Frequently Asked Questions

Because browsers keep a local copy of many files from HCN, when changes are made to the site sometimes the local copies need to be refreshed. This is referred to as 'clearing your cache'.

How you do this depends on what browser you are using. You will need to know both the browser itself, and the version of the browser, as the steps required may differ for each one. To get the version, there is typically an 'About' menu command that will display this.

On Windows, this is found by first clicking the Help menu, and then clicking on 'About XXX' where XXX is the browser title. On the Macintosh, you can find it by first clicking on the browser's program menu (the one with the title of the browser, like 'Firefox', or 'Chrome'), and then clicking on the menu item that says 'About XXX', where XXX is the browser title.

In the dialog that appears, you should see a line that says something like 'Version:'. Use what appears there (or at least the first few digits of it) to help you find the appropriate steps to take here.

If this doesn't work, here is a suggestion from an HCN member.

My experience is that having a particular page/URL loaded in the browser means that clearing the cache may not be entirely successful for any scripts/files associated with that particular page, so hitting reload won't give you a 'clean' reload with all fresh html, css and javascript.

Making sure the browser isn't displaying the page with the issue - ie navigating away or displaying a blank page, and then clearing the cache, gives better results.

Thanks for your interest in supporting the site!

Start by clicking on the 'Donate a tile to Hoocoodanode' link underneath the tile image. This will take you to a page where you fill in the title, upload the image, add some hover over text, and optionally fill in a description.

To upload an image, click in the Image text field, and a dialog will appear to help you find the file on your computer. Once you've found the file you want, click OK, and then click the Upload button. The image should then appear in two places- the left one shows what the image will look like in the tile, and the right shows your original image with a view area selected within it. You can move and resize this view area to get the appearance you want.

When you're satisfied with everything, click the Save button at the bottom of the page. The tile is now ready for publishing. You'll see a link on the resulting page that will take you to paypal to pay for it. Alternatively, you can send me an email, and I'll give you an address you can send payment to.

Yes. It can be found here.

Go to My account->Edit->Personal Information, and enter your URL in the Homepage text field. This URL will appear on all subsequent posts you make.

The login system works by sending you an email first. When you receive the email, it will contain a temporary password, which you can use to login with.

The email will also contain a long link which you can use as an alternative. If you click on it, you will be temporarily logged in. You should immediately change your password, as this one will not work indefinitely.

If you continue to have problems, use the feedback page to contact us, and we'll get you taken care of.

"Hoocoodanode?" was quintessential Tanta snark, a bemused response to the hand wringing that's followed the recent financial insanity.

It's also a commenting site for CalculatedRisk, named in her honor, and specifically tailored to the quirky CR culture that's evolved over the years.

As with Haloscan and JS-Kit, it stands separate from CalculatedRisk's blog, and is linked in both directions.

Hoocoodande is built and operated by Ken Cooper, a corporate refugee software architect. The server and development infrastructure are funded by your donations.

Please, if you are able, contribute!

Glad you asked! In addition to adding value with intelligent commentary, there are several financial ways.

• You can create a Donation Tile. Just follow the directions.
• You can browse the member recommendations, and then click through to Amazon, Alibris, or iTunes in the links below. Hoocoodanode will receive a small percentage of any purchase you make during that session. Note that's any purchase, so if you're thinking about buying a new hot water heater, mac, or miter saw, think of HCN first! To quickly get us registered, come here, then click on one one of our local book authors first in the left sidebar to get into Amazon. Any shopping you then do there will send some ka-ching our way!
• You can do a direct donation, by clicking below. It works through Paypal, and you can use major credit cards in various currencies. We also accept gold, silver, and platinum, shipped insured fedex.
  
  
• Click through relevant ads. Please, though, in the interest of avoiding click fraud, only click on an ad if you find it interesting.

Yes, by all means. If you want it fixed, though, we may not catch everything you say. Click on the Feedback link to submit a message that is sure to reach us, and we'll get to it as soon as we can.

No. After battling a swarm of spammers, we've decided to disable anonymous commenting.

Presently, registration offers the following benefits:

• Your user name is protected. No one else may post with the same name.
• A registered user can add a signature (including a home page), which will be automatically appended to your comments.
• Registered users have a profile, which will likely be expanded if there is interest.
• Other users can contact you via email without exposing your address.
• Times will appear in the time zone you select.
• You can see if any messages have been added since you last visited, and navigate to the first one (note though that this assumes you've read all the messages since you last refreshed).

There will likely be additional advantages for registered users in the future.

OpenID provides a way for you to control your identity across multiple sites. You can find out more about it here.

Like JS-Kit, Hoocoodanode supports threading, primarily to make it easier to see who is responding to whom. When you click on reply, your message is associated with the one you reply to.

When someone is viewing a response written in this way, a link to the original comment will appear at the top of the reply. This helps make it easier to understand people saying '+1!' or 'Word!' for no apparent reason.

If you wait for a second or two after typing, you'll see a preview appear below your text area.

Yes, until someone else responds to them. Until that time, an edit button will appear on your message, allowing you to fix any mistakes. But once someone replies, comments are read only. The general consensus in the community has been that people should stay true to what they've said.

We may also add a time limit at some point, as some people don't respond using the reply button, or even respond at all.

If you type in what looks like a url (i.e. begins with 'http://'), it will be converted automatically, and if possible, a title will be looked up for it. Non HTML types like jpg or .pdf don't have titles, and some sites make it relatively difficult to retrieve them.

Alternatively, you can use the anchor tag (<a>) to surround text if you want to create a link with a specific title.

As one can see from the site, we've slid rapidly down a slippery slope to the point where we have wholeheartedly embraced them.

To use them, just click on the little smiley face in the editor. It will present you a list of possible smileys. Just click one to insert it. Alternatively, if you know the shortcut for one, you can just type it in.

No. Most of the features of CR Companion are now built into the website, for all to use.

It's now called "Who's online", and it's on the left side of this page.

It shows the number of registered users currently active (hit the site within the last fifteen minutes), as well as the number of guests. It also shows a list of the ten most recent users.

Yes! You can subscribe to all comments, or just the comments for a particular post. Just click on the RSS icon at the bottom of the main page, or on that of a particular post.

Hoocoodanode is built with Drupal 6, a handful of modules, and a fair amount of custom code. Drupal has a huge learning curve, and is somewhat resource intensive, but it's a flexible system that is meeting our needs nicely.

It's now running on Amazon Web Services, using an Ubuntu Linux distribution. The system configuration now includes a memory based resource cache called Varnish, an opcode cache called APC, and a data cache called Memcached. Cache is a valuable currency here!

Yes. Don't tell anyone, but we are secretly funded by the NSA. All your base are belong to us.