Enabling Comments in Groups

ggatin · May 9, 2013

I can't seem to make the change to my group which would allow other group members to start comment threads. They are able to reply when I start a discussion.
I click the button to enable comments but it doesn't stick.

sseyler · June 19, 2013

Their discussion feature on the website is pretty broken. I have the same trouble with enabling comments as well. Also, I tried to start a new discussion, which was a very long post, without having put down anything in the "subject" field. As a result, there's no way for me to access the discussion since Zotero links to discussions by using the name of the discussion's subject - without a subject, there is no link. I posted this problem in the troubleshooting forum, although I doubt my problem will be solved.

adamsmith · June 19, 2013

I posted this problem in the troubleshooting forum, although I doubt my problem will be solved.

http://www.zotero.org/support/forum_guidelines#be_civil

ggatin · June 19, 2013

Thanks for your comment, @sseyler. I just tried again and the discussion on one of my groups appears to be working fine. Too bad it didn't work when I was doing a demo for a class last month. :(
Anyway glad to see it going again. Conversation and interaction are essential features of scholarship. This is a feature that I would definitely like to see enhanced with Zotero.

sseyler · June 19, 2013

Hi @adamsmith. Thanks for the link, although I don't think it's necessary. My original pessimism about having lost what I've written is what is being referred to when I speak about "my problem" and it's pretty easy to sympathize with the frustration that arises from losing work. Nevertheless, I see no way in which I was not being civil as my post was written in a calm state in order to address a problem that may affect others as well. Although, it is understandable that text can be easily misread with the wrong tone. On the other hand, the impersonal way in which you addressed me could be misconstrued as being not civil, but I would hardly take to that interpretation as I'm sure you're just trying to do your job. I mean no hard feelings and would simply appreciate more personal responses than an inane quoting of some sentence that could be pessimistically interpreted as "not civil."

Anyway, the problem with the groups discussion, however, is clearly solvable, which is why I posted in the first place. I appreciate your consideration and hope that I have resolved the misconception on your part. Furthermore, I have managed to manually mess with the numbering in the URL to recover my text, although something about the content is still amiss. Regardless, I have a lot of work saved at the very least and can rest a bit easier.

@ggatin Glad to hear it's working for you ^_^. I'm going to mess around with different browsers and operating systems.

Cheers,

sseyler

Rintze · June 19, 2013

I ... would simply appreciate more personal responses than an inane quoting of some sentence that could be pessimistically interpreted as "not civil."

Fair enough. But while I wouldn't call you uncivil, there are some issues with your posts. First, you crossposted. The bulk of the post above is a repetition of your other post at https://forums.zotero.org/discussion/30374/cant-access-group-discussions-that-have-no-subject/#Item_1, and not related to the issue reported by @ggatin. Second, you said "although I doubt my problem will be solved", without giving the Zotero developers any time to respond. In this case, you reap what you sow. If you don't appear motivated to troubleshoot your issue, there is no incentive for others to help you.

With regard to the original topic of this thread, are you experiencing the exact same problem as reported by @ggatin ("I click the button to enable comments but it doesn't stick."), or can you set the preference, but without it having any effect?

sseyler · June 19, 2013

@Rintze Don't worry, none of my blame about losing data was directed toward Zotero developers - that blame was on me for not saving the text externally. I did, however, post for the purpose of allowing Zotero developers to look into the group discussion linking problem. The posts without subjects are accessible, but the only way I've found to access them is by manually adjusting the numbers in the URL until the right post is found - is there another way of accessing group threads?

The problem with enabling comments seemed to be with Chrome, where it wouldn't stick, and the problem seems to only have been restricted to me, since another group member had no issue with Chrome or Firefox. As I said, I would try using Firefox and it appears that I'm not having the issue anymore. I will check to see if my group members are able to comment and I will also check to see if the issue returns when I use Chrome.

Thanks,

sseyler