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

Mr. Quiet · September 23, 2009

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

ivar · September 23, 2009

What galleries are you talking about? Your SmugMug galleries?

Mr. Quiet · September 23, 2009

Sorry...yes

ivar · September 23, 2009

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 · September 23, 2009

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 · September 25, 2009

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 · September 25, 2009

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

That is what I get...

Angelo · September 25, 2009

no problem for me

Mr. Quiet · September 25, 2009

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

Allen · September 25, 2009

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 · September 25, 2009

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 · September 25, 2009

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 · September 25, 2009

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 · September 25, 2009

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 · September 25, 2009

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 · October 2, 2009

Any comment from Smugmug on this reliance on Facebook?

Mr. Quiet · October 2, 2009

I didn't get any....

weig · October 13, 2009

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 · October 14, 2009

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

weig · October 16, 2009

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 · October 16, 2009

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 · October 20, 2009

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 · October 20, 2009

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 · October 20, 2009

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

jogle · October 21, 2009

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

michswiss · November 4, 2009

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 · November 4, 2009

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 · November 5, 2009

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 · November 5, 2009

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 · November 5, 2009

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 · November 5, 2009

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.