Genii Weblog


Civility in critiquing the ideas of others is no vice. Rudeness in defending your own ideas is no virtue.


Wed 29 Jul 2009, 11:21 PM
...but they probably have more interesting stories to tell when you invite them to a party.

Note: Since my comment seems to have been misunderstood by one or two, I should clarify.  My point is not about gender politics or anything of the sort.  It is a point about language, as I am a writer (when not developing software to pay the bills).  There are comments such as "Well-behaved women rarely make history" which sound so good, they are repeated over and over, but do not really mean what people think they mean.  A more correct statement would be "Women who make history are rarely well-behaved women." but it just doesn't roll off the tongue the same way.  Nonetheless, it makes a lot more sense.  Very few people, women or men, make history, and that has little to do with their behavior.

Copyright © 2009 Genii Software Ltd.

Wed 29 Jul 2009, 11:56 AM
The following idea was posted by Tommy Valand back in November 2007, but it deserves more support.  Even aside from the web editor use, there are many times when it would be handy to be able to create a rich text field, with both computed and static text, for example, and just check a box to say that the rich text should be treated as HTML.   It is available for a whole form, but narrowing it down to a rich text field would be more useful and powerful.

So, why not head over and vote for it if you like the idea?


Copyright © 2009 Genii Software Ltd.

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Wed 29 Jul 2009, 07:18 AM
I wanted to make a comment on a BleedYellow blog, and couldn't figure out how.  Stuart McIntyre informed me very graciously that I had to log in.  OK, that makes some sense, so I went to log in, where it asked for username and password.  There was no option to register, and I honestly couldn't remember whether or not I had before, so I went back out of the Login and went to Register.  I tried to use my name, but it said there was already someone registered with that name, which must have been me before.  I went and searched my email and found my confirmation email.  So far so good.  I went back and tried to log in with my user id and a variety of simple passwords I might have used (throw away passwords I tend to use for sites like this).  No luck, and no option to request a password.  I guess my next step is to register again with a variation of my name, but in the meantime, I wanted to give some quick feedback as a newbie to Connections.  Actually, I have no idea whether the problems involved are due to Connections or to BleedYellow's implementation, although I would suspect the former.

So, in order of the frustrations:

1) Most web based systems that require a login to comment tell you so near the "Add a Comment" rather than simply leaving it inactive.  I clicked on "Add a Comment" on Scott Hook's blog and it didn't work, so I came to the erroneous conclusion that comments were blocked.  There should be a parenthetical (You must be logged in) or something like that.

2) Many web based systems that require a login have a dual Register/Log In page.  When you go to log in with Connections (because I am fairly sure this part is generic Connections), there is no option to register.

3) When I went to register and it found my name, there was no option to simply log in with it.  This is less common, but very useful.

4) This is the most annoying issue.  When you attempt to log in, and your password doesn't work, there should be some indication about how to either retrieve or reset your password.

5) Finally, when I go back to the BleedYellow confirmation, and follow the original link, instead of a link directly to my profile, there is a long to a search place from which I can search for my profile.  Why?  You know my profile name, so why would you want me to search for it again?

6) Back to the confirmation letter, which has the line "You MUST login with the e-mail address that you provided at registration." which seems to contradict the registration page, which clearly says "Your username will be composed of your First Name + Middle Initial (if entered) + Last name."  The first seems to indicate I should use my email address as my username, but the second that I should use "Ben Langhinrichs"

So, I am stymied.  I don't know how to request a password change, nor what my password originally was, or even what my username really is.  I guess I'll re-register, but it seems a real limitation for a public facing system.  That is, unless somebody knows who to ask to reset the password.  Anybody?

OK, one final gripe.  I went and re-registered, using the same email address as before.  It accepted it without complaint, and sent me an email saying I had registered correctly, but it hadn't really.  It must have failed silently on the duplicate email address.  Sigh!

Copyright © 2009 Genii Software Ltd.

Wed 29 Jul 2009, 12:42 AM
Scott Hook of Lotus 911 posted a response on his blog since I had disabled comments on my post.  This is an open response to him in an attempt to clear the air.

Scott, 

I shut off comments on my post because the sniping back and forth seemed to have become unproductive.  If you would like to comment on that blog post (so that your response will be found along with the others), or if you would like it to have more prominence, perhaps as an "official response" at the bottom of my blog post so that those finding the post will see your perspective as well, simply let me know.  I would have responded to your blog post with the offer, but in an ironic twist, it seems to be closed to comments.  (Update: it seems you have to log in, so it is not closed for comments, but as I can't manage to log in...)

I absolutely understand and respect that your company would not want an overly negative post to be a top hit for searches on your name without any chance to provide a rebuttal, so please feel free to compose a response and let me know how you would like it added to the post (as a comment or at the end of the main post).  

As an aside, I tend to agree with most of your "greater good" results list, but I should correct the impression that IQJam uses one of Genii Software's products.  It does not, and even IdeaJam, which does use CoexEdit as an optional add-on, is not a significant revenue source for us.  I was simply trying to make clear that there is some small business relationship between Elguji and Genii, even if it is minor and not a factor in my decision to post what I did.

Regards,

Ben Langhinrichs
Genii Software

Update: Scott declined my offer with a very courteous and professional note, suggesting that at this point the best thing for all was simply to move on.  I quite agree.

Copyright © 2009 Genii Software Ltd.