Challenging Suspicious Substack Errors Persist - Request To All Subscribers On SolutionSeeking.Substack.com to Connect on Gab As Soon As Possible

January 16, 2023 PM US Pacific Time, updated 2:58 PM January 17. Updated Jan. 22, 2023.

Why would this kind of thing be happening? Perhaps fear that we might discover something important?

Hello Solution seeking partners. We have identified several sporadic, strange, and suspicious comment thread errors on our Solution Seeking Substack. Our think tank work requires that we have a reliable platform where we can share and record comments. It requires that we are able to have the comments and replies go to the right place. It requires that we can archive the comments threads as backup. My recommendation is that we meet up on Gab in case this situation continues to escalate.

My Gab account is:
https://gab.com/LarryDruhall

There are many explanations for this but it appears to have arisen recently, it appears to be getting worse, and it appears to happen only on our Solution Seeking Substack account. UPDATE: On January 19, this issue arose on another Substack. Please see ADDENDUM 2 below. As a programmer, I submit that it is probably much harder to program these kinds of sporadic errors than it is to simply keep the comment threads working reliably and properly. I further submit that the timing and apparent confinement of these errors to our Substack account is suspicious and it might jeopardize our entire project. It is likely that we will need to rethink our strategy. For now, I recommend that we meet on Gab so those who are available there can continue there no matter what happens on Substack. Those who do not have an existing account on Gab might want to consider creating a free account there. The urgency of this is questionable, but we should have a backup plan, and perhaps now is the time to move on this? My experience with Gab is limited, but I am not aware of any similar issues there. We may want to discuss other options. Please do your best to offer comments on Substack, even though there is no guarantee those comments will go to the right places or stay there.

I am sorry it came to this. My hope is that we can remain open minded about this, discuss it, and adapt in the best possible ways.

Here is a link to a previous post describing this problem.

https://solutionseeking.substack.com/p/serious-substack-comment-thread-reply/comments

UPDATE - ERRORS PERSIST 8 AM US PACIFIC TIME JANUARY 22

I just experienced another comment placement error on another Substack. 8 AM US Pacific time, January 22, 2023. My first reply went to the wrong place. My second reply went to the correct place.

https://tessa.substack.com/p/censorship-private-communications/comments#comment-12116407

Emails exchanged with Substack Support are pasted below for your review.

<NEW EMAILS WITH SUBSTACK SUPPORT JAN. 20, 2023>

<NEW REQUEST SENT TO SUBSTACK SUPPORT 2:39 PM US PACIFIC TIME ON JANUARY 17, 2023 APPEARS BELOW>

This URL was used to submit a new request to Substack support:

https://support.substack.com/hc/en-us/requests/new

The text of the request submitted appears below. Very quickly I received an automated request from Substack indicating the request was received.

<EMAIL SENT TO SUBSTACK SUPPORT ON JANUARY 16, 3:47 PM US PACIFIC TIME APPEARS BELOW>

Hello Gavin,

Thank you for your reply.  Your debilitating and frustrating sporadic Substack comment reply placement errors are worsening.  And it appears to be just the SolutionSeeking.Substack.com site that is experiencing these errors.  We have documented this and are considering moving to another platform.  This has been shared with a wider audience and cannot be good for your business model.  I suggest you expedite an explanation and a solution.  Thank you.

Larry Druhall

<EMAIL FROM SUBSTACK SUPPORT RECEIVED 2:55 PM AM US PACIFIC TIME JANUARY 16, 2023>

Hi there,

Gavin from Substack support here. 

We're sorry we haven't been able to reply to your request. Our small team is working to get to everyone as soon as possible.
 
If you still need assistance, please reply within 3 days to ensure we're able to prioritize your ticket.
 
Thank you again for your patience.

Warmly,
Gavin

<EMAIL SENT TO SUBSTACK SUPPORT ON JANUARY 10 11:59 AM US PACIFIC TIME>

Dear Substack,

Others, and I, have identified significant comment reply tree placement issues. Specifically, with some comments on comment tree branches (comment threads), the replies are placed on the wrong trees. This makes following the discussion threads challening and/or impossible. This does not appear to occur in the first tree of a comment and it's reply, but when there are additional comments and replies on that thread, the replies are placed on the wrong comment tree. The error persists no matter how I sort the comments.

I worked as a programmer using trees for decades and I have validated that this is indeed a serious issue. Others have experienced the same thing.

This is causing me, and others, to consider other platforms. It is a serious issue for some of us.

Please advice.

Thank you.

Larry Druhall

ADDENDUM WRITTEN JANUARY 17 2023 11:02 AM US PACIFIC TIME

Pinned as a comment.

PLEASE CONSIDER CONTACTING SUBSTACK SUPPORT ABOUT THIS COMMENT REPLY PLACEMENT ISSUE

Dear Solution Seeking readers and subscribers. The comment thread errors are being reported across the articles of Solution Seeking and might be escalating.

Please consider contacting Substack Support about this issue and sharing with a wider audience? So far Substack Support has not addressed this issue for me. Maybe your contact will help? Here is one way of contacting Substack Support. There may be other ways.

https://support.substack.com/hc/en-us/requests/new

Thank you.

ADDENDUM 2 - ONE OF MY COMMENTS ON SASHA’S SUBSTACK WENT TO THE WRONG PLACE

Written 3:36 PM US Pacific Time Jan 19, 2023.

At the time of writing above, this link shows a comment that went to the wrong place in one of Sasha’s Substack comment threads.

https://sashalatypova.substack.com/p/the-role-of-the-us-dod-and-their/comment/12050097

ADDENDUM 3 - USER SUGGESTED SOLUTION (Jan. 21, 2023)

People have told me that if you go to the Activity Bell (in the upper right part of the image below) and click, you can open up recent activity. They claim that if you reply to comments from there, of from within a Substack page itself (and not from the Substack email notification), the reply will go to the proper place. This is new to me and I have not yet tried it. Please let us know if you have any thoughts on or experience with this. I have also been informed that the reply placement errors are not only occurring on the Solution Seeking pages, but across Substack.