Dashboard Tech Issues

Just for the record here, Catherine did respond saying that they have optimised for IE (which no-one would use by choice, surely) and Firefox. Getting it fixed for Chrome will take some time apparently. She has also suggested 'switching browsers'. I don't want to bring my personal prejudices here so I will just say that in my opinion this is not an ideal solution. A better choice of words might be: 'have both (eg.) Chrome and Firefox loaded so that you can switch to Firefox temporarily if you are having difficulties'.

Using google chrome, right? I'm having this problem repeatedly on several exercises too. I sent a message to tech support about it. No response yet.

Thanks Catherine, that's good news about the Posts page.

I will use the Technical Problems Group, knowing it the best option on offer. But I still think there must be a better way to centralize bug reporting. I italicized that because a system that must be searched for, and is only available to people who are knowledgeable enough to join, does not sound very centralized to me. Could you perhaps add a link to this group in the 'Help' column in the gray section at the bottom of the page?

Catherine yes I understand your point re this thread carrying many issues. Having so many usability issues, on top of tech issues, is not a "normal" situation (hopefully). I'm still trying to write my earlier response to you. My problem is with the Groups system as is in general (I know Sarah has said you're working on this) and how we are currently unable to see All Groups (all conversations) on the Conversations page unless we go and join every single Group out there. I'll talk about that elsewhere though. Thanks for all your work.

go_manly: We hear you and are no longer deleting the Posts page. You will notice that the alert has been taken down. Because we are trying to centralize the messages regarding bugs and technical problems, I encourage you to join our new group!

Check out the Technical Problems Group to check up on reported issues, to report an issue, or to just see what's going on with the website.

Actually this illustrates why not having a group is a problem - there are so many places on the site where I could respond to this issue that no one knows where to look (least of all me)! The group, admittedly, will take time to grow a member base. But perhaps we could work together to get people involved (i.e. linking to it, commenting about it)...? What do you say?

Join our new CPod Technical Problems Group here to check up on reported issues, to report an issue, or to just see what's going on with the website.

This illustrates why doing this by Group is a problem (I was still writing my response to Catherine). Xiaophil, we have to assume that anyone who hasn't joined the new Group or is even aware of it couldn't possibly know about the existence of that conversation. We have blinders now, as you have pointed out before.

I assume you saw this already, but if you haven't:

http://chinesepod.com/community/conversations/post/9303#comment-180248

The banner has been taken down. We have decided not to delete the Posts page. Thank you for your valuable input.

I encourage you to join our new CPod Technical Problems Group here to check up on reported issues, to report an issue, or to just see what's going on with the website. I have addressed on-going issues there, and will continue to provide updates as I get them.

What is the reason for this? I don't even use the dashboard - I access site via phone these days. As long as I can still post via the mobile site.

Changye - see banner, here:

http://chinesepod.com/community/posts/list

Someone please tell me what is going to happen on June 15 here? I'm afraid I can't follow your conversations.

I'm afraid I have to agree with you, old sport. The CPod mission to fragment and wipe out the old style community here is almost complete. June 15 may well mark the day when I withdraw from any significant participation on these boards, as I'm sure I can't be bothered to go into various separate groups to post and/or check posts or whatever it is I'll be expected to do.

It feels to me like a way to reduce our emissions; it's better for the environment you see ...

非常感谢！！

We are going to bring back the drop-down menu with these options. I have addressed this issue in our new Technical Problems Group. I hope that in the future we can discuss these issues there, so that we're all on the same page about what's going on and about your input on changes to the site.

Join our new CPod Technical Problems Group here to check up on reported issues, to report an issue, or to just see what's going on with the website.

Exactly... i agree zhenlijiang... PLEASE!!

Doesn't have to be the drop-down menu. I just want the ability to mark as Studied on the lesson page itself. Please CPod. 谢谢

Oh ABSOLUTELY yes. Please do this Cpod.

Seems OK now. Thanks a lot.

The tech. team has fixed this problem. Can you please check your feed and confirm it's working properly? Thank you!

and some private stuff for everybody to read:

TITLE: About your lessons:

TEXT:

"Hi W_____, I have post your lesson plans here. Sorry for the previous problem. Hope to talk to you next week. G_____"

I think you should have fixed this after such a long time and so many posts here!

And for everybody in UI another one "Syllabus 10":

Week 1

1.

Upper Intermediate - Designing the New Apartment 2

2.

Upper Intermediate - Designing the New Apartment 3

3.

4.

5.

Week 2

1.

Upper Intermediate - Warcraft in China

2.

Upper Intermediate - Google vs. Baidu

3.

4.

5.

Week 3

1.

Upper Intermediate - Dogs and Wealth

2.

Upper Intermediate - Going to Wudang Mountain

3.

4.

5.

Week 4

1.

Upper Intermediate - Love Tangle 3

2.

Upper Intermediate - Love Tangle 4

Guided for everybody:

Today another Lesson plan "lesson plan 1" in the feed http://chinesepod.com/community/conversations/feed/all

Very interesting!

Week Commencing: 09/06/2010

Week 1

1.

Elementary - Office Policy: Internet

2.

Elementary - My boss isn't satisfied

3.

Elementary - Calling in Sick

4.

Elementary - Paying a Bill

5 .

review

Week 2

1.

Elementary - Mother's Birthday

2.

Elementary - Baby Talk: Your baby looks like you!

3.

Elementary - Consoling the Bereaved

4.

Elementary - Help with Housework

5.

review

Week 3

1.

Elementary - What would you like to drink?

2.

Elementary - Do you have vegetables?

3.

Elementary - Cooking

4.

Elementary - Having Food Delivered

5.

review

Week 4

1.

Elementary - Finding an Apartment

2.

Elementary - Your turn to pay!

3.

Elementary - Do I look good in this?

4.

Elementary - Here is your change

5.

review

Sorry ;)

Ahh....I was enjoying being nosey.

We're looking into this.

Tech team!!! No answer?

Nobody cares...

Maybe there is a simple reason: the tech team only speaks Chinese and isn't able to read this.

pssst. Guided for free :D

Thanks for taking the time to write out this response Catherine. I've found where RJ had said these issues ought to be centralized and status made public (OK it's kind of a tough comment, but that was the point):

http://chinesepod.com/community/conversations/post/8539#comment-176372

I agree that it's good for each issue to get its own post, not a subthread in a thread like this that gets way too long. And of course such information and updates and announcements from you need to be public and shared.

I just think all of you at CPod seem to be underestimating how easy it is for users to never know of a Group or know that it's important to join it. Anyone who fails to know about and join a Group is deprived of all that goes on there, but why should the onus be on the user to be aware of that?

And even we users can lose sight of that so quickly and easily--we see the Group posts because we've joined, and forget that nobody else does (when Go_manly asked for a response and Xiaophil pointed out a relevant discussion "he could have seen already", at that point I think it was like 6 or 7 members).

This has also been said before by RJ, but I too think you really need someone among you to have a User's view. One person, probably not any of you already with your heads buried in fixing all this.

I'm not being critical of you or anyone else personally. Critical feedback is all meant for CPod as a whole. Thanks for all your hard work.

catherine,

I think I pretty much agree with all your excellent points. Particularly:

From our end, receiving emails from individuals (sometimes MANY on the same issue) increases miscommunication and delays. I want to avoid this as I believe you all have a right to know where we're at with tech. changes. I think a shared, public space has the potential to be a great tool for us as we move forward.

I can't speak for Zhen of course,but in terms of keeping it as public as possible I think the main lingering concern is finding these groups in the first place which brings us back to an oft requested thing,namely the ability to see on the drop down menu "all groups"...that being not just "all my groups" but all the groups there are. I really see this as being one of the biggest issues in the community and if we were to have this ability so many of the concerns with groups would be alleviated. What say ye?

We still have all the other filters for those who don't want to see all these conversations and just want to focus in on what's relevent to them.

I knew you were a vulcan!

So mind melds? Is that what you're saying? I'll check with the tech team...

I think you should create a massive psychic network so that we can attune our higher consciousness into your chinesepod group mind to raise the urgency of bugs that need fixing. The more people that experience the bug, the higher the mental level of irritation in the group mind, thereby increasing the urgency of the bug fix.

...

Or, y'know, the group thing is good too.

zhenlijiang,

I hear you. And thanks for your response. I have to respectfully disagree. I think this is EXACTLY the kind of thing the groups feature was created for (well... we hope the majority of groups will be about Chinese language and culture, but hey, bug reporting is important too).

I think this is appropriate because (1) not everyone wants to follow these conversations (2) a thread like this Dashboard Tech Issues one will become ridiculously long after just a few months (3) specific issues can be commented on when each issue has post dedicated to it, not just a comment about it (4) we here at Praxis can more effectively update the community on tech. changes and fixes and (5) if ever anyone needs to find out if a bug they're reporting has been reported, they know where to look (as opposed to searching for this thread).

From our end, receiving emails from individuals (sometimes MANY on the same issue) increases miscommunication and delays. I want to avoid this as I believe you all have a right to know where we're at with tech. changes. I think a shared, public space has the potential to be a great tool for us as we move forward.

As always, if you have suggestions for improving this or alternatives that you believe will be more effective, I'm all ears. Thank you for your input and continued support.

Oh and I have added rjberki to the Tech. Problems Group intro., so hopefully everyone will feel that they've received their due credit :)

Are you sure this isn't a good way to centralize bugs and tech problems? It seems quite effective to me.

When you notice a bug/tech issue, go to your dashboard, and make a post to the group by selecting the group from the drag-down menu. It's then tagged and listed in the group. You can then check back via replies to me, updates in your conversation stream, or going to my groups.

What other way do you think we could/should centralize bug/tech issues? We're definitely open to suggestions!

Catherine I know you have a lot to do and don't need me to give you a hard time--but I'm not trying to do that here. I don't know if creating yet another Group (I've joined, otherwise I will have no view on any discussions that go on in it) for this purpose was what Bodawei or anyone else had in mind. Could you not centralize these communications some other way? This whole Groups thing in my opinion is not a good system (won't get into why or how here).

I'd like to point out that the suggestion that you centralize these tech issue messages I have seen RJ make before at least once, way back I can't remember when--it may have been on this post. I think Bodawei was simply repeating the suggestion, and have a feeling he would be uncomfortable being given sole credit for it.

I appreciate your comment, bodawei, and think your suggestion that we have a centralized site for reporting problems and bugs is a good one. I have created a group for this purpose, which you can view here, and encourage you and anyone else who is interested in joining and posting on bugs. I will do my best to post updates from the tech. team on reported bugs, and will announce when issues have been resolved.

I'll also be re-posting comments from other parts of the site about existing bugs to this group, so you and others can follow updates on them. If you have comments or suggestions on how to proceed with this group I'd love to hear them. Thanks!

If anything at all is to be learnt from this thread it is that ChinesePod needs a new and better way of dealing with website-user problems, hey? There needs to be a single point of reference so we can all see a list of problems that have been reported, and what is happening to fix the problem. Then we should be told when a problem is fixed. This current discussion is idiosyncratic enough to be amusing (okay - to those who have too much time on their hands), but after a while even idiosyncrasies lose their charm.

Thank you..

Ok got it thanks for those details. I have passed on this information to the tech. team and will let you know when they have resolved the problem.

catherine

It settles directly on the comment you are looking for - then it jumps twice and re-lands on the comment again. It all seems quite unnecessary. It has nothing to do with anybody scrolling around - there is no reason.

When you click on a link to a comment the site is designed to take you directly to that comment (not just to the page containing the comment). There is sometimes a delay right after you arrive on the page and before you see the comment you were looking for.

If you try to scroll around when this is happening it can make the jump look very choppy, and can disrupt the process. The reason we have this feature is because sometimes threads are very long and it can be hard to find the comment you are looking for (especially for people who have not been following the thread). If you click on a link to a comment and wait until the comment has been located (this will include some scrolling up or down the page and, as in my case, the appearance of a little hourglass) it should be able to settle on that comment without too much movement.

If it is the case that (1) there is crazy jumping but the comment you were trying to find is not where the page eventually settles, then that could be a bug. Sometimes when threads are closed the page has to open them before scrolling down to the comment you were trying to find, so this can account for some of the time it takes to find a comment.

If you click on a link to a comment and sit back (no manual scrolling with your mouse) does the page locate the comment you were looking for on its own?

Oh yeah, that one. But... I never see it when I'm using this website. Not even before, during, or after the screen bouncing performance aforementioned.

Various ... earlier versions of Windows may change the mouse cursor to an hourglass during a period when the program is in the middle of a task, and may not accept user input... (Wikipaedia)

What hourglass?

Actually, I take that back, [Smacks forehead.] You mean THAT hourglass. I do see hourglasses. What was I thinking of? :)

It is kind of a tornado like experience. It just beats you around until you finally end up at the end.

It is not an intermittent problem. It occurs any time there are more than 5 comments in a subthread (although perhaps only when these 6 or more comments occupy more than one page - I'm not sure if it happens when all the comments fit in one page.) The delay before the jump is often long enough for me to read a short comment, and start manually scrolling up to read the previous comment, only to find I am taken back to where I started. And the thing is, no matter how many times it happens, I never prepare myself for this eventuality.

Ok, let's keep this real. I have the slowest possible Internet speed and I live out with all the farmers (the poorest farmers in China I am told.) We barely know what the Internet is out here. I don't see any hourglass. Every time we go to the latest comment in a well-patronised thread we are taken for a ride, a visual version of your stomach ending up in your mouth. It is not an intermittent problem, but maybe it is a 'feature', Catherine? I will miss it when it is gone, but not in a bad way.

Catherine

First of all, thank you for your response. Like baba I too have never experienced an hourglass. Perhaps all this has finished happening by the time your view opens as baba has also suggested. It seems odd that you would have slower access than the rest of us, but Im sure there is an explanation. Perhaps try logging in by creating a dummy 7 day trial account and sock puppet your way in to see if the view is any different. If not, then maybe Hank needs to fork over some change for a faster internet connection for those who need it most.

catherine ,I'm not sure if this helps or not,but just in case,here goes. You mention 2 interesting things. Firstly that you are not able to replicate the problem and secondly "hourglass". I have never seen an hourglass though I certainly know what RJ has so poetically described. It makes me wonder about your internet speed and how you are connected to the server.What I mean is if you are seeing an hourglass does that suggest that the pages are loading slower for you and thereby it circumvents this effect that is perhaps only seen by those with faster broadband speeds. Just a thought..I may be way off track.

John is not in the office today. I'll make sure he looks into this issue when he is back tomorrow. As for the problem itself, I'm afraid I'm not able to replicate the problem. I have had issues when I attempt to scroll immediately after clicking on a link to a comment (before the hourglass has disappeared and the comment has been located). But this doesn't occur when I wait for the page to 'settle' on the comment. Could this be where the jumping is occurring?

I apologize if it appeared I had written off your previous comment - that was not my intention . Perhaps you can provide some more details - is this happening only on very long threads (like this one)? Is this happening on a regular basis for you or only sporadically? Does this happen even after the hourglass has disappeared (once the page has 'settled' on the comment you were searching for?) I hope this doesn't seem to redundant - I just want to try and recreate the problem so we can have the tech. team fix it as quickly as possible.

At the end of the day it doesn't matter. Lets have a drink.

I'm not offering it as an excuse, simply as a realistic view. I've been here long enough to know.

That's not an excuse. Its a global company.

RJ, like I've said before, this is China dude! ;)

hehe, Bob's got a hard head. Let him be the point of the spear if he so desires. I say we elect him union steward. We complain to Bob and he complains to the company. One voice. You are right of course Tal (but even you lose it now and then) but its just so hard to believe that they are So OK with being So unprofessional. It must come from the top.

Indeed they were.

Banging my head on a wall is a bad thing? :)

With a rebel yell, she cried more, more, more, ...

Ah, those were the days.

Bob, what can you possibly expect to hear except the usual 'we're working on it'? You must have realized by now that stuff never working right is the natural order of things on this website. Speaking just for myself, I (for the most part) simply put up with it so I can continue learning Chinese.

You know my opinion on the smashboard and all the recent 'improvements', but I like to think I know when it's pointless to keep banging my head on a wall.

Yep, he ignored it again. John just doesn't want to know about it.

A bump for this issue while John is online.

Yes, I've mentioned this before. It happens when a thread has more than 5 comments. Generally only the 5 most recent comments are shown. When you click on the thread, you are taken to the comment you clicked on first. THEN, the whole thread is opened up, which results in the jerk upwards. Then you are returned to the comment you clicked on, which results in the jerk downwards.

Surely all that is required is to change the sequencing of these actions. But when I first mentioned it, Catherine passed it off as though it were nothing. Further mentions have not attracted a comment from CPod. They won't even acknowledge it as an issue. It IS an issue, and it really detracts from the 'professional' feel CPod is looking for.

Rj: I have created a new group with updates on on-going tech issues. New issues can also be reported and discussed there. I hope it will increase communication and will allow us all to be on the same page as far as these issues are concerned.

Join our new CPod Technical Problems Group here to check up on reported issues, to report an issue, or to just see what's going on with the website.

Ok just discussed it with the tech. team and it has been scheduled to be fixed for tomorrow. Should be completed by the end of this week. Will keep you updated.

As RJ says, some of us want an All Groups (see all) option in the Conversations pages. I do.

rj - I will not try to save face here -this is indeed a bug. I have asked the tech team to look into it and will follow up tomorrow when we have figured out how to solve the problem.

哎呀, forget and re-learn something 12 times to make it permanent knowledge! Is this a flaw of the brain or the heart?

We really ought to be able to add lessons from anywhere on the site, including our Archived list, to our Active list. Don't know what if any obstacles to that exist, but being unable to do that even from the just-studied lesson page is making this learning site very user-unfriendly. If I had just come here as a trial user I think I would find this perplexing. Odd enough perhaps to not sign up (actually I came here once, before V3, and found the site all colorful and hip and happenin'-looking but didn't sign up then because I couldn't understand just what was what).

I TOTALLY agree... I love My Archives and I wish it was on the home page.... PLUS I wish the newest lesson would show on the top on the home page when clicking show newest, and not at the Bottom... to me it sounds more logical to have it at the top if you choose a descending view (Newest first).

I agree with you Zhen. Put it on the homepage. And why do we have to hit manage lessons all the time. This should be the only view. I used to keep one or two lessons on my homepage. Those actively being studied. In the archive were lessons I liked and planned to re-visit periodically. I would bookmark these from within archive to send them back to the homepage thus making them active again. Now there is no bookmark function within archive. I study each lesson many times with weeks in between. Returning this way after seeing some of the lesson vocab used in other contexts and bringing back to life memories that are starting to fade is a powerful way to learn. I read once that we must forget and re-learn things 12 times before it becomes permanent knowledge. (sorry I have no reference). Anyway there is a big difference between "studied' and "mastered". Until you can listen to a lesson and understand it 100% without translating in your mind as you go, and you can repeat it with decent pronunciation from memory, you have not mastered it. The problem is that everybody uses the home page in different ways, not just the way cpod envisioned that it should be used. They don't use it. Oh yea, the "survey", well Im not going there. Not today.

I was only teasing you about not knowing what a lot of the slang terms are. No malice here Bob and Im pretty good at recognizing tongue in cheek. Where I get into trouble is when people dont recognize mine.

Cheers

RJ,

I'm not sure what your comment refers to. Any reference to snobs and class was said entirely tongue in cheek.

you keep your govt honest with guns?

I think its fair to say you need to get out more. How about I come to Australia and Baba and I will swing by and show you about?

Bevan - never heard that one. I'm told that bogan is a word commonly used by Westies to identify people lower in the hierarchy than themselves. I guess while us North Shore snobs have the Westies to tread on, we don't need to know about bogans.

hehe, I rest my case mate. No guns? How do you keep the govt honest? :-)

yeah, I gather "westies" has a similar meaning. Also bevan is another similar word.

Rellies is what the bogans say

..hehe,well I've never been accused of or thought of myself as bogan before but come to think of it I do have an old flanno shirt I'm rather fond of and I do greatly lament the disappearance of the drive-ins. Never had a hotted up car or a pack of Winnie blues up my sleeve though .Didn't realise it only took a word like that ;)

don't think I've ever said rellies.

..fair dinkum? ...I reckon I would hear that more often than "relatives" which sounds longer and more formal. I guess you must be mixing in high brow circles then ;)

RJ,

If he shot a mugger he would apologize first

...what makes you think I'd shoot a mugger? We don't have guns to start with and it would be a waste of a potential mate who might just be short of a quid and not know a better way to go about it. ;)

Your comment does make me laugh though 'cos it calls to mind some funny scenes from many movies,most recently from "tais tois":

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0310203/

in which Gerard Depardieu plays this really dumb crook and he apologises too. Also reminds me of nice but desperate crooks in films like Raising Arizona and Ruthless people.

sorry RJ, I presumed enjo was a well known cleaning product internationally:

http://www.enjo.net/nojs.asp?sprache=en&land=us

...I was under the impression it's European but I don't really know where it's from...but I don't think of it as Aussie though it was very popular here...womenfolk would have enjo parties..just like tupperware parties [which is American so I think I can mention that one safely].

Bogan is not a word we use in Sydney. I have only encountered it in recent years after speaking with a few people from Melbourne. I gather it is used in a similar vein to the way Sydney people refer to 'Westies' (those enemies of Manly).

Rellies is what the bogans say, Go-Manly.

apparently its a line of cleaning products.

I'm Aussie, but I also have no idea what enjo is. I'm not big on using Aussie slang though. I say mossies, but don't think I've ever said rellies.

Tal,

Yea well Baba's an appeaser. If he shot a mugger he would apologize first. :-) Unfortunately the dust storms here rival those on Mars,

ok baba,, "mossies" I got and "rellies" I got, but enjo - its not clicking. I need an Australian pop up translator it seems.

yeah,well it's not up my nose making me sneeze,but the benches could do with a little enjo,hehe

The dust has well and truly settled has it?

What I find most annoying about this "filtering" is that I can never tell exactly what sort of view I'm getting in the Conversations page.

I can tell you though, I'm not seeing every group in existence. I know this because I don't get Newbie Group (which I haven't joined) conversations in my view. At the same time I've always gotten Newbie and Shanghainese lesson discussions (neither of which I'm subscribed to) in this page (and I don't mind that). So for me, there haven't been any changes in this regard.

Kalia, I had same problem as number 1. I think it doesn't "take" because you have to go back in to the lesson first and "bookmark" it. Once bookmarked, you can go back to the manage lesson page and mark as studied, it should then "take".

Hope this helps! Chris

Yea, I find number 2 particularly annoying.

We're looking into this. There seems to be a problem with a way the system is ordering comments.

We are aware of this issue and the tech. team is currently fixing it. Thanks.

Nor do I, but I'm British and therefore it is my duty to poke fun at a fellow brit.

Besides there are more pitfalls to cross yet they could change it to "view all you're groups“ or even the more modern "view all ur groups"...

I find it fascinating how many holes there are in my language for people to fall into that I have never before noticed. It helps me to feel less stupid when I write 的 instead of 得 as I realise that its just a matter of perspective.

My chinese is always immaculate and perfect!

(note: above statement contains barefaced lies)

I don't think it hurts to point out a typo on a 'professional' web page.

And you've never written 你 when you meant 你们？ ：-） Good to see we aren't the only ones that get it mixed up eh!

Wrestling with the pronouns gives you a whole new perspective on the manuals in your cupboard too.....

FYI both this Reply of yours and this one

http://chinesepod.com/community/conversations/post/8539#comment-176488

(about the same issue, posted within seconds of each other I guess) also fail to appear on the "Replies to Me" tab. What I assume is the newer of the two does appear on the "Latest" tab.

We are aware of the on-going "replies to me" issue and are fixing this.

Add to the above this Reply to Me from RJ, 1 hr ago and not showing up in dashboard. While a new one from Baba over 2 hrs ago does.

Why are these things handled badly RJ--? Perhaps CPod are grossly understaffed (not that the customer should be punished for that). Perhaps there is not enough revenue now to hire more website professionals. But perhaps they will lose customers and revenue if response to customer complaints about the numerous current problems with this site remains this slow. I hope that doesn't happen.

Yes. "replies to me" has never worked properly. John's explanations above only address perceived malfunctions due to inadvertent misuse. What he says is true, but there is also a real problem with this function. If cpod would actually sit down at a computer, log in as a user and try to reproduce failures as pointed out, it would serve them and us better than always just trying to deflect concerns. It didn't work right then and it doesn't work right now. There should be a place where issues are listed and there should be status updates so we know

1. they have acknowledged the problem and

2. whether it has been corrected or is still in the prioritized queue waiting to be dealt with.

Why are these things handled so badly? I am so disappointed that on a site where I have to give the lesson content an A+, I have to rate everything else as a D-. It gives me great pause when I consider whether or not to resubscribe when my account runs dry.

Xiao_liang,

Sorry, didn't mean to ignore you. After seeing your post, we investigated the "Bookmark this Set" functionality, using both the diary series and several other sets. We didn't find any problems, however. It added all the lessons in the newly added set all the way to the end (the bottom of "show newest" on the dashboard), as bookmarked lessons.

We're going to keep looking into this, and will look at your account. Bugs that cannot be replicated are the hardest to fix.

Bodawei,

We'll change the "see full lesson list" text if that is causing confusion. The "Manage Lessons" page is clearly labeled "Manage Lessons," though, so I don't quite understand your other point.

When I said "new lessons don't display old lessons," I was referring to "show oldest." Now users can follow a linear course via the dashboard. But lessons being displaced was never an issue for you, if you liked the old Home page.

As for how lessons are added, there's no "algorithm"; new lessons are simply added to the end of the list, whether added by bookmark, by group, or by teacher. "Show oldest" shows you the first 10 lessons in that list (the oldest 10 lessons in your list), while "show newest" shows you the last 10 (the newest 10).

Agreed. When you have a large number of lessons in your list the ones at the top at just "random ones from the middle". Maybe we can just concede that the "show newest" function doesn't actually work at the moment? i.e. produces a logically ordered list?

Heh, after that, my post did get ignored. Anyway, to reiterate: bookmarking sets of lessons really breaks the dashboard order. Try it?

For example, as I explained earlier, I bookmarked sets of lessons last week, and right now, my dashboard shows:

Elementary - Yang Jie's Diary: Date with a N... (63) Lesson

Elementary - Wang Wei's Diary: Food and Girl... (50) Lesson

Elementary - Li Yan's Diary: Love and Italia... (66) Lesson

Elementary - Yang Jie's Diary: Everyone Is D... (89) Lesson

Qing Wen - Suffix Magic (43) Lesson

News and Features - Upcoming lessons, lots o... (65) Lesson

Intermediate - A Tour of the Office (28) Lesson

Dear Amber - Prescription Drugs and Overseas... (68) Lesson

Dear Amber - Chinese Birthdays and Local Hos... (42) Lesson

Elementary - Mother's Day (65) Lesson

So that's bookmarked, bookmarked, bookmarked, bookmarked, new, new, new, bookmarked, bookmarked, new.

This isn't in the order that I bookmarked the lessons, and new lessons were published, and the diary series bookmarked lessons are random ones from the middle of the bookmarked set. It just makes no sense.

Hi John

I agree terminology is important, so you need to fix the use of the term 'Lesson List'. If you have another look, it is used both for the list on the Dashboard, and in reference to the lessons listed on the Lessons tab. At the bottom of the Lesson List on the Dashboard it says 'see the full lesson list'.

I am not sure why you reiterate what chronological means - I use it in the same way you do. If you look again at my post, under "Second -" you will see that I use it correctly.

On other matters I will just have to beg to differ. I think the Dashboard system has been designed with a particular learning process in mind and it does not suit all learners. I think maybe that in order to make sense of some of what you say, there is an implied pace of learning. So I would call for more flexibility.

I don't disagree with the value of a syllabus. You again seem to make some assumptions because I am 'learning' more than 500 lessons. :-) But I would write my syllabus elsewhere and keep it off the Dashboard.

I do actually now have a syllabus, or a lesson plan for what I want to learn over a period of time. But I can't use the Dashboard to express it. Just one reason for this is that ChinesePod material provides roughly one half of the content I am drawing on at present.

You keep on saying that new lessons don't displace old lessons in the new system - well, that is what happens on my Dashboard. I presume that is because I have 'show newest' set. Every time a new lesson arrives, the highlighted #10 drops off.

Any chance of publishing the algorithm you use for adding lessons under either the 'show newest' or 'show oldest' settings? I don't understand what some of the other poddies say about this.

Well then my current problem is that I have a bunch of lessons at the bottom of my list that I got bored of (or were too difficult), which I plan to return to at some point in the future, but am not actually currently studying them. Hence the "show oldest" doesn't really suit at the moment.

So my order is a bit haphazard, and in that regard, the new "manage lessons" page, where I can view up to 100 lessons, is a nice improvement on the old "My Lessons" system.

I suppose it would be nice if the dashboard format was expanded to the whole list so that we could use the drop-down menus and links directly from there.

ma_tai,

If you are using the "Show newest" view on the dashboard Lesson List, then yes, bookmarked lessons should go to the bottom, because they are the newest addition to a list of lessons. Think of it like a To-Do List on paper... when you add something to the list, you don't erase everything, write the new thing at the top, and then rewrite everything. You just add it to the bottom.

Again, the Lesson List is not supposed to be in reverse chronological order, and it does not provide the option to reverse the order (please see my response to Bodawei).

If you bookmark a large number of lessons and then work through them methodically, how do you decide what to study first? If there's a lesson you definitely want to study first, what do you do? Using the old system, you would probably bookmark it first, then later have to go through your list every time you want to get to it, finding it somewhere in the middle. Alternatively, you could make sure to bookmark it last, which would put it at the top. But it would be immediately displaced by anything new you added. Is this a good system?

I understand that the old system was familiar, and it made sense to you, but blog-style reverse chronological order is really not the best system for lesson management.

I think one thing that make both you and Bodawei happy is the ability to customize the order of your lessons more. This is something we can consider for the future.

Bodawei,

Before I answer your question, I think we better first be clear on terminology. The "Lesson List" refers to the lessons listed on your dashboard. You can see the title right there on the dashboard. You only see 10 at a time there. To see your entire lesson list, you go to the "Manage Lessons" page. Consistently using the terms "Lesson List" (on the dashboard) and "Manage Lessons page" should help communications a lot. Note that in my comment above, I was using the term "Lesson List" as I have noted above, referring to the dashboard.

1. Actually, your dashboard Lesson List is in chronological order. Your Manage Lessons page is in reverse chronological order. Please forgive me for saying so, but the Lesson List only seems "backwards" because you're used to the reverse chronological order. Most new users have a hard time getting used to reverse chronological order, expecting chronological order (like they would normally see on a syllabus).

A syllabus is a list of lessons, arranged in a meaningful sequence, which comprise a course, usually with dates specified. This is exactly what many ChinesePod users have been asking for. I understand that you are not one of them, which is why we also offer "view newest" on the dashboard.

2. The Manage Lessons "full list" is currently in reverse chronological order to assist with feed issues. Feeds must be in reverse chronological order, because the whole point is to deliver new content (not to create a syllabus). I agree that more consistency is needed in the long term; perhaps we could add a "reverse order" option here.

3. Provided you're viewing the "All My Groups" in both the dashboard Lesson List ("show newest" view) and the Manage Lessons page, those 10 lessons should be the same. This sounds like a glitch, and we will look into it.

4. (Already addressed.)

I understand what you're saying about the dashboard, but it's certainly not constantly changing if you're working on lessons in a sequential fashion and are using the "show oldest" view. The old Home page was constantly changing, and the "show newest" view is similarly constantly changing. What the dashboard offers the student is a new way to actually focus on a set group of lessons rather than being constantly distracted by new content which displaces the old content.

Hang on, when I bookmark a lesson it appears at the bottom of the dashboard, not at the bottom of my list. So, if I order my lessons from newest to oldest, what I get is a bunch of lessons from the middle of my list at the top, the newest lessons at the bottom of the dashboard list, and the really old lessons off the page at the bottom of the full list. Can't you see how that is confusing? In the "full list" they appear in the correct order, with the newest lessons at the top.

I'm not sure how many others are like me, but I like to bookmark a large number of lessons and then work through them progressively, downloading and studying a whole bunch of lessons at a time (much more that just the handful that appear at the top of the dashboard). So the lessons that appear at the top of the dashboard seem, to me, to be just random ones from the middle of the list. They are not static either, everytime I log in the lesson that appears at the top of the dashboard changes.

Thanks John for the effort you have gone to explain this - I am the first to admit that I am easily confused. It will be interesting to see what others have to say; I do not want to hog the discussion. Particularly as I do not think that I qualify as a 'linear' learner. :)

But I have a few questions since I started this discussion - I may handle them in a couple of different posts.

First - my Dashboard shows the ten newest lessons (the top ten from my Lessons list), but in reverse order. (The ten oldest is not a function I am likely to use as I leave all my lessons in the Lesson List.) The Dashboard shows #10 to #1; the Lesson list shows #1 to #10. I am still not clear why the Dashboard list is superior in terms of a 'linear sequence' for learning. Because, you have no idea where I am in my linear sequence. I may be working on #1, or on #10. In fact, I may be working on a couple of lessons that do not appear in the top ten at all. This is actually true even if I was a 'linear' learner. I may be a 'slow' 'linear' learner.

You have explained this in terms of a syllabus - but I fail to see how a constantly changing combination of CP lessons comprise a syllabus.

Second - if it is such a good idea to list lessons in chronological order, as on the Dashboard, why not do this in the Lesson List for consistency?

Third - (and this might be a temporary glitch) - there are ten lessons currently in my Dashboard, but while #10 is #1 in my Lesson List, #1 is #14 in my Lesson List. Take away #1 in the Lesson List which still has not been added to the Dashboard, there is still a discrepancy of three lessons.

Fourth - the 'window' idea. Well, it is not really a window - it gives you a reverse image. Rather like looking into a mirror and trying to decided whether you are looking at the left side or the right side of your face.

In conclusion (on this point), my learning experience would be best served if the 'window' of lessons was dropped from the Dashboard, and the Dashboard was just used for 'Latest' and 'Replies to Me' - there would be room for more Latest and Replies to Me items. That's just me. I like the reverse chronologically listed lessons in the Lesson List - I can find what I want. The constantly changing list on the Dashboard is just confusing - I am often looking for something that is not there. And I don't like the prominence given to the revolving Lesson #10.

thanks, I was struggeling :)

Bodawei,

Let me help out Catherine by explaining a few points. I think I understand what you're not clear on.

First of all, the lesson list is similar to a syllabus. A syllabus starts with the first lesson and goes on from there. If you add new content, it's going to be added to the end. The whole "reverse chronological order" thing works fine for blogs and for feeds, but not for a linear sequence of lessons. Many users have been asking for an easier way to progress through lessons. They need to be able to follow lessons in a linear fashion, and going to the end of a list that's in reverse chronological order is simply not the way it's done.

The way the dashboard works is it provides a "window" to your full list, which shows 10 lessons at a time. You have the choice of viewing the first 10 lessons or the last 10 lessons in your list. Please note that this is NOT reversing the order of your list. The dashboard doesn't do that. Keeping the lesson list in chronological order helps students complete lessons in a linear fashion.

If you use the "show oldest" view, you can easily work through your lessons by clicking on the little icon (don't be afraid of it!) to either "mark as studied" or "remove" lessons one by one. This is not the place to do bulk edits; you should do that from the "Manage Lessons" page (click the button at the bottom of your lesson list). In this way, the dashboard provides a simpler interface to students that want to work through a list of lessons while still adding new content from time to time. Adding new content no longer has to bury your previous lessons.

Now onto a few of the other points...

Bookmarking a lesson adds it to the end of your list. It has a "bookmarked on" date which is used to determine its position. Adding lesson sets is simply "group bookmarking" the lessons in the set.

When groups add new lessons, those lessons appear at the end of your list as well. The "published" date is used to determine its position.

So to answer your question, "what does the dashboard bring to the table?" it finally provides a method for students to work through their lessons in a linear fashion, while still being able to add new lesson content. This was not possible before, using a strict "reverse chronological order."

I understand the point about re-ordering lessons, though. I agree this could be very useful. We're focusing now on solving any remaining problems and optimizing.

fishalicious

but go_manly, the new awesome fishalishish grammar guide is just around the corner, have some patience :)

While this thread is being used, CPod are not seeing (or deliberately avoiding) my question further up the page. So I will ask it again here:

How are we supposed to see comments made on the Grammar Guide and the Glossary? There are no groups to add, so we can't get the comments to appear on the Conversations Page.

I think this was discussed before matthiask - as soon as you hit home it takes you to the Dashboard. You don't get away from us that easy. ;-)

do you guys know that the old "home" page still exists? Just go to www.chinesepod.com/yourusername :D lessons that you bookmark on chinesepod.com/lessons will show up on your old page, lessons added by "group subscription" however will not add anymore.

yeah I've heard both,not sure which originated where or if its pretty universal

I couldn't agree more. Sorry guys, but the new lesson order system just doesn't work, and the end result is that I find the dashboard unusable for actually managing the lessons that I am studying. Every single time I have ended up just going to the "managing lessons" section, which has some serious limitations, such as, you cannot access an of the lesson material directly from there. Now everytime I have to keep opening a new tab to actually download the pdf etc.

I agree with Xiao Liang, the all-in-one dashboard is not really that useful in its current form because of the inexplicable order of lessons. Right at the top it says "order lessons from newest to oldest", but that doesn't actually do what it says it does. Couldn't the order of the lessons here be actually adjustable by the user??

Here's a suggestion, (am I allowed to make those?), why don't you just conflate the managing lessons page with the dashboard? i.e. expand the dashboard so that all of the lessons in the list can be easily accessed with the drop-down menus.

On the lesson ordering on the dashboard. It really doesn't work with lesson lists.

For example, I bookmarked two series - Yang Jie's diary (elementary), and Zhang Liang and Lili love story series (intermediate). What the new system means is that my entire dashboard is taken up with random lessons out of the middle of the diary series (whereas I want to start at the beginning), with one or two new lessons at the bottom, which are constantly replaced and changed. It's impossible to keep track of what I'm actually studying, so I have to always use the full lesson list. It effectively renders the lesson part of the dashboard useless, apart from marking bookmarked lessons as studied, which for some reason you can no longer do from the lesson page, you can ONLY do it from the dashboard.

It's not a big thing, but it's really counter-productive for the "all-in-one" concept of the dashboard.

Anyway, hope you read all that. I sometimes feel like my posts get ignored because I post so many nonsense ones :-p

Sometimes you are SO passive aggressive bodawei :)

(not that I mind, it just makes me chuckle)

Hi Catherine

I guess that is a polite way of saying we don't agree with your point about lessons lists, and really we don't want the mafan of responding. Very Chinese. Nice culture point. See you around. :)

just a point of interest. In the US we usually say "Last Call". That would be short for last call for drinks I guess. I do remember hearing this quite often in my younger wasted days.

Looking into the replies issue right now. Will post an update when I have one.

'last drinks!'...lol !!

Actually initially I interpreted what will happen to the list the same as bodawei...that they will now just drop off the top of the list instead of the bottom.However,if I'm now reading you correctly,are you saying that the feed lessons come in at the bottom [and drop off somewhere just below your self bookmarked lessons] and self bookmarked lessons stay put and don't drop out when new feed ones come in ? Is that how it works ?

Hi Catherine

Thanks for your patient response - don't want to make your life difficult. Really. :)

The point about the order of lessons: I understand what you are saying (I think you are just reiterating the position) but the logical problem remains.

You describe the problem voiced by users that old lessons are constantly displaced by new lessons. The Dashboard response has not changed this situation - the old lessons still keep falling off. Off the top rather than the bottom, that is the bizarre bit. Status quo. Except now it is more difficult to follow, because we have the Dashboard lesson list going up, and the other lists, including the main lesson list going chronologically top to bottom. That is the inconsistency. Forgive me, I have just repeated myself but maybe you did not see what I mean in previous posts. The users are no better off under the new system in this respect. You have not addressed their problem as far as I can see. They just have the added annoyance of seeing the oldest of ten lessons staring at them each time we open the Dashboard - a sight that changes at the convenience of ChinesePod, not the user. That is, whenever a new lesson is published to the Dashboard. Why does the oldest of ten lessons get this prominence? I guess you could say it is like a reminder - 'last drinks!' If you haven't finished this lesson, get on to it now. It is about to drop off the TOP of the Dashboard.

One answer to the users problems would be a capacity to keep the ten lessons they want in the list. Use the little icon on the left you might say. However I find the little icon on the left so clunky I am scared to use it. And it does not solve the problem of ChinesePod dropping off old lessons whenever a new one is published. A superior method would be to have lessons moved in the list with a click and drag. And a user toggle switch for whether it lists lessons top down or bottom up. These functions are common in other software; nothing new for the user to learn.

Hope this makes the matter clear.

BTW, your message did not show up in Replies to Me - so I support Barbs in his recently voiced concern about this.

Bodawei- I will try to limit my use of exclamation points in the future. You will notice that my post was a response to Chanelle77 who has been having some problems with the lessons in her dashboard (we were able to clear this issue up, hence the enthusiasm on my part). My comment was not, I assure you, an attempt to deflect queries.

(1) The tech. team is looking into the issue you have raised of posts disappearing. We will let you know when this issue has been resolved.

(2) I am sorry that you find the order of lessons in the dashboard bizarre. As I briefly mentioned above the reason we have changed to a system in which new lessons are added to the bottom of the list is this: we received a lot of feedback from users about the old system saying that the lessons they were studying kept getting buried under new lessons which were being constantly added. In the new system, the new lessons are added below the other lessons so that users' personal lesson lists are not inundated with constantly changing new content.

RE: "If new lessons are added at 4pm each day - where are they for the previous six hours? How is it that this lesson was first accessed six hours ago?"

New lessons are published to ChinesePod each morning around 9am Beijing time. These can be found by going to the Lessons Page. New lessons are added to users' individual lesson feeds (what you see in your dashboard) at 4pm Beijing time each day. The tech. team is currently working to change the latter (making it correspond to the time of publication).

We are aware of the on-going "replies to me" issue and are fixing this.

Glad this worked! Let us know if you have any other questions!

Hi Catherine - here's another question. :) Just this minute a 'new' lesson was added to my Dashboard, but the first comment on it is six hours old, If new lessons are added at 4pm each day - where are they for the previous six hours? How is it that this lesson was first accessed six hours ago?

I wrote elsewhere about this - the logic does not convince me, and I note that I have been encouraged to pick an argument. The new lesson still causes the 'old' lesson to drop off (weirdly it drops off the top). And ... anyway I won't repeat myself, but it does not give the Dashboard a good feel.

Thank you. I finally understand it after two weeks. I assumed that subscribing to a channel was the same as joining a group. I was subscribed to all channels but not joined the groups and this explains why I did not get all the lessons. Someone take away my computer science degree :-) I cannot even understand a simple website :-) !

That order is correct (newly released shows being added at the bottom of the view). It was done this way so that you don't lose track of the lessons you're working on currently (or the lessons a teacher has assigned to you). This allows users to keep better track of the lesson they are studying (by not losing them to the ever-growing pile of newly-added lessons)!

Chanelle I would recommend going to the page for each of the channels whose shows you would like to have appear on your dashboard. For example, go to Qing Wen's group page and click "join this group." (If the button you see is "leave this group" then you're already a member). From that moment on you will automatically receive each new Qing Wen show (that means starting with next Saturday's show).

The upper-intermediate level lesson for today will be added to your dashboard at 4:00am EST, or 4:00 pm Beijing time.

ok,for an example. I recently completed studying love tangle 2.I want to get it to my dashboard so I can tick it off as studied [though as I've said above I think it'd be more ideal to do it directly from the lesson,but anyway..].It's already marked as bookmarked and yet it's not appearing on the dashboard.I try clicking it again but nothing happens.Previously one could click remove and then rebookmark and it would appear on the top of the home page but there is no ability to do this now via that method. Is there another way to get lessons on your dashboard? Sorry to be a bother...just can't work it out though. btw welcome back :)

My dashboard view is the one you suggested and still I do not get all the lessons. I am subscribed to all but only receive Newbie to Media. Today I also did not receive the upp int one.

How do I get all the lessons to appear in my dashboard automatically?

I think there is an issue with the channel groups. I'm subscribed to all, but they do not appear after the "Currently, you belong to the following ChinesePod Channel Groups:" Only the lessons Newbie to Media appear here. Qing Wen, Shanghainese and N&F are also Channel Groups right? I think this is related to my problem :-)

user deleted wrong reply :-)

莫名其妙! I regularly do just that...switch over from the default "bababardwan group" to the "all my groups" view ,because on the former I don't get to see any of the conversations down the bottom of the dashboard,and just now is the first that I've seen those lessons come through. Sorry for being so slow on the uptake,I must have missed it due to early senility aiyou ! The order is strange too.For instance todays lesson is at the bottom of the dashboard.Actually,looks like the latest are added at the bottom [do they then disappear off the top?]

I can't help but wonder why the ability to mark it as studied from the lesson page itself [and also the list of lessons page] has gone.Any chance of bringing that back?

Thanks for your help Catherine. :)

I think we have mentioned this before but I don't remember if there was a response. I have no posts now prior to 4 March. 'Out with the old, in with the new'. ??

bababardwan- I've looked into this problem and I believe it can be fixed by changing your "dashboard view." On the top of the dashboard page there is a drop-down list of view options for your dashboard. If a user is a member of a teacher service (like guided, executive) the default view will be of that particular group (i.e. all of the lessons assigned to the student by the teacher).

By changing your dashboard view to "all my groups" or a specific level group you will then see the newly-added lessons in your feed.

To check off when you've finished studying a lesson, you can click through the icons to the left of the lesson title in the dashboard. So if it's an apple icon, that means your teacher has assigned you that lesson. If it's an icon of three people, it means that the lesson was automatically added via the group feed (like all intermediate level lessons, for example). If the icon is a blue star, that means that it was manually bookmarked by you. Clicking through (clicking on the picture over and over again) will change the status of the lesson.

The green circle with the checkmark means "studied." The red stop sign means "delete." You can also change the status of these lessons by going to "manage lessons," here. You can mark as studied/delete lessons individually or in batches.

Will look into the issue of posts, which is separate from the dashboard. Let me know if this helps!

We are aware of the on-going "replies to me" issue and are fixing this.

This is an issue we are aware of and we are trying to find a way to effectively feature the comments on grammar guide entries/increase discussion about grammar topics. This is something we're working on as we move forward with the completion of the grammar guide. One thing we've been discussing is adding some groups, such as the "Grammar Questions Group," and the "Lesson Suggestions Group," to concentrate these conversations in one place. We'd love to hear your input/suggestions regarding the matter.

Bump for this.

Or possibly this thread was higher up in the page, so wasn't noticed. The old threading problem!

Its interesting CPod totally ignored this question, while still commenting on the thread below. So I guess the answer is 'cant be done, and we dont care'.

While this is being discussed below, could someone please tell me how we are meant to see comments on the Glossary and Grammar guide.

Not having the same problem on this end - flashcards (+ audio) seem to be working just fine. What browser are you on? I'm using Chrome. Perhaps you could try using a different browser to see if that helps.

bump

I've raised each of these 3 issues at various times at the past, but I've never got a worthwhile answer from CPod on any of them. All I can say is that all 3 issues were around pre-dashboard.

The activity emails have been changed. Now you will have to opt-in to begin receiving them, as opposed to receiving them automatically.

I feel sure that 蓝青 (lánqīng) is the correct version.

I don't think I was fighting, just questioning what he meant. Both of his statements meant nothing in terms of what I had just said, as though he replied without reading my comment properly. He's from Canada, so I doubt there is a language barrier. But his choice of name is interesting - 滥情 (lànqíng) means 'excessive emotion'.

Language barrier folks. Don't fight over it :)

The problem with commenting and not commenting is that people who are dissatisfied will always comment more than those that are satisfied.

I'm pretty happy with the new dashboard's layout if it can be made to work fully. At the moment it's still a bit broken. Also the methodology for joining groups needs to be made easier - a single link from the front page.

I can't say I understand what you are saying here. Are you attacking me for something?

The frequent posters (including myself) have been saying for the past 2 weeks that we don't like these changes. Then you (an infrequent poster) comes along and makes a similar comment. I then say that it is interesting that we (the frequent posters) are not the only ones complaining. Aren't we fighting the same cause?

"if the issue goes deeper than mere commenting, why did you make a comment?" - Now that one I really don't get.

go_manly, if "the issue goes deeper than mere commenting", why did you make a comment?

I fail to see any correlation between frequent postings and ability to navigate this site.

Hey lanqing, I hear you! But they gotta give the techies something to do.

"Progress", dontcha know!

It is interesting to note that infrequent posters also dislike this new system. The issue goes deeper than mere commenting.

Thanks for the reply Catherine. Glad to hear this has been fixed.

The issue with the lessons duplicating after having first deleted and then bookmarking has been fixed. Your suggestion about titles for Upper Intermediate level lessons is a good one and something we'll keep in mind for future updates/iterations of the dashboard.

I'm pretty sure this is a bug. If you delete the first version of the lesson, the 2md version disappears also.

Yeah that's what I mean by "the system isn't letting me (remove just the Bookmarked version of a lesson appearing in duplicate)".

I'm pretty sure this is a bug. If you delete the first version of the lesson, the 2md version disappears also.

Another fault (or feature I don't understand): When I clear out my Dashboard of lessons, and then hit the 'Manage Lessons' button, I see no lessons as I would expect. But if I then select say 'Intermediate Lessons' from the drop-down menu, I am presented with 2 or 3 lessons - the ones that are new since the dashboard was introduced. If I try to delete these (by triple-clicking the little icon on the left, as you do on the home-page) the lessons do not vanish when the page is reloaded.

Can I guess that this was an attempt to show all lessons from a particular level, so that we could select from them, but that due to a bug we are not seeing all the lessons?

Chanelle

If I look at your profile page it does not show you as subscribed to the shanghainese, Qing wen, or News and features (the last 3 days lessons). Take a look. Perhaps your joining of these groups did not "take" properly. Try again. :-)

This is fixed.

Already working on problem no. 1. Will look into problems no. 2 and 3. Thanks!

Saw your comments. We are working on this right now. Will let you know when there's an update.

Just a friendly reminder. Still happening :)

We're aware of this issue- believe me, I know how frustrating it can be! Will let you know when it has been fixed.

Still happening. I know it's minor, but it's really annoying!

Still happening. Could we have an update on this please? I saw a message from Bill saying there would be a fix a couple of days ago?

Still happening.

Still happening.

This has happened a couple of dozen times since Dashboard, possibly the last time was yesterday but I don't keep a log.

Are you still experiencing this problem?

Exactly - so it must be a website malfunction, sorry 'feature'. I was wondering if it could be my laptop, but this never happened before Dashboard.

I'm not sure if this is what you are talking about, but a few hours ago, as I was typing a comment, the page suddenly refreshed all by itself and my message was lost.

Oh this is bad news.

There is a list of things still not right. For starters:

Posts keep disappearing before they are posted. Just as you are getting near the end... gone. (It has happened once to me here already).

I made a post about ANZAC Day in General Discussion half an hour ago - so far it has not showed up anywhere in public.

It seems that posts take a long time to appear.

All threads prior to 1 March are not readily available - but there are random windows into this material - I have seen old posts appear as 'related conversations'.

The Lesson list is still behaving badly. I looked at one lesson and toggled through the options, past 'Removed' back to Bookmarked, I think. But it remained 'Removed'. I can't find it again. The lesson list is not in chronological order.

My old theme - how to nurture new Groups? (John said that it is down the list of things to do.)

Just for starters.

Good to know. The only Tech issue that really worries me at present is the missing comments, particularly in mark's 'Character Points Revisited' thread, and helenshen_counselor's 'Lesson Suggestions'.

Well at the risk of jinxing myself I'd like to say that major bugs and issues have been resolved. Of course, if anything comes up you should let us know and we'll get on it right away!

Thanks for that Catherine. Does such a prompt response indicate that the worst is over? Can you all see the proverbial light at the end of the tunnel?

I've just talked to the tech. team about this. Apparently if a post has no replies yet, it won't appear in the conversations feed. They're fixing it as we speak.

We are currently looking into this and will update you when we have an answer. Thanks for your patience.

I am having the same problem. Any fixes for this?

I also see new lessons in http://chinesepod.com/lessons but not in the Dashboard or iTunes, where there is still nothing after 15/4. I'm subscribed to all the correct groups and have the correct URL for the iTunes feed.

I checked my group settings, but that doesn't seem to be the problem. Strangely enough, my lesson overview (http://chinesepod.com/lessons) is working allright. It's just the RSS feed and consequently my iTunes podcast list that don't display all lesson I'm subscribed for.

EDIT: Now my list in iTunes does have lessons of 21/4 and 22/4. But I'm still missing lessons between 10/4 and 20/4.

Same problem for me. My last update in iTunes was the Piano Class (13 April). My RSS feed link stops there as well.

Edit - OK, I see that I should have been automatically added to groups according to my feed settings, but for some reason wasn't. I've added myself manually now and bookmarked the lessons I missed so they appear in my RSS.

Same problem here.

Just to say I'm having the same problem - nothing in iTunes since April 15, and as far as I can tell the feed URLI have entered in iTunes exactly matches the URL on the Personal RSS Lesson Feed page in ChinesePod. Unsubscribing and then resubscribing in iTunes didn't help either

You can join the Shanghainese Group here. This will automatically subscribe you to all of the lessons in this series, as well as conversations regarding these lessons.

This was an issue with the new dashboard and iTunes. It has been fixed.

yeah, how have I waited for the moment ^_^ Opera beats IE6 (aka the pest of the web)

The fault must be in IE6. Opera is working properly.