Comments on: Answering Your Questions About Tor.com’s Change to Reactor https://reactormag.com/answering-your-questions-about-tor-coms-change-to-reactor/ Science fiction. Fantasy. The universe. And related subjects. Mon, 15 Apr 2024 05:14:19 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.4.3 By: Aslam Shaikh https://reactormag.com/answering-your-questions-about-tor-coms-change-to-reactor/#comment-994308 Mon, 15 Apr 2024 05:14:19 +0000 https://reactormag.com/answering-your-questions-about-tor-coms-change-to-reactor/#comment-994308 If you just wanted to change the name to Reactor, you could have done just that. Changing the website format completely was the silliest idea. Now, it feels cringe to even look at the website. Its not simple and easy. Earlier, I would visit website almost daily. But now, a couple of times in a month. If possible, change the template back to the previous one.

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By: Joe https://reactormag.com/answering-your-questions-about-tor-coms-change-to-reactor/#comment-993848 Mon, 08 Apr 2024 02:23:29 +0000 https://reactormag.com/answering-your-questions-about-tor-coms-change-to-reactor/#comment-993848 As there been any analysis done on engagement before and after the switch? I don’t know about anyone else, but I find it difficult to find the posts that I used to follow and harder still to be motivated to comment once I find them. It feels like some of the communities are drying up, with the Star Trek/B5 one at least still doing okay– but that seems as much by Keith’s force of personality than the site.

Not that it would be possible to go back at this point, but I miss the old design more and more every day. This was once one of my favorite places to read and now it’s just a clone of DenOfGeek.

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By: lfresh https://reactormag.com/answering-your-questions-about-tor-coms-change-to-reactor/#comment-993845 Mon, 08 Apr 2024 01:49:22 +0000 https://reactormag.com/answering-your-questions-about-tor-coms-change-to-reactor/#comment-993845 the moment I find out the change happened on my 50th birthday =)

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By: CliftonR https://reactormag.com/answering-your-questions-about-tor-coms-change-to-reactor/#comment-993842 Sun, 07 Apr 2024 20:22:01 +0000 https://reactormag.com/answering-your-questions-about-tor-coms-change-to-reactor/#comment-993842 In reply to CliftonR.

An example of the broken redirected link for the one I was looking for:
http://www.tor.com/blogs/2010/09/the-suck-fairy => redirects to
https://reactormag.com/blogs/2010/09/the-suck-fairy => leads to
ReactorMag 404 page

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By: CliftonR https://reactormag.com/answering-your-questions-about-tor-coms-change-to-reactor/#comment-993841 Sun, 07 Apr 2024 20:18:43 +0000 https://reactormag.com/answering-your-questions-about-tor-coms-change-to-reactor/#comment-993841 What’s happened to Jo Walton’s older blog posts, including among others the ‘What Makes This Book So Great’ series? None of the links seem to connect or be redirected to anything any longer.

Some of her essays on Tor have ideas which have become fundamentally useful to discussion and review of the field of SF&F and literature in general. I think it’s not an exaggeration to say that her essay on the ‘Suck Fairy’ has made it a very useful shorthand in discussing how books have aged. (Yes I know she didn’t originate the term, but she popularized it.)

And, while I know the ‘What Makes This Book So Great’ reviews/essays are now collected in a book, those essays introduced me to a number of authors and fascinating books which have become part of my mental landscape. (There’s no way I would have started Sarah Monette’s Melusine series, for example, due to the entirely misleading original covers.) I would never have run into them if I had to first buy the book of Jo Walton’s essays sight-unseen

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By: Tim Young https://reactormag.com/answering-your-questions-about-tor-coms-change-to-reactor/#comment-993446 Mon, 01 Apr 2024 00:58:10 +0000 https://reactormag.com/answering-your-questions-about-tor-coms-change-to-reactor/#comment-993446 Still encountering lots of dead links as I read through the Star Trek TNG reviews. The links to reviews of other episodes.

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By: ChristopherLBennett https://reactormag.com/answering-your-questions-about-tor-coms-change-to-reactor/#comment-993428 Sun, 31 Mar 2024 00:29:06 +0000 https://reactormag.com/answering-your-questions-about-tor-coms-change-to-reactor/#comment-993428 A whole bunch is going wrong with this misbegotten new software lately. That bizarre “Verify you are human” thing that shows up before you can get to the site was refusing to let me through a while ago; instead of verifying automatically as it usually does, it only gave me the manual check box, and when I checked it, it just reloaded the manual check box and wouldn’t let me into the site. It’s cleared up now, obviously, but who knows if it’ll happen again? Frustrating to have that pointless barrier to entry, especially when it reacts so inconsistently.

Also, the notification flags on comments and the “My Comments” option in the user profile have disappeared again.

And the system for displaying comments works terribly and needs to be completely overhauled. In the All Discussions page, when you click on the direct link to a comment, if the comment thread is more than a couple of dozen comments (maybe less), it takes you to that comment only for a split second, then jumps to the top of the list, so you have to scroll down and search for it manually. You can try setting the list to display the newest comments first, but there’s no way to set that as the default, and it doesn’t help you find a new nested reply to an older comment. Sometimes I try searching for a keyword like “minutes” to find the newest comments, but since the site doesn’t load all the comments unless you scroll down, that doesn’t always work either. It makes it frustratingly harder to follow a discussion thread.

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By: tourma https://reactormag.com/answering-your-questions-about-tor-coms-change-to-reactor/#comment-993323 Fri, 29 Mar 2024 00:00:55 +0000 https://reactormag.com/answering-your-questions-about-tor-coms-change-to-reactor/#comment-993323 Hey, any thoughts on making a Fediverse (Mastdon, Plemora, Sharkey, Pixelfed, PeerTube, etc.) account?

I see you have a Threads, but there are a lot of instances that have Threads blocked on principal. I’m not going to get a mastodon.social account just to follow y’all from threads.

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By: Larsaf https://reactormag.com/answering-your-questions-about-tor-coms-change-to-reactor/#comment-993256 Thu, 28 Mar 2024 04:09:16 +0000 https://reactormag.com/answering-your-questions-about-tor-coms-change-to-reactor/#comment-993256 Regarding subscribing to a comments thread:

1. It would be great to have the option of receiving only one email notification a day when new comments are posted rather than separate notifications for each individual comment (and perhaps with a link that would take me right to the first unread comment). Just today I received 25 individual notifications about new comments, most of which involved a currently very active post (namely krad’s post about this week’s Babylon 5 rewatch).

2. It would also be great to have the “SUBSCRIBE” link appear after the most recent comment, i.e., at the end of the comments. I may sometimes decide to subscribe only after reading through all the existing comments, and right now this requires scrolling back to the top of the comments to get to the “SUBSCRIBE” link. I know, it’s a small inconvenience, but still.

At any rate, with respect to both of my suggestions, that was more or less how things worked with the old site, IIRC.

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By: Moderator https://reactormag.com/answering-your-questions-about-tor-coms-change-to-reactor/#comment-993090 Tue, 26 Mar 2024 14:01:09 +0000 https://reactormag.com/answering-your-questions-about-tor-coms-change-to-reactor/#comment-993090 In reply to ChristopherLBennett.

This should be fixed/back to normal–thanks for the heads up!

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By: Moderator https://reactormag.com/answering-your-questions-about-tor-coms-change-to-reactor/#comment-993089 Tue, 26 Mar 2024 14:00:08 +0000 https://reactormag.com/answering-your-questions-about-tor-coms-change-to-reactor/#comment-993089 In reply to mammam.

It should be back/visible now–thanks for letting us know!

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By: mammam https://reactormag.com/answering-your-questions-about-tor-coms-change-to-reactor/#comment-993085 Tue, 26 Mar 2024 12:56:35 +0000 https://reactormag.com/answering-your-questions-about-tor-coms-change-to-reactor/#comment-993085 Why did the button for seeing your comments disappear?

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By: ChristopherLBennett https://reactormag.com/answering-your-questions-about-tor-coms-change-to-reactor/#comment-993083 Tue, 26 Mar 2024 11:04:05 +0000 https://reactormag.com/answering-your-questions-about-tor-coms-change-to-reactor/#comment-993083 The button for flagging spam posts has disappeared.

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By: John C. Bunnell https://reactormag.com/answering-your-questions-about-tor-coms-change-to-reactor/#comment-992966 Fri, 22 Mar 2024 15:16:56 +0000 https://reactormag.com/answering-your-questions-about-tor-coms-change-to-reactor/#comment-992966 The cookie-acceptance robot seems to have lost its memory. I’m logged in, but twice in the last five minutes it’s popped up the acceptance box and doesn’t recall what I told it several times this morning and twice last night.

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By: chip137 https://reactormag.com/answering-your-questions-about-tor-coms-change-to-reactor/#comment-992876 Thu, 21 Mar 2024 15:30:46 +0000 https://reactormag.com/answering-your-questions-about-tor-coms-change-to-reactor/#comment-992876 In reply to ChristopherLBennett.

I just tried copying to a second window onto a page and was still blocked; carving the comment into pieces worked in the original window, except that I also had to take out a link before the last piece would post. I’ll try stowing the comment somewhere, refreshing the original window, and pasting in it, but I’m beginning to wonder whether there’s something wonky about my account.

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By: ChristopherLBennett https://reactormag.com/answering-your-questions-about-tor-coms-change-to-reactor/#comment-992781 Wed, 20 Mar 2024 12:40:46 +0000 https://reactormag.com/answering-your-questions-about-tor-coms-change-to-reactor/#comment-992781 In reply to chip137.

I think I already mentioned it somewhere in this comment thread, but I’ve found that if I spend too much time writing a post, it won’t go through and I have to copy it, reload the page, and paste it in the fresh window. So maybe the problem isn’t the length of your comments, but the length of time it takes you to write them.

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By: chip137 https://reactormag.com/answering-your-questions-about-tor-coms-change-to-reactor/#comment-992779 Wed, 20 Mar 2024 11:49:11 +0000 https://reactormag.com/answering-your-questions-about-tor-coms-change-to-reactor/#comment-992779 In reply to ChristopherLBennett.

I haven’t kept track, so I’m not sure whether the system doesn’t like me (having the death sentence on it in twelve systems) or I’ve just been trying to comment on the wrong threads — but I see long comments do work in some places (e.g. here), so it’s not 100% consistent.

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By: ChristopherLBennett https://reactormag.com/answering-your-questions-about-tor-coms-change-to-reactor/#comment-992712 Tue, 19 Mar 2024 15:24:36 +0000 https://reactormag.com/answering-your-questions-about-tor-coms-change-to-reactor/#comment-992712 In reply to chip137.

That sometimes happened on the old site with really long messages, though I don’t know if that’s relevant.

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By: chip137 https://reactormag.com/answering-your-questions-about-tor-coms-change-to-reactor/#comment-992709 Tue, 19 Mar 2024 12:50:34 +0000 https://reactormag.com/answering-your-questions-about-tor-coms-change-to-reactor/#comment-992709 There seems to be a hidden limit on comment length. I wrote (according to a word processor) 1070 characters in response to https://reactormag.com/the-weirdness-of-ambrose-bierce-from-owl-creek-bridge-to-horror-and-satire/, answered the Captcha, and clicked “Post Comment” — and nothing happened, not even the waving line of circles or vertical lines that I now see when the system is thinking over whether to accept my post. There were no links or special characters that might have upset the system. When I broke the comment into two pieces, both posted. Has anyone else seen this? I’ve seen it in other articles, and reported on the Contact form, but haven’t heard back.

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By: Carl https://reactormag.com/answering-your-questions-about-tor-coms-change-to-reactor/#comment-992628 Sun, 17 Mar 2024 21:13:19 +0000 https://reactormag.com/answering-your-questions-about-tor-coms-change-to-reactor/#comment-992628 Subscriptions appear not to work at all. The “Submit” button does nothing, and none of my subscriptions from tor.com seem to have carried over.

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By: Schadwen https://reactormag.com/answering-your-questions-about-tor-coms-change-to-reactor/#comment-992326 Tue, 12 Mar 2024 19:52:03 +0000 https://reactormag.com/answering-your-questions-about-tor-coms-change-to-reactor/#comment-992326 Any word on when we might get the selective RSS feeds back? I enjoy the emails, but for my feed I only want to receive notifications for the Pratchett Book Club.

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By: Moderator https://reactormag.com/answering-your-questions-about-tor-coms-change-to-reactor/#comment-992293 Tue, 12 Mar 2024 14:05:09 +0000 https://reactormag.com/answering-your-questions-about-tor-coms-change-to-reactor/#comment-992293 In reply to TrinOKor.

Hi! So, if we’re talking about the newsletter, it’s normally sent once a week on Thursdays (around 12 PM, Eastern time). Let us know if it’s not coming through!

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By: TrinOKor https://reactormag.com/answering-your-questions-about-tor-coms-change-to-reactor/#comment-992273 Mon, 11 Mar 2024 18:23:05 +0000 https://reactormag.com/answering-your-questions-about-tor-coms-change-to-reactor/#comment-992273 Hey, I don’t seem to get mailing list entries… I was subscribed on tor.com and just last week resubscribed here, but it’s unclear if it took. What should I look for (and how often does it send) in spam, etc in case I’m filtering it?

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By: ChristopherLBennett https://reactormag.com/answering-your-questions-about-tor-coms-change-to-reactor/#comment-992223 Sat, 09 Mar 2024 14:53:13 +0000 https://reactormag.com/answering-your-questions-about-tor-coms-change-to-reactor/#comment-992223 Oh, and one other glitch I’ve noticed: If I spend too much time writing a reply (I don’t know what the cutoff is), it won’t go through when I hit “Post Comment.” I have to copy the entire reply, reload the page, and paste the reply back in to get it to post.

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By: ChristopherLBennett https://reactormag.com/answering-your-questions-about-tor-coms-change-to-reactor/#comment-992222 Sat, 09 Mar 2024 14:51:23 +0000 https://reactormag.com/answering-your-questions-about-tor-coms-change-to-reactor/#comment-992222 The new board format is very bad at jumping to comments. When you click on a link to a comment in “All Discussions” or “My Comments,” the board briefly jumps to the comment in question, but if there’s more than one screen’s worth of comments, it then jumps to the top of the list a split-second later. The easiest way I’ve found to bring up the new comment I was trying to read is to toggle from “Oldest” to “Newest” in the comment menu bar, but there’s no way to set it to “Newest” by default. So it takes at least two steps to do what should take one.

Also, it’s a little annoying that the headlines displayed in the aforementioned lists don’t show italics but instead show the italic code markers around the text.

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By: John C. Bunnell https://reactormag.com/answering-your-questions-about-tor-coms-change-to-reactor/#comment-991916 Tue, 05 Mar 2024 02:32:45 +0000 https://reactormag.com/answering-your-questions-about-tor-coms-change-to-reactor/#comment-991916 ]]> In reply to Moderator.

Very much appreciated! (Given the bumpy road the site relaunch has taken, it’s sometimes been hard to tell which changes have been accidental and which are/were on purpose.) 😏

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By: Moderator https://reactormag.com/answering-your-questions-about-tor-coms-change-to-reactor/#comment-991904 Mon, 04 Mar 2024 22:38:48 +0000 https://reactormag.com/answering-your-questions-about-tor-coms-change-to-reactor/#comment-991904 In reply to John C. Bunnell.

So, My Comments should be back in operation as of a couple of minutes ago–thanks for bringing it to our attention!

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By: ChristopherLBennett https://reactormag.com/answering-your-questions-about-tor-coms-change-to-reactor/#comment-991893 Mon, 04 Mar 2024 21:30:03 +0000 https://reactormag.com/answering-your-questions-about-tor-coms-change-to-reactor/#comment-991893 In reply to John C. Bunnell.

Oh, yes, that’s right. It was My Conversations that vanished in the upgrade, and that I dearly wish they’d bring back.

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By: John C. Bunnell https://reactormag.com/answering-your-questions-about-tor-coms-change-to-reactor/#comment-991889 Mon, 04 Mar 2024 21:16:58 +0000 https://reactormag.com/answering-your-questions-about-tor-coms-change-to-reactor/#comment-991889 In reply to ChristopherLBennett.

I should note that “My Comments” was different from the old “My Conversations” page, as that updated whenever anyone commented on a post you’d commented on, whereas the “My Comments” page was exactly that.

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By: John C. Bunnell https://reactormag.com/answering-your-questions-about-tor-coms-change-to-reactor/#comment-991886 Mon, 04 Mar 2024 21:12:25 +0000 https://reactormag.com/answering-your-questions-about-tor-coms-change-to-reactor/#comment-991886 In reply to ChristopherLBennett.

It was there for me post-relaunch for quite some time, but has now vanished – it may have been as much as a week ago, but no longer than that, and was updating with my comments on various posts as it went.

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