touchstone test 3

This was just using [[Michael Trend]]

Touchstones box looks right.

Michael Trend

#3 by @MyopicBookworm> Did you type that as

[[Michael Trend]]

?

Message 3 just used Michael Trend in double brackets, but does not show as a touchstone. It gave me the option of "Michael Trend (others)", and the "others" were not other authors but books: a selection of wrongly authored copies of Harry Potter and the Sorceror's Stone (from some test somewhere?), plus a random book by Nick Sharratt.

#4 Yes.

(Different bug: Editing causes misnumbering of posts: that just renumbered 5 as a second 4.)

#5 by @MyopicBookworm> Aha! I wonder if you're hitting something I just recently noticed. By any chance would [[Michael Trend]] be in your edit box ALREADY, and you're not typing it from scratch when you start the new message?

#6 by @MyopicBookworm> Yeah, that's on oldy but goody. There's a bug report I could dig up for you if you want.

This is a new message, typed after doing something else on another Group, so this is a freshly typed reference, with double brackets, to Michael Trend.

No touchstone manifested, but the fresh edit box for "Add a message" has the Touchstones on the right hand side with Michael Trend already listed. That instance of Michael Trend had no brackets (and so did that one), but this one has them: Michael Trend.

And it's the right one. Before I clicked the link to check, my "Add a message" box still had a lingering Michael Trend touchstone, but now I'm back, it doesn't.

I'm confused when you're talking about which ones have or don't have double brackets. You always have to type double-brackets into the edit box to make an author touchstone. But then LT never displays them either in the finished message, the preview or in the box to the right of the message or the right side of the thread.

The only reason I get [[Michael Trend]] is because I use some special HTML: [[Michael Trend]&amp'#93; for demonstration purposes.

What I mean by "no brackets" is that I have just typed "Michael Trend", so no touchstone is expected. But Message 3 just used Michael Trend in double brackets, but does not show as a touchstone: i.e. I typed "[[Michael Trend]]" and it didn't work. So also in message 9.

(I haven't thought of a clearer way to indicate which black intances of Michael Trend in my messages should actually be blue because they have hidden brackets, which I can still see if I make as if to Edit the message.)

Hm. I have just opened the Edit option for Message 9 (which had a non-functioning touchstone), done nothing, and then reposted it. The touchstone is now there (and the message is renumbered as 8).

Okay, that's a bit clearer, though like you said it's still a bit confusing as what is happening. Please don't take my interrogation as skepticism or anything. I know I've been seeing similar weirdness, just not exactly the same. But I think it might be related.

So, question: when you went back and added the brackets, is it possible you added the RIGHT brackets before the LEFT ones?

No: I have consistently not added brackets to the pre-typed name (because I know that can be problematic), and have only typed it fresh with brackets (left first). When I opened message 9, the brackets were already there, and I left them there.

Well, now I can't replicate the Harry Potter weirdness you mention in #5. I was able to do it earlier, but not the same way as you did. But now I can't get it to happen at all. Either I'm remembering wrong, or there's more variables. And possibly dimensions.

Nope: Michael Trend and the Sorceror's Stone seems to have been an ephemeral glitch. Probably neutrinos in the system.

ETA Though if I edit this message, delete the touchstone back as far as the first pair of brackets, then retype, a load of "Others" options appear, mainly a load of titles with the word "trend" in them.

How rapidly are all the underlying databases in the LT system refreshed? E.g. how long does it take before the system is ready to cope with producing touchstones for a newly added work by an author not previously listed? (These are largely rhetorical questions, as I may not understand the answers.)

Brain full now: gone to cook the dinner.