March 21, 2004

Private Entries and Private Notes

Good evening (or morning),

Goodnight room
Goodnight moon
Goodnight cow jumping over the moon
Goodnight light and the red balloon
Goodnight bears
Goodnight chairs

Goodnight kittens
And goodnight mittens
Goodnight clocks and goodnight socks
Goodnight little house and goodnight mouse
Goodnight comb and goodnight brush
Goodnight nobody, goodnight mush
And goodnight to the old lady whispering “hush”

Goonight stars
Goodnight air
Goodnight noises everywhere…

Margaret Wise Brown 1947

(seemed appropriate when writing at 1:32 a.m.)

This particular problem takes a little explaining, unless it has happened to you. Let’s say you have an entry, and let’s say you get some notes (you’re a popular person, after all).

If you then take that entry and make it private, it is necessary that all the notes on the entry become private too – otherwise, other people would still be able to see the notes on the Read All Notes page. This part has worked fine – unless you went back later and switched the entry back to a public entry.

When switching a private entry back to public, we were running into a problem – the software could not switch any notes back to public along with the entry. The reason for this came from the invention of private notes – this made it possible for there to be a mix of public and private notes on an entry, and the system couldn’t determine which ones to make public again, and which to leave private (the notes that were meant to be private by the note-leaver). I have no idea if any of that made any sense.

In any case, since the system couldn’t decide which notes to make public again on a private-to-public switch, all the notes would remain private. That was bad.

I’ve fixed this so that now the system can tell the difference between notes that are meant to be private by the note-leaver, and notes that have become private because the entry they are attached to is made private. This way, when an entry is made public again, the notes can be properly sorted as far as which can be public again, and which must remain private.

This will not fix the notes that have been made private by this bug (sorry about that), but will work going forward on any entry you make private and then public again.

That was a long explanation for a fairly simple thing – but it’s late, so I hope I made it clear.

The DiaryMaster

Very clear. Though I haven’t taken the time yet to do so, I wanted to say that I think you’re doing a great job keeping up with this site. I’ve used it for a good 3 or 4 years now and find it better every day. Thanks for the great service!!!

Did I miss something? What’s the new option on the diary description page? The whole restore backup description thing? When did you add that? I think it’s awesome nonetheless and it couldn’t have come at a better time.

*scratches head* Okay, I just tried it and it did nothing … what the heck? Note me back if you can. I’m curious as to what that option is all about.

i adore margaret wise brown and the storybook goodnight moon. i used to read this book to my daughter. i have a thing for children’s literature. *big smiles*

perfectly clear. thank you.

huh?

Ever watch that episode of Gilmore Girls when Lorelei claims that she wrote a children’s book called “Goodnight Spoon?” Yeah, it was funny. G’night, DiaryMaster. 🙂

i read Goodnight Moon every night it seemed during my child’s third year……..wonderful book. just wonderful

ok. isabel

Good night DM :o)

Classic Poem. 🙂

I have a suggestion. Is there a way you could make it so that we could make an entry only readable to OD people, but not people we gave Reader Passwords to? I’ve wanted to write some stuff where I’d like to get input from my OD friends, but I don’t want a few people I’ve given Reader Passwords to to read it.

Such a dilemma. Most of the things that you explain here never even occur to me. I guess that means I am not a “high maintenence” diarist. At least that is ONE thing I am not high maint. about. Goodnight Moon. *sigh* Brings back great memories. I know that verbatim. Thanks! 🙂

Thank you so very very much. Several of my readers were getting rather irritable about their notes “being deleted” though the system had only made them private.

clear as mud. but got it.

My son loves that book. Still looking forward (impatiently) to the FOD friends only feature. I got hit again by the idiots. Get some rest. 🙂

I’ve had trouble leaving private notes..on some of my friends diarys, there is no private note check box..is that a glitch, or is it just what they choose?

oh, I love Goodnight Moon.