Is It Me, or Is It WordPress?

Lately, I’ve been having a real problem with some WordPress blogs. For reasons that I do not understand, comments I leave seem to vanish into the bit bucket as soon as I press the Submit button. This is getting very frustrating and makes me feel like not reading those blogs anymore, because I don’t want to waste my time writing up comments that just go ‘poof’. I suppose it just goes to show how much the ability to comment has — at least for me — become an embedded part of the blog experience.

The blogs in question are all run by different people on different servers, and possibly even with different versions of WordPress, although I haven’t checked to verify that last point.

I know about comment moderation, but I’ve been assured by some of the site owners in question that my comments were not moderated out. Apparently they’re not even making it into the moderation queue.So the question is, why? What else could be wrong?

It’s occurred to me that the problem could be on my end. I use Firefox almost exclusively, and it could be that this is some subtle browser glitch. Scott has told me to try using Internet Explorer instead of Firefox to see if that’s the problem, but frankly, if it is, that’s not going to be a helpful solution; I don’t want to go back to IE just so I can leave comments on some blogs.

A quick search of the WordPress FAQ and Forums doesn’t provide any easy answers, and I haven’t done an in-depth dig into other possible sources of answers yet. I’ll be looking at this question a bit more over the weekend. If I come up with a good answer, I’ll update this post.

A Change of Course at Starbucks?

When the Starbucks Gossip blog posted this memo a day or so ago, it was roundly rejected as a fake, but apparently a leaked internal e-mail to Starbucks senior managers was the real thing. And it’s fascinating reading. Here’s a snippet:

…we desperately need to look into the mirror and realize it’s time to get back to the core and make the changes necessary to evoke the heritage, the tradition, and the passion that we all have for the true Starbucks experience.

Hopefully, this will mean less of a focus on selling books and DVDs at Starbucks and more of a focus on good coffee.

I’ve always thought that it’s not so much making mistakes, but whether or not you can learn from them, that’s the true sign of a company that’s going to succeed. Howard Schultz has done a tremendous job building Starbucks over the years, and this latest report would suggest that, any missteps notwithstanding, he’s still on the right track.

Prince of Sands

The news this morning that Britain’s Prince Harry is heading to Iraq does raise the question — what do the Bush twins do with their days? They don’t seem to have jobs or post-college academic commitments. I don’t expect them to follow Harry’s lead here, but (as Joe from AmericaBlog points out) you’d think they could at least get off their butts and volunteer at Walter Reed once in a while.

Wednesday Random 10

Because sometimes, you need to crank up the tunes really loud to get you over the hump.

While There’s A Candle Burning – Steve Winwood
Honey Bun – Mandy Patinkin
Walking Down Your Street – Bangles
Bomday Dreams – Bombay Dreams – London Cast
Mandolin Rain – Bruce Hornsby And The Range
Chimes of Freedom (live) – Bruce Springsteen
Gloria – U2
Warrior – Matisyahu
Hold What You’ve Got – Carly Simon
ndependent Woman – Destiny’s Child

A Different Glow

One of the big issues with converting from old-style Edison light bulbs to compact fluorescents is the cost. I wonder whether the news today that Australia intends to ban old-style light bulbs will help drive down CF prices over time.

The Australian government on Tuesday announced plans to phase out incandescent light bulbs and replace them with more energy-efficient compact fluorescent bulbs across the country.

I’m all for saving energy and reducing greenhouse gases, but I have to say that this news also makes me feel a bit sad. “Old-style” light bulbs give off a warmer glow than CF bulbs, and I like the feel of that warmer light.

Ah well.