sometimes, after “Liking” a post, the user is unable to post a comment.
It happens often in Firefox, occasionally in Safari, but it doesn’t happen in Chrome or Internet Explorer.
It might be associated with blogs that combine a mix of secure and insecure elements. An image referenced like: http://image.somewhere.com – (http, not https). Chrome and IE don’t consider this issue to be the problem Firefox and Safari do.
It doesn’t appear to be related to any add-ons or extensions (because I eliminated all of those from my instance of Firefox).
After determining those fundamental bits, the engineers were able to recreate the problem.
That’s an important step.
WordPress is what is known as Open Source software. There are people working on it who are employed by Automatic (the parent company of WordPress) and there are programmers who volunteer their time to developing and maintaining WordPress. The code (the lines of programming language) is stored in a common, Internet accessible code-library know as github. It may not come as a surprise to you to know that I have a github account – they’re free, it’s not like joining a country club. My account did come in handy, because once the Happiness Engineers could recreate my problem, they entered it into github as a “Bug.” Now it will get some attention (it already has) and, hopefully it will be fixed. I can login, read the comments and reply to questions. This saves the WP engineer the time of reading, asking me via email, and entering my answer.
The solution might come in the form of a software fix. It might be in the form of a “work-around” – “do this, this and this if you want the Like button to load,” or, as the Doctor in the punchline to the joke in the title says: “Then don’t do that!” and it might be given to the open source developers at Mozilla (FireFox) to solve from their end (I am looking into that area as well).
Part of my “excellent” communication skills is knowing that I have to wait for those answers. I’m sorry to report that the problem still exists, but I do feel they are making progress. By the way, I also can’t remember how many times I’ve said that during my career.
Notes:
1) If you are planning to post a comment on a site that isn’t showing the Like button, post the comment first. When you submit the comment, the page reloads and the Like button will appear. This will also eliminates the possibility that ‘Liking’ a post will prevent you from posting a comment.
2) In recreating this problem, the engineers have visited Cheryl’s blog and attempted to Like and/or comment. They may visit yours (sorry, I had to tell them where I’m having problems) so you might see a comment that simply says “testing” or something like that.
Hi Dan –
“…he looks at your shoes”
Haha!
that was good
and “making progress” in the tech world is like the saying “cautiously optimistic” in health world
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Thats true, Yvette. My hope is that since a WP engineer entered it as a “Bug” it might get some attention.
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Ooh. I didn’t know about github. (Unfortunate name. Hard not to imagine a gathering place for a bunch of gits.) Not that I’m in the realm of membership but if I have a problem I may be able to direct the Eldest Son that way. (He’s currently undertaking a Master of Software Engineering).
I used to work as a technical writer writing training manuals for software being implemented in large companies. Business analysts (the boys and girls figuring out how the company was going to use the system) have no idea how end users think.
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Thanks Heather. There’s always an ulterior motive. So many of the systems I was designing/building/installing were ultimately going to replace some of those end users. Today, it’s all about data, and collecting data from those end users (with or without them being aware). There’s a communication gap, a knowledge gap and an imagination gap (designers know what systems can do, but users don’t know what to ask for). It’s not an easy process. Some (Apple for one) say good systems shouldn’t need a manual – their use should be intuitive.
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I’m reading your comment to MOSY and rolling my eyes at your last sentence. For as long as I’ve worked for the State, there haven’t been too many intuitive systems that didn’t require a manual and training and subsequent cheat sheets. PeopleSoft for one…the way it’s been set up for us…
Anyhow, we have a very social IT guy for our area of the state. Of course, he’s been our IT guy for many years so it would be awful if he were still looking at his shoes. I understand the whole programming/end user/knowledge gap thing. I’ve felt the gap as a user more than once when programmers didn’t check in with the end user and it results in a program that doesn’t even spit out the appropriate reports. It’s frustrating. This has been much better in recent years, but it will never ever be perfect. On the other hand, I’m involved in a group that’s creating an HR manual that’s supposed to be user friendly and something my boss could pick up and follow. I guess we’ll see where that goes, keeping your post in mind.
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Well, there’s intuitive and then there’s intuitive ;-)
We are such a small group that we work very closely with the folks we support. Still, there are a wide range of issues that keep things from being perfect. Some of those might have to wait until I retire to be discussed.
User manuals and training are such a hard thing to do. There’s a very fine line between useful and tiring. I developed over 60 1-hour training modules (10 years ago) on everything from “Using The Outlook Calendar” to “Internet Security” – the program was very well received, some people even say they miss it. A woman in our department is developing a new set of modules. I am trying to help her, but I think I should be lighting candles for her.
Implementations of things like PeopleSoft, SalesForce, SAP, etc are often fraught with problems. Companies are reluctant to invest heavily in training, particularly custom training, because they spent so much money on the software. I wish you luck with your project.
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Thanks for the help, Dan
For a free pizza, that baby is loaded!!
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Thanks GP. Yeah, that wasn’t the healthy option.
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I was going to tell you that my problems with liking and commenting on posts have been resolved. When I tried to like yours, I could not – the button is there, it just doesn’t work.
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Ha! Thanks Roberta. I have noticed a slight shift in the liking experience. I have seen the button on sites where it was “loading” before. I don’t know if that might be related to browser updates. I guess seeing the button, even if it doesn’t work, is a step forward…
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I think it’s human nature to make fun of things we don’t understand or are afraid of. It might be stupid but it happens far too often. And let’s face it, IT people will rule the world. (They already do but we are afraid to admit it!) Love the reflective pictures Dan. And thanks for the shout out.
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Thanks for continuing to follow that which you inspired, Pam. Unfortunately, it’s not the IT people ruling the world, it’s the companies they work for. Recently, there have been protests by IT people over things like data-collection, AI and privacy.
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When my daughter worked tor AMD I asked her what she did. She said that she searched for the bulb that was out in a Christmas tree string.
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Ha ha ! Some days I’m sure that’s how it feels.
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I was on one blog that kept ‘Loading….’ so I commented that I Liked the post but could not click the button. Soon as I posted my comment, the Loading was completed and I could Like the post. Weird. Our IT guy at work…..’Did you reboot?’ **heavy sigh** I don’t have any problems with your site, though. Must be cause we both have cats….. :D
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It wouldn’t surprise me, Lois if those furballs were responsible. I swear, MuMu is messing with me. I noticed that the Like button appears after posting a comment. It makes sense, but I just wish they would figure this out.
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Aha, that explains it. Thanks!
But after I read your post, I am even more convinced that driverless cars are a bad, BAD, VERY bad idea.
Blogging? Fine, I can live with the occasional hardship of mangled software problems that may (or may not) eventually get fixed. But highway driving? Forget it!
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Oh my, Maggie, that’s a scary thought. Of course, when the driverless car in Arizona coudln’t figure out if the object ahead was a person, a bicycle or an animal, it hit and killed the woman (who was pushing a bicycle). Good logic, there – I don’t know what that is, I guess I’ll just hit it,
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Again, I’m quite happy being just a ‘follower’ and not a ‘blogger’!! I can’t imagine how frustrating/annoying all these problems must be for you and other bloggers. I hope “making progress” isn’t the equivalent of “the check is in the mail”!
Great reflection shots Dan. I especially like that beautiful bud hanging on to that one rain drop. Maddie must’ve been soooo happy Saturday sitting on her throne…. I mean cot! Look at her beautiful coat of hair! And shy Smokey is getting to be quite the camera hog. Lol.
Hope today is the start of a great week for you and the Editor and Faith.
🐾Ginger 🐾
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Thanks Ginger. Maddie was in her glory on Saturday. We had a short walk, in between showers and then sitting in the sun in 74-degree temps. That’s her idea of a perfect day.
These problems are frustrating, but they don’t happen all that often. This one seems to be confounding the engineers. Still, it feels better knowing/thinking that they’re working on it.
Smokey is getting over his shy and skittish ways. Now he’s front and center on the “forage” line.
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My favorite question in these mysterious situations is ‘How hard did you hit Enter ?’ The outfit I used to work for wanted all its reports on time each day. Unfortunately parts of each day were on different servers each using their own scheduler. So when something was running late the next step took off ‘early’ and promptly failed. Duh is it important to use one overriding smart scheduler ? Talk about the latest greatest tech. Shoes. Look now.
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Oh, John. Don’t give my coworkers any extra incentive to bank away on that Enter key. We replace enough laptop keyboards as it is. Independent schedulers – I understand. We have so many servers, and some rely on others. If we have a power failure that lasts long enough for the UPS to shut things down, we have to manually reboot a bunch of servers when we get to the office, because they all start back up at the same time. Or, if they are delayed, it isn’t long enough.
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I love the tree theme in your gallery and the reflections. Yes, I saw Smokey.
I hope you get the like button issues solved sooner rather than later, but they’re making progress.
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Thanks Deborah. Sometimes, finding Smokey is like Wehre’s Waldo. you can hear him, but he blends in pretty well. I remain optimistic that we will get this fixed.
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Being in IT the majority of my career, I could relate. I once worked with a fairly large company that had a traditional Help Desk. The Help Desk manager was anything but traditional. He was a very vocal warlock with mad skills.
I like the beer cozy, but no mention of IGA? :-)
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Mad skills tend to cover a lot of social miscues. I didn’t figure many people would understand the IGA reference (local grocery supply) I would have had a Corona in it but it was 10:00 am.
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Years ago, I actually experienced something similar to your problem, but it WAS in Chrome and Internet Explorer. The like button just refused to load. And I couldn’t comment anywhere. At the time, the only “help” I could find was posting on some WordPress forum, where you aren’t talking to engineers, just other WP users who think they have some secret knowledge to solve all your issues. Only they’ve never been any help to me. They said no one else was having the problem, and told me to try loading some fancy plug-in, which I couldn’t do because I don’t have a paid account. And then they just stopped replying. Basically I just had to wait for months until the bug cleared itself up. In the meantime, I used the “like” button that’s at the bottom of the WP email notifications which I get for all the blogs I follow. I’m glad to hear that your problem is genuinely being looked into, and by actual engineers who can DO something about it, and that they were able to recreate the problem. That’s a huge step in the right direction.
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Thanks Wendy. The Like button in the email does work, but I’m reluctant to push that for posts by people who don’t put the entire post in the email. I follow them, and I like them, but sometimes people go off on a policital or social rant that I can’t agree with. I don’t care, it’s their blog, their opinion, but I don’t want to get caught up in it.
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Yes, that’s very true, and I don’t like to use that button before reading a post in its entirety either. Because as you say, you can like someone just fine, but that doesn’t mean you necessarily want to give your stamp of approval to what they’re saying or doing at all times. And there’s nothing wrong with that!
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At Control Data Corporation (CDC) back in the 1960’s.
Boss: A customer has reported a bug in your program.
IT Guy: Who is the customer?
Boss: I can’t tell you?
IT Guy: What is the bug?
Boss: I can’t say.
IT Guy: How about some data so I can duplicate the problem?
Boss: No can do.
IT Guy: So what I am supposed to do?
Boss: Desk check your code until you find the error.
Back then CDC mainframes were used by a government entity knows as No Such Agency (NSA)
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Was that back when we didn’t even know what building they were in? I can only imagine trying to work in that environment. I’ve worked on systems where I’ve not been allowed to see the data, or even have test data, because that would indicate the kind of data that was being collected, but at least they could tell me what the problem was.
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I worked in the financial industries sector and using live data for testing purposes was a huge no-no. We created large beds of test data by desensitizing live data. Those beds of test data became extremely valuable because our testing was only as good as the data used … but then again, you already know that 🙂
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I love having a comprehensive set of test data. It’s been more of a luxury for me than the norm, but you’re right, the testing is only as good as the test data.
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I’ve not come across any problems with the ‘like’ button not loading or not working as yet, Dan. However, I’ve been reading lost of posts about various problems with WordPress (mostly the reblog button not working) and technology over the last week. The only problems I’ve encountered is one of my posts not showing up on the WP Reader, and when it finally did – with the help of WordPress, the sharing buttons not showing. They managed to fix that, too.
It’s good that you’ve reported your ongoing problem with the ‘like’ button to WordPress. Some bloggers don’t report bugs or issues, so they remain broken.
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Thanks Hugh. The Reblog button loads in the same widget as the Like button, so it’s the same problem. I had a hard time getting the attention of the engineers, several emails appeared to be accepted, but there was no reply until I put the problem on Twitter. But, since making contact, they have been working on it and I think we are making progress.
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Ahh, yes, I remember now. I once removed the ‘like’ button from my blog, but doing that also removed the ‘reblog’ button. I wonder why they are connected to the same widget? You can’t have one without the other (unlike most of the other sharing buttons).
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It’s funny, Hugh. As I’ve been looking at the code behind that widget, and I don’t see why they couldn’t make them each an option. It does seem that you should be able to have one without the other.
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Yet, I asked, and they said ‘no’, Dan. Just one of the many mysteries of WordPress.
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When I was starting out in business I had a staff job with the duty of liaison with the IT department. My previous job was Sales Manager in Chicago. You can imagine, my first meeting with the team in IT. I was all enthused, waving my arms around, and describing big projects. They were all, “Excuse me I need to get back to my console.” All worked out eventually. I calmed down and they got enthused. We all ended up at the Conference Board giving talks on automated sales reporting. (This was pre PC days)
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People just have to find their common groove, John. I gave a number of talks over the years, but my proudest moment was a white paper about our emergency response process. I wasn’t as proud of the technology (an iPad app) as I was the fact that the SVP Lawyer in charge gave it her approval to be published. She was know for her “the best response is no response” attitude.
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I love those “made my day,” moments
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……………………………Then don’t do that.
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:-)
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OK. I have noticed this problem and damn I bet it has been happening on my blog and I didn’t know it. I saw that on several blogs the Like section says it’s loading so I would skip it and sometimes reload the blog page or like you say go to comment and then later noticed the Like section is now working. But maybe a lot of people do not wait for ‘like is loading’ to load and just leave. Thank you for pointing it out to the Happiness Engineers but this makes me a bit miffed, the problem, because I am paying for my blog(s) and expect as part of that fee my blog will work properly, like come on the Like button doesn’t work???!!! Isn’t a ‘like’ button pretty basic, geez! BTW this ‘like is loading’ issue is still happening this morning when I am reading other people’s posts. What is WordPress doing with the money they are collecting from everyone? if they are using volunteers to work on the site.
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The good news, Deborah is that they are working on it, both WP Engineers and volunteers. So far, one of the volunteers pointed out some aspects of the problems others had missed, so I’m ok with the paid and unpaid mix. It does seem like a basic feature, but, without writing another thousand-word post, I can say that it really is complicated. My experience is that, if you see that “loading” message for a more than a few seconds, you can wait forever, it won’t load until you refresh the page.
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I have seen the ‘like’ button loading and have commented but didn’t think to go back to like. I’ll be sure to check that next time. Thanks for leading the charge on getting it fixed. Boy, that pizza looked GOOD. :-)
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Thanks Judy. I’ve been paying a lot of attention to this lately. Some of the seemingly trivial observations have helped them make some progress.
That pizza really was very good.
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And all this time I thought it was me, my computer or my internet connection.
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WordPress to Norm: “it’s not you, it’s me.” :-)
I started out with the same assumption, until someone let me know they couldn’t “like” my post. That’s when I realized there was something else going on.
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I just posted that I can’t comment on anything today. I am not tech savvy, I have a hard time reading directions to figure out solutions, but the happiness engineers just repeat the same email response–it’s a free site. I now have a pull down ad on top, one or two in the middle and two on the bottom. I think they are trying to drive me into buying my site. Someone said they have no ads because of an ad blocker. I have three of supposed best ones on my phone and they don’t work. It’s so frustrating. Now this. Tiring! I tried your comment first, like later but doesn’t work either. Maybe my iPad is too old, wifi too slow or, or, or….😂
Sent from Yahoo Mail for iPad
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I have been noticing more ads on sites recently. I’m not sure what they’re doing, or why they are ramping it up. One ad, I might look at it. If there are 4 or 6 on the page, I’m just going to ignore them all.
Even if it’s a free site, you’re providing content on which to place their ads, so I think they owe you a working site.
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I’ve heard that extrovert joke told about Finnish people, who I guess are really deadpan.
Lately I’ve found that the only browser on which all software works properly is Chrome, because I think that’s the only one they actually test (oh, and Internet Exploder). Anything else and it’s a shot in the dark.
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Exactly, John. A lot of developers I know only test on Chrome. I have one friend who tests on every browser and even older versions of certain browsers because he knows people in some companies can’t process their own updates.
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Thanks for the tips on commenting and then liking…..I have seen the like button issue along with eliminating a “like” after reloading the page…….and on the bright side….seeing the pizza reminded me I am late for lunch!!!
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Late for lunch, oh my, Kirt. Tend to that right away. More and more people are mentioning seeing this issue.
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Thanks, Dan. I’m having problems on a few blog sites liking the post. The button appears, but won’t let me connect. I can make a comment. Hopefully this will be fixed. One day I might fully understand one of your Monday techy posts. 🙂
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Thanks Jennie. I’m trying to learn how to make these easier to understand.
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You’re doing fine. If I get over 50%, that’s not too bad. 😀
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Thank you for taking one for the team, Dan – your perseverance shall pay off. Have you noticed if there is a connection with the website’s hosting company at all? Bluehost…? I noticed that the WP Socializer plugin has issues too. At least you’re able to post, which is a really great thing! I’d miss your posts and pictures for sure if you couldn’t!
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I’ve been trying to figure out if it’s related to self-hosted, but I see the problem on some sites that I know aren’t self-hosted.
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Randomness is frustrating when it comes to figuring out computer problems. :-(
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I’m one of those people who doesn’t really care how it works as long as it works. Thanks for sharing the timely waiting process it takes to get things to work like they’re supposed to. Patience is not one of my virtues.
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That’s how technology should work, Sandi. It should just work. I’ll keep working at this, but I won’t turn in daily updates. I do have one more on Wednesday, but it’s on the other issue.
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Looking forward to it.
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Testing your plan of action here. I’ll comment first, then try to like you. That sounds rather forward, doesn’t it? I’m using Safari. I’ve been *talking* with the Happiness Engineers about this, and as I mentioned in a previous comment, not getting any clear solution to this problem. Ok, here goes…
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And it didn’t work. I tried to like you, really I did. I hope the HE make it to my blog to correct this situation. [You told them to, right?] I used to enjoy blogging and commenting, but lately so difficult…
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I am sorry, Ally. You just mentioned the reason I am trying to get this resolved, I want blogging and following blogs to be fun. I love reading your posts and those of the others I follow. I don’t want it to be work.
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Me neither! Thanks for trying. Ever onward, eh?
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Loved your gallery, Dan. WP. Oh man I got the scare of my life the other day. I could not get on my blog whatsoever. When I tried to get support, I could not log in. I was completely locked out. I didn’t know what to do. Hours went by and I could not get on. I even downloaded Chrome but no, I still could not load my blog. Between what you have been writing about and what I went through, WP really needs to pay attention or else there is going to be an uprising. I still am having trouble not being able to stay online with my blog. I get kicked off. It is extremely irritating!
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I’ve had that problem in the past, Amy. Last summer I got a message that my username at WrodPress didn’t exist! I do hope they get these problems resolved soon.
Thanks for your kind words about the pictures.
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I can’t see Smokey and I’m wearing my strongest readers! It’s the darn Chromebook, Dan. It’s just too small.
Today, legit, today, after working at my job 50 weeks, I discovered that if I input the differences in the adjustments and payments boxes the amount in red becomes the charged amount and then once that’s entered, it zeroes out. This saves me very little time, but it saves me not adding a lot or checking and rechecking to make sure it zeroes, which makes me a happier employee. I just happened to forget to enter the charge. I found this by making a mistake. Really did learn from that mistake. Nice, but makes me wonder what else could be simpler. I guess I’ll make more mistakes and find out.
I’m glad they’re workin yer bug :)
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Smokey is a black little blob. I’ll point him out tomorrow.
Sometimes, errors do lead us to finding stuff that’s hidden in the system, and they certainly have led us to build in new features or add error-control mechanisms. It’s funny that you just noticed it.
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I was able to Like your post via my computer, but I can’t Like anyone’s post on my iPad or iPhone. I have no idea why and it’s hard to explain what happens when I try (I get “flippy” screens when I click on it). This has been going on pretty much forever so I’ve given up. Good luck with your quest!
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Thanks Janis. The problem seems to be much more widespread than I realized when I started this quest. I hope they can figure this out soon. It’s such an important part of the process, it should be easy and reliable.
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I did not realize WordPress is Open Source. It makes so much sense to me now. My son Rob, who was a software engineer (now he is a computer science professor at Oregon State University) is a big promoter of open source software. It was Rob who suggested WordPress to me when I said I wanted to start a blog and it was he who helped me get everything set up.
His social skills are nothing to brag about, by the way! :)
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Aw, I’m laughing at your last comment. We’ll just chalk that up to mom’s prerogative. WordPress is a strange animal. People who are self-hosting (like I do for our company website) are running the open-source software from WordPress.org. Those of us on a free or premium plan are hosted at WordPress.com. In the later case, we can have our own custom domain, or we can publish under MyBlogName.wordpress.com – those sites, are not having the problem with the Like button, only the sites with custom URLs.
WordPress.com sites (I think) are always running the latest version of the underlying software. People who self-host have to upgrade the software they are running when a new version is released. To get the features that WP.com includes, self-hosting folks can add the Jetpack plugin. Self-hosting is a bunch of work, managing plugins, versions, backups, etc.
All in all, it’s easy to understand why chasing down this error is complicated. I’m sure your son would understand.
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I’m sure he would too. I just have a free site. I’m not sure if self-hosting would be worthwhile for me.
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I can’t imagine it being worth it, but I have an institutional bias
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Hey Dan! Sorry it took so long to get to my comment. I read this as I was walking through the door to go to work yesterday and anything after that is a blur. We all appreciate your diligence in trying to get some resolution on these problems. I know you have a full time job and family that needs your attention as well as R&R time (research and refreshment). 😀While I never got a second test comment from your Happiness Engineers, I have been getting more Likes and Follows than I have in at least two years! Something has shifted most certainly. I know I have trouble liking posts that aren’t WP but at least once this week I had trouble with the Like showing up when I was trying to like a post of yours. I believe it was when I was using the ipad. Often I attribute it to not being signed in but sometimes it doesn’t matter. It happens on Jill Dennison’s blog, Pam’s and Kate’s primarily. The page just keeps reloading. I have not had an issue with commenting that I can recall. Except on Sharukh’s site, but that is a whole other issue. I can’t even see his images.
Anyway, I love your reflection photos, especially the last one. And yes, I see Smokey up there, like a bit of dark shadow…Happy Spring arrival!
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Thanks Cheryl. This has been more of a frustrating experience (living with the error) than work trying to fix it. I make notes when I run into the problem,hoping to find some pattern. If I see something interesting in those notes, I pass it along. The time between contact with the engineers is usually a day or two. I just hope they can figure this out.
I’m glad you found Smokey and I’m glad you like that last photo (that’s my fav).
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Interesting. I’ve never had a problem with the “like” button, but at least now I’m ready if I ever do. I like that IT joke!
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Do you use Chrome? There are no problems with Chrome, only Firefox and Safari. Thanks!
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Horsefeathers, Dan. I had no idea WordPress was open source… that just gave me a huge case of the heebie jeebies! The system has been incredibly slow to respond when I’m at other blogs — along with the usual, and oft changing collection of problems.
Dang! That is one good looking pizza. Just when I gave myself a moratorium on getting delivery. (shakes head) I try to choose my battles, and I think I’ve already lost that one. LOL. Have a great rest of the week. Mega hugs!
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Thanks for stopping by, Teagan. Automatic (the parent of WordPress) still controls much of the development, but yes, it’s an open source project in many ways. It’s OK, sometimes, that leads to better solutions.
Thank pizza was so good. I just finished two slices that were leftover, for lunch today. This week should get better. Today is already better than yesterday – I like the trend.
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Thank you for sharing your expertis, insights and photos of pizza and Corona. This makes a great all around post 💛
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Thanks Val. It takes more than tech-support to make the world go around ;-)
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[…] third…OK, I guess I had three reasons. Combining them would have made for a very long post, and Monday’s post was already too […]
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I love the reflection and the drops on plants! Also the progress that you’ve made but I’m not surprised. You’re that kind of guy, effective. Obviously in the right line of work. I wish there were more like you. As for looking at shoes – ha!
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Thanks so much, Manja.
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It could be the problem isn’t with WP at all. I had switched from Firefox to Chrome over two years ago because there were too many unexplained crashes with Firefox. Therefore I’m not having any issues with your blog, obviously. Chrome isn’t perfect by any means. I miss being able to change the look of my browser and there were a few more alternatives with how the tabs work in Firefox. But I’m not switching back because I like being able to stay online without all the hitches.
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It definitely is related to the browser, but it also has something to do with WP’s little tracking widget that they use to gather the statistics about likes, and reblogs. I would like to stay with Firefox, but I’d be willing to switch to Chrome. However, I’m not willing to switch from Safari on my iPad, and I’m having the same problem there. I have a different problem on my phone with the Like button, so I think WP needs to do some research on this.
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[…] Last week, I dragged you guys into the bowels of my technical support journey with the WordPress Happiness Engineers. Along the way, I offered some hope that the future wouldn’t hold too many of those technical travelogues: […]
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[…] and never had a blog, the ‘twilight zone.’ Around the same time another blogger friend, Dan Antion, was posting about glitches on WordPress, like the ‘comment’ section not working. I […]
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