Cyn's comments (member since Feb 01, 2009)

Cyn's comments from the Goodreads Feedback group.

Thanks

I'm getting errors when I mark books as read, and they don't seem (at first) to "stick." (I just re-checked, and those I did twice are now showing as read, so go figure.)

I searched on and found author L. Neil Smith>L. Neil Smith and went to his author page. I noticed that I hadn't marked some of his works as read, so I clicked on the "Add to My Books" button next to The Probability Broach and tried to put it on my Read shelf. I was taken to the Review page, where I gave the book 3 stars. I hit the save button, and was taken to this page and this message:

element search_query_2 could not be found!

I checked, and the book wasn't on my Read shelf, so I tried again with the same results.

I tried again with the same book, then with another of Smith's books, Pallas. I then switched to another author, Frank Herbert, and Dune, the first book listed for him, with the same result.

All three books are on my Read shelf now, so apparently the bug isn't as bad as it could be, but it is a bit confusing.

Thanks!
Cyn

What happens if you disabled the firewall?

Let us know how it goes, ok?

Not a dumb question at all!

DNS = Domain Name Service. That's the thing that translates the words we type in (like goodreads.com) to the numeric addresses that computers really use to find web sites. You probably get DNS from your internet service provider (ISP).

Instead of asking the DNS server to do that translation every time you try to reach a site, Windows XP saves some entries in a cache to speed things up. Unfortunately, the cache entries can get outdated (like, maybe Goodreads and Twitter weren't available briefly, but now your PC assumes they're never available).

Rebooting should have cleared the cache, but you can also try the instructions here.

If that doesn't work, I'd suggest talking to your ISP's support people. Another option is using a different DNS provider--I use OpenDNS to see if that helps.

Do you use a software or hardware firewall, or a router? What kind of message do you get when you can't reach the sites?

I do usually find that Google's site search feature works better than the GR search engine.

Is there another browser installed on your PC? If so, can you reach those two sites from it? (IE should be installed by default.)

For now, Georg, the mistakes make the site look unprofessional. Current standards are as Liz noted, and the mistakes need to be corrected.

Well, I followed the directions and I have a button. Unfortunately, it doesn't work properly - it's nothing more than a bookmark. It doesn't expand to permit entry of search terms or pass on what's typed into the main search box - it just opens the GR search page :-(

Yes, I used the one for the FF search bar, but I've switched over to using the Google search whatsis and I'm trying to replace all the engines I had added to it via Mycroft.

I've managed to make a custom button, so now I'm testing. If it works, I'll add it to their gallery.

I've just finished upgrading my browser and configuring extensions, especially my Google Toolbar. I would love to have a button available to search GoodReads, but there doesn't seem to be one available. They have a lot of documentation available on their API, and somewhere in there is an explanation of making such a button.

Never saw it before. Not entirely sure what use it might be, either. It represents views of profiles, not any activity from the owner of the profile, right?

Thanks, Otis!

Thanks :-) I've encounted more import scripts that don't import special characters properly than ones that do.

I thought it was required that we keep up with them. I'm sure it's a good idea, in any case - and I've found that if I don't read them, I miss a lot of little policy changes here and there.

That list shows all upper case. I often see items imported that get screwy with accented characters, and it seems that happened here. I'm just hoping someone will correct it. The errors catch my eye every time I use the list :-)

Would it be possible to get a couple of typos fixed in the country list for the author pages? At least two countries (maybe more) have weird uppercase accented letters that should be lower case - Réunion and Saint Barthélemy. (I took a screenshot, but I don't see a way to attach it here.)

I thought there was one country listed twice, but can't find it now. I may be getting this list confused with the language list, though, which definitely has at least one double listing.

Thanks,
Cyn

As far as I know, that's totally normal (it's always done it that way for me, anyway). I do think it would be best if there were a note with the "upload photo" button explaining that it will save your changes and take you back out to the normal book view instead of the edit screen.

In case you haven't learned this the hard way (as I did), if you make any changes to any but the first author (deleting one, changing their order), your unsaved changes are lost. The same happens if you click on the "Edit Characters" (unless you open it in a new tab, if you use a tabbed browser).

:-)
Cyn

I'd be far more likely to participate in other groups if I could receive the messages via email. The only reason I keep up with the GR Librarians and Feedback groups is because they're required (for librarians). I've joined a couple of other groups, but never seem to find time to wade through their messages. I find it WAY easier to skim email messages and reply, file, or delete as needed.