Jesus Creed

Note from Beliefnet About Commenting

Friday November 21, 2008

Dear Jesus Creed Readers,

Last week at Beliefnet we implemented a small change to our blog commenting system - you now have to confirm that you are  a real person, and not a spammer, by typing in a few characters of text upon submitting your comments. This change was necessary in order to curtail the amount of spam that many of our blogs have been receiving in the comments area. We know that some of you have experienced problems with the new system. We are quickly making changes to address the issues you have reported--including extending the period before it times out, better messaging about how to post, and instructions for how to retrieve your post if it appears lost.

We hope those changes help. Let us know if there are other changes you recommend. Thank you for your patience.

Beliefnet
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Comments
MatthewS
November 22, 2008 2:35 PM
http://bobbyorr.wordpress.com

Thanks for the update. There is a thing called "learning resistance" where people usually tend to wish the new thing was more like the old thing - it's a constant problem in software - people always push back when you change and make things different. I have tried to remind myself of this and not complain too much.

The basic scenario for me used to be:
1) Click the link to see the entire post and all comments.
2) Type in a comment and submit. The fields would remember my name and information from past comments.

The basic scenario now is:
1) Click the link the read the whole post.
2) Click the link to read all comments. But now I can't see the whole post. Usually I have to click again to see the post, and then again to see the comments (although RJS's suggestion to use two tabs, one for post and one for comments would help with this.)
3) Type in a comment, remembering to enter my name and info. ctrl-A, ctrl-C to copy my comment.
4) Captcha says I typed it in wrong. Go back and try again. Comment munged, so I will paste what I had copied.
5) Type new captcha and submit comment, forgetting to re-enter name and information. Post is submitted under "Your Name."

I have benefited greatly from JesusCreed and have not paid one dime. I realize it takes a lot of time and effort and I am truly very grateful for it. I feel like Beliefnet is trying to coerce me to click more often so that their ad view counts go up. Why else should I have to click to see post, then comments, then post, etc.? But perhaps it is a fair price to pay.

I don't intend this comment as a complaint. I am just trying to quantify one person's experience with the new as compared to the old, in case it can be of any help for the beliefnet folks in understanding where some of the JesusCreeders might be coming from.

RJS
November 22, 2008 3:02 PM

MatthewS

Both Safari and Mozilla Firefox on my PC now remember my name - but IE7 does not.

IE7 also does not show the calendar in the sidebar while both Safari and Mozilla Firefox both do. (A nice feature on this site actually if you want to return to an old post.)

My new procedure is avoid IE7 - and stick with one of the other browsers.

Diane
November 22, 2008 3:03 PM

Oh Matt complain! There is a time to complain and not to complain ... I realize I sounded threatening above, which wasn't my intent, but now I think "I'll take my business elsewhere" isn't a bad thing to say when we're dealing with a business entity like Beliefnet that is profting from us ... not that I'm angry about the economic meltdown and all the groups that have taken the money and run or anything like that ... that wouldn't be angelic would it? :) I want to be as far off the grid as I can right now and now I'm on the grid via Beliefnet ... my dilemna: Scot or off the grid, Scot or off the grid. Scot is winning thus far, but no, not happy ... Anyway, you describe my posting problems well, except that I also suffer from the endlessly rotating beach ball problem that seems to come up everytime I click ...

phil_style
November 24, 2008 11:59 AM
http://www.virtuphill.blogspot.com

I run an older verion of IE at work (6, I think) and it remembers my details. At home I run Firefox and that remembers me too.

the new system is a little more complex for me, but not worth giving up on my daily J.Creed visits!

Dianne P
November 24, 2008 4:41 PM

Amen Amen to Matthew S.

I haven't been hanging out here nearly as much, due to the awkwardness of not being able to simultaneously read the post and the comments...
and
I haven't posted here at all b/c when I finally was able to have the time AND patience (good grief, both at once!) to read through the blog post and all the comments and write a semi-coherent one myself, I got an error message and it disappeared into the black hole of blog-o-land.

Doubly frustrating that I'd already read the warning to copy before clicking "post", and of course, I forgot. Arggghhh. Admittedly, I am an old dog and new tricks don't come easily.

I suspect there are new post-ers here since beliefnet expands the audience, and I also suspect that I'm not the only oldie who is posting way less often b/c of these issues. I think I understand why Scot wanted to switch over to this site and I appreciate all that he has given me/us over the years, but to be honest, I am frustrated.

And as I finally go to post, I see the frustrating message that "this captcha has expired". When I hit refresh, it took me to that old post that I referenced above. Good thing I remembered the "copy" feature. Argghhh..... Let's try one more time....

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About Jesus Creed

Scot McKnight is a widely-recognized authority on the New Testament, early Christianity, and the historical Jesus. He is the Karl A. Olsson Professor in Religious Studies at North Park University (Chicago, Illinois). A popular and witty speaker, Dr. McKnight has given interviews on radios across the nation, has appeared on television, and is regularly asked to speak in local churches and educational events. Dr. McKnight obtained his Ph.D. at the University of Nottingham (1986). Click to continue reading Scot McKnight's Bio...

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