This post is where you can provide feedback relating to Fifteensquared or raise issues regarding the website itself.
Comments posted before 9/9/20 can be found here.
This post is now closed. New comments can be posted here.
91 comments on “Site Feedback”
Comments are closed.
Comments posted prior to 9/9/2020 can be found here.
Hi, I am solving guardian crosswords sequentially and I always check 15**2 blog afterwards. This week solving eg 27956 the 15**2 blog only shows comments if I pick your desktop mode on my iPhone.
This isn’t ideal but has something changed?
Thanks
Tim
Timtimmytim @2
A plugin that I used to minimise the number of additions to the spam queue stopped working when WordPress was updated a couple of weeks ago so I removed it. To avoid having to wade through hundreds of spam comments each day to check for false positives generated by the primary spam filter, I set the ‘automatically close posts’ option to prevent comments from being added to posts over five weeks old.
I was not aware until your comment that the plugin which generates the mobile view does not display the existing comments when a post is closed to new ones. I doubt that the broken plugin will be updated so I will look for another way of minimising the content of the spam queue.
PS You should now be able to view the comments when in mobile view.
Gaufrid @4
Not on my mobile
Gaufrid, when you start a new page for comments in the feedback posts (tech and discussion), you should put a last comment on the old page announcing the fact, with a link to the new comment page. This is so that those of us who receive a feed based on the page name get fed a copy of that and so become aware of what has happened. What happens when you start a new page at present is, we just stop getting any feedback comments fed to us.
I’ve just done a general site search on “Maskerade” and I only get three hits (one of them actually a Paul puzzle). Is this part of the same problem as the disappearing comments?
I am actually looking for a clue to VOLVO which I think was one of his. The wordplay was 505050 (V 0 L V 0) and it might have been simply defined by the theme.
Needless to say a search on 505050 returns nothing
Tony @7
But if you do the correct search using ‘Maskarade’ you will get many hits.
Tony @6
If you look at the last ‘comment feedback’ post you will see that I linked to the new page, as indicated at comment #1.
Tony @7
“Is this part of the same problem as the disappearing comments?”
What ‘disappearing comments’?
Gaufrid,
*Maskarade. Good point! Ill try that.
Gaufrid
“What ‘disappearing comments’?”
The ones referred to above by Timtimmytim. You said @4 they should now be visible in mobile view, something I denied @5 (although I forgot to mention I’m on android).
I can’t refer to the comments on the previous comment page because … er … the comments aren’t visible, but I think anyway you might be referring to the link in the head text to the post? That doesn’t come through on the comments feed unfortunately; it has to be in a comment to reach the feed.
Thanks for your attention. I hope I have clarified. I will consider switching to desktop version if necessary.
Oops! Only the quote supposed to be in Italics.
Re emoticons, seems the blog entry on that is somewhat a needle in the haystack? I for one certainly struggled to find it… or perhaps I’m really missing something. Might be helpful to add a link to that on the FAQ and Site Policy pages? Also might be nice to explain why actual emojis don’t work, since several have noted that recently.
Overall, many thanks for the site… Have found it quite useful/enjoyable 🙂
Like those above, when using mobile I don’t see the comments on pages that are “closed”. E.g. if I follow the link in @1 above the landing page shows no comments in mobile mode, while desktop mode shows many. FYI I’m on Android and have tried both Chrome and Firefox.
Use of “not be permanent” and “purged” at top of this page (and also General Discussion) seems inaccurate? I’ve hesitated to post substantive comments on GD fearing they’ed be lost forever during the occasional “purge”, but see now that older instances of GD and Site Feedback are simply closed/archived thus still around for searching. Perhaps changes in wording are warranted?
OddOtter @14
I have added a link to the ’emoticons’ post in the FAQ. The software that this site runs on (WordPress) does not recognise emojis and so it is not possible to copy/paste one into a comment.
OddOtter @15/16
Please see my comment #3 regarding an attempt to reduce spam by closing posts automatically after a preset period of time. This can only be done globally but the General Discussion and Site Feedback need to remain open so I changed them from posts to pages (which do not close automatically). However, the downside is that eventually there will be too many comments to scroll through comfortably and so earlier ones will need to be deleted.
I appreciate that this is not ideal but I have to work within the limitations of the software on which this site runs. If I can find a better solution I will implement it.
Gaufrid, I’m not sure if you have understood my request @6, which I tried to clarify @12, in response to your reply @9, since you have not replied further, perhaps due to the fact that I had posted on the separate topic of the non-visibility of comments in closed posts when using mobile. I will try and restate the problem again:
The last post on the page https://www.fifteensquared.net/2018/11/29/site-feedback-4/ is one by hovis. The application, Feedly, which notifies me every time a comment is added to pages I have named to it, notified me of that comment. Thereafter, you closed that page and opened this one. However, since I did not know you had done that, I did not know that to receive notification of further comments I needed to give a new address to Feedly. If you had added a comment after hovis’s saying “This page is now closing”, I would have become aware of the change and, as long as the new page had at least one comment on it, I would have been able to give Feedly what it needs to give me notification of comments on the new page.
The fact that the body of the page at https://www.fifteensquared.net/2018/11/29/site-feedback-4/ states that “This post is now closed. New comments can be posted here” is, unfortunately, of no help whatsoever, since Feedly has only been alerted to advise of comments incoming and not of changes to the body of the page (something not, in any case, possible as far as I’m aware).
Tony @19
Thanks for the detailed explanation which I now understand. I must have closed at least half a dozen GD and SF posts in a similar manner without anyone indicating a problem with the way I did so. I will try to remember your suggestion should there be a need to close a post in the future.
This new page doesn’t have an RSS 2.0 feed link at the top. I figured out I just needed to add “/feed” to the end of the URL, but it may be something you want to fix Gaufrid.
Gaufrid @17, thanks for adding the FAQ entry. I had something a bit more verbose in mind, and in the spirit of pitching in (rather than just whining about it), I’ve put together the below suggested FAQ entry… being worth what you paid for it, feel free to use/amend/discard as you see fit, though I do think it would be helpful for those trying to use these constructs in their comments, as has come up a few times recently. Also note that I’ve added a clarifying comment on the Emoticon page itself.
Are emoticons and emoji supported
Emoticons, being combinations of standard characters, should work just fine, with the exception that a limited subset of two-character emoticons are automatically translated and displayed as emoji.
The website software does not directly support emoji, so they can’t be entered when typing in a comment (they’ll be displayed simply as “?”), however a limited subset of emoji can be invoked by entering corresponding two character emoticons instead; the website will automatically translate those and display the corresponding emoji.
For more on emoticons, emoji, and their handling/translation, see here [Gaufrid, please enter correct link here], including comment @20.
Angstony @21
Thanks for letting me know. It seems that in my recent attempt to reduce the volume of spam I have created more problems than I resolved. It is not possible to add a RSS feed link to a ‘page’ (which this is) so I might have to revert to having GD and SF as ‘posts’ (which they were previously). It will take me a while to transfer the above comments to a new post so I will leave it until Sunday afternoon when the site is quiet.
OddOtter @22
Thanks for your input. I’m not sure that such detail is needed but I will give it some further consideration after I have resolved the GD and SF issues.
Gaufrid @23
Can’t you edit the preamble or the first comment at the top of this page to add it manually? (<a href=”https://www.fifteensquared.net/site-feedback/feed/”>RSS 2.0</a>)
Angstony @25
That is a very good suggestion! I had not thought of that (I’ve never used RSS feeds and have no idea how they work). I have added the option to the preamble (both here and in General Discussion). Perhaps someone will let me know that it works.
Gaufrid @26
The feed works perfectly for me, although I do have to add them manually to an extension (Feedbro) since my preferred browser (Firefox) dropped built-in support a while ago. But it’s no different syntactically to any of the previous feeds, so I don’t see any reason why it would work in all the usual scenarios.
Thanks.
^I mean wouldn’t work
Thanks, Gaufrid @20.
I don’t really know exactly how Feedly works or whether it is dependent on RSS. I just know that whenever I make a comment on a 225 post, I can take a copy of the URL (which ends with a comment number) and offer that up to Feedly under “Follow new sources” and I get a copy of all the comments as they arrive (after a short delay usually, in fact).
Gaufrid, thanks also for doing as I suggested and posting a notification comment on the old page, which I duly received. Of course, I myself didn’t need it, having already become aware of the new page, but others using the same system may well have benefited from it. The same goes for the General Discussion pages, btw.
I would love it (& make much more use of your site) if one could see the answer and working for individual clues without having to see the entirety of the answers. This would allow one to understand why the clue one had just solved was the right answer when one had solved it instead of having to wait until one was finished with the puzzle.
I find that by the time I’ve finished or admitted defeat with a puzzle, I’ve forgotten/ lost interest in the the clues I spent so long struggling over.
Joe Morison @31
Sorry but that is not feasible on this site. You will just have to try and avert your gaze from the clues that you don’t wish to see. It’s difficult, I know.
Hi Gaufrid
Over the last few days the link to the Independent Crossword (top left of home page) doesn’t appear to be working. Not a major problem but might need a tweak.
Postmark @33
Thanks for the heads-up. The URL for the puzzle has changed and I have now corrected the link.
Fifteensquared seems unable to remember my name suddenly, despite ticking the right box. Now I’ve got to do it all over again for this comment. It’s tiresome.
Tony @35
As I have explained a number of times before, this has nothing whatsoever to do with the site. When you tick the ‘remember me’ box you are agreeing to having a cookie placed in your browser which contains your details. Your browser loads this info when you next visit a post. The solution is to clear your browser’s cache/history and then start again.
Ah, ok, thanks Gaufrid. It hasn’t happened before (except for periodic expiry) so I haven’t really paid attention when it afflicted others. I will look into it. That was on my laptop earlier today; here on my phone it remembers me ok.
Gaufrid, if I clear my browser’s cache/history, will I not lose a lot of valuable information it has been storing for me? Are you saying that my browser has run out of storage for cookies? Is there not a way I can just free up a little bit of room for the 15^2 cookie(s)? I am using Firefox under Windows 10.
Ah, ok, I think I can and (perhaps) have. I notice it says “Firefox keeps data from websites with persistent storage until you delete it, and deletes data from websites with non-persistent storage as space is needed.” Does that meanthat 15^2 uses “non-persistent storage” (whatever that is)? Hopefully this will be the last time I have to fill in my details for a while ..
Nope
Tony @38 &39
I don’t have Firefox installed on this machine, so cannot check, but I am reasonably sure that it will be similar to Chrome which gives options as to which parts of the history are cleared. You would need to clear the cookies which would mean you might need to log in to some other sites again to reset their cookies. I remember seeing one browser that gave the option of only deleting selected cookies but that was some years ago and I cannot remember if it was Firefox or not.
I don’t think it is a case of no more room for cookies, it’s more a case of Firefox no longer reading the 15² cookie correctly (or the cookie has become corrupted). I see you have posted again whilst I was writing this reply so I will add another paragraph.
If you check the ‘Cookies’ page you will see that the cookie that stores your name and email address is set to expire after 12 months. I don’t know if Firefox considers this to be persistent or not.
@Tony:
In Firefox the easiest way to clear cookies for the current site only is via the padlock symbol in the address bar. Click on it then click on the button at the bottom of the popup labelled ‘Clear Cookies and Site Data…’ A separate window should appear listing which sites will be cleared – there are two for 15² – so just click on ‘Remove’ and that should be it.
Angstony @42
Thanks for that information. As I have just found out, it applies equally to Chrome (so I have learnt something new today). I would just add that there will not be a padlock symbol when on 15², you need to click on the ‘Not secure’ text instead (this is because we are still HTTP rather than HTTPS).
Angstony, thanks very much for that advice. I’m away from my laptop at the mo, but will try that when I get back to it. Sounds very promising.
I was going to say that although my name and email are not in the boxes when I open a post as they ought, I only have to put in ‘t’ to get a one-click offer of the right data. Since I jokingly added “Grumpy” to my name last time, I get offered that as well, so I think it must be site specific.
When I looked at the list of cookies Firefox was holding it was surprising how many if them were said to have been used “2 hours ago” when I haven’t been on the particular sites today at all.
Gaufrid @43
In Firefox it’s still a padlock symbol on insecure sites, just with a diagonal red line through it.
But you know you do actually have a certificate installed, so the site works with either protocol. I know because I use the secure one. Most web hosts nowadays provide an option to enforce HTTPS for all visitors, so even if their bookmark/s reference the HTTP site, they just get redirected to the secure one. It may be worth your while looking into that as your users are submitting personal email addresses and many also use their real names in full. I think it’s possible you may even be breaching GDPR rules as it stands, but I’m no expert on that so please don’t take by word for it.
Tony @44
That login list you see is saved by the browser separately to what is saved in the cookie, when it works. You should still get that list even if you unchecked the ‘Save…’ option.
By the way, if you want to remove the ‘grumpy’ login just arrow down to it and press your ‘Del’ key.
Right, I’ve clicked on the padlock (which did not have a line through it – I am currently connected to https://www.fifteensquared.net/site-feedback/#comment-443588 and I arrived here by clicking on “VISIT SITE” from a comment in my Feedly) and then on “Clear Cookies and Site Data”. Two entries came up: fifteensquared.net and http://www.fifteensquared.net and I cleared them.
When I came to make this comment, I noticed that my name was in the name field and an email address of mine (but not the one I’ve been writing in the box lately) was in the Email box. *scratches head*
Aha! Having posted that comment I removed the ‘s’ from https in the URL to see what difference that made. I was asked to confirm that I would accept cookies, which I did. There is nothing in the boxes below. I’m going to have to fill them in again when I post this. Ah, I’m being offered Tony “Grumpy” Collman again.
Now my name and email has gone again. I cleared cookies for this site but when I put a cursor in the name field and type ‘t’ I still get offered my name (and the version with “Grumpy”). The address in the bar now starts with “www.” and the padlock has a red line through it. I will post now and then return to a secure connection.
Now that comment has been posted and I see my details are there in the boxes. I’m still on the insecure connection. Perhaps I forgot to tick the box to remember them last time? After I post this I will try the secure connection again.
Hmm.. when I tried to just replace “www.” in the URL with “https://” and press return, Firefox came up with a warning that it was dangerous to proceed. I put the “www.” back and here I am again with my details in the boxes. I don’t know whether any of this helps, but any, it seems I don’t have to type my details every time again now, so I think my original problem is solved … somehow.
@Tony:
Each protocol gets its own set of cookies, so your old email must have been stored with the HTTP connection. I’m surprised it wasn’t cleared out by the data clearing procedure though, as I thought that would apply to both versions.
Oh well, as long as it’s working properly again, that’s the main thing.
@Angstony
Many thanks for your help. I think when you ask Feedly to deliver you to the site, it uses the secure connection, but my book mark for the site used http. I’ve now changed the bookmark to use https.
As you say, the main thing is that I now don’t have to fill in the boxes every time. However, your advice has been generally very educational so thanks again. Did you make up the name ‘angstony’ specially for this conversation as a play on ‘angst’ and ‘Tony’, btw?
@Tony:
You’re welcome! And no, I’ve been using this name here for years, it’s a pun on my own name, Anthony. I do comment on crossword posts occasionally, but I’m usually late to the show so anything I wanted to say has already been said by someone else. I do lurk a fair bit though… 🙂
@angstony, if you’re still about, I wonder if you can tell me how to do the same thing in Firefox for mobile, as insecure pages are refusing to hold my details when requested. Selecting the padlock doesn’t have the same effect on mobile as desktop; it just brings up the url with a note of whether or not the connection is secure (as verified by Cloudflare).
@Tony:
I don’t think you <i>can</i> clear an individual site’s cookies just yet in the latest version of Firefox for mobile. It used to be possible via an add-on, but they completely rewrote the UI this year and it’s still lacking a lot of feature, including most add-ons. You can clear <i>all</i> of your cookies via settings –> ‘Delete browsing data’, but of course that would log you out of any other sites you generally stay logged in to via Firefox.
However, I think the reason it’s not saving your details is unlikely to be <i>another</i> corrupted cookie, rather it’s probably due to the anti-tracking settings, which are generally stricter by default in the mobile version. You can test that by turning off ‘Enhanced Tracking Protection’ for this site via the shield symbol in the address bar.
Please note, I only have an Android phone so I don’t know if it’s the same on Apple devices.
Hmm… it seems the usual HTML formatting tags don’t work on these ‘pages’.
@Angstony
<blockquote>they completely rewrote the UI this year</blockquote>
Don’t I know it! What a disaster! I can’t work out how to change the order of my tabs or even if that’s possible. What was wrong with the old UI I was comfortable with?
My details are saved in the secure version of the page (like the one I’m on now, having come from Feedly). Does that rule out your theory about enhanced tracking protection?
Fyi, I am on android v.9 on a Huawei P10.
I see <blockquote> doesn’t work here, then …
Tony@58
No, I was thinking that cookie clearing may be more rigorous for insecure connections. It was just a guess though as I hadn’t actually tried it, so I’m posting this comment from the http site on my mobile to see what happens…
Okay, my details saved fine with the tracking turned off, so let’s see what happens with it turned on…
Well it hasn’t made any difference for me, so I guess the tracking thing is irrelevant after all. Maybe you DO have a corrupted cookie on your mobile after all, but that seems incredibly unlucky, like being struck by lightning in two different places on consecutive days!
All that said, if the secure site is working for you why do you need to use the insecure one?
Angstony, I suppose I don’t have to use the insecure address. However since the new FF UI was introduced, I no longer get offered my favourite sites when I open a new tab, so the way I get to fifteensquared is to enter ‘fi’ as the beginning of the url, whereupon (now that I have fiddled with my settings), FF will complete that as ‘fifteensquared.net’. Pressing RETURN at that point will load up the insecure version by default. I can then edit the url to insert an ‘s’ after ‘http’ and I will finally get a secure connection to the site. Maybe if I do that often enough, FF will learn that ‘fi’ + RETURN means I want https://fifteensquared.net?
@Tony
It seems the easiest way too add content to a blank tab now is using the new ‘collections’ feature. With the secure version of 15² open on the front page, tap the top-right menu and select ‘Save to collection’. There you can choose to add it to an existing collection or create a new one. Then the next time you open a new tab just tap on that collection then the link.
@Angstony, I suppose I should pay more attention to what is being offered than what isn’t. Thanks once again for the ‘consultancy’.
Actually, my menu button is bottom-right now, part of the new UI which is designed for one-handed use. I think it’s the default and I’ve kept it. It was confusing at first but I’m getting used to it now.
I wonder if ‘collections’ are the same things as ‘folders of bookmarks’ on pc?
I’ve just noticed that the place where all the crossword blogs are listed on the left hand side of the Home page (is it called Categories?) has vanished. The left column on the screen now just has Today’s Cryptics, Announcements and Recent Posts. Is this a glitch or is it deliberate?
sheffield hatter @66
It is deliberate. The Category option is now a drop-down menu in the right-hand sidebar. This is in anticipation of a new, responsive WordPress theme which will be implemented as soon as I’ve finished customising and testing it. I’ve changed the Category list to a drop-down menu so that when the new theme is introduced it will be more suitable for those visiting the site using a mobile device.
Ah, yes. It’s hidden by the Cookies warning that I always forget to clear!
Thanks.
Gaufrid, on the Philistine blog of 4/12/20, I have tried seevral times to post a comment, without success (every time except the first, getting the ‘you’ve already posted that’ message). Indeed, it is weird because a comment I posted about the comment not posting did appear (@8). Emboldened by that, I tried posting a different comment – but that one wouldn’t appear either. Any ideas?
TassieTim @69
For some unknown reason Akismet, the spam filter, treated your two comments as spam (false positives are rare but not unknown). I have recovered your original comment and it is now visible.
Thanks, Gaufrid. I suspected something of that sort.
Help. The quick links to the puzzle types (Guardian, Everyman et al) are no longer in the side bar. Is this permanent? Or is it just the way I am seeing the page? Many thanks.
Oops, I see it is covered in 67 above. Sorry.
Gaufrid: something has happened to the formatting of posts today. I just tested it out for myself on GD and then remembered to come here to report it. But my three linked posts on GD will make all clear.
PostMark @74
Thanks for bringing this to my attention (I did see your comments in GD). I installed a new release of WordPress late yesterday afternoon, which may account for the change, but I don’t think so. If you look at comment #17 in the Vulcan blog you will see that a paragraph break has been included.
I have checked various recent posts and all comments are displaying as intended, except for the ones you have posted today. I will keep an eye on things to see if others are experiencing a similar problem.
PostMark
My comment above, and OddOtter’s #21 on the Vulcan post, would indicate to me that the site is working correctly. Is it possible that the problem is being caused by something at your end?
Odd, Gaufrid. I suspect it might be happening to others: MaidenBartok’s post @5, for example. He normally puts his thanks, as do I, as a separate line at the end and the lack of space between his closing speech marks and his Thanks suggests the same might have happened. Similar with essexboy @19.It may be me – I’ve just pressed a return – which always introduces a new paragraph for me – I don’t seem to be able to go down by a single line and never have. So this now appears to me as a two paragraph post and I’ll sign off with what should be a third paragraph. I’ll try exiting the site altogether and coming back in. Someone recently suggested I could delete the cookies for this site alone by clicking on the padlock logo. Regrettably, I don’t get that logo and, instead, have always had the triangle with an exclamation mark and the ominous words Not Secure.Sorry to be troubling you with this and thanks for your help.
PostMark @77
If you click on the ‘Not Secure’ you should still be able to delete the cookies for this site (though I don’t think cookies are the problem). If you want to have the padlock instead of the ‘Not Secure’ message then edit your bookmark to change http:// to https://
I came here to report the same problem – it’s happening to me too. I’ve only posted on the Quiptic blog so far.
The box with italics, link etc seems to be missing now.
Robi @80
Please see my reply on the ‘Comments’ post.
There doesn’t appear to have been a blog for the FT Xmas Crossword 16,668, published on 24th December. I though this was an enjoyable puzzle and wondered if it had perhaps been overlooked.
RichardCV22 @82
No, not overlooked. The blog of this puzzle is due to be published on Thursday 7/1.
That’s good. I thought it was a much more satisfying solve than the Guardian Xmas puzzle, and I’d be interested to see if anyone else thought the same.
I like the uparrow that takes you straight back to the top. I wondered whether it was an easy thing to have a downarrow to take you straight to the bottom. Useful, but hardly essential, for such as Site Feedback and General Discussion.
Hovis @85
A down arrow doesn’t come as standard with the new theme and I don’t have the expertise to be able to add one myself.
The makeover makes the site much worse for me. The search box has moved from near the top to down at the end of a very long list. As I do the crosswords in the Guardian weekly, I am always late to the party, and search using the crossword number.
Also the search used to give instant results, and now is chronically slow.
Why do makeovers always make sites worse?
Jon @87
On a desktop or similar the search box is where it always has been. Previously, the mobile view was generated by a plugin which added a search option to the header but had the disadvantage of not displaying comment numbers or the content of the two sidebars. The new theme is responsive so the sidebars can be viewed on all devices. On smaller screens the sidebar content appears at the bottom of the page rather than to each side.
I have just tried several searches, all with very quick results. Perhaps there was slow data transmission to your mobile when you searched.
Hovis@85
I think it likely you are working on a pic, not a mobile, where it is a pain in the arse. (See my comment on the post dedicated to the subject of the new look). Judging from what Gaufrid says, though, it seems to come with the territory, however (haven’t got back to that post yet).
Jon @87
When using a mobile, you can now search the site without needing to scroll down.
Just wanted to reiterate my thanks and congratulations to you Gaufrid for implementing new – and from what I can see so far – improved interface for the site. Great work.