Frustrations of The Challenge.

Tēnā koutou katoa
Welcome to you all

Please don’t get me wrong - I’m not posting this by way of criticism of The 31 Day Comment Challenge and certainly not of the sponsors.

Far from it! After all, the contest was put up as a challenge and it would be a poor one if it didn’t have its frustrations. I have no problems with The Challenge per se.

Catharsis

More by way of catharsis than anything else I've listed my frustrations over things that irked me about attempting to participate in the Challenge and finding all sorts of unanticipated barriers and problems. I’m sure most participants will have a similar list.

I’m also aware that some of these problems could well be just me, and as a few people would have it: I am the problem! Possibly. The set-up on my PC could also be a contributor, though I must admit that, until this month, I found few problems that caused me that much bother.

Here’s my list:

Share (isn’t that what it’s all about?) Fields

I had some problems initially, and from time to time these problems still arise, only less frequently now. The main one was getting the Share field to appear below the comment panel, believe it or not.

I found there were a few hocus-pocus tricks I could do to force the mercurial thing to materialise such as putting in the spam checker data (if that was required) or simply clicking the area on the screen immediately below the panel.

I also found the time that this routine took was irksome (but, since I first published this post, Christophe has kindly commented with a cornucopea of advice on this feature and other points, as well as recommendations on antispam software - great support, Christophe!)

Some blog sites simply don’t display a Share field and sit there indignantly going nya nya na nya nya!

When I come across one of those sites for the first time, I can spend a lot of valuable comment writing time figuring this out. Until I realise, oh yes, here’s another one. I have a Black List!

BUT the most frustrating sites are those that politely show the Share field AFTER I’ve decided to submit my comment in disgust at not being able to find it. Ugh!

Server Timed Out

I get this message infrequently with blogs of a certain type. I was curious about this when it first occurred so decided to do a few experiments to throw some light about. I sent a few comments from my work PC. I haven’t yet got the message at work, nor have I had any problem getting the comment submitted, though it is a recurrent bother with those sites at home.

Site Unavailable

I use Google Reader – it’s great. From time to time I see a new post on a blog and attempt to open it in a new tab only to be told that it’s unavailable or the tab simply hangs and can remain there (while I go about doing other things . . . forever). This is usually with a new post that I’ve read all the text of in Reader and am desperately wanting to send a comment to.

Blog sites that moderate comments

Sites of this description come in varying degrees of politeness. I also have descriptions I use for those, in varying degrees of politeness. There are those that let you know beforehand. On submitting a comment, some sites respectfully tell you that your comment was successfully received and may even display it under a moderation message. That’s tolerable, though the feed through to coComment doesn’t tell me if and when it’s accepted (at least I’ve not found the signal).

Then there are the sites that just tell you to wait as the comment has to be moderated before it’s displayed. Hmm.

But the most annoying are the sites that simply don’t tell you anything. You click the Submit button and Lo! The comment disappears into cyberspace, perhaps never to return. Some even have the audacity to have the message No Comment Yet appear at the base of the post. And I think, “no friggin’ wonder!”

Ka kite anō

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