Administrative Announcement - Use Email Address To Sign In

[darkstar965]

When you see a comment from Don that you don't understand, he's making a joke.

In this case, if non-restaurants are the same as restaurants, the management may ask customers not to use their cell phones.

Figured that but most of the time the joke's pretty clear. One time, I just had to do some French translation since my Spanish is better than my French. In this case, I actually do sometimes parallel process when online with one hand on the keyboard and one eye focused on the smart phone. Started thinking Don somehow figured that out or took over the camera on my computer

[DonRocks]

In this case, I actually do sometimes parallel process when online with one hand on the keyboard and one eye focused on the smart phone. Started thinking Don somehow figured that out or took over the camera on my computer

Both, and please, please don't think you're circumventing the family nature of this website by referring to your penis as a "smart phone."

[DonRocks]

Tomorrow morning, I will be announcing a raffle. Cost of buying a ticket: zero. Potential winnings: quite small. Importance to website: considerable.

[Anna Blume]

When I logged in today, I was told there was no new content because the last time I had logged in was a minute ago. That wasn't true. I had just turned on my computer and hadn't visited any sites, nor had I read anything on the site without logging in. My cache was clean. The only cookie before logging in was from google. I've mentioned this "problem" [annoyance, really, not a big issue] at least once or twice before. This was the first time I noticed that the board decided I had visited only a minute earlier.

[Pat]

When I logged in today, I was told there was no new content because the last time I had logged in was a minute ago. That wasn't true. I had just turned on my computer and hadn't visited any sites, nor had I read anything on the site without logging in. My cache was clean. The only cookie before logging in was from google. I've mentioned this "problem" [annoyance, really, not a big issue] at least once or twice before. This was the first time I noticed that the board decided I had visited only a minute earlier.

I don't know how related this is, but I suspect it is somewhat related. I don't use the "view new content" link to read the board, but I use the Safari top sites shortcut pretty often to bring up the site. The symbol that shows up when a site has new material never shows new content here anymore. That particular feature isn't universally reliable, but it did used to show that new things had been posted here and at some point that changed.

[Escoffier]

on dr.com since at least the days it was first birthed in don's garage (just like HP was).

Apple was founded in a garage. HP was a bad science project that went even more wrong .

[DonRocks]

Do people really not have attorneys, physicians, or plumbers that they can recommend? (or should I say ... would put their names on the line for?)

[ktmoomau]

Do people really not have attorneys that they can recommend? (or should I say ... would put their names on the line for?)

I do, but that is kind of a tricky situation

[RWBooneJr]

Do people really not have attorneys, physicians, or plumbers that they can recommend? (or should I say ... would put their names on the line for?)

I do. I simply haven't had time to write anything articulate. I suspect I'm not alone.

[1000yregg]

Do people really not have attorneys, physicians, or plumbers that they can recommend? (or should I say ... would put their names on the line for?)

Kinda reminds me of the Baltimore board.

[B.A.R.]

I do. I simply haven't had time to write anything articulate. I suspect I'm not alone.

Internet forums are no place for articulate writing. See my previous 500 posts.

[Mrs. B]

Do people really not have attorneys, physicians, or plumbers that they can recommend? (or should I say ... would put their names on the line for?)

Thankfully I have never had the personal need for an attorney, but if you are an issuer of municipal bonds or an underwriter of same, give me a call, I can hook you up.

I don't go to the doctor anymore because I detest all the ones I visted - ever. Personal friendships are beside the point.

All of the plumbers (except one, now retired) that I have had the displeasure to deal with are beneath contempt.

I am either unlucky or a misanthrope. Probably both.

[ktmoomau]

Thankfully I have never had the personal need for an attorney, but if you are an issuer of municipal bonds or an underwriter of same, give me a call, I can hook you up.

I don't go to the doctor anymore because I detest all the ones I visted - ever. Personal friendships are beside the point.

All of the plumbers (except one, now retired) that I have had the displeasure to deal with are beneath contempt.

I am either unlucky or a misanthrope. Probably both.

We actually had a phenomenal plumber install new toilets for us recently that my husband said he would always use, but I have no idea who it was, maybe I should ask him. Rocks you must really be up shit creek if you need a plumber, attorney and doctor at the same time. Did your toilet flood your place, wreck the building and did you slip and fall during the incident? If so then I could help!!!

I actually love my doctor but they just started one of those prime "membership" things and I don't know if I am willing to pay that much more for a doctor, so I didn't write him up.

[DonRocks]

not-yelp.com

[DonRocks]

Consider adding a Profile Picture (to your profile) and/or an Avatar (that will be in all your posts).

To do this:

1) Go to the website, and find on upper-left, "Signed in as <yourname>"

2) Click on that, and click on "My Profile"

3) On the far-right of the screen, click on "Edit My Profile"

To add a personal photo to your profile:

4) Click "Change Photo"

5) Click "Choose File"

6) <Go through the normal file selection from your computer>

7) Click "Save Changes"

To add an avatar to your posts:

4) Click "Change Avatar"

5) Click "Choose File" (or choose one from Invision's galleries)

6) < Go through the normal file selection from your computer>

7) Click "Save Changes"

(If these don't work, write me and I'll help you - it could be the wrong extension, or too big a picture.)

[DonRocks]

I guess the ultimate Ombudsman would be the person who starts fuckdonrockwell.com, and writes accordingly. After thinking about this for a day, it seems almost ridiculous to have asked the question.

But I do think it would be cool to have an Ombudsman (mainly because I like the name and it makes me sound important).

Is it coincidence that the Washington Post's Ombudsman leans to the right?

[DonRocks]

We're upgrading the Invision Board from version 3.1.4 to version 3.2.3 within the next couple of days. This is skipping a couple of generations, so there may be some "things" to notice. I think it's going to look a little different, but apparently, Invision has gotten really good feedback from their customers about this, so don't let a mere change in appearance unsettle you without taking a few days to get used to it. (People, me included, often look at something the very first time and say, "It's terrible! Bring the other one back!") Facebook is an exception: I STILL want the other one back, and hate it the way it is now. It's important to note that if I let our versions of Invision get too far behind, support will be eventually be removed from the older versions, so I can't wait forever.

In particular, If anyone notices any bugs, could you post about them here?

[DonRocks]

We're upgrading the Invision Board from version 3.1.4 to version 3.2.3 within the next couple of days. This is skipping a couple of generations, so there may be some "things" to notice. I think it's going to look a little different, but apparently, Invision has gotten really good feedback from their customers about this, so don't let a mere change in appearance unsettle you without taking a few days to get used to it. (People, me included, often look at something the very first time and say, "It's terrible! Bring the other one back!") Facebook is an exception: I STILL want the other one back, and hate it the way it is now. It's important to note that if I let our versions of Invision get too far behind, support will be eventually be removed from the older versions, so I can't wait forever.

In particular, If anyone notices any bugs, could you post about them here?

BTW, I found out that in the new version, there won't be two separate things for "avatars" (shown with posts) and "profile pictures" (shown inside your profiles) - the avatars will take precedence, so ... if you REALLY want your profile picture, please download it and save it now! And then once the upgrade has completed, you can re-upload it as your avatar.

[goodeats]

I thought I would share something I figured out that I missed from the old board: Linking without seeing the url.

So far, I thought the new system was: http://www.donrockwe...hp?showforum=12 (Dining Guide)

But now, I found out, you can highlight the term you want to link (Dining Guide), and then click on the url link button, insert the url address in the blank and voila:

Dining Guide

Back to the old ways.

Old habits are hard to break (says the lady who is irked the "back to the top" button is all the way at the bottom of the page again).

[darkstar965]

Not sure if a temporary burp or related to the Invision upgrade late last year but two issues I noticed today with the website:

1. In at least one case, the most recent post for a thread isn't appearing on the donrockwell.com home page as such nor is it prompting the topic's elevation to the top of the board. Specific example is current with the shopping/cooking board where Monovano's post from yesterday is shown as most recent but it isn't.

2. I thought that one couldn't access the Dining Guide unless a logged-in member. Seems that's not true. Maybe already known; not sure.

[DonRocks]

Not sure if a temporary burp or related to the Invision upgrade late last year but two issues I noticed today with the website:

1. In at least one case, the most recent post for a thread isn't appearing on the donrockwell.com home page as such nor is it prompting the topic's elevation to the top of the board. Specific example is current with the shopping/cooking board where Monovano's post from yesterday is shown as most recent but it isn't.

2. I thought that one couldn't access the Dining Guide unless a logged-in member. Seems that's not true. Maybe already known; not sure.

1. I've seen this exactly twice since the upgrade - the first time, I reported it, and Invision's response was basically "go ahead and reindex the files - who knows what might have caused this?" (And when I did, the problem went away.) But if it's happening again and again, then Invision has a bug they can grapple with (it's very hard to fix a bug when a situation isn't demonstrably repeatable).

2. Shhh...

Also, I see now that I'm up to 14 days behind in replying to PMs. I'm going to go after them from oldest-to-newest, so bear with me (and if there's something really important, please flag it as such).

[SeanMike]

1. In at least one case, the most recent post for a thread isn't appearing on the donrockwell.com home page as such nor is it prompting the topic's elevation to the top of the board. Specific example is current with the shopping/cooking board where Monovano's post from yesterday is shown as most recent but it isn't.

I noticed it tends to happen in forums with subforums. The Blogs one had a similar thing going.

[Anna Blume]

The effects of last Sunday's solar storm are expected to be most noticeable today, especially around 6 PM EST. While satellites et al should not be affected, GPS and Invision are both quite vulnerable.

[darkstar965]

And anuddah thing. Have others had problems uploading/changing photos with the new platform?

In trying to do it, we consistently get a "failed to set photo" after pointing to a valid jpeg or whatever on a hard drive.

[DonRocks]

And anuddah thing. Have others had problems uploading/changing photos with the new platform?

In trying to do it, we consistently get a "failed to set photo" after pointing to a valid jpeg or whatever on a hard drive.

Please email me the photo and I'll see if I can do it. There are size limitations, but that's the only thing I can think of offhand.

[Rhone1998]

Is anyone else having trouble with the View New Content button? It hasn't been working for me for several days--I get a message saying there isn't any new content, even when there is.

[monavano]

Go back and hit the Don Rockwell logo and then click on View New Content. This works for me when this happens on occasion. It should get you to the new posts.

[Rhone1998]

Thanks for the suggestion, but it didn't work. I also cleared my cookies, waited till this morning and tried again, but that didn't work either. FWIW this is happening on all four devices I use to browse this site, two computers, an iPad and an iPhone.

[DonRocks]

Thanks for the suggestion, but it didn't work. I also cleared my cookies, waited till this morning and tried again, but that didn't work either. FWIW this is happening on all four devices I use to browse this site, two computers, an iPad and an iPhone.

Let's keep working on this because it's a big one. It's not a problem for me (I'm using MacBook and Safari), but it was once happening on my iPhone.

Can you think of anything else you're doing that unusual? I don't want this to be a problem for you because I know it's an important feature for many people. Write me privately if you have to. Also if you scroll upthread, I think there's some discussion about it.

[Rhone1998]

Let's keep working on this because it's a big one. It's not a problem for me (I'm using MacBook and Safari), but it was once happening on my iPhone.

Can you think of anything else you're doing that unusual? I don't want this to be a problem for you because I know it's an important feature for many people. Write me privately if you have to. Also if you scroll upthread, I think there's some discussion about it.

I can't think of anything I'm doing that's unusual. I had bookmarked the view new content page, but it doesn't work whether I use the bookmark or click on the link at the top of the main page. What's really perplexing is that I have the exact same issue regardless of device, yet others aren't having it. I tried logging out and then logging back in, but that didn't work either.

[Escoffier]

I can't think of anything I'm doing that's unusual. I had bookmarked the view new content page, but it doesn't work whether I use the bookmark or click on the link at the top of the main page. What's really perplexing is that I have the exact same issue regardless of device, yet others aren't having it. I tried logging out and then logging back in, but that didn't work either.

On the left side of the main page is a series of selections. One of those selections is "New in the last 24 hours" and another is "[searchInKey]=&period=lastvisit&userMode=&followedItemsOnly=0"]New since my last visit" (more or less). Are you highlighting one of those?

[Rhone1998]

On the left side of the main page is a series of selections. One of those selections is "New in the last 24 hours" and another is "[searchInKey]=&period=lastvisit&userMode=&followedItemsOnly=0"]New since my last visit" (more or less). Are you highlighting one of those?

Hmmm, I don't see either of those. This is what my home screen looks like:

http://i.imgur.com/8WlHIl.jpg

All I have is a View New Content link at the upper right.

[Rhone1998]

On the left side of the main page is a series of selections. One of those selections is "New in the last 24 hours" and another is "New since my last visit" (more or less). Are you highlighting one of those?

Got it!

Escoffier helped me figure it out. I had a selection on the view new content page for only threads I follow, and that was preventing things from showing up since I don't follow threads.

Thanks, everyone!

Dan

[DonRocks]

I just wanted to let everyone know that I've enabled yet another way to ruin your lives and productivity: The Chat room is now open (see the little tab above). It's a free feature that may or may not be popular, but, well, why not give it a try - if some people enjoy it, then great; if not, no harm done.

[B.A.R.]

^{As long as we keep chat room topics steamy and lascivious, this will be a great *ahem* enhancement to the Forum.}

[DonRocks]

Hello everyone, this is a PM that I just sent to a member - I've stripped off the specifics to protect the person's anonymity, but the general principles here apply to everyone, so I'll reproduce this generic version. It has to do with disclosing affiliations, and marketing your own businesses, blogs, etc. here on donrockwell.com.

The names have been changed to protect the innocent, as they said on Dragnet (or whatever it was):

---

Hi Jim, first of all let me say welcome ("Welcome!"), and thanks for joining the community. Your post really stands out like a sore thumb - not necessarily in a bad way, but it really comes across as a blatant shilling for the restaurant. Are you affiliated with the establishment at all?

Before you answer that, let me say that it's FINE if you are! Unlike other websites, I encourage restaurateurs, chefs, GMs, PR reps, etc. to post about their restaurants, and let us know what they're up to. So if your answer to my question is "Yes," well, then great!

The reason I think you may be is because you sort-of swooped in here, wrote one absolutely glowing post about a restaurant, and then you went away.

For folks with an affiliation, there are just a couple simple requirements:

1) Disclose the affiliation, either with a disclaimer paragraph (or just a couple of sentences) in the post itself, or better and easier, in your signature file. For example, you could simply put: James Kirk, Captain, Starship Enterprise (or whatever). Our readers LOVE it when restaurant insiders post - as long as the affiliations are disclosed. That way, they don't feel like they're being duped. Truly, I hope you are affiliated, and that you'll post more often, which brings me to the only other requirement:

2) A loose rule of thumb for insiders is to post about their own establishments "about twice a month." Anything more than that, and people notice, and they get irritated by the commercial nature of things; anything less than that, and the restaurant tends to fall off the radar. Consistent posts on donrockwell.com are one of the best free PR tools a restaurant or blog has at its disposal, and it's beyond me why more insiders don't take advantage of this - it's free! And people want to know what you're up to!

Let me assume for a moment that you are affiliated with the restaurant. The best thing you could do would be to let me delete that post, and I'll send it back to you for editing, rewriting, etc. Then, you can put something in your signature file, and maintain a consistent "presence" here. We have so many readers here that it's money in the bank - don't let the membership count alone fool you - we have a TON of guests who read donrockwell.com daily, and just never bother to sign in. It's a huge resource for marketing. And again ... it's free!

So let me know, one way or the other. I'm curious, if nothing else! Thanks again for signing up for donrockwell.com, and you'll always be welcome here.

Kind regards,

Don Rockwell

[DC Deb]

I just wanted to let everyone know that I've enabled yet another way to ruin your lives and productivity: The Chat room is now open (see the little tab above). It's a free feature that may or may not be popular, but, well, why not give it a try - if some people enjoy it, then great; if not, no harm done.

Today was the first time that I noticed a red #1 by the chat room button. Does that mean there is a chat going on or is there a message for me? I clicked on it and didn't know what was going on so I left the chat. Didn't mean to seem anti-social.

[DonRocks]

It meant there was one person inside the chat room (it holds up to 5).

[DonRocks]

so, is that person affiliated with the said restaurant? any response on that?

I am very curious

Oh, I don't know; I haven't heard back. Either way, I'm not worried about it - this is one of the most common (and benign) mistakes new members in the industry make who aren't already familiar with the (very loosely documented) rules of dr.com. Quite often, it turns out to be someone's relative, and they're just trying to help out a family member.

Nope, unaffiliated. Just works nearby and likes the food and the owner, and is pulling for them to succeed. Nothing wrong with that.

[DonRocks]

For the time being, the Dining Guide is going back to being a Participating Members Only feature. If you've been a guest on this website, just sign up here (free!), introduce yourselves in this thread (or post in any other thread at least one time), and you'll have access to it again. It's very nice that the Dining Guide has become so popular, but it's producing just too many "read-only" visitors, and our participating members are what make this website a community. Doing this is going to drive down "hit counts" and other metrics, but I really don't care.

I'm sure I'll be switching back and forth (there are benefits and drawbacks to both), but becoming a participating member will ensure uninterrupted access.

Cheers, and I very much look forward to reading your introduction and "meeting" you!

Rocks

PS - a little poem 4 U:

I'm not doing this

to be a prick

I am doing this

to make things tick

[DonRocks]

There were too many topics pinned in this Events and Gatherings forum, so I decided to move them to a new subforum called FAQ for New Members. I was debating moving the "Please Introduce Yourselves" thread because it's so popular, but there are numerous direct links to it, and I doubt it will get lost in the shuffle; if it does, I can always move it back here. More than anything, though, I think people will be relieved not to have to scroll down past the pinned posts here.

[DonRocks]

[When I sign people up and verifiy their registrations, I ask for a real first/last name and city-of-residence, stressing that these are to be held in private. Basically, I need to know who is posting here to avoid anonymous potshots taken at restaurants.

[in response to my first-ever administrative announcement, I emphasize that there is a non-negotiable requirement here to register using a REAL first and last name and city of residence.

When something comes to my attention that demands an extra level of scrutiny, and I come to verify a member's identity, and that member doesn't convince me that the registration was submitted with a real name and address, the member is in violation of the rules that I set on day one.

* real name and real address (to be kept *private* and I emphasize there is a seven-year track record of honoring this)

* no personal attacks

* no going off-topic unless it makes the Laugh Committee laugh

* anyone who wants to discuss my moderation decisions is welcome to write me privately

Those are the rules here, and anyone who doesn't want to honor them should not be posting. Unless the situation is fixed, membership is subject to deletion at my sole discretion.

I will also reiterate this from April 15, 2005:

After a lot of thought, I decided not to make real names a requirement in posting, but having observed and learned from experience, anonymous criticism about restaurants (i.e., peoples livelihoods) will be gently discouraged, so if you don't use your real names in your postings, please be responsible in your writing. And please do consider using your real name, either as your username, or in your signature file. Industry professionals: please disclose your affiliations, if not in public, then at least in confidence ....

This is not an invitation to debate; it is a clarification of announcements that I made seven years ago.]

And now, speaking as a regular old poster, and not a moderator, I discovered almost ten years ago that, although I'm not a trained writer, I have a gift for short-form writing with a humorous edge. They say the best satire is indistinguishable from reality. Think about it.

[DonRocks]

Should we do a "Finger" button for a week, just for fun?

(You might need to friend me on Facebook to see that.)

[jayandstacey]

Should we do a "Finger" button for a week, just for fun?

(You might need to friend me on Facebook to see that.)

Can you do that here?

Facebook was pretty cool when the content coming to me was interesting to me as the recipient. Facebook has lost relevance as it has focused on being more interesting to the sender (advertisers, soapboxers, shut-ins) and thus less relevant to me as the recipient. As a sender, I'm left thinking that any message would either be lost in the noise, read only by advertisers, soapboxers, and shut-ins, or just perceived as being from an advertisers, soapboxer or shut-in.

The finger would just make the issue worse.

But I would give the finger if I could to Facebook for consistently forcing me back to a "top stories" view vs. "most recent" - the only interesting things anymore are the relatively rare things - the ones that get folded under in a "top stories" view. Up yours, Facebook!

[DonRocks]

Can you do that here?

Facebook was pretty cool when the content coming to me was interesting to me as the recipient. Facebook has lost relevance as it has focused on being more interesting to the sender (advertisers, soapboxers, shut-ins) and thus less relevant to me as the recipient. As a sender, I'm left thinking that any message would either be lost in the noise, read only by advertisers, soapboxers, and shut-ins, or just perceived as being from an advertisers, soapboxer or shut-in.

The finger would just make the issue worse.

But I would give the finger if I could to Facebook for consistently forcing me back to a "top stories" view vs. "most recent" - the only interesting things anymore are the relatively rare things - the ones that get folded under in a "top stories" view. Up yours, Facebook!

We have a "Like" option which I've chosen not to use; a little custom coding could easily change that to "Finger."

[porcupine]

We have a "Like" option which I've chosen not to use; a little custom coding could easily change that to "Finger."

You still thinking of enabling the "like" option?:

One last remark: I'd like to make explicit that Waitman, in his lengthy and measured reply to my little speech, convinced me that I was wrong, for which I thank him. It's a good thing to talk and listen, and not to shout, and we both did too much of the latter before reverting to the former.

[porcupine]

^I just realized this post is going to be mis-interpreted. I was trying to imply (Don) that enabling the "like" feature will put a damper on intelligent, reasoned discourse. You know, like what's happened on facebook.

[DonRocks]

^I just realized this post is going to be mis-interpreted. I was trying to imply (Don) that enabling the "like" feature will put a damper on intelligent, reasoned discourse. You know, like what's happened on facebook.

I was never thinking of enabling the "Like" option (other than as a parody for a week, with "Finger.")

(I should add, though, that I'd like to see a *lot* more intelligent, reasoned discourse written here - too many busy eyeballs; not enough busy fingers.)

[DonRocks]

We're in the process of switching over to a (virtual) private server, so things may be a little rough during the transition. However, this should take care of all those heinous "Internal Server Error" messages we've been getting for so long - this website has simply gotten too big, and needs its own dedicated space.

ETA - Maybe I'm imagining things, but the website seems to be running blazingly fast right now. With my gnat-like attention span, there is nothing more repelling than a slow connection. If I click on something, and nothing happens within two seconds, I've already begun thinking of ten other things. Hopefully, this is now a thing of the past on dr.com.

[bookluvingbabe]

Just wanted to say I like the new graphics! (Now if only I had more time to post...)