Monday, November 3, 2008

Someone's clamped the mothership



I know the nomination window had closed and the posts were getting longer and more loftily theoretical, and I also know I want to do a blog with some actual music on it here this week - but this is just a quick one: is anyone else a bit put out that this week's RR blog has been closed for further comment?

24 comments:

Mnemonic said...

Yes, it seems a bit sudden, especially as Maddy says she enjoys the extra posts even though any nominations are invalid.

Anonymous said...

Yes, it got me rather cross, and I'm not even commenting anymore. What made it worse is that it took 2min40sec to load to the stage where it told me that.

Ah well, it was great once, but the techies have killed it stone dead for me.

Anonymous said...

Tecchie attack. They did the same to clip joint the other day and Phil Hoad apologized. BTW all you film lovers - get over to Clip Joint on a Thursday night on the film blog. It's the same as RR - but for films. You get a theme and have to think of your favourite film clips on the theme. Nipferd, Steenbeck et moi are always to be found nursing a glass of Riesling in the corner in Thursday nights. TracyK popped in with a blinder too. Great crack.

gremlinfc said...

nah, not really -been so busy i hadn't even noticed, but i've not been in the loop much and my nominations just been ignored anyway - boo hoo...does seem a bit early to close though...they are unpredictable ...takes me back to when my comment was removed...

Abahachi said...

They couldn't think of any other way of shutting me up...

steenbeck said...

I'm sure it was an accident.

Darceysdad, is there no way that you can be persuaded to come back to RR? It's just not the same without you.

And I'm looking forward to your musical post, May1366.

TatankaYotanka said...

681 comments, maybe we've broken The Guardian.

SkippyisaCult said...

I was about to join in the philosophical discussion that was developing, and such was its nature that - whilst it fascinated me - I could see it going on all week and beyond. Perhaps it got closed to forestall that. And perhaps our debaters (or as they're known in academic circles, them wot started it) could rehearse their arguments again, here...

ToffeeBoy said...

As a staunch anti-conspiracy theorist, I tend to place the blame for something like this firmly at the door of incompetence and inefficiency rather than a deliberate attempt to annoy.

Of course, I may be wrong...

tincanman said...

I'm with Toffeeboy - there usually is a simple explanation for things, and human error/bad judgement triumph 90% of the time.

Mind, if there was a conspiracy, someone may have made me say that.

Abahachi said...

My guess is that some newbie tech saw the "deadline is midday Monday" line and took it completely literally. Cock-up beats conspiracy almost every time.

[Okay, will you stop pointing the gun at my cat now..?]

TracyK said...

But FP, I only bloody forgot that Bobby Peru gets his own fantastic bloody-head send-off, didn't I? Rockin' bad news, Peanut.

May1366 said...

Yes, it was the unexpected nature of it that was annoying, else we could have moved the whole debate about whatever it was we were talking about but I can't remember now because the words aren't up there on the screen to prompt me, over here earlier. Pity, though, because Abahachi and Mnemonic's last posts were really interesting (not that the whole blog hadn't been anyway). I'm sure it was a trigger-happy techie interpreting the deadline thing literally and not a manifestation of the creeping fear that people pay attention to the things we do.

Shoegazer said...

Maddy wanted more traffic this week, unfortunately the resource hungry new format probably can't cope with it. Am getting peeved with the lack of respect The Guardian gives rr - like not being able to Halloween songs because someone else had a lame article lined up that week.

Oh well, at least there's the 'Spill.

maddy costa said...

i've asked about this, although no reply yet - i suspect it was an accidental thing, because it's entirely in the guardian's interest to keep the blog going. fyi, i had a conversation with one of the tech team last week about the continuing annoyance of the reload button taking you back to the start of the page and was given an excellent explanation for why that will remain to be the case, which i'm afraid being entirely non-technically-minded i'm unable to pass on to you properly (to do with the content coming from or via somewhere else, please don't ask me to explain further); also i've pointed out the continuing difficulties with CtrlF, but there's a feeling that the problem is more with individual computers than the blog as a whole, and they've asked me to try and start monitering when it becomes a problem for me to test that. beyond that - this referring to a post from mnemonic on another page in the spill - i don't think anything else is happening to RR until the next big redesign, whenever that might be. DsD, i guess this means we might not see you again over there, but i enjoy keeping up with you and yours over here anyway. ok, i'm supposed to be doing more listening, and indeed going to bed bec child#1 has given me lots of germs and i feel quite hellish, so time for me to be off...

May1366 said...

Thanks for following that up, Maddy, and I hope you're feeling better. I've got a 7-year-old who's similarly grotty, though it's his parents' evening tonight so he may be swinging the lead. Either way, he's consigned himself to a trip up and down the motorway and two hours staring gormlessly at a bunch of undergraduates as I try to make them write poetry, and if he moans, I can tell him about the equally unwell, five-months pregnant journalist with a small child to look after and 35 Grateful Dead songs about life on the road to listen to (only kidding, Chris!).

Anonymous said...

Yes, it was an abrupt stop. And I'd just understood the comment about Hey being Cole's brother. Ho ho!
Thanks, Maddy, for checking up what happened and I hope you recover soon (see, I'm still being concerned!). I think I do understand the techie issues about going the the top or bottom of the list when refreshing. It's interesting/alarming to see how many different sites now get referenced as comments are loading: no wonder it takes a huge effort to do it.
And finally, from the Campaign Diary in today's Graun: 'As two years of campaigning draw to a close, the Grateful Dead's iconic lyric "What a long, strange trip it's been" comes to mind.'
Fingers crossed, everyone!

Anonymous said...

'..going to the top..' obviously, not '..going the the top..'

And that's 'fingers crossed for an Obama victory', not for Truckin' getting on the A-list. Although that would be cool.

maddy costa said...

just had word and apology from the desk that it was indeed an accident - similar accidents have resulted in comments not being turned on at all, so in a sense we were lucky! sad that it put an end to the absorbing discussion on changes in music, a subject that troubles me frequently, i was enjoying reading everyone else's perspectives. while i'm here, and relying on the fact that DsD gets these in his inbox: are you or fourfoot still logging who first nommed a song that gets a-listed? because i always work this out as the last thing i do between compiling the a-list and writing the column, and could email the results to whoever is in charge of the excel spreadsheet, if that would help. and so, back to the grindstone: i've been shifting songs around a tentative playlist for, oh dear lord, two and a half hours now, and still haven't come up with a list that makes me happy. there are just too many songs...

ToffeeBoy said...

@ maddy - James Taylor, James Taylor, James Taylor...

Well, I've got to try, haven't I?

Anonymous said...

Very cool and nice of Maddy to drop in and explain - hope you're feeling better soon.
---
TK: Oh Lawd - Willem Defoe is soooo loathsome as Bobby Peru (those teeth!!!) that you are glad when he gets his comeuppance. Hellunvan actor.
---
Toffee : Of course I support unstintingly your James Taylor campaign. If I get round to it, I'll post a list of RR personae non gratae (what the hell's the latin plural adjective???) Ejay's sister'll know. Or at least groups we haven't got in so far. Bisous à tous FP.

TatankaYotanka said...

I started using Gurgle Crone when all the problems with IE&The Blog kicked off. Mostly, ... but not always, that returns me to the place I was at when I refresh.

Anonymous said...

Evening all.

I'm still completely rushed off my feet this week - I'm supposed to be working NOW (got two job quotes to write and email out before 9am, and six operator assessments to finish that should have been with customer last week).
Consequently can't even think about finalising and posting my travelling songs list, which is being as irritatingly shapeless in my head as Maddy's official one is in hers! Go look at my last.fm recently played if you're insane / time-rich enough to be *that* bothered.

But it would be impolite not to reply:

@ Steenbeck re RR - Nope. Sorry, I'm outta there, as long as my current PC & laptop behave as they do.

@ Maddy - Thanks for the compliment, and mega congratulations on your pregnancy. You know how everyone says that it's easier second time around? WELL, THEY LIED!!! IT'S MORE THAN TWICE AS HARD, BUT IT IS EXPONENTIALLY MORE REWARDING TOO. And there is just something so dang good about being able to say "my kids" (pl.)
:o)#)

Back on-comment: the spreadsheet is all fourfoot's work, but it would appear I have the bigger contact list for distributing it. I've just emailed the list (up to Aug'08) to Marconius7, for him to continue his online conversion project.
I haven't spoken to fourfoot for a while, but would bet serious sums that the RR tech updates would have stomped his aged PC into fatal submission.

If I get any joy from one of these two job quotes, I'll be in his neck of the woods week after next; I'll go and scrounge another of his excellent super-caffeined mugs of coffee.

@ FP re Clip Joint - are you kidding?! The last film I went to see for myself at the cinema was The Truman Show ... I only finally saw Casino Royale two weeks ago!! I have zero contribution to make.
(I quite often see WD's stockinged-head disappear though, as I had the serious hots for Laura Dern before she started to scare me with how skinny she got.)

@ ToffeeBoy & tincanman - I'm a gold-card-carrying PRO-conspiracy theorist: it IS all a plot!

tincanman said...

What work is it you do btw DsD?

I assume it is come kind of consulting/training people skills kind of thingee, and if so how much to teach my teens some &*%^&$ manners?