Just this one more, I promise!
After my stint at the Star-Bulletin ended 25 years ago, one of the names I considered for my new blog was “Ronin Reporter,” referring back to the masterless samurai in feudal Japan. It might have been a good choice, but I worried that too many potential readers wouldn’t understand it.
And so it goes.
Just click for a larger version!
We’re traveling again this week.
In the meantime, there’s so much to write about, but I’ve been stymied trying to figure out how to respond to the hostile comments on my recent posts.
It’s gotten me thinking again about either (a) requiring all comments to be reviewed and approved before posting, (b) shutting down all comments on posts that invite hostile diatribes, or (c) eliminating anonymous comments by requiring commenters to register with their names and emails in order to leave comments.
I should say that the most hostile comments come from people who hide behind fake names or pseudonyms, and often post under a variety of names (which I can identify as being written by the same person). And I do not want allow comments to be used to amplify false or misleading information, whether intentionally or unintentionally.
I went through a similar period quote a few years ago. At that time, there were other attacks on iLind.net that attempted to crash the site, forcing me to use a private service to protect against such attacks.
The worst kind of comments responding to a substantive post containing specific information but ignoring responding substantively, the commenter simply repeats a string of discredited “factual” claims without specifically responding to the data they don’t like. Smears are easier than arguments, it seems.
And it’s not worth my time to take apart a long paragraph that strings together false or misleading statements as “fact”. There are plenty of people around the country attempting to hold back the tsunami of pseudo-facts with their fact checking.
And crafting a comments policy that tries to define the line between rational arguments (which I generally welcome) from diatribes or personal attacks (which I usually just disallow and send to the trash bin).
So I’m kind of at a crossroads.
I’m reluctant to get into the general moderation of all comments, but also want to avoid being swamped by right-wing trolls mixed with a few regular readers who have diametrically opposing views of “reality.”
So I would welcome your comments on, well, how comments should be handled.
By the way, the cats were left in the care of one of our reliable cat sitters. They’ll be here tomorrow as scheduled for Feline Friday.
Since sometime early Thursday, anyone trying to leave a comment or use a link to read a previous post got a “Service Unavailable” error message. Many of you emailed to let me know of the issue, and once alerted, I also quickly ran into the error as well. That’s when I noticed that there have been no comments on any post since Thursday. Not normal.
The tech support staff at my hosting company, Hostrocket.com, have been very good in communicating with me as they tried to track down the source of the problem. The error message itself pointed to a server resource issue, and that’s where they started. When that didn’t work, the started tracing possible security settings being out of whack.
I also sought the counsel of Blaine Fergerstrom, a friend from my Star-Bulletin days of a quarter-century ago. He was the genius who got the Star-Bulletin’s website running ahead of the much better resourced folks across the hall at the Honolulu Advertiser, and he has run lots of websites over the years. Earlier today, he sent a link to a document concerning the type of error message (503) and possible ways of fixing it.
Eventually, I hit on the suggestion that a WordPress plugin could have created a conflict that triggered the errors. Following instructions, I deactivated the eight plugins that I’ve been using, then added them back, one by one, check for the frustrating error message after each one was put back into service.
Bingo!
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[This was first posted over on Facebook earlier this morning]
Siri just saved my day, and my week.
The crisis arose early this morning, soon after we were seated in the Trivet restaurant just off the main lobby of the JW Marriott Hotel in Auckland. We were shown to a table along the window, and were working on our first cup of black coffee as we began thinking through our breakfast options.
I was checking out the morning news on my iPad when disaster hit.
It started when I went to take a look at the Wall Street Journal. A main title page appeared, just white screen with “Wall Street Journal” emblazoned across the center.
And then it the screen froze.
The WSJ page of news headlines never appeared, the iPad stopped responding to anything. It was completely frozen. Nonresponsive. I couldn’t get out of the white WSJ page, and the iPad failed to respond to anything of the usual things.
There’s usually a simple solution to situations like this. Power down and restart. So I pressed the top “on-off” button and a volume button at the same time, and waited. After a few seconds, this combo should lead to a another button that will shut down the iPad.
But this time, nothing happened.
I tried several times, alternating between the up volume and down volume buttons. No effect. The killer WSJ screen continued be displayed with no viable options apparent.
For a few minutes, I was stumped, and began considering the prospect of spending the rest of our time in Auckland without access to my the wonders that the iPad . It wasn’t a pretty picture. Depressing, really, and an indication of how addicted we are to digital communication and maintaining our presence in the digital world.
At this point, I started looking at the screen as kind of an “escape room” challenge. This involved tapping different places on the screen to see whether I could generate any reaction. There was a WSJ logo up in the top left corner, but it went nowhere. I tried taping the usual places, screen corners, etc. I tried swiping up, down, and sideways. One finger, two fingers, multiple fingers. Nothing I did got a reaction.
But then I noticed the horizontal line at the bottom of the screen. Clicking on it seemed to have no effect. Then I tried a “click and hold” on that line, and the edges of the screen started glowing, indicating Siri has been summoned.
Another few seconds, and a query appeared from Siri.
“How can I help you?” Or something to that effect.
I first asked if I had correctly recalled the two-button move as “shut down” command. Siri confirmed this was the correct say to power down.
So I explained my ipad would not power down.
And Siri instantly replied, “Do you want to power down this device?”
Do I ever!! YES!
The screen went black. And I felt a huge rush of relief.
When I rebooted, all was well. The iPad awoke, the frozen WSJ screen was gone, and I was free to share the moment with you.
I should have realized Siri could take control of the iPad like this even though the device seemed to be nonreponsive. And now I wonder whether a “hey, Siri” would have summoned its help earlier despite the frozen screen.
No, I’m not going to try and recreate the issue to test that hypothesis. And I’ll probably avoid rechecking the WSJ anytime soon.