I HAVEN'T BEEN ALERT FOR SOME TIME HERE

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For the last few weeks I'm having great problems accessing my alerts. I know other bloggers, though by no means all bloggers, were or still are experiencing this problem.

Almost every time I try to access my alerts, I get kicked out of the site to be greeted by the 'Oops! An unexpected error occurred' message. (I wish the site would change that patronising message as the error isn't unexpected and very little seems to be done about the error.)

There were a few days last week when I couldn't access my alerts. Most days in the last few weeks, I probably have a one in ten chance of accessing my alerts. The last week, I'd estimate that I can access my alerts two, maybe three times a day. Now I readily accept that this isn't the biggest problem in the wider scheme of things. First world problems. But it's bugging me big time.

Normally I would access my alerts to keep tabs on comments to my blog posts, new posts from bloggers I follow and from groups I'm a member of, and replies to my comments left on other people's blogs. Alerts were an easy one-stop shop for me to keep tabs on blogland. I've long given up following new and trending feed because there's rarely anything interesting on those feeds.

Before migrating to the Community Side, keeping tabs of old blogland meant a lot of scrolling down a list of bloggers I followed to check out any highlighted blogger for new activity, and bloggers were then known by their blog title (eg Sexy Times in my case) and not the blogger's username. The Community Side's alerts were a significant improvement than what happened before.

Normally, that's before the glitch of a daily spate of new followers, I would get about 50 alerts each day, with about 20 alerting me to a comment or reply left on one of my blog posts, about 20 alerting me to a reply to my comment left on other people's blog posts, and about 10 alerting me to new followers or new posts, comments to my posts and replies to my comments on posts left in groups I'm a member of (mainly Club 7, HNW Bloggers and The New Virtual Symposium). My alerts were a simple and effective way of navigating around the Community Side. But no longer.

Do you use alerts as the main way to navigate blogland?
Are you getting regularly kicked out of the site when you try to access alerts?

Given I cannot easily access my alerts, my alerts are seriously building up by the day. I've had to come up with a new routine to keep tabs on what's going on in blogland, or at least my blogland. It's a very low tech routine involving a pen and paper.

I have to go back to my recent blog posts to see whether any new comments/replies have been received. I have to check my 'Pending Comments' and 'Places Tagged' folders. And I have to check my 'Followed' feed for new posts submitted by bloggers I follow. Sad as I am, I have to write down what I've covered so I can delete the alert in the rare chance I can access my alerts.

At the same time as this glitch of accessing my alerts, which seems to be most affecting those receiving a lot of alerts, there's another glitch of having a spate of new followers every day. Now I get up to 50 extra alerts a day of new followers though my count of followers barely changes. (The site is aware of this issue.) This means that about half of my alerts are 'new follower' alerts. Almost every time, I click on a new follower's blog, I can't go back to my alerts page. I know I can partly remedy this problem by turning off notifications for new followers, but I like to keep up and see whether new followers blog and, if so, whether it's worthwhile following their blog. And I know I can remedy this problem even more by following fewer bloggers. But the site's alerts system worked for me but it no longer works for me now. I follow far more bloggers now in new blogland than old blogland, because the Community side, rightly or wrongly, doesn't give an overview of blogland.

Given only 50 alerts can be shown on a page, and given when I click to the next page of alerts I get kicked off the site, I'm finding it difficult to keep on top of my alerts. My biggest problem is keeping track of those bloggers who reply to my comments left on their blog. Again I can be accused of being a sad fuck in that once I get access my alerts I write down those bloggers who have replied to my comment on their blog and then I search for those blog posts to read their reply. I'm still struggling to get to @OddsAgainst's reply to a comment because his alert is on my last page of alerts. (I've now at last replied because the planets have aligned!)

Everything is taking about five and maybe even ten times as long as it used to do. From where I'm standing, the site has gone backwards.

Below is a poll in which you can anonymously indicate your experiences of alerts and other related issues. Multiple responses are allowed.

Site Support are aware of the 'access to alerts' problem, I've even been given a bug report number, #BCD-11281, for what it's worth. I regularly email Site Support to check on the progress of fixing this glitch. Their reply is that it's a priority while thanking me for my patience.

I don't blame Site Support for the glitch and I'm sure they relayed my concerns to the site's developers to fix the glitch. But I suspect the glitch was caused by the developers when they fiddled with alerts.

Given the owner is planning new code to be rolled out, I suspect many of the site's developers are employed on his mission meaning that glitches aren't being routinely sorted. The site has made a distinction between critical bugs, presumably to be fixed, and non-critical bugs, presumably not to be fixed. Such a distinction is quite subjective. I suspect a critical bug for the site is one which hits the bottom line (a total shutdown of the site or a glitch affecting the processing of payments); a critical bug for me is one which stops me functioning on the site in a timely and efficient manner.

I'm unclear whether other glitches, like the emoji, the apostrophe or the slowness moving from page to page glitches have been fixed or not. I suspect not. I get the impression that the site's development team has downed tools on orders to help the site's owner to launch new code on the site. If this is the case, then it doesn't say much for the site's senior management's commitment to basic customer service towards its members.

I'm tagging @SiteSupport, the most friendly and enlightened wing of the site, in the hope that a progress report can be given on how this alerts glitch, plus other glitches, are being fixed by the site. Also Site Support may be interested in the poll findings. I would tag the site's owner and CEO but I don't think they'd be interested in such matters. They've got possibly untested code to launch, an anniversary party to plan and a bar in Seattle to open. I don't want them to be deflected from the real priorities of the site!

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