Inaccessible Comments, On Some Popular Posts

Viewing comments, on some popular blogs, one may get the idea that not as many comments are being published, as are immediately visible.

With a large comment complement, comments are paginated - with some comments hidden behind a link, captioned "Load more". The "Load more" link is JavaScript based - and there is a problem.

The "Load more" link does not always work, on all blogs.

Comments on some blogs may be unreadable - with the "Load more" link not operational.

Some posts never display all comments.

Look at the bottom of the page, below the post.

And there is the "Load more" link.

And the link, as seen when one mouse over it, is shown to be JavaScript based.

And clicking on the link yields the caption "Loading ...".

And "Loading ..." never goes away - and we get no view of the missing comments.



I've seen this problem with blogs using both dynamic and non dynamic templates.

Both dynamic templates, and non dynamic templates, appear to use comments paginated behind "Load more" - and may exhibit this problem. I've seen this problem, reported in Blogger Help Forum: Get Help with an Issue, for both template types.

I have reproduced this problem, using two blogs.

Here are two recently reported cases, reproduced in my testing today. I do not know how long both cases may be active.

http://slifkinchallenge.blogspot.com/2016/05/thank-you-yehoshua-duker-and-yosef.html
https://productforums.google.com/d/topic/blogger/RotUfv8AwuU/discussion

http://istanbulkonstantinopel.blogspot.com/2014/03/study-in-turkey-2.html
https://productforums.google.com/d/topic/blogger/7Yau3KKR9mo/discussion

Noting that both blogs are (natively) published in countries that are subject to local country codes (Israel and Turkey, respectively), I will deny that to be a simple affinity - since I viewed both blogs from my browser, as "blogspot.com", as I reproduced the problem. That said, that is an interesting coincidence, no?

There are several possible causes of this problem. Adding the above observation, some of these causes may be more or less relevant.

• Comments feed setting.
• Comment feed content / corruption.
• Cookie / script filters.
• HTTPS Redirect.
• Occam's Razor.
• Post template corruption.

Comments feed setting.

Features like the comment reply option, and blogs published to dynamic templates, require a full comment feed. It's possible that comment pagination, behind JavaScript links, is similarly sensitive to the comments feed setting.

This detail will affect everybody - both blog owner(s) and reader(s) alike. And it will probably affect all posts, uniformly.

The solution for this problem would involve checking - and correcting - the comments and feed settings, for the blogs involved.

Comment feed content / corruption.

Similar to the problem with the Blogger blog post published location, it's possible that some unknown detail in the data could interfere with script functionality.

If the problem involves content in one post - or a comment on one post, it's possible that comments for one post could be affected; but other posts could paginate comments successfully.

This detail would probably affect everybody, uniformly.

The solution for this problem will require determining what feed content detail causes the problem. This will probably involve affinity diagnosis.

Cookie / script filters.

Any problem which involves a JavaScript based link, both cookies and scripts are always going to be involved. Any filter that interferes with either cookies (identity) or scripts (link functionality) will always be a possibility.

Filters may affect either blog owners and / or blog readers, uniquely. A problem that involves some owners / readers will likely involve filters.

Thanks to the effect of country local domains, cookie / script filters may affect individuals geographically.

The solution for this problem is to check / open up script filters - and then check / open up cookie filters.

HTTPS Redirect.

Both blogs, identified above, appear to not be using the "HTTPS Redirect" option. It's not impossible that this is another feature, broken by the SSL Rollout.

Occam's Razor.

Considering the most simple alternative, is it possible that paginated comments are simply inoperative? Maybe, because of (or incidentally involving) the SSL Rollout??

Post template corruption.

Comments are part of the post template. It's likely that proper comment functionality also requires a clean post template. This detail will probably affect everybody - though it's possible that there could be code that is sensitive to some owners / readers, but not others.

The solution for this problem is to reset the post template, on the blogs involved.

The bottom line.

This problem, if not incidentally solved by a Blogger code change, will probably not be diagnosed, immediately.

More examples of this symptom are badly needed. Right now, we have seen only a handful of people with blogs that are popular - and generate comments in sufficient volume - and have reported this problem.

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Some #Blogger blog owners, who publish blogs with posts that receive large volumes of comments, report inability to display all comments published. Comments, when displayed in large volumes, are paginated behind JavaScript based links - and some links, when clicked, don't seem to work.

https://productforums.google.com/d/topic/blogger/7Yau3KKR9mo/discussion
https://productforums.google.com/d/topic/blogger/RotUfv8AwuU/discussion