We have identified and validated serious issues with how Substack handles some comment threads. The email below has been sent to Substack support. Please accept my apologies for the confusion that this issue is causing in some of the comment and reply threads. Some replies are simply sent to the wrong thread, and following the comment trails is therefore often challenging. The issue does not go away with sorting the Substack comment trails. We are discussing using other platforms for our comments. We are discussing possible work arounds. Please provide suggestions, corrections, comments. Thank you for your understanding.
The nature of the comments is noteworthy. An example has been captured in the comments below and saved in time stamped files. Sometimes the replies are in the correct tree, sometimes in the wrong tree. I worked as a programmer/engineer and designed successful dynamic web programs and programs with trees that had hundreds of nodes and sub nodes. Once the correct array address was known, it was impossible to make an error. It is disturbing that sometimes Substack puts the comment in the right place and sometimes it doesn’t. My opinion is that it is much more challenging to program something like these sporadic mistakes than it is to just do it properly. Is something nefarious going on here? I suggest waiting for the Substack response and keeping open minds. My hope is that Substack can provide a technical description of how these sporadic errors occur only some of the time. There are many possible explanations and maybe Substack will implement a permanent solution in a timely manner?
If there are any programmers reading this, please offer your opinions and feedback of what I wrote in the above paragraph.
To all readers… Please let us know if you are experiencing this type of thing on other Substack channels. It will be useful if we can determine if it is just happening on Solution Seeking, or it is also happening elsewhere on Substack.
This is challenging enough without having to deal with this kind of thing? Perhaps we should welcome this as a learning opportunity, and an opportunity to improve?
What do we do now? Maybe we can devise a numbering scheme so we can keep our comments straight ourselves while we figure out how to handle this? Maybe there is another temporary solution we can use? Maybe there are other platforms that are better for some, or all, of this? Please see the pinned comment below and offer ideas.
Thank you.
<EMAIL SENT TO SUBSTACK SUPPORT ON JANUARY 10 11:59 AM US PACIFIC TIME APPEARS BELOW>
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.
Update January 10 11:18 11:18 PM Pacific US time...
While it is too soon to jump to conclusions, this is probably a good time to consider alternatives. As an engineer I try to prepare for the extreme futures, work for the best future, observe with an open mind, and adapt.
I just made the following test on another Substack. Deep comment nesting seems to work just fine there at this time.
Can we ever trust Substack to handle these comments properly again? Let's see if Substack responds, and what they say. Open minds are important, but I cannot think of a good explanation for this at this time.
If this Solution Seeking Substack gets further compromised and becomes unworkable, look for me on Gab.com. We may try to carry on with this over there if required. If I am no longer available, please consider carrying on independently of me. If you think what is posted here has merit, you may want to try something like "Print To PDF" or "Save As PDF" for any or all of these Solution Seeking Substack pages, save them, share them, use them, adapt them, and carry on. I claim no ownership of any of this and will accept no money for any of this.
We might be wise to consider a backup plan right now. Below is my Gab Social address. Maybe we meet up there as a backup just in case? We may migrate some of all of Solution Seeking to there, or somewhere else.
I just saw Substack delete a comment to you right before my eyes. My screen blinked, and, poof, magically, my reply was gone. At a minimum, I think we need to move the comments off Substack as soon as possible? Could it be that our friends at the NSA or other security agencies are giving me/us a little nudge? I see complex comment threads working perfectly in other Substacks, but have all kinds of issues with the comments in the Solution Seeking Substack. Thanks for the suggestion. I will explore it.
I wish I could catch one of these incidents in a screen grab movie. But they are sporadic. I have never seen anything like it on the internet, and I have been on the internet since 1993.
Oh look, the comment in question got magically taken from its previous proper position in the comment tree as a child (reply) to your parent comment and put in the wrong place at the root level of comments. There it is at the root level, after appearing in the correct place for a few seconds. It is the comment "Thank you for your suggestion. I will study it and hopefully the few who ...". I do not see how we can possibly do think tank solution seeking on a platform where this kind of sporadic sabotage occurs. Our comments need to go and stay in the right places. No reply yet from Substack support.
I agree, sometimes i think a response is to me vs others and can cause confusion and even friction. I just pass it off as the cost of doing this kind of communicating.
If you’ve got it figured out, wonderful! Thank you, Larry.
We are discussing moving some of this to alternate platforms. Perhaps Substack will engage and resolve the issue? I can't yet see how to work around this. It is almost as though somebody wants to limit the depth of discussions here? If somehow we get deleted (it would be a first for Substack) how will we find each other? Who finances and controls Substack? Can we follow the money here? Or is it too soon to jump to conclusions? I think it is too soon to jump to conclusions, but we may want to try to figure out how to regroup and find each other (not just you, but all those of use who might want to do that) if this does not go well?
It just happened in my reply to you. At first my reply seemed to be put in the proper place in the tree to the right of the comment boxes, as a child to your parent comment. Then, a split second later, it disappeared. When I refreshed the browser page, my comment was in the wrong place, not in your branch as a child, but at the root branch. The issue appears to be getting worse.
I would be interested in reader feedback on whether this is just with the Solution Seeking Substack or if they are experiencing similar things elsewhere.
It is complicated and obfuscated by the ability to sort comments by:
Top First,
New First,
Chronological.
But my reply was placed on the wrong tree branch, and, if there are complex comments, this is not going to go well for us unless it is corrected or we discover a better way?
Please take a look at the comments here, looking at the comment tree branches to the left of the comment bubbles. I am replying to you, JVM_IN_VA. To your comment "I had major problems with the comments in the reader app last week. No idea what was going.". If the comment tree was correct, my comment should appear under the tree branch you created, as a child comment to your parent comment. Let's see where my comment ends up... This time it ended up in the correct place, for now, under your parent comment. But my previous reply to you ended up one level too high up. The Substack errors are not even consistent? Either this gets fixed or we need a new platform for our comments?
The comment is nested correctly but my experience with stacks like sage Hana that has hundreds of comments sometimes can exhibit the incorrect nesting. However, that's not what I was referring to initially. I had certain paid stacks where none of the comments would load in the reader app but I see and post if I accessed it via internet browser.
I am a retired engineer/programmer. In the 1990s I was creating nested treed comments and more complex things with hundreds of dynamic nodes. You can bet that the programs the enemy uses get the trees correct. This issue should not exist in any well designed program. I have to consider the possibility that it is intentionally done to confuse and frustrate the users. I have seen the internet deteriorate significantly since the 1990s as the enemy does what it always does, destroy anything good, horde all the good things for itself, and keep us busy with needless challenges. Wow. This time it appears to have put this comment in the right place. I am recording time stamped records of this to PDF. Sorted every possible way in case they try to attribute it to the sorting. I have learned to not trust Substack comments.
I agree, sometimes i think a response is to me vs others and can cause confusion and even friction. I just pass it off as the cost of doing this kind of communicating.
If you’ve got it figured out, wonderful! Thank you, Larry.
".
This reply should appear in the tree under the Stevanovitch comment, not as a stand alone comment. For me this appears as a stand alone comment whether I sort by any of the following options. I am exporting this as date stamped PDF in case somebody attempts a shell game with us. A trust issue with Substack is herby generated. It might be too soon to jump to conclusions, I suggest we get at least one Plan B, and see what Substack says.
I suggest exploring this with open minds? I have some ideas as hopefully posted in the comments and sent them the email. There are many possibilities. In the mean time we may want to plan for the possible futures of how this will go. Maybe this is a nice challenge, it might be a good learning opportunity for us to see how well we can adapt to challenges. We are, after all, attempting perhaps the most urgent and challenging thing in world history here, on the enemy's internet? We should expect challenges?
This reply was to JVM_IN_VA, specifically his comment "Do you think they were curating comments in specific substack threads? That's what it seemed like.".
This message should appear in the comment branch JVM_IN_VA's comment created, as a child (reply) comment. Instead, it somehow appears one level up, in the wrong place, as a stand alone comment.
Either this gets fixed, we find a work around, or we need a new, better, platform for our comments?
Thank you for your suggestion. I will study it and hopefully the few who actively participate in this group can make decisions together after looking at several alternatives. I do not plan on leaving Substack unless it has a complete personality change like Google, YouTube, etc. had. Even if the comments need to be taken elsewhere, Substack might remain as the repository for our articles, and we might work together to create and optimize them, freeing me from endless hours of correcting the very strange errors that seem to magically spontaneously occur. I may try writing replies offline in a word processor and then putting them into Substack. I have seen the correct word in my Substack comments and replies magically get highlighted and replaced with some of the worst possible words. But it is sporadic, and I have not yet caught it with my movie screen grab program. So, I will not leave Substack voluntarily. But, anything is possible. We should probably be saving what we think is of merit and not relying on any one person or platform? This is the brainstorming formative stage so we may want to try to do these things at the best possible times after discussing them as a group?
Update January 10 11:18 11:18 PM Pacific US time...
While it is too soon to jump to conclusions, this is probably a good time to consider alternatives. As an engineer I try to prepare for the extreme futures, work for the best future, observe with an open mind, and adapt.
I just made the following test on another Substack. Deep comment nesting seems to work just fine there at this time.
https://sashalatypova.substack.com/p/it-doesnt-add-up/comment/11802881
Can we ever trust Substack to handle these comments properly again? Let's see if Substack responds, and what they say. Open minds are important, but I cannot think of a good explanation for this at this time.
If this Solution Seeking Substack gets further compromised and becomes unworkable, look for me on Gab.com. We may try to carry on with this over there if required. If I am no longer available, please consider carrying on independently of me. If you think what is posted here has merit, you may want to try something like "Print To PDF" or "Save As PDF" for any or all of these Solution Seeking Substack pages, save them, share them, use them, adapt them, and carry on. I claim no ownership of any of this and will accept no money for any of this.
We might be wise to consider a backup plan right now. Below is my Gab Social address. Maybe we meet up there as a backup just in case? We may migrate some of all of Solution Seeking to there, or somewhere else.
https://gab.com/LarryDruhall
My hope is that this settles down and we get believable explanations for all of this.
I just saw Substack delete a comment to you right before my eyes. My screen blinked, and, poof, magically, my reply was gone. At a minimum, I think we need to move the comments off Substack as soon as possible? Could it be that our friends at the NSA or other security agencies are giving me/us a little nudge? I see complex comment threads working perfectly in other Substacks, but have all kinds of issues with the comments in the Solution Seeking Substack. Thanks for the suggestion. I will explore it.
I wish I could catch one of these incidents in a screen grab movie. But they are sporadic. I have never seen anything like it on the internet, and I have been on the internet since 1993.
Oh look, the comment in question got magically taken from its previous proper position in the comment tree as a child (reply) to your parent comment and put in the wrong place at the root level of comments. There it is at the root level, after appearing in the correct place for a few seconds. It is the comment "Thank you for your suggestion. I will study it and hopefully the few who ...". I do not see how we can possibly do think tank solution seeking on a platform where this kind of sporadic sabotage occurs. Our comments need to go and stay in the right places. No reply yet from Substack support.
I agree, sometimes i think a response is to me vs others and can cause confusion and even friction. I just pass it off as the cost of doing this kind of communicating.
If you’ve got it figured out, wonderful! Thank you, Larry.
We are discussing moving some of this to alternate platforms. Perhaps Substack will engage and resolve the issue? I can't yet see how to work around this. It is almost as though somebody wants to limit the depth of discussions here? If somehow we get deleted (it would be a first for Substack) how will we find each other? Who finances and controls Substack? Can we follow the money here? Or is it too soon to jump to conclusions? I think it is too soon to jump to conclusions, but we may want to try to figure out how to regroup and find each other (not just you, but all those of use who might want to do that) if this does not go well?
It just happened in my reply to you. At first my reply seemed to be put in the proper place in the tree to the right of the comment boxes, as a child to your parent comment. Then, a split second later, it disappeared. When I refreshed the browser page, my comment was in the wrong place, not in your branch as a child, but at the root branch. The issue appears to be getting worse.
I would be interested in reader feedback on whether this is just with the Solution Seeking Substack or if they are experiencing similar things elsewhere.
It is complicated and obfuscated by the ability to sort comments by:
Top First,
New First,
Chronological.
But my reply was placed on the wrong tree branch, and, if there are complex comments, this is not going to go well for us unless it is corrected or we discover a better way?
I had major problems with the comments in the reader app last week. No idea what was going.
Please take a look at the comments here, looking at the comment tree branches to the left of the comment bubbles. I am replying to you, JVM_IN_VA. To your comment "I had major problems with the comments in the reader app last week. No idea what was going.". If the comment tree was correct, my comment should appear under the tree branch you created, as a child comment to your parent comment. Let's see where my comment ends up... This time it ended up in the correct place, for now, under your parent comment. But my previous reply to you ended up one level too high up. The Substack errors are not even consistent? Either this gets fixed or we need a new platform for our comments?
The comment is nested correctly but my experience with stacks like sage Hana that has hundreds of comments sometimes can exhibit the incorrect nesting. However, that's not what I was referring to initially. I had certain paid stacks where none of the comments would load in the reader app but I see and post if I accessed it via internet browser.
I am a retired engineer/programmer. In the 1990s I was creating nested treed comments and more complex things with hundreds of dynamic nodes. You can bet that the programs the enemy uses get the trees correct. This issue should not exist in any well designed program. I have to consider the possibility that it is intentionally done to confuse and frustrate the users. I have seen the internet deteriorate significantly since the 1990s as the enemy does what it always does, destroy anything good, horde all the good things for itself, and keep us busy with needless challenges. Wow. This time it appears to have put this comment in the right place. I am recording time stamped records of this to PDF. Sorted every possible way in case they try to attribute it to the sorting. I have learned to not trust Substack comments.
Do you think they were curating comments in specific substack threads? That's what it seemed like.
Thanks for the heads up. Much appreciated.
This reply was to the comment by Stevanovitch,
"
I agree, sometimes i think a response is to me vs others and can cause confusion and even friction. I just pass it off as the cost of doing this kind of communicating.
If you’ve got it figured out, wonderful! Thank you, Larry.
".
This reply should appear in the tree under the Stevanovitch comment, not as a stand alone comment. For me this appears as a stand alone comment whether I sort by any of the following options. I am exporting this as date stamped PDF in case somebody attempts a shell game with us. A trust issue with Substack is herby generated. It might be too soon to jump to conclusions, I suggest we get at least one Plan B, and see what Substack says.
I suggest exploring this with open minds? I have some ideas as hopefully posted in the comments and sent them the email. There are many possibilities. In the mean time we may want to plan for the possible futures of how this will go. Maybe this is a nice challenge, it might be a good learning opportunity for us to see how well we can adapt to challenges. We are, after all, attempting perhaps the most urgent and challenging thing in world history here, on the enemy's internet? We should expect challenges?
This reply was to JVM_IN_VA, specifically his comment "Do you think they were curating comments in specific substack threads? That's what it seemed like.".
This message should appear in the comment branch JVM_IN_VA's comment created, as a child (reply) comment. Instead, it somehow appears one level up, in the wrong place, as a stand alone comment.
Either this gets fixed, we find a work around, or we need a new, better, platform for our comments?
Thank you for your suggestion. I will study it and hopefully the few who actively participate in this group can make decisions together after looking at several alternatives. I do not plan on leaving Substack unless it has a complete personality change like Google, YouTube, etc. had. Even if the comments need to be taken elsewhere, Substack might remain as the repository for our articles, and we might work together to create and optimize them, freeing me from endless hours of correcting the very strange errors that seem to magically spontaneously occur. I may try writing replies offline in a word processor and then putting them into Substack. I have seen the correct word in my Substack comments and replies magically get highlighted and replaced with some of the worst possible words. But it is sporadic, and I have not yet caught it with my movie screen grab program. So, I will not leave Substack voluntarily. But, anything is possible. We should probably be saving what we think is of merit and not relying on any one person or platform? This is the brainstorming formative stage so we may want to try to do these things at the best possible times after discussing them as a group?
A comment was sent to me but I get an error when I reply.
"There was an error submitting your reply. Android app latest build on a Samsung galaxy.
Thanks for the information. That is a new twist I have not heard of so far.