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Saturday, April 4, 2020

UPDATED: Commenting Problems?

A regular commenter emailed me to tell me that his comments weren't appearing--when he hit "Publish" the comment disappeared but wasn't published.

I've turned off "word verification" to try to rectify the problem--that was recommended on a troubleshooting blog for Blogger.

However, it appears that some browser security settings may be the culprit if you're having a problem with comments. These are things many people may not even be aware of. For example:

* I read that commenters should have Third Party Cookies enabled on their browsers. I don't know why that should be the case--I'm only reporting what I read.
* Also, "cross-site tracking" should not be blocked in your browser settings. Again, this doesn't have anything to do with any settings on this blog that I'm aware of.

Has anyone else experienced problems of this sort?

Commenter Brad Crawford summarizes:

Mac OS 
Safari: must uncheck "prevent cross-site tracking"
Chrome: must uncheck "block 3rd-party cookies"
Firefox: works fine with or without cross-site tracking 
iOS
Safari: must uncheck "prevent cross-site tracking"
Chrome: seems there's no way to block tracking, so it always works
Firefox: works fine with or without cross-site tracking 
I've gone back and forth with each browser both on iphone and Mac, toggling tracking on and off, and the above results were the same every time. Haven't yet checked Windows or Android, but I doubt they're different.

38 comments:

  1. I am not experiencing any such problems.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Well, at any rate, maybe disabling word verification will have eliminated an annoyance. To be honest, I didn't realize I had it enabled and, since I moderate the comments, there really was no reason to enable it.

      Delete
  2. Yes. Occasionally. Just happened a moment ago.
    Bebe

    ReplyDelete
  3. Occasionally. And sometimes I can view and click on the requested items on the photo grid, other times it shows only a white field. I press on regardless and use the Oral word identification route. Once in a while the whole thing fails. If I hit a roadblock I usually copy my comment and paste it into type pad so that it will be there if I want to try again.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Has happened every time. I've stopped trying, but let's see today.

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  5. My comments always get published :-)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I could certainly count on my digits the comments I've not published. Hopefully, disabling the word verification will make it easier. I have to assume the problem had something to do with security settings on a browser.

      Delete
  6. The same thing was happening to me. Then I discovered I could publish comments if I used a different browser. I figured that it was just a browser issue. But your suggestion that it might have to do with cookie settings makes sense. I’ll check to see if that does the trick and let you know.

    ReplyDelete
  7. It turns out I had “cross-site tracking” blocked. I switched it back on and now I can publish in my usual browser.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Ah, that's another thing I noticed in my searches, but I forgot to add that. I'll update. Thanks again.

      Delete
  8. Testing from Firefox...

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  9. I have, but I reconciled that might point was not significant enough to approve.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. No, I only look for comments that are offensive.

      Delete
  10. testing from MS Edge.

    Problem occurs in Firefox browser; it skips the step after the first press of the "PUBLISH" radio button; instead of displaying the "Captcha" stuff to prove I'm not a 'bot, it skips straight to an empty comment box.

    Normally, it would display the "Captcha" checkbox, after completing, it would normally display the coment text with another PUBLISH radio button, which when pushed, completes the posting process.

    I just tried Firefox a few minutes ago, and it didn't work.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I approved your "Testing from Firefox..." and I responded to it--it's still visible--so it DID work. I've disabled the "word verification" so you shouldn't be seeing "Captcha" anymore.

      Delete
  11. I've had occasional problems in the past, but I always thought that it was on my end.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Either something in your browser settings, or possibly the "word verification" thing which I've now disabled.

      Delete
    2. I always ascribed it to our DSL speed, but I am far from an expert.

      Delete
  12. EZ's comment pushed me to make another comment. Sometimes Captcha doesn't fire up and my comment goes straight to the message that "Your comment will be visible after approval. I almost always use Firefox.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Captcha is disabled now, right? It's disabled in my settings now, so it shouldn't show up anymore.

      Delete
    2. Yes, thank you and it is very smooth.

      Something else that happens is if I fail to change "Reply as" from Google Account to Name/URL, and then I see my error, I lose my comments. If the comment is a longer one, I make sure to copy, just in case, so I don't lose all that effort.

      Delete
  13. Yup, it's working.

    The problem earlier, before you shut off "word verification," was that Firefox would not display the "Captcha" "Click here to prove you are not a robot" graphics, ans just deleted the comments entered in the comment box.

    Looks we are good to go know. Thanks!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I wasn't aware that I had that enabled--it doesn't show up for the blog author. When I searched I found a site that said that Captcha caused problems and should be turned off. Hopefully that and the security settings will cover all problems that people have encountered. Thanks for bringing it to my attention.

      Delete
  14. It is nice to 'talk' with you in real time.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Ha, well, I have back problems in many chairs, but my computer chair works well for me, so I spend time just reading in front of the computer. Which is what I'm doing now.

      Delete
  15. Ooops: "now," not "know."

    ReplyDelete
  16. This should help:

    Mac OS

    Safari: must uncheck "prevent cross-site tracking"
    Chrome: must uncheck "block 3rd-party cookies"
    Firefox: works fine with or without cross-site tracking

    iOS
    Safari: must uncheck "prevent cross-site tracking"
    Chrome: seems there's no way to block tracking, so it always works
    Firefox: works fine with or without cross-site tracking

    I've gone back and forth with each browser both on iphone and Mac, toggling tracking on and off, and the above results were the same every time. Haven't yet checked Windows or Android, but I doubt they're different.

    ReplyDelete
  17. Not to beat a dead horse, since now that you instituted the changes you made have resolved the problem I had, but the key point we do not know the answer to is this:

    I had for months had no problem with the "Captcha" utility intervening between the first and the final "
    "Publish" radio button pushes to post a comment, until about the first of the month, give or take a few days.

    The change you implemented was to deactivate the "Captcha" check.

    Thus, we still don't know why I was unable to post comments around the first of the month.

    I'm stipulating it is an entirely academic question, since deactivating "Captcha" is a "work-around" to the original problem.

    But it bugs me not knowing why things that had worked for months suddenly stopped working.

    Compounding my sleuthing challenge is the fact that Firefox went through an update, as did the Windows 10 OS on my pc, during the time fraem when the problem started.

    SO, it remains a mystery.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Perhaps the updates changed default settings?

      Delete
  18. HAving the saem problem sa before, it seems.

    When hit the first "Publish" radio button, all the text disappears.

    ReplyDelete
  19. Well, obviously it's working again, but it did eat a really important comment...

    grrr....

    ReplyDelete
  20. Testing again.

    Some stuff didn't go through Thursday. Concurrent with a Windows Update.

    ReplyDelete