Publisher at The American Bystander
is Blogmom of Hey Dullblog. His novels and parodies have sold 1.25 million copies in 25 languages. He lives in Santa Monica, CA, and runs The American Bystander all-star print humor magazine.
Latest posts by Michael Gerber (see all)
- Needed: Paid Research Assistant(s) for a Beatle Project - October 28, 2023
- From Faith Current: “The Sacred Ordinary: St. Peter’s Church Hall” - May 1, 2023
- A brief (?) hiatus - April 22, 2023
I write all my comments on my screen, in pen
Dullblogisti, in my mania to build an ever-better online clubhouse for Beatle-obsessives, I have installed a new commenting system. If you get a moment, could you help me test drive it?
- Leave a comment — See if it shows up, and is formatted correctly.
- Give a comment the thumbs up.
- Share a comment via Facebook or Twitter.
Thanks in advance. With the old system, I couldn’t follow who was replying to what and when. These days on Dullblog, that’s important. You are a voluble bunch.
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Comments and the spam filter
Call for Submissions!
Comment Policy
Folk feelings
Recent Comments
Our Comment Policy, and the Future of Dullblog
Eric Idle’s comments at George’s ceremony
“You, my pal, ROCK!”: Inspiration from the spam filter
Liverpool
Dullblog’s Top Posts of 2015
Twelve Apostles of Rock
Michael Gerber is the smartest, wisest, bestest Beatle blogger EVER. 🙂
And by the way O’ Great One, the videos that had been embedded are now only showing the html and not the actual screen shot.
Aw hell
I’m not a fan of the upvote/downvote option, for what that’s worth. I didn’t have a problem with the old comment interface, but if this one’s better overall for others I won’t complain.
Downvote’s removed, @Nancy.
I’d like to try it for a while, if only for my own interest. What kind of comments do people prefer? Hmmm I wonder
Thanks, Mike. On other boards I’ve seen the downvote used to, at least as I perceive it, punish those expressing less-popular views. Here on HD I think we mostly do a good.job of respecting others’ views even when we disagree.
.
In a cosmic way, I want to upvote everyone who contributes comments that are civil and honestly expressive of ideas. Without dissent, there’s no deep discussion.
Ditto that Nancy. If people have an negative opinion, I’d rather they write it. Otherwise it has the flavour of sniping and running.
Like where @Karen? I’m seeing a video of @Sam’s down below.
a video I posted of John being interviewed circa `75 (in the Staroskin thread I think.) It defaulted to a link. When I tried to post a vid, here, same thing. Hmm…
When only a partial amount of your comment shows, it defaults to a link. But when you click “read more” it switches to video.
Thanks HS–I’ll go give it a whirl.
I don’t have a ‘read more’ link Sam. I’ve tried embedding a vid from you tube, and what ends up there is the html code.
Like the Beatles, this site is always evolving.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gaGYA_KQIJU
If HeyDullblog is a microcosm of the Beatles’ career, I think we’ve entered our REVOLVER stage.
I think we just emerged from our RUBBER SOUL stage.
More evidence that this is the nicest blog in the world: upvotes, but no downvote option. I like the new design, comment system and font. I also find it uncanny that the little face next to my name looks exactly like me.
Over the years, I’ve read so much conjecture on Who Was The Fifth Beatle? I’ve always been interested in a different question: Who Was The First Beatle?
I linked to the Buddy Holly “You’re The One” song above because I’m the crank on this site who believes Buddy was the first Beatle. He was an artist (like Paul and John) who painted, did illustrations, designed a “crickets” logo, and intricately-tooled leatherwork for his first acoustic guitar. He was constantly moving forward creatively, never sticking with one sound. Produced other artists. Loved to play in the studio with double-tracking and other effects. (In an early demo, he ran his guitar through an organ amp and got a nice, unprecedented sound.)
In December of 1958, he was hanging out with his friends at a radio station. On a whim, he bet them he could write a song in thirty minutes. And he did: “You’re The One” which they recorded immediately after he won the bet. It was never released during his lifetime. It might not be the greatest thing (it lacks a magic LennonMcCartney middle eight) but it’s powerful in its own way.
I think Lennon, in one of his interviews, said that Buddy was “most like us” in intelligence and creativity, more so than Elvis or Gene Vincent or Little Richard.
I don’t see an option to add a photo, which makes me very sad since I have so, SO MANY great ones to share…
Can you drag and drop a photo into the comment box?
Lemme check, Sam… (“Replies” to your comment…)
@Chelsea and other mods, just go to the WP Dashboard > Comments, and click the button that says IMG. Then paste in the URL.
Readers, send me your photos via “Comment/Submit” and I’ll post them in the Comments. Or, if you really really want to be able to do it yourself, I will consider buying an addon module. But I spend a lot of money on Dullblog already, so I’d prefer to avoid it if possible.
I don’t see an option to add a photo, which makes me very sad since I have so, SO MANY great ones to share…
If you have them stored somewhere online, could you just provide links? We’d love to see them.
I will fix this today!
I MUCH prefer this style of commenting, for what it’s worth. It’s easier to follow the trail of a conversation, and the timestamps and divisions between comments are clearer for me to read. I’m curious, however, what things will look like when a comment thread becomes longer than a few posts as each one gets narrower. In addition, as someone who isn’t a great commenter (thanks to anxiety) but is constantly nodding and agreeing, I’m also a fan of being able to ‘like’ something in the form a ‘vote’. I’m also a HUGE fan of being able to sort comments by ‘newest’. So, yeah, thumbs up!
@Nicole, if there is anything we can do to assuage your anxiety, please let me know. I know many people feel comment-shy, so anything that helps you would help others. We’re always trying to up the friendly around here.
BTW, I just looked at our biggest comment thread, on Were John and Paul Lovers?, and it’s readable even when there are seven levels of nesting.
Thanks. Much appreciated. I’ve long gotten involved in ridiculously lengthy arguments with St John fanboys online, so it’s nothing I can’t handle, thankfully, lol. A little discomfort can be good, but this format definitely makes this a little easier, I would say. No need to worry about line-breaks for one, and the layout is just more pleasing to the eye which helps calm the mind down. 😀
Oh, brilliant. That’s good to know. Lovely.
I much prefer this commenting system. However I’m having a problem with the text of the main post. It’s now about an inch wide on my laptop. It’s VERY hard to read one long VERY narrow column.
I like the fact that “Recent Comments” is working. This way, I check there to see what’s new. I especially like when someone picks up on a five-year-old thread.
As I mentioned in another thread, my old eyes are much happier now. Better font, nesting is better.
Do paragraphs work?
Yes, paragraphs work!
I suppose my only question would be, is it necessary to have both Captcha and moderation? I understand that you want to avoid spam, and that is an estimable goal. Perhaps we can have one or the other instead of both?
Moderation isn’t for catching spam, it’s for keeping things civil. But let me turn off the CAPCHA and see what happens.
OK — I think I just turned CAPCHA off for guests. Working for you, @Beasty?
It is indeed! Thanks Michael.
html test
I’ve tried embedding a youtube vid and still only get the code. Hologram Sam—if you’re reading this, tell me again what you did to make your vid work please. 🙂
For some reason some youtube videos display while others only appear as the link. It must have something to do with the way the original video was uploaded to youtube.
Strange. Since the comments change, a vid that had displayed in the comments is now in html. Dang.
Karen, the youtube video you posted of the 1975 Lennon interview shows up as a video for me, not just html.
I use a macbook pro with safari.
Thanks Sam–it just did for me too–it wasn’t there when the comments section first changed. (And I also have a macpro.)
Love the new format. I really like that you can read the newest comments in case you missed something. With the old format I had to scroll and look at dates to see if I’d missed anything and that was a pain. Also the font is better, spacing and paragraphs are easier to read also. I like the vote up button too because I often find myself saying, OMG ‘THIS’ when I read many of the comments. So many comments say exactly what I’m thinking. So it’s nice to be able to express my agreement without being redundant.