I'm starting to need a "Oh, FFS, Livejournal" icon

[sholio]

The other day I noticed that some of the comments to my post asking for Highlander recs had been shunted off into a special section on the post labeled "spam". The comments did not display on the post (to me or anyone else); you had to use this other link to see them. They didn't have any of the usual Livejournal buttons (to reply, delete, unscreen, link, etc). Eventually, after much annoyance, I figured out that there's a little circle-with-a-line-through-it button that causes them to be "unspammed" and become normal comments again.

Apparently this is a new feature where comments containing links to "non-whitelisted" sites (so, say, just about any list of links to fanfic and vids and stuff) will be marked spam and hidden from EVERYONE, including you, unless you turn it off.

Here's the news post explaining the new feature. To turn it off, go to your privacy settings page and find the checkbox (it's right under comment screening) that says "Comments containing a link to a non-whitelisted domain will be marked as spam and moved to a special section." And uncheck it.

(Or, if you've been having a lot of problems with spam and this is useful to you, then you could leave it on! I just found it confusing and annoying myself.)

Comments

[fitzwiggity.livejournal.com]

I'm lucky, I generally don't have a lot of problems w/spam and the like. Though, granted, I usually do get dumped [from internet, you know?] and that's more than just a bit annoying when that happens because you can't exactly just bring it back up, you have to wait for the internet to connect again.

Sorry about the spamatic issues. On a totally off-hand subject, do you remember that wordcount tracker program thing? It's a little yellow bar that keeps tracks of one stories and such and how much more they have before finishing. I can't remember for the life of me what that thing is called and where I can find it.

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I'm lucky, I generally don't have a lot of problems w/spam and the like. Though, granted, I usually do get dumped [from internet, you know?] and that's more than just a bit annoying when that happens because you can't exactly just bring it back up, you have to wait for the internet to connect again.

Sorry about the spamatic issues. On a totally off-hand subject, do you remember that wordcount tracker program thing? It's a little yellow bar that keeps tracks of one stories and such and how much more they have before finishing. I can't remember for the life of me what that thing is called and where I can find it. <Grr....>

Btw, the only Highlander I ever saw was the movie, and I quite liked them, I haven't been able to see the television series because I don't have the money to afford the seasons-is the television show as good as the movies? Or better?

[fitzwiggity.livejournal.com]

Apparently, now it seems to want to screw with my posts here on LJ after all...

[sholio]

There are several word-count programs and websites out there; when I need one, I usually google "word count tracker" and then pick one. :) Here are a few that came up when I googled it just now:
http://allfreelancewriting.com/wordcount-tracker/
http://honorless.net/progressbar.htm
http://languageisavirus.com/nanowrimo/word-meter.html

I found the Highlander series pretty similar to the first movie, though granted it's been almost 20 years since I saw the movie! Personally I ended up enjoying the series a lot more because there's just more of it - more time to get into the characters, and more complex stories they can tell. I believe it's on Hulu (at least some of it) if Hulu works for you.

[fitzwiggity.livejournal.com]

That helps, thanks. I've been browsing Bing/Google and I think I finally found what it was I was talking about a bit ago. Though the ones you posted are certainly interesting.

I have yet to check Hulu, I just thought that I'd ask and see if Highlander is worth watching due to the fact that my 'obsessions' in fandom is at an all time low and I need something new to get into.

[leesa_perrie]

Noted and switched off. Spam's not normally a problem for me and I'd rather not have the hassle of having to unmark a comment as spam!

Thanks! Off to spread the word!

[sholio]

Great! Glad to help! :)

[ivy03.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the heads up! I'm guessing this is a spam-fighting feature to try to prevent something like the great email comments debacle of a month or two ago.

[sholio]

Yeah, I can definitely see where they were going with this, and I can see how some people might want it turned on! I'm just not one of them ...

[anniehow.livejournal.com]

Oooh, thanks! *unchecks immediately* Sharing recs is one of my main forms of fannishness!

[sholio]

*nods* I can see what they were TRYING to do, but the implementation is not all that great ...

[astridv.livejournal.com]

Huh, that might explain why two comments in a comm post I was tracking didn't show up in the post itself. That's annoying. Yo, LJ, throwing out the baby with the bathwater again.

[sholio]

Yeah, I actually had one that someone replied to, but it was still hidden in the spam section, so it looked like they had replied to a different comment entirely! I'm not sure if they were tracking the post and replied via the reply link, or if the classification as spam didn't happen immediately so the original comment was visible for a while - either way, it's confusing. The whole thing's confusing. I can see what they're trying to do with this, but as usual, their implementation sucks.

[astridv.livejournal.com]

Yeah. First of all they could've made this opt-in. Then, when someone reports a spam comment, they could've had a window pop up explaining about the new feature and how to activate it. This... is really typical LJ modus operandi.

[sholio]

Yeah, it's like they have the seed of a good idea in there somewhere, and then implemented it in the stupidest, most opaque way that they possibly could have. In other words, the usual. *g*

[spike21.livejournal.com]

thanks! I would never have noticed that.

[sholio]

Glad to help!

[ratcreature]

I was confused by the same thing, because I answered a comment from the email notification link, and then couldn't see the comment I'd already replied to in the post. I left the option on, because I do get quite a lot of spam, even though I screen anon comments already, but they could at least make the unscreening automatic once you replied and save you the extra step. After all people aren't going to respond to spam.

[sholio]

I don't know why they can't just handle it like normal screening! There's a certain way that screened comments operate, that we're already used to. One of my big frustrations with this is that it's completely unintuitive for anyone who's already used to LJ/DW comment handling. At least, I find it so.

[ratcreature]

I didn't find it very unintuitive (I managed to get the comment to show without trying more than once, which is better than many other LJ functions), but you're right that it is slightly off from the regular screening.

[sholio]

Hee, it's possible that I'm just frustrated with it because I'm having trouble with it myself, but that doesn't mean it couldn't work for other people!

[ratcreature]

It's certainly not the pinnacle of spam management. I was just thinking that at least I didn't have to look up things in the FAQ, which I always need when I try to remember how to display my f-list at a past date and such.

[sheron]

O_O;

[sholio]

Yeah, what you said. *g*

[kriadydragon.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the heads up, though I now dither on whether to deactivate it. It seems the spammers have found me since I've been getting a lot of spam, lately.

[sholio]

One thing about it is that I'm not sure if this would actually do anything about the spam I've gotten lately, because none of it has links in it! It's just weird, nonsensical comments on unrelated entries.

You could always try leaving it on and turn it off if you start having legitimate comments go missing.

[rydra_wong]

*facepalms*

Am I correct in understanding that you don't get comment notifications for any comments shunted into the hidden spam zone?

[sholio]

No, actually - you do get comment notifications, and nothing in them indicates that the comment has been marked spam. (At least, I didn't notice anything of the sort.) You can even reply to them. Your reply will show up. But the comment you're replying to is completely invisible, to the journal owner as well as anyone reading the comments, so it looks like the reply is attached to the comment above the invisible one.

As usual, it's like they had the seed of what might eventually become a good idea ... someday ... and then implemented it in the stupidest possible way.

[wneleh.livejournal.com]

Heh, since I've deleted all the comments I can't remember what it was about them that twigged me immediately that they needed to be unscreened! (Brain, what is brain?)

[sholio]

There's definitely nothing in the comment notifications that says they've been screened - at least not the ones I got. I suppose that most of my frustration with this is that it *is* completely unintuitive for me (which doesn't mean that it can't work for other people, of course!) and I had a lot of trouble figuring out the new interface on the spam comments. It took me awhile to realize, for example, that the circle with a line through it meant "mark as not spam"; I assumed it meant "delete" and didn't want to press it.

[astridv.livejournal.com]

You can even reply to them. Your reply will show up.

That's interesting. I just tested it on the two disappeared comments I noticed and, yup. They're there, just not accessible.

[rydra_wong]

It seems like it would be infinitely more useful if they tweaked the notifications so they came with a line saying that this comment is suspected spam and has been screened automatically, etc..

[sholio]

Yeah, it's just a seriously lousy implementation of the whole idea (shock! amazement! *g*). I've been seeing notices about it in several of the communities I watch, because due to the lack of notification, community mods don't have any way to tell if comments are disappearing into the spam filter without manually checking every entry. SIGH.

[wneleh.livejournal.com]

My media references posts to fanthropology have gotten a half-dozen spam posts that have been caught this way; since I get email notifications about all comments, it's been straight-forward to deal with (don't remember how, just that it's always been obvious what's happened and what to do).

So I like the feature; but nothing that I don't want screened has ever been screened.

[sholio]

Makes sense! I'm glad it works for you.

[roga.livejournal.com]

Oh, ffs.

[sholio]

This. Yes. Although a couple of people have said they like it, so I will admit, reluctantly, that it's not across-the-board bad. *g* At the very least, I wish it had been opt-in and come with a better explanation.

[tei-0.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the PSA :)

[sholio]

Glad to help! :)

[flingslass.livejournal.com]

Thanks for this, have adjusted accordingly :)

[sholio]

Glad to help! :)

[liz-mo.livejournal.com]

Oh thank you for the info! 4 days off on vacation in RL and see what happens... ;-)

[sholio]

I'm glad it was useful! haha, yeah, go away and all hell breaks loose ... *g*