WordPress Changes – Your Poll #1 – Herded ?
Others in this series are Start – Herded ? Kept in the Dark (Why this is really happening) ? Valued Customer ? and more to come. Workarounds are here. My standby blog is http://freedfromtime.blogspot.co.uk/
This is your opportunity to vote on the recent changes to WordPress and there are two vital reasons to do so.
Firstly, the survey is unlikely to be published, so this is your opportunity to be heard.
Secondly, it is now evident that by ourselves it is unlikely that we can bring about improvement but, investors and allied businesses do not like mismanagement that alienates it’s customers and fails in new endeavours. They can make a difference and bring about the only solution available to us which is a change of management. With enough support there will opportunity to refer this matter to tech-journalists. The more who attend, the better chance we have. So please Link to here, Share, Reblog, or spread the word however you think fit.
Herded ?
The Reader: However one gets to the Reader, there is no way out except via the new Stats interface. The Reader lost it’s small drop-down menu late last year, which offered a link back to one’s Dashboard and a Sign Out. That loss paved the way to confinement.
The standard login (via wordpress.com) now goes directly to the Reader.
Almost every link to “Stats” goes to the new Stats interface. There is only “View All” beneath the Dashboard graph that still goes to the original statistics page. Other than this, one had to endure the nuisance of scrolling all the way down the new Statistics interface to find the only other link.
The New Editor was almost impossible to avoid until one has loaded it and then chosen “Classic Editor”. Then an opt-out cookie was placed with your browser. But, it expired after six weeks and was only useful if one was willing to keep WordPress cookies between sessions (more on those later). There is was no knowing how short it’s expiry date may be in the future. That option has been removed and one can only access the classic editor via direct links.
Taken all together, do you feel herded by nuisances, towards the new user interface and it’s editor.
How to vote: Beneath you will find two comment boxes.
One is for: Yes – I do feel herded into the new Stats interface.
The other is: No – I do not feel herded into the new Stats interface.
Please click on the small blue . ⭐ Like . in the box of your preference. You can withdraw your like at any time by clicking on it again.
Comments on this topic can be added in the usual way. And, thank you for taking the time to read. 🙂
* Automattic employees may comment but may not vote. * I have not used PollDaddy because it is owned by Automattic. * I regret the loss of Reply levels, but need to keep this simple. * Comments can be a testament to the extent (or not) of nuisance or whatever you may wish to add.
Freed From Time 
To Vote
Yes – – I do feel herded into the new Stats interface
Please click on the small blue . ⭐ Like . just below
LikeLiked by 30 people
February 8, 2015 at 11:44
We are herded to the stats. We are herded to use the mobile version, though they lack the functionality of the desktop. This is highy problematic for me because the posts I create often require specific editing capabilities in that I use a varity of images, quotes, and detailed/deverse fonts ect.
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February 15, 2015 at 22:20
To Vote
No – – I do not feel herded into the new Stats interface
Please click on the small blue . ⭐ Like . just below
LikeLiked by 1 person
February 8, 2015 at 11:46
I really hate the new WordPress. 😦 Thank you for your work to make things better. 🙂
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February 8, 2015 at 13:47
Concatenated to save space:
Rache M : Am I allowed to vote? 😉
GrahamInHats : Poll #1 – In the Fine print. Automattic employees may comment but not vote (vested interest you see.)
Rache M : Ah, ok. I missed that but I haven’t voted. Did you know you can create a poll – http://en.support.wordpress.com/polls/ ?
GrahaminHats : Yes I do know that Ta – it’s mentioned in the fine print.
Did you get this via your notifications form my post or from your about page. I did both.
Rachel M : I got both. This one is in my notifications and I’m replying to it from there. The replies on my About page are emailed to me as I get all comments on my own site delivered to my inbox.
GrahamInHats: Good. It is probably because threaded levels are off.
If they are on, then anything by the author (who can reply beyond the set level using Notifications) is not notified to the intended recipient. I’ve noticed this a few times on revisiting the posts of others
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February 8, 2015 at 15:39
“Herded” is how I felt from the first time the screen came up as “New” vs “Classic”! After a couple of days…….and many hours…..spent trying to figure out how to navigate to the spot(s) I wanted to be, I finally “caved” and put my question to the “techies” & forum. Absolutely no response/reply from anyone (yoo-hoo……anyone out there?????) I definitely felt alone and in some time warp/black hole situation. Now, that it has been confirmed that there is that black hole, created with the idea of merging(?) pc’s w/ mobile usage(!)….really???…..I know that there’s a ton of us milling around in this mire!!!!! Arghhhhhhhhhhhh…………….
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February 8, 2015 at 16:23
Reply to Treadlemusic: Oh I know. We’ll just plod on and try to gather as many voices as possible. Please accept a 🐻 (he likes bikes). 🙂
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February 8, 2015 at 19:16
😀
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February 8, 2015 at 19:30
Reblogging, and Thank you again for your hard work, Graham!
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February 8, 2015 at 16:45
Reblogged this on Life on the Farmlet and commented:
Our user interface here on WordPress is about to change forever unless you take action now. I hate the new reader and the new posting editor (Beep-beep-Boop) that doesn’t work on my desktop. Please read the following post from Graham in Hats on Freed From Time and then make your voice heard. Thank you!
LikeLiked by 3 people
February 8, 2015 at 16:51
I find the new Worpress…cool
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February 8, 2015 at 17:09
I prefer the classic interface. I do have my home page bookmarked, so am not affected by the standard login problem.
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February 8, 2015 at 17:56
Thanks for all the work you have invested in this issue Graham. I think the ‘enhanced’ WP UI is absolutely awful. Nothing is easier to use, everything is less logical and all of it is less useful. On top of that, I find it less visually appealing, at least in subtle ways. The need for more clicking and more scrolling is ridiculous and discouraging.
If there was some benefit to all the changes, there could at least be some willingness to sacrifice usefulness and convenience, but as yet there has been absolutely no articulation from WP about what exactly is ‘enhanced’ about the new UI save for the fact that it is more mobile friendly and it is possible to operate multiple blogs from one UI or something like that. Are we to accept the loss of the functionality, the ‘wordpressness’ of WP for a bunch of theoretical dreck like that? Ironically, I find that even on my mobile devices, I still want to use the old UI. This is not because I am used to it but because it simply works better, even on mobile devices. Sure, the layout might be a bit small, but at least I still don’t have to click and scroll on my phone too!
The bottom line is that WP is embarking on a bad path and losing the elan, the heart of what has made it a success so far. Sure, they will probably not lose everyone over this and people will likely just cope but they are losing a piece of what has made them who they are. Instead of being a flexible, cutting edge company that has a great relationship with their customers, they seem to want to be a tyrannical regime that listens to their clients and then tell them to sod off because they know better.
At the end of the day things are awful and I am still waiting to hear what is “enhanced”. I hope they hear reason and reverse course.
LikeLiked by 5 people
February 8, 2015 at 17:57
Quite so. M. Mullenweg is shooting WP in the foot many times over.
LikeLiked by 1 person
February 8, 2015 at 18:03
Thanks for tryign to help all of us that do not like the new Wp format. It has been frustrating and time consuming.
LikeLiked by 3 people
February 8, 2015 at 18:14
🙂
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February 8, 2015 at 19:28
Thanks to your suggestions, GrahamInHats, I have selected “Dashboard” and “My Stats” (the one before this current WP offering) to my Favorites and can avoid the confusing maze WP now offers. I did email Le Grand Fromage as you suggested and he did respond. But I didn’t get the feeling that anything was going to change – to my liking – any time soon.
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February 8, 2015 at 19:13
Reply to EathRiderJudyBerman: Quite so. We had to try him first so that we could legitimately go around him. That’s the next objective. Thanks for your interest and support. It all helps. Please accept a cyber duck \…..(‘)< 🙂
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February 8, 2015 at 19:19
I agree with the suggestion for a poll, so that we can voice specific complaints as well. i also don’t like the redundant factoor when reading/checking the drop-down comment/like/moderate/alert on the upper right… and i don’t like the two hues of blue to mark which we’ve answered and which we have not… what about people who are color deficient? the little check mark was just great in the past..
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February 8, 2015 at 19:47
Hello GrahamInHats,
Thank you for taking the time to set this up, and for letting me know about it. 🙂
I know that you are not using Polldaddy because it is owned by Automattic but Automattic also owns WordPress, WordPress.com, Gravatar, Akismet, and more which many of us are currently using now; and so you might want to reconsider adding polls here to go along with the current voting method. 😉
Herded?:
I voted Yes.
1. I agree, and I think that there should be a permanent option/setting (saved on the server) to decide where you go after logging in instead of having to make bookmarks; and I think that the Reader should be available in the Classic Dashboard and any other features/sections/et cetera that are currently missing from the Classic Dashboard should be added there as well so that you do not have to leave the Classic Dashboard, and I think that any features/sections/et cetera that are missing in the New Dashboard should be added there so people who like the New Dashboard do not have to leave it either.
2. I agree, and I think that the WordPress.com Admin Bar/Toolbar/whatever should have all the links/features/options/settings/et cetera in both versions of it (New and Classic) where ever it is shown (Reader, Stats, Dashbaord, Blog, et cetera) so that you can navigate everywhere from it no matter where you are; and bring back certain features/options/et cetera that were removed from the Admin Bar/Toolbar/whatever without warning/reason like the Search Option that allowed you to search for keywords on blogs when visiting them.
3. I agree, and the links should be available in more and easier to access places instead of having to make bookmarks and/or having scroll to the bottom of a page, and/or give people a permanent option/setting (saved on the server) of customizing this like you can in some areas of the Classic Dashboard where you can customize what shows and what does not show.
4. I agree, I have reported this several times and suggested a permanent option/setting (saved on the server) because the cookie option does not work for people like me who use Permanent Private Browsing/Incognito Mode/InPrivate Browsing/et cetera in my browsers, and so everything is cleared every time I exit my browser for security/privacy/et cetera reasons; and so there needs to be a permanent option/setting (saved on the server), and the New Editor itself needs more work/features/improvements/customizable interface/more classical interface/et cetera before many of us can even consider using it. (Drafts should be saved on the server, the body text box should be bigger and you should be able to adjust the size and have this remembered permanently on the server, you should be able to adjust the color scheme, the default body font should be a bit larger and/or customizable and have an option to have the font match the actual font used by the theme and have this remembered permanently on the server, have an option to not hide all the options and have this remembered permanently on the server, et cetera)
5. Yes, I feel herded, and I/we know that this can be improved to avoid that; and I/we know that most of these changes can be balanced in a way that more people can agree with if they would simply follow some of our common sense suggestions/feedback and general common sense compromises that would allow them to either make a better unified experience or a better two system experience with one for non-mobile and one for mobile.
Thank you,
-John Jr
LikeLiked by 2 people
February 8, 2015 at 19:49
Reply to John Jr : Thanks for the extensive comment. There will be more Polls so hope to see you again. 🙂
LikeLiked by 2 people
February 8, 2015 at 19:52
Feeling ‘herded’ is a good, quick description of how I feel, but, being a writer, I would like to express it a little more creatively. I hope nobody minds.
To me, it seems as if the WordPress content creators were perfectly content with the grass under our feet, happily creating content and contributing to the ecosystem. Then, for some unknown reason, some crazy bipeds covered with garish ideas painted on bared skin ran up with torches and lit fires on three sides of the WordPress herd. With only one way to escape excruciating death by fire, all of the WordPress herd is forced into a smaller and smaller space next to a ravine. As the fire burns closer and closer, some of the more desperate content creators leap into the ravine, hoping, somehow, that they might survive the fall.
In the end, all that is left is a burned wasteland and a few crazy bipeds feeding on the corpses of the WordPress herd, with buzzards circling overhead. One of the more thoughtful bipeds looks up at the leader, and says. “Ah, Matt, what are we going to eat next week?”
LikeLiked by 5 people
February 8, 2015 at 20:11
Reply to FamerBob1 : Well that is another way to put it. Creatively, the very think that really built WP. 🙂
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February 8, 2015 at 21:33
@GrahamInHats
You are welcome, and I will try to remember to check back here sometimes for new polls. 🙂
@Farmerbob1
Thank you for sharing your creative comment which was more intense than I expected, though a bit too much/too serious/too dramatic in my opinion I still liked it, and I tried to visualize the symbolism as I read it. 😉
-John Jr
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February 8, 2015 at 20:22
Thanks again Graham for your tireless effort on this most important issue.
If you haven’t checked out the Forum threads lately, more responses on this thread: http://en.forums.wordpress.com/topic/upgraded-stats-and-changes-to-wp-interface?replies=73
LikeLiked by 2 people
February 8, 2015 at 20:24
Reply to DandelionSalad: You are welcome 🙂
I am subscribed and keeping an eye on the forums, but may avoid commenting for while. They are a abit of a sink-hole for energy. 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
February 8, 2015 at 21:38
Reblogged this on Blog It or Lose It! and commented:
Do you feel herded into the new Stats interface?
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February 8, 2015 at 21:05
I think what bothers me most about the ‘new, improved’ WordPress user interface is that there was absolutely no consultation or heads up about the forthcoming change. We are the users. We are what makes WordPress live, move and have its being. Without users, there would be no WordPress, so it seems incredibly shortsighted, arrogant and self-satisfied to assume that whatever lame-assed, clunky and mobile-app-driven changes they poke at us will be gratefully received. They provide us with a poll tool. Shame they didn’t think about using it themselves. ‘Do you want widespread changes without consultation?’. Er, no. ‘Do you want hours of frustration as you try to do things you could do before?’. That’ll be a No too. And so on. Thank you very much for providing a rant forum, a tool for taking action and the will to make a change.
LikeLiked by 3 people
February 8, 2015 at 21:22
Reply to Katechicon :Oh yes definitley. The next Poll will be about the much vaunted “Democratized Blogging”.
Thank you for stopping by and leaving a comment 🙂
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February 8, 2015 at 21:41
You might want to jump on this and comment before they close me down. I found another page that annoys me and complained here:
http://en.forums.wordpress.com/topic/hate-new-wp-format?replies=1#return
“Because they will probably shut it down (wow, etsy reruns) this is what I wrote:
I really hate the way the WP is going and may move all my blogs because that is how much i hate the new format, after years as a WP enthusiast! I don’t think you WANT to hear this, because I notice that when I go to find a forum on this topic you’ve shut down the comments after a WP admin says, “Sorry.” If you left it open you might hear how many others hate it too!
I think that if you were interested, and sent a letter out to us to find out how much we hate it, you’d be shocked. Then maybe you’d stop screwing with a site that worked so beautifully — really, so many business have backtracked when they made a wrong move. Think the New Coke or when Netflix decided to rename it’s product. . . They began to lose customers and STOPPED THE STUPIDITY.
I have seven blogs total I will take. . . . Five of which are paying sites.”
LikeLiked by 2 people
February 8, 2015 at 23:06
Thanks for taking the trouble. That forum page is currently “Hidden” from view. That will get e mention later. You’re comment is not hidden here. 🙂
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February 9, 2015 at 01:10
I was a little lost in all your posts on this for the longest time. I had not encountered this terrible new interface (or if I had, I hadn’t noticed – so I thought). It wasn’t until the other day that I accidentally ended up in the new interface, from which I quickly ran away. I’ve been accessing WP for so long from pinned links on my Firefox dashboard. Apparently I’ve been using a workaround without ever intending to! Wonder how long I’ll be able to keep that up?
LikeLiked by 1 person
February 9, 2015 at 03:28
Most of it for some time. They do intend to keep the WP-Admin(Dashboard) page but not the usual My-Stats page. The alternative is a mess and doesn’t work well on the mobiles that it’s intended for either.
If it is of any help, and you have not seen it, there is this:-
https://freedfromtime.wordpress.com/2015/02/03/wordpress-navigation-links-improved/
which has a link to Notifications Archive and, at the end, a link to another page of links.
Best of Luck 🙂
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February 9, 2015 at 05:16
Thanks for the link! Saw it, but didn’t bother to click through. I’m usually an early adopter, but I’m just going to hang back in the dark (light?) ages using my old linked version until things improve or I’m forced out!
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February 10, 2015 at 15:25
Well it ain’t over yet. Keep on hitting those links. Boycotting the new extravaganza may actually help. 🙂
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February 10, 2015 at 16:51
Thanks for letting me know, and (more importantly) collecting this feedback. I surely hope it helps!
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February 9, 2015 at 06:05
Reblogged this on Yellopig Is Free and commented:
For those of you affected by the new WordPress “enhancements”, plz add your vote & thoughts to GrahamInHats’ post. He may be able to help us. More voices may get TPTB to listen.
For others, please excuse the meta. The WordPress blogging interface is being changed, and mostly for the worse and with much consternation amongst the small bloggers (such as myself), and without “consent of the governed”. I’d like to keep this blog going, and the changes will make that cumbersome. More than the “stats” page is involved…
LikeLiked by 1 person
February 9, 2015 at 06:21
I’m so glad you did this Graham. Thank you! And, BTW, I just discovered yesterday that they took away the Zemanta tool from the Classic mode. They just gave it back and now it is gone again! I wish they would just quit screwing around and leave things be!
On a side note: As I sat here thinking about the changes, and how absurd they are, I suddenly remembered this film from my youth and had to laugh. Ironical as it be, it seemed to fit somehow. Just scroll down to the PLOT: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wild_in_the_Streets
Let’s face it Graham; we are just too old and not cool anymore. 😉
LikeLiked by 1 person
February 9, 2015 at 14:51
Thanks for the link. I get it. The pendulum swings to an extreme and, as a result, will swing to the other.
Cool ! We broke the template. We can teach cool. I was amazed and very pleased to see how many young people were alongside the old at at Pink Floyd concerts. Real cool lasts, the rest is just a fleeting fashion. And, whatever gets broken, if it was worthwhile, gets restored eventually. Whatever it is, go for it. And, thanks again for the link and the support.
😀 😀 😀
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February 9, 2015 at 15:21
Or perhaps the clip tells the joke better? LOL! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rRLwV2xafpk
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February 9, 2015 at 15:11
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February 9, 2015 at 15:41
Passed on from JohnJr:-
@Lynda
WordPress.com got rid of Zemanta in the beginning of 2014 without warning and without reason and they still have not come out with their own alternatives to all of the Zemanta components yet except for Related Posts, but you can still use the Zemanta browser extension for most major browsers; but it is not fully functional for the WordPress.com New Editor yet but they are trying to fix this problem so that it will work in the next major release hopefully, but the latest version does work mostly in the Classic Editor.
Zemanta has also been having problems with bugs recently (some possibly related to the constant changes that WordPress.com keeps making, but I that is my opinion; but most are probably problems caused as they try to work toward their next major release), one of the bugs caused Zemanta to not work for over a week in Firefox on WordPress.com, but upgrading to the newest version of Zemanta fixes that; but there are still some other bugs that they are working on, I have reported several bugs to Zemanta, and they said that they are trying to fix them but more bugs keep appearing and so it is taking longer than expected but Zemanta is working trying to fix them.
Thank you for that Wild In The Streets trailer, I had never saw or heard of that before. 😀
Good luck,
-John Jr
LikeLiked by 2 people
February 9, 2015 at 19:59
Thank you, John Jr. for your explanation. I had been using it right up until two weeks ago, and then POOF it was gone. I will try downloading the newest version. Glad you liked WIld in the Streets, LOL! It is a really strange movie, but it seemed to make a point both then and now when considering the bad judgement of the WP commandos.
LikeLiked by 1 person
February 10, 2015 at 00:04
@Lynda
WordPress.com got rid of Zemanta in the beginning of 2014 without warning and without reason and they still have not come out with their own alternatives to all of the Zemanta components yet except for Related Posts, but you can still use the Zemanta browser extension for most major browsers; but it is not fully functional for the WordPress.com New Editor yet but they are trying to fix this problem so that it will work in the next major release hopefully, but the latest version does work mostly in the Classic Editor.
Zemanta has also been having problems with bugs recently (some possibly related to the constant changes that WordPress.com keeps making, but I that is my opinion; but most are probably problems caused as they try to work toward their next major release), one of the bugs caused Zemanta to not work for over a week in Firefox on WordPress.com, but upgrading to the newest version of Zemanta fixes that; but there are still some other bugs that they are working on, I have reported several bugs to Zemanta, and they said that they are trying to fix them but more bugs keep appearing and so it is taking longer than expected but Zemanta is working trying to fix them.
Thank you for that Wild In The Streets trailer, I had never saw or heard of that before. 😀
Good luck,
-John Jr
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February 9, 2015 at 19:11
Thank you JohnJr. I will pass it on via Notifications from you to Lynda. I think I will add some reply buttons on the next one.
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February 9, 2015 at 19:56
From Lynda
Thank you, John Jr. for your explanation. I had been using it right up until two weeks ago, and then POOF it was gone. I will try downloading the newest version. Glad you liked WIld in the Streets, LOL! It is a really strange movie, but it seemed to make a point both then and now when considering the bad judgement of the WP commandos.
LikeLiked by 1 person
February 10, 2015 at 00:38
@GrahamInHats
You are welcome, and thank you; and I think that adding the reply buttons is a good idea. 🙂
-John Jr
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February 9, 2015 at 20:00
Hello GrahamInHats,
*I could not find a Contact Page or Contact Form on your blog, and so I am sharing this here*
I just read an interesting post on WP Tavern that you might find interesting called “Initiative Aims To Improve The New User Experience In WordPress 4.2”:
http://wptavern.com/initiative-aims-to-improve-the-new-user-experience-in-wordpress-4-2
Hopefully something positive comes out of this initiative/group, but I think that they should get WordPress.com users involved and/or at least add our suggestions/feedback/complaints/bug reports/et cetera in this as well even though the focus in on the WordPress software itself since we have to use parts of it on/for our blogs too/as well.
-John Jr
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February 9, 2015 at 22:31
@Lynda
You are welcome. 🙂
I did watch the trailer that you linked but I have not watched the film yet, hopefully one day I will watch it, but from the trailer it does seem to make some points about then and now. 😉
Good luck,
-John Jr
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February 10, 2015 at 02:15