Log In Using
Facebook
Twitter
Google

Your tor.com Acct
Sun
Jul 20 2008 4:45pm
Welcome, Early Adopters!

In the words of Phil Lesh, we're going to get things just exactly perfect, and then we'll change our name to the Just Exactly Perfect Band.

Meanwhile, here in our ongoing beta test, now open to the general public, lots of things remain to be improved.  We're aware of a wide range of posting problems--missing preview buttons, inconsistent date formats, inconsistent flagging behavior, user profiles sometimes burping out 404s, formatting problems with some browsers, and many other issues.  We're trying to nail the worst of these in the next couple of days, but of course it's in the nature of code that every time you fix five things, you break two or three others.  The good news is that the day that Tor.com becomes a Vingean post-Singularity machine intelligence is a fair distance away.  The other good news is that we already have really smart users who do a great job of letting us know what works, what doesn't, and what would be a better idea.

(And if GMail can be in "beta" for four years, we figure we can hang out there for another week or two...)

31 comments
Georges Huberty
1. mth
The place feels really homey already, but couldn't we get a feature to get a direct quote from the posts we sre answering to? That would come in really handy.

Apart from that, even these few posts show a lot of potential!
Rachel Heslin
2. rsheslin
If we do come across something buggy, is there a specific way/contact you'd prefer us to use to let y'all know?
Rachel Heslin
3. rsheslin
D'oh -- just saw the "Site notes and feedback" link under Hot Bookmarks.
Pablo Defendini
4. pablodefendini
There is a nice, long Conversation titled Site notes and feedback where we've been posting bugs and suggestions. Enjoy!
Beth Meacham
7. bam
It's one of those times when a dozen people jump in with the answer all at once!
Elise Matthesen
8. LionessElise
It's a lively party full of helpful people, is what it is.
The Real Nathan!
9. The Real Nathan!
I think I'm gonna like it here. Lots of good stuff right out of the box.
Pablo Defendini
10. pablodefendini
Ah, the FailWhale! Hasn't been missed much over on Twitter, but it's nice to see her every once in a while.
Rachel Heslin
11. rsheslin
Better a lively party full of helpful people than everyone just standing around hoping someone else helps!
:)
The Real Nathan!
13. Kate Nepveu
fHas anyone requested yet that blog posts get a customized "title" tag? That is, clicking through to an individual blog post gets something like "Tor.com: Welcome, Early Adopters!", rather than just "Tor.com / Science fiction and fantasy / Weblog, short fiction, art, and discussion"?

Benefits: delicious, for instance, uses the "title" field for its default description; easier to tell multiple browser windows/tabs apart.

(Also, "preview comment" silently fails in Opera 9.27 under Windows XP.)
Fragano Ledgister
14. Fledgist
Glad to be here, Patrick. I have a question: Why doesn't the password protocol allow for mixed alphanumeric passwords? I tried to enter one and kept being told it was improper.
Nathan Gendzier
15. TheRealNathan
It accepted my mixed alphanumeric password.
Clifton Royston
16. CliftonR
Yay, guys! Didn't get around to creating an account during the beta period, too swamped and exhausted.

Further ammo for Kate's point - Google (and probably other search engines) will do a better job of indexing and finding pages if they have meaningful titles rather than the same ones on each page.
The Real Nathan!
17. Hobbyns
I was in the beta but didn't get much time to contribute, having to fly off to a conference at the time. Still, checking in and finding everything looking wondrous, so that's alright.

So, bookmarked and looking to spending lots of quality time here.
Torie Atkinson
18. Torie
Fledgist - You cannot create a password that begins with a number. You can, however, create a password that contains a number. Rest assured, this is a known bug we are working on.
The Real Nathan!
21. marydell
Site logs me out as I navigate around--if I click thru to another page it'll ask for my login again. Sometimes my password won't work and I'll have to reset. Rrr.
The Real Nathan!
22. marydell
Doh, and I meant to post that on the *right* thread. Darn tabs! sorry!
Patrick Nielsen Hayden
23. pnh
In all honesty, fixing the password system so that it accepts passwords that start with numbers is low priority compared to bugs that actually impair functionality. The real "bug" there is that the signup page doesn't state the password limitations.

Regarding Kate Nepveu's suggestion of meaningful title bars: look up! That got implemented about 47 seconds after she posted.
Gabriele Campbell
24. G-Campbell
Ok, let's try this Can I Post Now game again.

Considering the site online for a few hours only, a lot of things already work and it looks like a fun place and procrastination tool. :)
The Real Nathan!
25. Kate Nepveu
*revels quietly in my power*
Jason Erik Lundberg
26. jelundberg
Looks great so far, Patrick. Congrats and well done to everyone for all their work in getting the site up.
Gry Heidi Nordhagen
27. Alvrodul
The site doesn't accept non-numeric non-letter characters, which is a pain for _me_ since I srtongly prefer _my_ passwords to have both letters, numbers, and "other"!
Paul Weimer
28. PrinceJvstin
Huzzah and hello!

(And if GMail can be in "beta" for four years, we figure we can hang out there for another week or two...)

Exactly!
Samantha Brandt
29. Talia
Two HUGE thumbs up for Tor & all the staff for what you're trying to do here. Wonderful. I look forward to spending time here in the future.
Blue Tyson
30. BlueTyson
Ok, bug fixing is good. Looks like Windows 2000/2.0.0.16 might work now for me. :)
Jeffrey Richard
31. neutronjockey
I've been made aware that you're using Joomla CMS? Hats off! Joomla has a supah steep learning curve and isn't inherently designed to function as a community platform --- gotta love Open Source and the community behind it: module and component add ons work wonders.

Awesome job to those that fight the Code Monkies.

Subscribe to this thread

Receive notification by email when a new comment is added. You must be a registered user to subscribe to threads.
Post a comment