Errors within your Calendar RSS Feed? Read First! CALENDARS-269

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i agree...i basically sort of gave up on the rss feed...still going to use the calender and now are placing seperate events on my facebookpage and just send members an emailblast about new events on the calender...more work ofcourse..but its the only solution for me now.

Hey Guys,

Thanks for your patience. As stated, these issues were separated to accurately assess them as they are not related. Please provide us with the requested information so that we can further investigate this issue. Thank you!

-Dom

I've tried three times to dispute removal of my original post and every time I get kicked back out to the Get Satisfaction log-in page. Very frustrating...

To put my original post in more helpful terms, I'll start by submitting a few of my associated calendar RSS feeds for the "engineers" to check out:

http://www.idlehourswimclub.org/apps/...

http://bsad5.webs.com/apps/calendar/r...

http://calendarrsscleansplashtest.web...

http://calendarrsstribeccatest.webs.c...

http://calendarrssseasonaltest.webs.c...

http://rsstemplateissue.webs.com/apps...

http://calendarrssvectortest.webs.com/ (actually, the calendar for this site won't come up at all)

In addition, here are two that I found after going back through all of the example sites:

http://www.babybluedesign.net/apps/ca...

http://www.innatefamily.com/apps/cale...

Now, for reference or for those that are curious, here is the post that was deleted (the second to last paragraph has the one detail that is ABSOLUTELY pertinent):

Honestly, this just feels like more of the same old runaround...

For those that don't know, take a look at this "archived" topic from which this problem was split (and don't be fooled by the generic "3 months ago"-type dating: I was added to the thread in late May - when it was already closer to a month old - and it's now September 2nd)...

If you feel that my disdain is misplaced, then pick ANY webs site with a calendar feed and upcoming events. I've checked dozens and NONE are working!

Admittedly, it's actually kind of difficult to find sites with such calendars (I only found TWO after going back through all of the example sites). But, for those of us that use mysite.webs.com or that bought into webs in part for the calendar feed, this is now REALLY frustrating...

FOOTNOTE (to this Sept 7 post): If anyone of consequence needs to see my formal dispute, please post to this topic and let me know how to get it to you. I'm following this heading and will receive an email notification for new responses (unless a moderator intervenes first)...

Thank you for providing us with that information Mark. We've added your sites to our list of sites to be investigated by our engineers.

Just to clarify a few points:

For http://calendarrssvectortest.webs.com/, the calendar application was no longer installed which is why the page appeared blank initially. I went ahead an re-installed the application and you should now be able to view the Calendar Page here.

In regards to your previous comment, we simply remove posts that do not provide any information which will ultimately lead to a resolution of the issue. This issue is being handled on a case-by-case basis, as we have noted that errors have varied from feed to feed. This is why we decided to separate the issues. This was not an error that we were attempting to "cover up" or "beautify" so that users would no longer be aware of the original date the issue was posted.

We're aware that some issues require more time than others to come to a full resolution and I'm sure you are as well.

It seemed more appropriate to separate each RSS Feed issue by application to insure that the issue wasn't confused as being a general platform issue (which it is not).

Check out this feed validation here: http://validator.w3.org/check?uri=htt...

You should be able to see that the feed has been validated successfully which means that the issue does not occur within every Calendar Application RSS feed. The "Note and Potential Issues" section will most likely always be filled in to some degree as precautions should always be taken when validating RSS Feeds.

We are here to work with our users to get issues resolved. However we need everyone's cooperation in order to do so.

Thanks in advance for your understanding.

-Dom

Point by point:


...we simply remove posts that do not provide any information which will ultimately lead to a resolution...

But my post provided a link back to the original article, which had all of my details and details from others similarly affected, and it also clarified that the issue IS pervasive. If such links are inappropriate, then why weren't the appropriate posts subdivided as well when the original topic was broken up?


This was not an error that we were attempting to "cover up" or "beautify"...

At the minimum, there definitely appears to be an air of indifference, and whether or not it was meant to be conveyed is irrelevant. Early on I cracked wise about this issue being confined to users' chairs; but as time goes on, as the postings get split and as the replies get deleted, it just feels to me like the problem is being minimized in such fashion...


...the feed has been validated successfully which means that the issue does not occur within every Calendar Application RSS feed...

Feed validation without content is basically just a simple front end check. If the problem is at the back end - which it IS and EVERYWHERE! - then this is like saying "these cars all obviously run well, just look at how clean and shiny they are when they're parked." That's fallacy of extension, which is damaging to credibility. Just for kicks, here are three of my flawed validations for reference:

http://validator.w3.org/check?uri=htt... (which has one future event)

http://validator.w3.org/check?uri=htt... (which has three future events)

http://validator.w3.org/check?uri=htt... (which has five future events)

For those that didn't notice, the third check is actually the exact same one that tested out fine in the reply above! The only difference is, I added five future events to the previously empty calendar...


We are here to work with our users to get issues resolved. However we need everyone's cooperation...

Passive-aggressive remarks also damage credibility. Frankly, it sure feels like I'm spending more time on this matter than anyone else. So, to help me prove (or to help webs.com disprove) my claim that this problem is widespread, A CHALLENGE! Post a working webs.com calendar feed here - which must also incorporate an event scheduled on some future date - and I will do something outrageous to compensate for my apparent idiocy...


edit: replaced the first link, which was incorrect

I just want to update the topic. We need everyone who is experiencing an issue with this to post their URLs for us. The report is with the engineers.

Mark, I just want to apologize if you felt you were not heard by us. We do archive, merge, remove lots and lots of posts. We have 30 million users, and get something like 40,000 visits to these forums every week. It takes a lot more work than it might appear to keep everything as coherent as it is in here. Since the engineers also need to look through these topics from time to time, in some topics we remove everything that isn't very basic "username. description of problem." Anything else can reduce the effectiveness of the forums and engineers. Unfortunately, users sometimes feel this means they aren't heard, but the reality is we often need to take 300 words and reduce them to 20, so the pertinent technical data gets read by the right people at the right time.

I apologize if this appears otherwise.

At this point, the update is: The engineers have the report, and we need to know if anyone else is experiencing the issue so we can include it in the report.

Thanks!