Blog testers needed - please!

norvic · **Posted:** Tue Jan 24, 2012 00:48:19 am

I'm not sure that this is the right forum, although it is about stamps, and isn't about 'technical matters affecting the board'. I'm sure Mods will move it if they can find somewhere better.

Some readers are having trouble with out blog - http://norphil.blogspot.com/

Google's blogspot uses many different templates but most blogs have the facility to leave comments and read the comments of others. These may be moderated and so not appear immediately, but the facility is there.

Two readers, using Windows and Internet Explorer have reported problems with the 'comments' link. Clicking on the word comments does open a new window or tab, but no comments are visible and no new comment box appears. The hourglass kicks in and keeps twirling.

I tested the system using both Firefox and Safari on the Mac and all is well. I also looked at other blogs on the blogspot platform (see lower right side of our blog for a list of others). Some of these use a different comment interface, but for those that use the same sort of interface (none others use the same template), there are no problems seeing comments. The caller who triggered this plea tried one of the others (Somerset Postal History) and was able to see the new comment box.

So if anybody with an idle moment would like to test our blog as shown above on any op system and any browser, and report back here, I would much appreciate it. Beware that this may hang your browser, so clearing the decks of anything important and using a new window/tab might be advisable.

At the top of the page is >> next blog which is random, and would provide the facility to check out whether any faults found on ours also exist on others. When I have more evidence I will go to google and report the problem, or find out if anybody else has experienced it.

Many thanks!

Global Administrator · **Posted:** Tue Jan 24, 2012 00:58:43 am

Worked fine on FF Ian.

norvic · **Posted:** Tue Jan 24, 2012 01:11:37 am

Thanks, it really is a puzzle. Both reported problems were with IE, and as that is the most-used browser it is worrying!

GlenStephens · **Posted:** Tue Jan 24, 2012 01:16:23 am

Yes on IE it gets nowhere, as per your other reports.

mikey1327 · **Posted:** Tue Jan 24, 2012 02:48:55 am

Using IE8 and windows XP. If there are 0 comments I can open and preview comments, I didn't try posting a comment. If there are comments already it just hangs up.

norvic · **Posted:** Tue Jan 24, 2012 03:36:49 am

Thanks to all the replies so far - and apologies for not getting back sooner. I've not had any emails from stampboards for 2 days, I suspect this is something to do with the new system.

Time being the enemy of us all I shall get over to google.... some time.... to see what blog failure reports they've had.

Draccae · **Posted:** Tue Jan 24, 2012 04:57:27 am

It's good on safari via iOS.

peterh · **Posted:** Tue Jan 24, 2012 05:28:50 am

Using IE8 and Windows XP SP3: If there were 0 comments I was able to post a comment. If there were comments already it froze.

Using Firefox on same OS - everything appears to be fine.

norvic · **Posted:** Tue Jan 24, 2012 07:29:45 am

Thanks again. There have now been a selection of comments on my test blog, which demonstrate that some people using IE have no problem, while others do. And for some, as here, it may depend on whether there have already been any comments. All will be forwarded to google blog-help

makielb · **Posted:** Tue Jan 24, 2012 08:04:02 am

Hi Ian-

Seems to work fine an a MacBook Pro using Google Chrome.

norvic · **Posted:** Tue Jan 24, 2012 08:24:43 am

Yes IE certainly seems to be the problem, but not all IE users have it.

jugoslavija_post · **Posted:** Tue Jan 24, 2012 08:46:01 am

I tested it using IE8 with Vista 64-bit.

I only noticed two things:

-The "front page" seems way too red;
-the quoted text, (such as the Royal Mail quotes) are very tiny.

(A shameless plug, but add a small stampboards logo to the link at the bottom. :mrgreen:

)

Allanswood · **Posted:** Tue Jan 24, 2012 10:17:30 am

I'm not used to blogs but had a look and clicked the comments, no problem, read them (8). Then tried to add a comment and typed away but it would not take my comment.

Exited, closed IE, went back and tried again. Now it hangs (freezes) each time I click the comments link on the opening page blog, so can't see or read any of them.
IE7 with Win XP Pro.

I'll try the same PC and use Firefox....
Using XP Pro and FF 7.01 went back, left a comment and exited. Went in again and can still read the comments, but not my own (time delay?)

PS When trying the first time (before it hung itself), to leave a comment in IE7, it would not give me a choice of profile so I couldn't leave any comments.

PPS - Went back in with IE7. Cannot link to the comments pages at all it just freezes. But on the opening page of the blog site my system now says there is an "error on the page", but I can't see what it is.

norvic · **Posted:** Tue Jan 24, 2012 20:05:18 pm

Thanks again everybody.

Those who can see the comments on the 'please test this and leave comments' post will see a variety of op systems and platforms reported by those who got there, so I can only leave it to google to work out, if indeed it is their problem.

Eric - yes, the quotes in red ARE too small and something I shall adjust. Trouble is if I default to Times, and then use quotes in Arial or verdana at the same pt size, the text comes out bigger - something I don't want. If i go down to the next possible size, it is too small. Doh!

kerailija · **Posted:** Tue Jan 24, 2012 23:24:02 pm

@Ian... As far as I can tell, the situation is related to some JavaScript code on the page. If I disable JavaScript from my browser (IE9), all works well. If JavaScript is on, then it freezes.

norvic · **Posted:** Wed Jan 25, 2012 00:18:54 am

Thank you; still no come back from google as to what the problem might be

norvic · **Posted:** Wed Jan 25, 2012 00:38:10 am

While I have a test area I'm testing the User Control Panel as well!

Switched off signature, and that worked ok.

Global Administrator · **Posted:** Wed Jan 25, 2012 01:02:37 am

Don't we all LOVE technology. :mrgreen:

norvic · **Posted:** Wed Jan 25, 2012 01:09:01 am

Yes, and now I've changed my email address the board notifications are coming through again. But I'm receiving emails from other sources to the old address, so I have no idea why I wasn't getting them before that.

Draccae · **Posted:** Wed Jan 25, 2012 01:11:29 am

norvic wrote:

Thank you; still no come back from google as to what the problem might be

They probably screwed up a script.

norvic · **Posted:** Wed Jan 25, 2012 20:05:41 pm

My son has provided a comprehensive response to this which may explain the difficulties:

John Billings wrote:

Google do not support the following browsers in their apps, which may well include blogger:

- Microsoft Internet Explorer 7
- Mozilla Firefox 3.5
- Apple Safari 3″

And I would assume any lesser versions are implied as also unsupported.

Microsoft itself stopped supporting IE6 early last year - and has a website dedicated to killing it off.. anyone still using this browser should certainly upgrade to a newer version or IE for their own safety. http://www.ie6countdown.com/

Differences reported with IE9 working for some and not for others could be accounted for by IE9 tripping into 'compatibility mode' which is supposed to mirror IE8 but in reality creates a sort of halfway house between 8 and 9, and isn't guaranteed to act like either.

Also, fine for me Mac OS X 10.6, Chrome 16.0.912.77

GlenStephens · **Posted:** Wed Jan 25, 2012 21:09:33 pm

Well I bought a heavily featured $2000 laptop last year and that had IE7, so anything not supporting that is nuts!

norvic · **Posted:** Wed Jan 25, 2012 21:12:20 pm

GlenStephens wrote:

Well I bought a heavily featured $2000 laptop last year and that had IE7, so anything not supporting that is nuts!

Given that IE8 was released in 2009, I'm surprised you managed to find a laptop with IE7 at any price.
Old technology Glen, probably why it was so cheap :lol:


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