Blog Directory

It's pretty easy to use. Thanks.

By the way, on some of the blogs we are getting error messages when we try to make a comment.

Sandra,
Can you point me in the direction of a blog that is getting an error message?

Chris,

Thanks for noticing "The Eagle's Quill" blog and my reference to Evansville.

I grew up in Evansville, and later lived in CA for 16 years where I heard great radio with Prager and then Hewitt. I now teach engineering at the University of So. Indiana.

Thanks for your work in making this all happen!

Glen Kissel
University of So. Indiana
Evansville, IN

Thanks, Chris:

The site: sheilafrush.townhall.com has been showing the error message for two days now. Also, just today a message that Sheila left on my blog changed to California Dreamin comments and then link goes to her blog. Before, the comment would state Sheila Frush says. I noticed that on several other blogs where she had commented also changed to California Dreamin. Her site makes no reference at all to California Dreamin. So, something has gone wrong.

I'm Californiadreamin/Sheila Frush!*** Sandra Wise emailed you about my problem with the comment line.

I changed my nickname a couple of times trying to decide on "Zorro" or "Californiadreamin", so there isn't a problem with that. I did change it back to "Sheila" without my last name.

I haven't been able to comment on about half of the blogs today, and I couldn't comment on my blog either when I tested it, so that problem was occurring earlier. I haven't checked it tonight.

Thanks,

Sheila Frush

Ok, we're looking in to the commenting issue. I'll try to have that fixed for you today.

We appreciate your work in getting the comments problem corrected!

But suggestions:
1. I think serious blogs are eventually boring, and I'd like to share humor as others doubtless do also. You need a humor category. Also just a misc category. Maybe Trivia. History?

2. I suspected this corner of the site existed but it isn't obvious to new bloggers. You might put a message on everyone's blog input page about where to find it. Maybe it is there and I missed it.

3. Finally, occasionally my blog posts turn to black on blue, which I find hard to read. Am I doing something?

I'll forward on your suggestions to the decision makers. As far as the black on blue thing, I'm having a hard time reproducing that bug. If you manage to make it happen again, can you tell me how/what you did?

I am not doing anything except leaving my blog management window open all the time. Your program crashed one time this week, but I don't remember which post I was writing.

Did you notice that it happens every third post? Ran a test. It didn't happen.

When I write a post, I do the writing, then do a spell check, then publish. I might then go back and change a word or two--I will watch to see if that makes it go blue.

Just added two words on 3d post. Nothing happened. You got me.

This time it was a short post, so length is not an issue.

Once again, it happened on the third post. You have some kind of inadvertant counter going.

I decided to delete the post for personal reasons (wife might be all over me if she had seen it), but it was black on blue.

Hopefully, the problem is gone.
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Have you folks thought about color coding the blogs in the directory based on the date of last input or activity.

You have a lot of empty blogs or blogs with just one entry 45 days ago.

Chris:

There are several blogs that have been sitting on the main blog page now for at least over hour. I posted a new blog "Where are the Headlines? a couple of hours ago and it never showed up.

Chris: There are several blogs that have been sitting on the main page for a couple of hours. I posted one that never got mention.

I posted it with the title "Oops, never mind" and then immediately change the title to "Where are the Headlines?

The title keeps going back to the first title a few seconds after a make the change. I can't get the change to stick.

Sheila Frush of One Eighty has 21 comments and was in 5th place and has been replaced with someone with 14 comments.

My mistake. Disregard last comment. Thanks for all of your work. The What's Hot is a lot of fun.

The login system was running so slowly that while I eventually got to the sign in page and was able to input my data and password, the system wouldn't take it and a few minutes later would give me the sign in page again.

After about six hours of this, I went to bed and got up early to log in.

Since you to be logged in to make comments, there was no way to alert you folks that there was a problem.

Sorry I haven't been able to address your comments individually. I have read them though and am aware of the issues. We're working to resolve them.

Thanks again for your continuing feedback.

It droped out of the top five on What










Why

Whey did my essay "What is wrong with our schools" drop out of the top 5 of What's Hot?
It was in second place and now has 45 comments.

Thanks!

My blog, "What is wrong with our schools" was in 2nd place on Whats Hot and now has disppeared. IT has 45 comments.

OK. Now I understand. By the way, what is the deal with forwards? Could you explaing how they work?

Thanks for your response. Could you explain forwards - do they count more? I have a blog on Aug. 31 with 21 comments. The one in 5th place has 3 comments and 12 forwards.

Thanks again for all you do!

I sent one of my posts to a friend who I knew would be concerned with the issue. He didn't reply.

Tonight I tried sending a post to myself to ensure the system worked and I knew how it would arrive. I never got it.

I was afraid when I noticed this that you only intended to allow a total of 50 posts and the oldest would go away. That isn't what is happening. The counter is stuck at 50 but my oldest posts remain.

Yes, I know I got to 50 pretty fast, but I have been thinking about starting a blog for two years and have a file of subjects to write on. Legal ethics is particularly fertile, and totally unplowed soil.

If I am in the process of creating a post and I accidently hit the right mouse button, the window crashes and I get asked if I want to send Microsoft a report, which I do.

Btw, it appears that you got rid of the blue on black bug. Thanks.

If you folks have a permalink feature, I have yet to find it. However, I discovered a really good work-around. I do what I would do if I were going to make a comment, and link from the comments page. I discovered this when I wanted to link not to the post, but to the comment I had made.

I noticed this last week and didn't realize the implications: If I give a new set of eyes my blog address collandp.townhall.com, and he goes home and types that address into the address line of his browser, the "collandp" is cut off and he is sent directly to townhall.com.

If he types my whole address in again, the same thing happens. To get to my blog, he has to know its name, and the state it originates and figure out how to get to the blog directory.

Once he gets there and makes it a favorite, he can skip this stuff, but he has to get there.

This morning, I overheard a campaign staffer who likes my blog give its "address" to a state representative, just the kind of eyes I am seeking. As I was driving home, I realized that townhall's convoluted system almost guaranteed that, even though the representative has my blog's address, he can't get to it because he doesn't know its name.

I don't know if this is a programming error or it is a business decision. It could be either. If it is a business decision, it needs to be looked at and looked at quickly as it comes close to guaranteeing that 80% of the folks who hear about my blog and want to examine its contents won't be able to figure out how to get to it.

I don't know what I did wrong, but this afternoon I posted "Illegal Immigration - how will I vote? I went in to add a P. S. and then decided not to post it, but to save as a draft. Now it has dissappeared from my entry page and from my lists of posts. When you click on a comment that was made about it then it shows up. Can we get it back on the first page as a featured post? I don't know how to do that.

I made a big mistake. I posted a blog this afternoon "Illegal Immigration - how to vote."
I went in and tried to edit the post with a P.S. this afternoon, and decided not to post it but to save as a draft. Now the post has disappeared from my first page and a new post is there, the same one but with post date this evening. The link does not work. The original post is still there when you click on comments. Can we get it back on the entry page and get rid of the new post? I don't know how that happened. Sorry! Please let me know what to do. I have lots of comments on the post and don't want to lose them. Thanks so much.

I am sufficiently concerned about the "you can't get there from here" issue that I'd like to discuss it offline with you. You have my email address. Please send me an email with an email address that I can use.

Roadkill, Would you email me directly at josue@townhall.com. Let's get to the bottom of this--I'm confident I can help resolve the issue, as well as get any bugs up the engineers priority list as quickly as possible.

Email me: josue@townhall.com

Josue Sierra
Online Community Manager
Townhall.com

I will be permalinking to some of the black on blue posts from time to time, especially the one I used today (Whizbang). Can someone go in and clean those up, please?

Thanks for the help on the other problem

I am likely more trouble than I am worth, though I hope not.

My style is to write short, hopefully informative blocks of posts with the intention of eventually permalinking them together in another overarching post. When I permalink one of my own posts, I probably don't need an email from you folks telling me I have done so. I do want to know when others permalink my blog, so the feature is very useful.