No comments by me allowed in my own galleries???

Mr. Quiet

Why can't I post replies to comments in my own galleries???

ivar

What galleries are you talking about? Your SmugMug galleries?

Mr. Quiet

Sorry...yes

ivar

Moved to SmugMug support.


What happens when you try to comment? Does it happen in all galleries?
Can you give a link one of the galleries that you can't comment on?

Mr. Quiet

Yes, it happens in all galleries. It says it is trying to connect to facebook, then says it cannot connect to facebook. The comment bar does not even come down. Now that I think about it, I tried to post a comment on NeilL's gallery, but the same thing happened.

ivar

I'm a bit confused here; Your SmugMug account is saying it's trying to connect to facebook? I'm not sure I'm following. What happens when you try to comment, here?

Mr. Quiet

connecting to static.ak.connect.facebook.com...

That is what I get...

Angelo

no problem for me

Mr. Quiet

China does have Facebook blocked. But I don't understand why Smugmug is running me through Facebook????

Allen

Mr. Quiet wrote:

China does have Facebook blocked. But I don't understand why Smugmug is running me through Facebook????

You shouldn't have to click the Facebook button, just add your comment.

Mr. Quiet

I did not click the Facebook button, I don't even have one I clicked on " Add comment", and it gave me "connecting to static.ak.connect.facebook.com..." ???

PBolchover

I also get a "connecting to static.ak.connect.facebook.com..." message when clicking on the "Add Comment" button in Ivar's gallery, followed by "waiting for
static.ak.connect.facebook.com...", followed by nothing - it just stays on the original page, without going to the comment page. (Note: I'm also in China)


Perhaps it's something to do with the OpenID identification? If the OpenID login checker is trying to access facebook, then it could potentially lead to issues in places where facebook is banned.

PBolchover

Interesting, static.ak.connect.facebook.com also appears to be an akamai server. Perhaps it's an akamai issue, not a smugmug or OpenID one...

C:\Documents and Settings\PBolchover>tracert static.ak.connect.facebook.com

Tracing route to a1875.g.akamai.net [118.214.190.48]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

  1    <1 ms    <1 ms    <1 ms  163.184.133.1
  2     1 ms    <1 ms     1 ms  163.184.133.40
  3     4 ms     4 ms     4 ms  163.184.230.25
  4    76 ms    78 ms    74 ms  singapore1-sg-cs-s-4-1.cisco.sinet.slb.com [163.
184.229.2]
  5     *        *        *     Request timed out.
  6     *        *        *     Request timed out.
  7     *        *        *     Request timed out.
  8     *        *        *     Request timed out.
  9     *        *        *     Request timed out.

Mr. Quiet

PBolchover wrote:

I also get a "connecting to static.ak.connect.facebook.com..." message when clicking on the "Add Comment" button in Ivar's gallery, followed by "waiting for
static.ak.connect.facebook.com...", followed by nothing - it just stays on the original page, without going to the comment page. (Note: I'm also in China)


Perhaps it's something to do with the OpenID identification? If the OpenID login checker is trying to access facebook, then it could potentially lead to issues in places where facebook is banned.

I get the same thing!

PBolchover

Look at the source code of Ivar's gallery. When you click on the "Add Comment" function, it actually calls a script that is located at
YAHOO.util.Get.script('http://static.ak.connect.facebook.com/js/api_lib/v0.4/FeatureLoader.js.php'

I would strongly recommend that smugmug host this script themselves, rather than relying on a third party.

Paul

PS: There also appear to be FBLogin() and FBLogout() scripts that do something or other.

PBolchover

Any comment from Smugmug on this reliance on Facebook?

Mr. Quiet

I didn't get any....

weig

I'm facing the same thing.

Since Facebook is blocked by China government, any connection to facebook will be reset.

However, Smugmug is querying the facebook connect *BEFORE* showing the comment box, and the facebook connect is fail to load, then the comment box doesn't show.

Current situation is that the comment box depends on the facebook connect result.

For those whose country didn't block facebook and want to reproduce the issue, just edit the hosts file to point any facebook domains to 127.0.0.1, and you will not see the comment box showing by clicking the "Add Comment" button.

Mr. Quiet

I will be back in the States next year, so I will not be facing that problem anymore!

weig

Mr. Quiet wrote:

I will be back in the States next year, so I will not be facing that problem anymore!

I also have connection via US network, and can leave the comment. However, my friends located in CHN could not.

so I still expect the bug fix.

Mr. Quiet

weig wrote:

I also have connection via US network, and can leave the comment. However, my friends located in CHN could not.

so I still expect the bug fix.

I expect the bug to get fixed to, even though I am going back to the States SMUGMUG!

SeattleOtaku

Here's another thread from a few months back that mentions the facebook-processed commenting issue as well: http://www.dgrin.com/showthread.php?t=124967

And here...

PBolchover wrote:

I would strongly recommend that smugmug host this script themselves, rather than relying on a third party.

While I'm on US nets myself, I block all of facebook and refuse to have anything to do with them. I would like a server I pay money to host content on to host their own scripts, rather than to have any data go through servers I block. Any chance of having comments (and similarly all other content) processed with scripts hosted on smugmug's site instead of elsewhere?

Guess I disable all comments (at least) in the meantime.

Thanks

PBolchover

I must admit that I'm surprised that there's been no comment from the Smugmug people since we discovered that it was a facebook-blocking issue. They're normally pretty good at responding...

Mr. Quiet

I think the reason for that is we are a small group that does not like it.....

jogle

This must also affect people who are behind corporate firewalls that block facebook.

michswiss

Comments on galleries from behind the China Firewall
There seems to be a problem with being able to add comments to galleries from behind the Great Firewall of China. I can access the commenting function when I'm using my company's internal proxy, but it simply doesn't work when in the wild. I've noticed that there is a call to a Facebook url when I click on the comment link. FB is definitely blocked in China under "normal" circumstances.

I became aware of this as I was attempting to add comments to one of the DGrin Challenges galleries. Thankfully, every other part of Smugmug works fine.

PBolchover

This was previously mentioned in this thread:
http://www.dgrin.com/showthread.php?t=144683
but no-one from Smugmug has commented about the issue...

michswiss

I just posted a similar thread not realising this one was here. I am experiencing exactly the same issue. I would hope that Smuggie support will come back with a reasonable solution or workaround soon!

Mr. Quiet

Why has no MOD said anything here? Is there nothing to say? If Smugmug will not fix the bug, then I think all of us here at least need some kind of explanation...

Andy

Pretty sure it's China blocking facebook which is the problem, since we use facebook connect as one of the options for leaving comments.

I'll ask our Social Sorcerer to comment.

PBolchover

Andy wrote:

Pretty sure it's China blocking facebook which is the problem, since we use facebook connect as one of the options for leaving comments.

Having facebook connect as an "option" implies that facebook is optional. However, these issues imply that the ability to access facebook is necessary for leaving comments.