Ethelred Unraed's Journal: One of the more interesting bugs in a code rollout

Well, this has to be one of the stranger bugs I've seen on Slashdot in a while: When trying to reply to someone's post, I discovered that the "Reply to this" button had magically disappeared. In all views.

At first I thought maybe someone had foed me and the JE was "Friends Only" or something, but no, nothing of the sort. Oddly, the "Reply" button at the top was still there. But no "Reply to this" buttons anywhere.

I tried various views, tried turning the new-fangled discussion mode on and off, and so on, to no avail.

I do suddenly have mod points (not that I intend to use them). Maybe it's that, though it never prevented me from posting before.

I did, however, discover a workaround, which I generously present here to prove what a swell guy I am:

1. Click on the comment ID number (the longish number starting with a pound sign # at the right of the grey bar about the post).
2. You should just see that one comment (along with any child comments). Now click on the "Reply" button at the top right of the screen in the green bar.
3. ???
4. PROFIT!*

Interestingly, the two-minute limit on posting comments also seems to be disabled all of a sudden. Go figure.

* - The use of the Dilbert PROFIT! joke is henceforth mandatory for all bullet and numbered lists. Failure to comply will be punished by being forced into Jell-O wrestling with a nubile Scarlett Johansson. You have been warned.

not really

[stoolpigeon]

it's not a code rollout problem. it's a database problem.

http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=06/11/09/153420 4 [slashdot.org]

Re:

[Ethelred Unraed]

Goddamnit, here I thought I was being so smart and clever and you make it all mundane and normal. ;-)

Cheers,

Ethelred

PS: The two-minute limit is back. Fsck.

Re:

[stoolpigeon]

well, as a database guy i think it is an awesome little case study. it was also interesting to see how people reacted to the whole thing. and you are always smart and clever - always.

Re:

[arb]

Yeah - its an awesome case study on how to (temporarily) screw-up a high profile, high volume site by not doing relevant design, analysis or testing when rolling out code changes. This problem should have been caught at every step of the process - if Slashdot actually had a development process.

i noticed something weird too

[redhead-kitten]

I do suddenly have mod points (not that I intend to use them). Maybe it's that, though it never prevented me from posting before.

A little over a week ago my (occasional) mod points showed up. Usually they go away before i ever get the opportunity to use them. This time, however, the mod points stayed with me for over 7 days, so i was able to use 3 of them before they disappeared.

^_^

Weird.

[sulli]

very buggy today, slashdot is.

Hm?

[turg]

As opposed to which other Scarlett Johansson?

Zoinks

[peacefinder]

"Failure to comply will be punished by being forced into Jell-O wrestling with a nubile Scarlett Johansson."

I have a sudden urge to start making lists. Lots of lists.

List

[NeMon'ess]

1. Scarlett Johansson pretending to be a table
2. Scarlett Johansson pretending to be bobbing for apples
3. Scarlett Johansson pretending to be a divining rod
4. ???
5. excuse me for a few minutes please

Psssst. Hey Ethelred

[RailGunner]

* - The use of the Dilbert PROFIT! joke

should read:

* The use of the Underpants Gnomes PROFIT! joke

South Park did it first...

Pound sign.

[Alioth]

We call this a pound sign - £
We call this # a hash sign.

£ is Shift 3 on a UK keyboard - where # is on a US keyboard. # is somewhere else.

Therefore we call Microsoft's C# "C Hash", which I think is appropriate.

# is also called 'octothorpe'. What a beautiful name! I challenge you to use the word 'octothorpe' in a serious business meeting.

Re:

[StalinsNotDead]

Trust me on this, doing that only makes the meeting a little longer as you have to explain what it means. And depending on who's in the meeting, an argument erupts as to what to call the octothorpe.

Re:

[WilliamSChips]

"C# is pronounced C-hash, with the first H silent."

New Discussion System

[mercedo]

I thought this was the new slashdot discussion system. I doubted it though because the system is so inconsistent. While I was taking a bath, the letter 'reply to this ' reapeared. This was occured in the very day I posted ten comments in a day for the first time in a month. Oh, no one has replied to me, yet.