Moderated blog comments

January 6 2006

I've been frustrated in the last couple of days by a couple of blogs with moderated comments.  Since DominoBlog has had 99% accuracy blocking comment spam, and several other solutions exist to deter it for other blog technologies, I think moderating comments is really more of a control thing than a true anti-spam measure.  In both of these cases, I'm pretty sure that's the case.  And since it's been at least two days in each case, and my comments still haven't been "moderated", I'll just cover them here.

  • Case #1 -- Michael Hermann wrote about initial experiences with IBM Workplace.  I'm not sure what approach a "dot net junkie" takes to Workplace Services Express, but given that background, unsurprisingly, his initial impressions are negative.  He has a problem downloading from the IBM website (seemingly a common gripe) and instead of retrying, figures that he can blame it on IBM web server, Workplace, or WebSphere, a "12.5% chance of the 3 components working at any given time".  Sort of like Windows, IIS, and SharePoint, but I guess I shouldn't go there. ;)   His second impression is a rant about the download file name, and how he can't figure out what the files are because of it.  And where's the readme?  Well, Michael, the file name might not be self-documenting, but I'm sure you read the screen where you actually downloaded from, right?
Image:Moderated blog comments A good question is, should I even care anyway?  I found these blogs through technorati and/or blogdigger.  They may not have much in the way of readership, but if I could find them by searching for Lotus Notes or whatever, others making similar searches will, too.  As such, it would be nice if their blogs allowed for the discourse implied by having a comments feature.  And if they're not interested in that then turn the comments off or at least make their comments polcies clear.  I would then know to recommend they switch to DominoBlog or some other appropriate blogging tool....or to not bother paying attention.

Ed Brill Highland Park, IL USA Category:  Blogging  Add/View Comments [20]

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  1. 1  Charles Robinson  | 1/6/2006 10:44:39 AM

    I just want to point out that ibmeye.com moderates comments to, so it's not just your detractors who are doing it.

  1. 2  Carl Tyler http://www.iminstant.com | 1/6/2006 10:46:58 AM

    I haven't read the WSE summary, but I can agree on download filenames. They all get downloaded to a directory and they all have some meaningless hex name. This goes back to IBM history of IBM part numbers, great for computers and a database, but completely bloody useless for human beings.

    If you ever download a lot of stuff from IBM websites, you pretty soon learn to hate the whole experience.

    I posted a feature request a couple of years ago to the partner forum about download naming, so I know for me it has been an aggrevation for a long time.

  1. 3  Bart  | 1/6/2006 11:12:47 AM

    I read the comment from Michael Hermann, and in my opinion, you shouldn't even worry about. It's so clear from reading it that's it just a biased rant that a smart reader wouldn't listen to it.

    Let me give you a point of view from a serious user of Workplace (it is the collaboration standard in our group). We use the full Workplace Collaboration Services not WSE. It allows us to integrate with our Sun directory, and we use the DB2 option, and have installed it on a P-series machines with AIX. Yes, it is a bit complicated to install, but I can't say that it is (much) more complicated than other products that give you as much flexibility. There is room for improvement though.

    Improving installation was one of the targets of WSE : create a version of WCS that goes in easily by not confusing things with so many options. It installs. It uses it's own user directory. And it uses Cloudscape.

    True to the promises, it installed in 30 minutes, and in the 6 months we've been running it as our experimentation environment (over 50 taemspaces), we've had no problems.

    The big version takes longers to configure and install, but once in, it works as promised.

    Now, if I wanted to to, I could rave about all the problems my colleague is having upgrading from AD/Exchange 2000 to 2003. But I won't. But I wish we were on Notes.

  1. 4  Rob McDonagh www.CaptainOblivious.com | 1/6/2006 11:30:28 AM

    First, to Ed's point, moderated comments are lame. The only thing worse than a blog with moderated comments is a blog that doesn't allow comments at all. If the issue is comment spam, there a plenty of technical solutions.

    Now, to the specifics in the post about Workplace: Carl's right, and so it the DotNetJunkie. Those file names generated by IBM's download process are worse than useless. If you don't force yourself to instantly rename the file to something meaningful, you will inevitably end up looking at it 2 months down the road and wondering what the heck it is. Those of us who've been downloading software from IBM/Lotus for several years can usually deal with the process, but it is not something IBM should be proud of...

  1. 5  Carl Tyler http://www.iminstant.com | 1/6/2006 12:13:17 PM

    @3 So you're the one :-D

  1. 6  Chris Miller http://www.IdoNotes.com | 1/6/2006 1:52:08 PM

    @4 (Rob) I have to say I make myself name the files when downloading and have been doing so for years. It made is much easier when I had to do the eAssembly for Workplace Collaboration Services

  1. 7  Lee Davis  | 1/6/2006 2:40:14 PM

    The files names are annoying; If you download a dozen of so assemblies/files (no ISO) and come back in a day or two, I end up reading the binary log file from Download Director to find out what it is. It must be frustrating for IBMers to get complaints about a trivial matter they have little control over. But Peters in his Excellence books used the examples that few can judge whether the airline is maintaining its engines but everyone can judge whether the trays are clean. And it is not an unreasonable proxy to say that Excellent companies tend to [try to] do everything well. (back when there were solvent airlines.)

    So the whole download process, including no ISO ( and { Link } ) are not big issues.

    But the distribution/download process is objectively flawed,

    competitors do better, and parners have complained about it for years yet IBM has done nothing to fix it.

    So now for me, the annoyance is larger than the actual pain ( it does after all still allow one to download ) The process has become a symptom of the problem. An organization could survive forever with an ackward download; but an organization that prioritizes its buracracy or costs above responding to customers desires should have problems.

  1. 8  Andrew Kelly http://www.ThinkingAdmin.net | 1/6/2006 3:47:34 PM

    @6 Ditto I always take a moment to rename the file to something meaningful to me, such as "Win_Notes_AllClients_654" or whatever, just before starting the download. It's quite easy to do.

  1. 9  Rob http://www.lotusdigerati.com | 1/6/2006 7:23:17 PM

    ZZZZZZZZZZ yes the filenames are mangled, but it's documented, and after installing several times even I did something about it.

    { Link }

    and

    { Link }

  1. 10  Rob McDonagh www.CaptainOblivious.com | 1/6/2006 8:03:49 PM

    Guys, be serious. Of course we all know how to rename files, that isn't the issue.

    The issue is that the names are ridiculous, and we do ridicule them on a regular basis. It's great that those of us with experience with IBM/Lotus all have the secret decoder ring to figure out how the site works and what the file names mean, but I don't care if the documentation consists of a couple of stone tablets, the naming convention is broken. Can it be fixed? Yes. Should it be fixed? Yes. The ExchangeJunkie is not wrong about the stupid file names.

    /really must learn to avoid beating around the bush....

  1. 11  Ray Bilyk (aka The Lion King) http://www.thepridelands.com | 1/6/2006 10:32:09 PM

    Yea, Captain, tell us how you really feel...

  1. 12  Andrew Kelly http://www.ThinkingAdmin.com | 1/6/2006 11:56:47 PM

    Aye, Captain, I'm with ya now. I believe I was choping at a tree while you were contemplating the forest!

  1. 13  Ed Brill www.edbrill.com | 1/7/2006 4:34:49 AM

    Update - Case #2, it appears comments at messagingnews.com have been "moderated" and are now visible. Thanks, Jeff (or whomever)!

  1. 14  Axel  | 1/7/2006 5:15:29 AM

    The recent history of .NET and J2EE has shown, that *big* enterprise platforms can gain from critic posted somewhere on the internet. Just look at EJB 3.0 or Netbeans 5.0. They are just better than Netbeans 3.0/3.5/4.0 or EJB1.1/2.0/2.1. Both poor things were under heavy pressure.

    Though around 80% of the comments consists of over-generalized statements there might be some gold to discover. And this will result in a better product. Not all critic is pure politics.

  1. 15  Axel  | 1/7/2006 5:29:32 AM

    Its the nature of the medium, that comments are often plain wrong from an indivdual pov.

    Just as an example (not to discuss): In an openNtf MainBar discussion we can find comments like:

    "Java is starting to show signs of buckling under the weight of meeting too many needs" or "Java is academic". I disagree, but it would be waste of time to discuss such bold topics.

    Same with IBM downloads/installation routines: Much room for improvements but manageble. Most people know that and from my pov its not necesary to discuss. Better invest energy to provide a smoother process for the human beings who *want* to give *your* software a try.

  1. 16  Jeff Ubois www.ubois.com | 1/7/2006 4:40:10 PM

    No, it's just a spam thing. Your comments are welcome and appreciated (and about the first real ones I've received.

  1. 17  Frode  | 1/9/2006 4:53:18 AM

    Better late than never: File naming is useless, bordering on broken and should be changed full stop.

  1. 18  Ben Rose http://www.jaffacake.net | 1/9/2006 5:27:14 AM

    I must be the only one who doesn't mind the IBM filenames. Perhaps I'm just too organised?

    Before downloading R7, for example, I created a folder in my installs network share. This would be:

    \\server\installs\Lotus\ND7

    In this folder I then created

    \\server\installs\Lotus\ND7.0\Notes

    \\server\installs\Lotus\ND7.0\Domino

    And then the language variants:

    \\server\installs\Lotus\ND7.0\Notes\English

    \\server\installs\Lotus\ND7.0\Notes\French

    \\server\installs\Lotus\ND7.0\Notes\Polish

    etc.

    I then download the files to these specific folders and do an 'extract to here' in winzip when complete.

    My installation documentation tell our first line team to install \\server\installs\Lotus\Current\Language\setup.exe

    The 'Current' folder is a shortcut to the current internal version number in use, currently 6.5.4. They all have the same folder structure and I never can forget which download is which.

    Like I said, I'm too organised.