BS: Wasted day

Subject: BS: Wasted day
From: Penny S.
Date: 16 Jun 11 - 01:16 PM

I have spent most of today, apart the bit spent trying to teach breaststroke to a group of Y5 children, trying to post on a web site of course reviews.

One dissatisfied student had posted a nasty review of a course I went on, and I wanted to counter it. So I pressed the button for posting a response, entered what I wanted to say, and lo, nothing.

I investigate the site, and found my review would not be posted unless I was registered and responded to a confirmation email.

So I tried to register, only to find that I was already, somehow, registered. I used the lost password button, logged in with the emailed password, and still, nothing.

I emailed support. No response.

The FAQ's suggested trying with another address. I searched for my BT one, and attmpted to re-register. No luck. Lost password sent me a blank. Neither blank, nor the password I had given it, worked.

I emailed support. No response.

By this time I had submitted the review several times. Twice it told me it was accepted. That was after it had told me it was too long and should be less than 2000 characters. It would not accept 1999, 0r 1990. It did accept 1975. But it still didn't display it.

I went swimming. I came back.

I started a hotmail account. I registered, very carefully. The site asks for the postcode, but does not flag it as essential. I filled in everything, essential or not.

I got some welcoming emails back. I replied to them. I logged in through them.

I posted my review again. It said it was accepted. It did not appear again.

I posted it as a response to the original review. It said it was accepted (after a bit of an interval). Again, it was not displayed.

I emailed support again. Guess what?

I am suspecting that the nasty review writer has interfered with the site somehow. Or he works there.

I have spent most of the day trying to counter a troll, and been prevented. I am hopping mad.

Penny

Subject: RE: BS: Wasted day
From: Ebbie
Date: 16 Jun 11 - 02:24 PM

I have already posted and it disappeared "in order to be previewed". Could that be the problem?

Subject: RE: BS: Wasted day
From: Bonzo3legs
Date: 16 Jun 11 - 02:27 PM

Reviews of courses, appraisal, safeguarding, differenciation - what absolute rubbish. Teachers should be left to teach.

Subject: RE: BS: Wasted day
From: Mrrzy
Date: 16 Jun 11 - 02:51 PM

Man, what a way to spend a day!

Subject: RE: BS: Wasted day
From: Penny S.
Date: 16 Jun 11 - 04:02 PM

According to the site, there was no previewing process. However, a guy at the college has access to the site editor, and we may be able to bypass the messy business. I will not allow him to talk me onto a silver surfer computer course! When I think of the number of web sites I've signed onto over the years, this was absolutely the worst. I think they are changing it, and the FAQs haven't cought up with the changes.

I have visions that the troll actually works for the site and has been watching for favourable reviews and intercepting them. I fantasise that he has hacked the site so it won't allow opposition.

I'm not giving any information away - I might if I and others can actually get stuff posted - but this one student, and only one, did not agree with the course as given. He took over at the start of one week's session and rudely demanded a change, and then attacked the tutor fro not giving in to him. He thought he was speaking for everyone, but he only spoke for himself. Then he stopped coming, and did this little revenge by posting on the web site.

It needs to be countered. But it isn't my job to fight the software.

Penny

Subject: RE: BS: Wasted day
From: grumpy al
Date: 16 Jun 11 - 05:24 PM

if you get through it alive no day is wasted

Subject: RE: BS: Wasted day
From: Janie
Date: 16 Jun 11 - 10:52 PM

Love it, grumpy al!

Not sufficiently conspiracy minded, Patsy, to be likely to think me not being able to log in or register on a site was because some one was intentionally messing with me (not saying it doesn't happen - just saying that is not an explanation I would be likely to consider, me being who and how I am.) Nonetheless, there are some sites that occasionally visit on which I have apparently registered at some time in the past, perhaps with a different e-mail addy, that will not let me register anew, will not let me log on, and apparently send requests for assistance to old e-mail addresses, or e-mail addresses I created that I no longer remember the passwords to to e-mail accounts - and it drives me batty. Youtube and the attendant Google are particularly difficult and my orginal log-in information is lost forever in the midst of closed e-mail accounts and/or duplicate usernames with different, obsolete e-mail accounts and forgotten passwords, which only get sent to the now inaccessible e-mail accounts.

Recently, I opened a g-mail account in order to work around the problem described above, and created a new google account in order to create a new Youtube account.

Problem is, I don't log onto either the google e-mail account or Youtube often enough to have remembered the password.

Back to square one. It is my problem for not immediately saving the pertinent information in a document to which I can refer. I always tell myself I'll go back and do that shortly, then often forget to do so.

My bad.

And me frustrated!!!!

Back to square one.

Subject: RE: BS: Wasted day
From: Richard Bridge
Date: 17 Jun 11 - 03:13 AM

There are crap courses and crap course providers, but IMHO there are many more crap students!

Subject: RE: BS: Wasted day
From: GUEST,highlandman at work
Date: 17 Jun 11 - 11:23 AM

Frustrating, yes.
But I have learned that it maintains my equanimity better to follow the rule, "never attribute to malice what can be explained by incompetence." I may be wrong but at least I am relatively happy.
Cheers!
-Glenn

Subject: RE: BS: Wasted day
From: Penny S.
Date: 17 Jun 11 - 11:50 AM

Sorted, as I finally ran down the company's phone number, and got a very nice chap on who found my posting and got it on very quickly, promising to pass on "my journey" details to people concerned. There is a problem that on one page where the original review is displayed there is no indication that there is a response, and people have to go to read all reviews to get to it, but that is part of the site design that they are working on.

It was a delay for preview situation, but it didn't say so anywhere on the site. And I would still not have seen it easily.

I still had a wasted day.

Penny

Subject: RE: BS: Wasted day
From: Penny S.
Date: 19 Jun 11 - 03:42 AM

Curious postscript. Looked for the original poster on the internet. Not what one would describe as a nasty person with poor people skills. Started work as a very capable software engineer, and then got involved with charitable work. Doesn't match the person I saw.

Penny