«

This is almost certainly the wrong forum to ask these questions, but I can't
find a "right" forum, so maybe someone can direct me.

I regularly use the Microsoft community newsgroups for research on problems
in the volunteer technical work I do, and very helpful they are. But it
isn't helpful when I get an email notice from Microsoft Communities that I
have a reply to a subscribed thread, and when I click on the "Read and rate
the response" link in athe email, I get a blank HTML page. I have to go to
the list of discussion groups, and find English, and find my group manually,
and then find my post, to read the response. This is a colossal annoyance.
I read my email on a Windows XP SP3 box. Is there something I should have
installed and didn't, like Windows Live or Silverlight? Why is it doing this?

My second question is related - when I try to sign in using my Microsoft
Live userid, clicking 'sign in' takes me to an HTML error page; but when I
hit the "back" button twice, I'm back in the newsgroup and now I'm signed in!
Once again, is there something I didn't think was necessary that I need to
install? Is there a setting I need to change?

Thank you for your time.
--
hedera

Nature bats last.

"hedera" <> wrote in message
news:C6A78EC9-CAA2-4B7F-ADAC-...
> This is almost certainly the wrong forum to ask these questions, but I
> can't
> find a "right" forum, so maybe someone can direct me.
>
> I regularly use the Microsoft community newsgroups for research on
> problems
> in the volunteer technical work I do, and very helpful they are. But it
> isn't helpful when I get an email notice from Microsoft Communities that I
> have a reply to a subscribed thread, and when I click on the "Read and
> rate
> the response" link in athe email, I get a blank HTML page.

This, actually, is a "just discovered" issue in the past day or so, and
you're not the only one experiencing the issue. It's apparently caused by
overriding the font settings in your web browser. Reset your browser to
allow the *site* to define the font settings, and the page will properly
display.

Obviously this is a 'bug' in the Microsoft Forums software -- but how long
it will take to remediate this issue (and a few other ones that shouldn't
have slipped into the lastest update cycle) I cannot say.

> My second question is related - when I try to sign in using my Microsoft
> Live userid, clicking 'sign in' takes me to an HTML error page; but when I
> hit the "back" button twice, I'm back in the newsgroup and now I'm signed
> in!

The Forums have *never* reliably worked with Passport/WindowsLive sign
ins -- and they get especially confused if you're using more than one WL
account simultaneously.

> Once again, is there something I didn't think was necessary that I need to
> install? Is there a setting I need to change?

This is not likely anything on your side -- just a manifestation of the
(still) less-than-transparent functionality between Microsoft web properties
and their own authentication mechanisms.



--
Lawrence Garvin, M.S., MCITP:EA, MCDBA
Principal/CTO, Onsite Technology Solutions, Houston, Texas
Microsoft MVP - Software Distribution (2005-2009)

MS WSUS Website: http://www.microsoft.com/wsus
My MVP Profile: http://mvp.support.microsoft.com/pro...awrence.Garvin

Lawrence,
Thanks SO much for the response, and the suggestion about the browser fonts
- I'll try that. (I didn't actually realize I'd overridden them, I usually
run with defaults. Oh well.) As for "just discovered in the last day or
so," I've been experiencing this for several weeks, I just didn't know how to
complain about it! At least now it's a known problem and will hopefully be
resolved soon.

On the Windows Live login issue - I only have one WL account, so it isn't
the multiple account problem. As for the fact that Microsoft's
authentication system can't talk to Microsoft's user forums, what can I say??
--
hedera

Nature bats last.


"Lawrence Garvin [MVP]" wrote:

> "hedera" <> wrote in message
> news:C6A78EC9-CAA2-4B7F-ADAC-...
> > This is almost certainly the wrong forum to ask these questions, but I
> > can't
> > find a "right" forum, so maybe someone can direct me.
> >
> > I regularly use the Microsoft community newsgroups for research on
> > problems
> > in the volunteer technical work I do, and very helpful they are. But it
> > isn't helpful when I get an email notice from Microsoft Communities that I
> > have a reply to a subscribed thread, and when I click on the "Read and
> > rate
> > the response" link in athe email, I get a blank HTML page.
>
> This, actually, is a "just discovered" issue in the past day or so, and
> you're not the only one experiencing the issue. It's apparently caused by
> overriding the font settings in your web browser. Reset your browser to
> allow the *site* to define the font settings, and the page will properly
> display.
>
> Obviously this is a 'bug' in the Microsoft Forums software -- but how long
> it will take to remediate this issue (and a few other ones that shouldn't
> have slipped into the lastest update cycle) I cannot say.
>
> > My second question is related - when I try to sign in using my Microsoft
> > Live userid, clicking 'sign in' takes me to an HTML error page; but when I
> > hit the "back" button twice, I'm back in the newsgroup and now I'm signed
> > in!
>
> The Forums have *never* reliably worked with Passport/WindowsLive sign
> ins -- and they get especially confused if you're using more than one WL
> account simultaneously.
>
> > Once again, is there something I didn't think was necessary that I need to
> > install? Is there a setting I need to change?
>
> This is not likely anything on your side -- just a manifestation of the
> (still) less-than-transparent functionality between Microsoft web properties
> and their own authentication mechanisms.
>
>
>
> --
> Lawrence Garvin, M.S., MCITP:EA, MCDBA
> Principal/CTO, Onsite Technology Solutions, Houston, Texas
> Microsoft MVP - Software Distribution (2005-2009)
>
> MS WSUS Website: http://www.microsoft.com/wsus
> My MVP Profile: http://mvp.support.microsoft.com/pro...awrence.Garvin
>
>

Lawrence,
I just checked my settings in IE8, and I am using the font defaults - Times
New Roman for proportional and Courier New for fixed pitch. I know these are
the default because I hate these fonts and always override them if I know
they're there! (I prefer Verdana and Lucida Console.) And I still get the
blank page when I click on the "Read and rate the response" link, so I don't
think it's as simple as you thought.
--
hedera

Nature bats last.


"Lawrence Garvin [MVP]" wrote:

> "hedera" <> wrote in message
> news:C6A78EC9-CAA2-4B7F-ADAC-...
> > This is almost certainly the wrong forum to ask these questions, but I
> > can't
> > find a "right" forum, so maybe someone can direct me.
> >
> > I regularly use the Microsoft community newsgroups for research on
> > problems
> > in the volunteer technical work I do, and very helpful they are. But it
> > isn't helpful when I get an email notice from Microsoft Communities that I
> > have a reply to a subscribed thread, and when I click on the "Read and
> > rate
> > the response" link in athe email, I get a blank HTML page.
>
> This, actually, is a "just discovered" issue in the past day or so, and
> you're not the only one experiencing the issue. It's apparently caused by
> overriding the font settings in your web browser. Reset your browser to
> allow the *site* to define the font settings, and the page will properly
> display.
>
> Obviously this is a 'bug' in the Microsoft Forums software -- but how long
> it will take to remediate this issue (and a few other ones that shouldn't
> have slipped into the lastest update cycle) I cannot say.
>
> > My second question is related - when I try to sign in using my Microsoft
> > Live userid, clicking 'sign in' takes me to an HTML error page; but when I
> > hit the "back" button twice, I'm back in the newsgroup and now I'm signed
> > in!
>
> The Forums have *never* reliably worked with Passport/WindowsLive sign
> ins -- and they get especially confused if you're using more than one WL
> account simultaneously.
>
> > Once again, is there something I didn't think was necessary that I need to
> > install? Is there a setting I need to change?
>
> This is not likely anything on your side -- just a manifestation of the
> (still) less-than-transparent functionality between Microsoft web properties
> and their own authentication mechanisms.
>
>
>
> --
> Lawrence Garvin, M.S., MCITP:EA, MCDBA
> Principal/CTO, Onsite Technology Solutions, Houston, Texas
> Microsoft MVP - Software Distribution (2005-2009)
>
> MS WSUS Website: http://www.microsoft.com/wsus
> My MVP Profile: http://mvp.support.microsoft.com/pro...awrence.Garvin
>
>

"hedera" <> wrote in message
news:59239BD1-49C3-4B24-BC3E-...
> Lawrence,
> I just checked my settings in IE8, and I am using the font defaults -
> Times
> New Roman for proportional and Courier New for fixed pitch. I know these
> are
> the default because I hate these fonts and always override them if I know
> they're there! (I prefer Verdana and Lucida Console.) And I still get
> the
> blank page when I click on the "Read and rate the response" link, so I
> don't
> think it's as simple as you thought.

Possibly not.

I might also have misinterpreted your description of your issue as being
similar to another issue.

In any event, there is at least one known issue with rendering of those
pages, and your time frame sounds quite close to the point at which the
latest forums/communities updates were rolled out.

There's a forum for posting issues with forums. Posting there would be my
best suggestion at this point.

http://social.technet.microsoft.com/...rtabug/threads


--
Lawrence Garvin, M.S., MCITP:EA, MCDBA
Principal/CTO, Onsite Technology Solutions, Houston, Texas
Microsoft MVP - Software Distribution (2005-2009)

MS WSUS Website: http://www.microsoft.com/wsus
My MVP Profile: http://mvp.support.microsoft.com/pro...awrence.Garvin

Thank you again, Lawrence, I will go and post my issue in that forum.
--
hedera

Nature bats last.


"Lawrence Garvin [MVP]" wrote:

> "hedera" <> wrote in message
> news:59239BD1-49C3-4B24-BC3E-...
> > Lawrence,
> > I just checked my settings in IE8, and I am using the font defaults -
> > Times
> > New Roman for proportional and Courier New for fixed pitch. I know these
> > are
> > the default because I hate these fonts and always override them if I know
> > they're there! (I prefer Verdana and Lucida Console.) And I still get
> > the
> > blank page when I click on the "Read and rate the response" link, so I
> > don't
> > think it's as simple as you thought.
>
> Possibly not.
>
> I might also have misinterpreted your description of your issue as being
> similar to another issue.
>
> In any event, there is at least one known issue with rendering of those
> pages, and your time frame sounds quite close to the point at which the
> latest forums/communities updates were rolled out.
>
> There's a forum for posting issues with forums. Posting there would be my
> best suggestion at this point.
>
> http://social.technet.microsoft.com/...rtabug/threads
>
>
> --
> Lawrence Garvin, M.S., MCITP:EA, MCDBA
> Principal/CTO, Onsite Technology Solutions, Houston, Texas
> Microsoft MVP - Software Distribution (2005-2009)
>
> MS WSUS Website: http://www.microsoft.com/wsus
> My MVP Profile: http://mvp.support.microsoft.com/pro...awrence.Garvin
>
>