Does our comment system work for you?

by Christopher Grant { Mar 21st 2008 at 7:00PM }

While no one on staff has reported any issues, we've noticed an increasing number of complaints from readers that our comment system is acting up, specifically the reply functionality and duplications. If you've had issues, we want to hear about them – in order to help us fix any potential problems, please let us know your browser version, your operating system version, and exactly what went wrong. If you've left comments with no issues, we'd like to hear that also. Sound off!

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 5)

Slayer @ Mar 21st 2008 7:02PM

I haven't had any problems so far.

3cubed minus 3squared plus1 @ Mar 21st 2008 7:48PM

I've never had a real problem. Once my computer was acting up and I pushed the button like three times so my comment showed up like three times. Everything is fine and I use Firefox.

JangoGod @ Mar 21st 2008 7:50PM

I'm testing the reply button, but I can't think of anything to say other than that this guy here has a awesome avatar.

Hala Madrid!!! SSBB Code:3866-7729-0830 @ Mar 21st 2008 8:09PM

This happens to me when I post or reply a comment in
PS3fanboy blog. I never get the e-mail and 10mins later my comment gets posted but no my reply's. But I don't have any problems with this blog

Mal F4cti0n @ Mar 22nd 2008 12:50AM

Ahhhh, I can reply to you Slayer.

Now I am going to page three and try to reply to t_m who said that you had to reply to the first poster in order to reply.

Superstar90 @ Mar 22nd 2008 7:41PM

Stop trolling, you have never even played Mario Kart Wii! Resistance is also wicked, and Halo is not over-hyped! OMG!

This comment did work, I was just bored.

COMMANDER-TROLL @ Mar 23rd 2008 12:10AM

yes it works

scotty @ Mar 21st 2008 7:03PM

My comments never appear!

GoldenS1104 @ Mar 21st 2008 7:13PM

Irony for the win.

Tiptup300 @ Mar 21st 2008 8:27PM

report ala the bug.

That's french for bug report.

RoboChamp @ Mar 21st 2008 9:06PM

3 Hearts make your post bold...

But has anyone ever gotten NO HEARTS!? What could possibly happen to the post!?
Oh Internet, you and your delicious mysteries....

Kye NFC: 7016 - 9552 - 1191 - 8991 @ Mar 22nd 2008 8:04AM

Ahh... The reply button, a sure-fire way to make sure your comment is on the first page regardless of when you joined the post. (unless there are 49 replies to the first post already)

Anywho, how many times do you have to be voted up or down in order to gain or lose half or a whole star?

NoTomorrow @ Mar 21st 2008 7:04PM

This comment did not work.

kavendano14 @ Mar 21st 2008 8:39PM

This suit is NOT BLACK

ThornedVenom (Harley Quinn Defense Force) @ Mar 21st 2008 10:01PM

Ceci n'est pas un Joystiq.

ArtVandolay @ Mar 22nd 2008 2:30PM

This suit is black not!

Jagzi11a @ Mar 24th 2008 1:10PM

The Cake is a lie!

DangerMouse @ Mar 21st 2008 7:04PM

I love to blame the system when i screw up (stick it to teh man :-p), but i think it's more to do with a mistake on my own part. Clicking the wrong reply button or forgetting to undo one i had already clicked. It seems to work fine most of the time.

Korova @ Mar 21st 2008 11:04PM

Agreed. My impression is that most complaints have to do with people replying to the wrong post or forgetting to press the reply button when wanting to reply to a specific post.

Maybe that could be solved by displaying the full post one actually is replying to right above the "Add your comments" box in addition to the line "replying to UserName [Undo]". That way it would be obvious when I type my comment if the post is wrong or if there is no post at all.

Another request I frequently see is for an edit button. While it is a nice idea for fixing typos, I am against it on balance. Editing will break the conversational flow that is so enjoyable about Joystiq. I frequently read and join conversations that started hours ago, and an edit button will either make it impossible to follow or introduce bickering about changes to earlier posts made in response to later objections.

An edit system that would mark changes (cross out the deleted and bold the addition) would not break the continuity of conversations (unless used more than once), but I dont know if it is technically feasible. It would still make it more difficult. And the typos dont bother anyone really. They are kind a funn.

Mr Khan @ Mar 22nd 2008 12:58PM

nah, its buggy, but not too badly. Sometimes when I click reply it just refreshes the page then sends my down to the add comments box, although i usually have the presence of mind to make sure I don't mess up

Joe P @ Mar 21st 2008 7:04PM

Mine are fine *shrugs*

A-Troll-Named-Slickback (Yes the A Troll Named part, and yes every time!) @ Mar 21st 2008 7:05PM

I want points for sarcasm, all to enlarge mah Epenis!

A-Troll-Named-Slickback (Yes the A Troll Named part, and yes every time!) @ Mar 21st 2008 7:06PM

Oh and...

a helicopter and a bag o' cash!

MarkHawk @ Mar 21st 2008 7:14PM

error above this comment due to name.

KeenCommander @ Mar 21st 2008 7:06PM

No problems here.

hvnlysoldr @ Apr 12th 2008 6:34PM

Yes I'm happy you changed your avatar.

What? I am.

Markez @ Mar 21st 2008 7:07PM

Once in awhile the reply just doesn't work right, and creates a whole new comment altogether. In which case usually the poster makes a new comment and goes "STFU self, oh snap you just posted a new comment LOLZ". Often they might also comment on their own new post. It's beautiful, really.

Can usually be avoided if you look above where you type in a comment for the 'Reply to' thing, just doesn't show up sometimes.

Oh, and your console of choice is of inferior quality in comparison to my console of choice.

zelderman @ Mar 21st 2008 7:46PM

No my console of choice is suppior to yours, unless your console of choice is my console of choice and we both agree that everyone else's console of choice is inferior to our console of choice, unless their console of choice is our console of choice, then we can all agree that the Atari 5200 is actually teh best console EVAR. Hurray for the interwebnetz. And LOLCats...

Markez @ Mar 21st 2008 8:41PM

ATARI 5200?! You silly noobz, that is surely the inferior console to the Intellivision. You deserve to be hit on the head with a paddle.

If you're into LOLcatz and papercraft you can even go make your own, this dude has a cool site with instructions on it: http://bp1.blogger.com/_LSGnycsyeI4/R9h7i4jkaSI/AAAAAAAAARQ/tyFGdJo6mu0/s1600-h/ceiling_cat.jpg

And Joystiq, please just say NO to some of the 'favorite poster' crap I've read on some of these comments. While usually well-spoken whilst backing up many of his arguments, if I had to deal with any more of Fernando Rocker I might have to ban myself from videogame websites forever. No offense, pal.

Barnacle I say!

driven2sin @ Mar 21st 2008 10:23PM

5200 was the best - the free flowing joystick was great in the baseball game and that chopper game

anyway i think the reply system takes half of the replies and creates random anti-sony posts

Slaziman @ Mar 21st 2008 7:08PM

They are usually user errors, but profile 0 is a bit weird :S

hvnlysoldr @ Apr 12th 2008 6:40PM

I prefer to call Profile 0 as MissingNo. Because it steals your comment duplicating your item and messes with your Hall of Fame/Comment History. Also because 0 in this case would be a Missing Number profile.

Leo @ Mar 21st 2008 7:10PM

I can't log in on my user page, the password supplied via email is said to be incorrect.

I call shenanigans

Cal @ Mar 21st 2008 7:22PM

Same here (reply to Leo)

I'm pretty sure the only time I got it to work was in... IE =O!!!

Sarah @ Mar 21st 2008 10:27PM

Yeah I tried to log into my user page yesterday and it said my password was incorrect too, so I double checked did it again, and then it locked me out completely saying I had tried too many times.

Croove55 @ Mar 22nd 2008 3:33AM

Same here. It works for making comments just fine, but I can't get to my console. Which kind of sucks, since I really want to change my avatar.

GoldenS1104 @ Mar 21st 2008 7:12PM

Some times when I click the reply button, it brings me down to the box where I can type my comment, but it doesn't say "You are replying to so and so." When that happens, I just scroll back up and hit reply again, and the message usually pops up, and my reply is successful. There have been a few occasions where I should have clicked a second time, but I didn't notice I didn't get the message. In those cases, my reply was unsuccessful and the comment was posted on its own. One of those times, however, it made my comment stand on its own at first, but then correctly replied the way I wanted it to about 10 minutes later. It's rather inconsistent.

GoldenS1104 @ Mar 21st 2008 7:16PM

I think I figured out a consistent pattern for why this happens. I just attempted to reply to some one elses comment after making my original stand alone comment and it gave me the problem I described above. Then, while replying to my own comment, I got the problem again. I think the replying problem only happens when I've already made a comment.

GoldenS1104 @ Mar 21st 2008 7:23PM

I know this probably seems like an abuse of the comment system, but I just did another test. This is how I can make the problem occur every time:

1. Post a Comment (It can be a reply or a stand alone comment)
2. Now that the page has re-loaded, try to reply to some one, it won't let you until you click reply a second time.

It seems it only happens when you try to reply directly from the page that just loaded your new comment. If you go to any other page inbetween posts, the reply system should work fine, otherwise, you'll encounter the problem.

Markez @ Mar 21st 2008 7:27PM

Someone give this man a complimentary Intellivision for his hard work unearthing these truthitudes.

aristokrat @ Mar 21st 2008 8:17PM

I've noticed this especially when you post a reply but are then loaded to the last page in the comments, which doesn't contain your actual post. Seems like the comment code in the URL not matching the actual comment causes a few problems.

Korova @ Mar 21st 2008 11:13PM

Which browser you youse GoldenS1104?

I use Firefox for Mac (auto updated) and never had this problem. Please post browser info.

Vagn Henning @ Mar 22nd 2008 6:44AM

GoldenS1104's conjecture sounds extremely plausible to me... I've had my replies show up as stand-alone comments on several occasions. I'm using - wait for it - IE7.

GoldenS1104 @ Mar 23rd 2008 12:51AM

I'm using IE7.

Chameleon @ Mar 21st 2008 7:12PM

meh, i guess ...

might proclaim my love from the top of a tall building with the addition of an edit or delete button though ....

Korova @ Mar 21st 2008 11:16PM

No to edit and delete button (see my long comment above).

Well, ok,maybe only if your comments does not have any replys than its ok to edit or delete, but that would be hard to do cause someone might be replying while the author is deleting.

So NO to edit and reply. That will really break Joystiq!

Chameleon @ Mar 22nd 2008 9:01AM

hmmm, point taken ....

Neebs @ Mar 21st 2008 7:13PM

The duplicate comment is when you accidentally double click I believe. Sometimes replies do have problems.

deaftly (Brawl - 1075-0467-4222) @ Mar 21st 2008 7:13PM

Once in a while after you make a comment it will take you to a blank page, people then press the back button and resubmit the same comment, hence the double comments. Thats about all the problems I have, which is rare.

embassy @ Mar 21st 2008 7:21PM

yup what he said, also the no-responsive "Reply button" thingy too, sometimes when you click reply it doesnt actually link to the person you were replying too, which in some instances can make your post drop 2 pages from the guy you were replying too.

also a blank page under the article, i think its becuase the comments didnt load correctly or something, but i see that from time to time as well, especially after i make a comment, it'll take me back to the article with a nothing but whitespace underneath, no comments.

im using IE 7 on vista basic

for the amount of traffic i assume joystiq gets the site holds up pretty well for the most part.