Comments at The Guardian (UK) Topic is solved

[ag0044]

For the last day or so, I am no longer able to see any comments at the Guardian's site when using Pale Moon (for example: https://www.theguardian.com/culture/202 ... e-villains).

This happens whether I use my normal profile, a new profile, or PM's Safe Mode. The screenshots below are of two different pages to show that the problem doesn't seem to be restricted to a single page.

While I could use another browser to view the site, PM is my preferred browser.

Any assistance to restore the comments - which can be, unintentionally, amusing - will be appreciated. Thank you


Normal profile screenshot:

NormalMode Screenshot.png

Normal profile Info:

NormalProfile Info.txt

New profile screenshot:

NewProfile Screenshot.png

New profile info:

NormalProfile Info.txt

Safe Mode screenshot

SafeMode Screenshot.png

Safe Mode info:

SafeMode Info.txt

For comparison, this is what I think the page should look like, from Otter:

Otter Screenshot.png

[coffeebreak]

Don't see them here either. (PM 28.16.0, Win7 x86)

guardian-0comments.png

Error console:

Code: Select all

Error: TypeError: t.getEntriesByName(...)[0] is undefined
Source File: https://assets.guim.co.uk/assets/react.9ba7886448efd3d6ba9c.js
Line: 24

[back2themoon]

Can't get them to work, either. Also tried a few user-agent overrides.

The Guardian.png

[Trippynet]

Interestingly, the comments work fine for me! Pale Moon 28.16.0 (x86) running on Windows 7 64bit.

My User Agent mode is set to "Firefox Compatibility" if this helps...

[coffeebreak]

I had tried Firefox Compatibility mode (as well as Native). But the comments don't display here even in a fresh, vanilla profile:

guardian-newprofile.png

Also just tried UA overrides on some other involved domains (guim.co.uk, fastly.net, & several others) but it didn't help.

[ag0044]

It is somewhat gratifying to know that it isn't "just me"!

I had a thought they they may have changed something for new articles, so it would only be showing up gradually as those new articles are published. Unfortunately, I came across an article that was published on Sunday 29 November (Australian time), and the comments were visible: https://www.theguardian.com/business/co ... ing-market.

And then I noticed that that article had "commentisfree" in the address and, hoping that might be a clue, I went to another article (https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfr ... s#comments), but the comments there were invisible for me.

I'm lost. It's not the end of the world ... but it is mildly annoying.

[rereser]

enable / disable scripts from amazon-adsystem.com
reload page.

[coffeebreak]

I ordinarily block amazon-adsystem.com, and just now tried enabling/disabling requests from that domain + page refresh, but it did not make the comments visible on my end.

[Cassette]

The two pages ag0044 linked to are pretty different "under the hood". In the non-comment-working page most of the page elements have dynamic naming whereas the comment-working page does not. I don't know whether that has anything to do with the comments not working, but something in the design of the page is causing a problem. I was able to get the comments working, but not completely consistently so I'm wondering if this could be a race-condition issue.

Anyway, this kind of reliably works for me so give it a try. First erase the cookies for theguardian.com then load the page. The comments shouldn't load the first time, but then try refreshing the page. That usually gets it working for me. I've had to do it a second time so it's hit and miss.

Also, I should note that the error that coffeebreak referenced appears only on the "broken" page.

[rereser]

on the second non working page.
new tab : https://www.theguardian.com/discussion/p/fht9b

[jars_]

on the second non working page.
new tab : https://www.theguardian.com/discussion/p/fht9b

I am no longer able to see any comments at the Guardian's site when using Pale Moon (for example: https://www.theguardian.com/culture/202 ... e-villains).

PaleMoon x64 Win7x64 , amazon-adsystem.com & brandmetrics.com & adsafeprotected.com blocked. NoScript( ) user ?

[Cassette]

I'm fairly certain that the link that rereser shared working is as expected. It's comments from the same page as the non-working page that ag0044 shared.

NoScript( ) user ?

I don't believe that NoScript has anything to do with this. It has already been verified by non-NoScript users such as myself. Please read the thread.

[ag0044]

I'm fairly certain that the link that rereser shared working is as expected. It's comments from the same page as the non-working page that ag0044 shared.

I don't believe that NoScript has anything to do with this. It has already been verified by non-NoScript users such as myself. Please read the thread.

I can confirm the above: it is comments on some articles' pages that I cannot see; and, I do not use NoScript.

Further to the former point, I can see the comments for that article on their own page, but cannot see the link to get there. Further to the latter point, the problem exists for me with a clean profile and in PM's Safe Mode.

Furtherfurther[sic], I refer to my original post and its attachments.

[coffeebreak]

FTR, I don't use NoScript either.
(And as posted earlier, the issue does occur for me in a new, untouched profile.)

Will also mention since I didn't before, that the second article linked by ag0044, the one that works for him, also works for me - the problem only occurs on certain pages for me too.

Anyway, this kind of reliably works for me so give it a try. First erase the cookies for theguardian.com then load the page. The comments shouldn't load the first time, but then try refreshing the page. That usually gets it working for me. I've had to do it a second time so it's hit and miss.
[emphasis added]

It took rather more than two times for me, but this did ultimately work. (I kept the article open in a tab for the last two days, deleted cookies/refreshed periodically, and the comments loaded on about three occasions.)

The issue seems somehow connected to The Guardian doing A/B testing and an ID they assign through a cookie.
(If the cookie gets deleted and replaced, the new cookie changes the ID).

"ID cookie"
(padlock added by an extension):

GU-cookie-GU_mvt_id.png

Storage re A/B testing:

GU-HTML5storage-gu.ab.participations.png

I don't typically keep cookies (with a few exceptions), but with an extension (CookieKeeper), I protected the "ID cookie" that existed during one of the times that the comments did load, and using that ID seems to be a reliable workaround (for me).

[Cassette]

The issue seems somehow connected to The Guardian doing A/B testing and an ID they assign through a cookie.
(If the cookie gets deleted and replaced, the new cookie changes the ID).

Have you been able to get the comments to load on the first page that ag0044 linked to? I've tried the cookie trick many many times and it doesn't seem to work on that page for me. I've tried on three different computers just in case and no luck.

[coffeebreak]

Have you been able to get the comments to load on the first page that ag0044 linked to?

Yes, comments in the first-linked article load reliably here when I use that saved cookie (and don't load when the cookie is deleted/replaced). Same for the third article that OP linked, plus these: one, two - none of which had loaded comments for me previously.

I tested by backing up/exporting the cookie, deleting, re-importing etc. in multiple profiles.

[ag0044]

And I too have tried the cookie trick/s (delete all, and delete all but one) and still can't see comments on those articles.

Neither do multiple refreshes make the comments apppear.

My thanks for your continued efforts

[rereser]

can confirm it also works for me on all three posted pages.
in cookiekeeper : show cookies for theguardian.com , not www.theguardian.com.
find .theguardian.com / GU_mvt_id
edit the content to 473888 , save , exit and protect.

[coffeebreak]

I too have tried the cookie trick/s (delete all, and delete all but one) and still can't see comments on those articles.

The way it worked for me, the cookie needs to be one that was actually present on an occasion when comments DID happen to load. So first, to get that cookie, I had to get the comments to load one time. It took many bouts of deleting cookies + refreshing the page before that happened for me.

In fact, comments actually didn't first load until my second day of trying (and I only tried that long because I was trying to figure out what was different with my setup from the people for whom comments loaded fine. It was almost incidental that the comments suddenly loaded.) But once I had that feedback to verify that they would eventually load if I kept deleting cookies + refreshing the page, I found that I could produce it again if I kept at it intensively.

While the comments were loaded, I used an extension to protect and export the cookie with the ID. For me, using that specific cookie continues to make the comments load.

find .theguardian.com / GU_mvt_id
edit the content to 473888 , save , exit and protect.

rereser, I wrote the stuff above before seeing your post.

That seems to be the ID from my own screenshot. Yeah, It makes sense for people to simply use that, somehow I didn't think of it. Thanks.

[Cassette]

Yep, the cookie setting saved and protected allows comments to load. Not only that, though. The page's elements have intelligible names instead of the dynamic ones when the comments don't load so the setting affects more than just the comments. You also don't see the type error in the error console from before.