Hmmm. I’m still getting “request is blocked” on my tablet. The tab says “service unavailable” and if I try on my desktop computer. I get the same thing. Odd.
After being able to go on earlier, I got a security certificate warning an hour ago-now it doesn’t load at all.
Recall today was supposed to be the rollout of a huge website upgrade.
I am bummed because (unrelated to the above) Phoebe and Her Unicorn, aka Heavenly Nostrils, went on Sundays-only starting this week, with the final daily on Saturday alluding to the final Calvin and Hobbes strip. [today’s C&H was also missing earlier.]
It seems to be working (at least for me) at the moment. One change I appreciate is that today’s comic no longer requires two clicks to get to.
But the Spanish translation for it was available.
It redirects to another site for the login, but won’t accept any password, nor does the “help” key function. Saw $2.95 per month as the new membership requirement:
Full Archive Access
Endlessly scroll through 400+ best-in-class comic features, political cartoons, and kids comics.
Again, not clear exactly what this means-will older strips be locked away behind the paywall, or some percentage of new ones, or what?
[C&H is up now, as in you can at least peruse the actual comics, for the moment.]
Yeah, it’s working for me. And being able to go to the comic to read the comic, instead of going to the comic to get a link to go to the comic, is a huge improvement.
It’s working for me provided I just want to peruse the comics without logging in. So, what the hey, I decided to log in.
In the immortal words of Paul Lynde, YOU FOOL!
I give it the old college try by entering my email address and password. Of course, I get this nifty notice:
So, I decide to give one for the gipper and set up a new account, using the same email addresss. Remember Paul’s words? YOU FOOL!
I get this cute response:
I’m sorry. I forgot to give the trigger warning for those in the audience who are not logically-deficient and/or impaired.
So, 'twas off to see the wizard with resetting the password. YOU FOOL!
Yes, that seemed to be working, except, of course, for the complete lack of the promised verification code arriving in my email.
Yes, I suppose I could set up a new account with a different email address. But why should I have to do that?
Next, I clicked on the Need Help? link. Yeppers. That gives me this nifty comment:
To conclude…
YOU FOOL!
So, to paraphrase this 2013 thread (So now Slate has decided to suck), gocomics has decided to suck.
Today was my first day with the new format. I set up an account and then went I. My god it’s cumbersome, to the extent that it’s actually a deterrent. WTF were they thinking?
I thought that was Wallace Shawn…?
This is an object lesson (steps A to Z) in how NOT to roll out a new software update, starting with doing it all in the middle of the day.
No huge loss for me. My daily lineup consisted of the following:
4 defunct strips on repeat (such as Calvin and Hobbes and Peanuts), 1 more which is showing older strips only despite new ones being available (Wondermark, which I can get from his main site)
2 which are now Sundays-only (Foxtrot and now Heavenly Nostrils)
1 which has been on hiatus for 3 months now (Sarah’s Scribbles)
Which leaves about 6 of the usual gag-a-day ones, all of which are now long past their peak and thus only intermittently funny (Pearls Before Swine, Non Sequitur, Lio). More like old habits now than something I eagerly look forward to.
I’ve tried sampling unknown strips there, but pretty much every one I found to be lame, unfunny, and uncreative.
Thus zero desire to try to rezz my account there and no way I’m going to pay any fees. It was fun while it lasted.
I had been getting emails about the upcoming update, and yesterday afternoon got one informing me that I would have to reset the password on my account. So this morning I went to the website to do so, and had exactly this happen; repeated attempts to get the verification code yielded bupkis. Being in a persistant mood, I managed (after some difficulty) to get a link to their customer service email and explained my problem. This is the response I got:
Remember those mornings when your alarm doesn’t go off, you spill coffee on your shirt, and then discover your car won’t start? Well, our GoComics relaunch day felt a lot like that—except with servers instead of cars and thousands of concerned comic lovers instead of just an annoyed boss.
Yesterday, our site experienced several significant traffic surges that knocked our performance sideways. While we’re thrilled that so many of you love your daily comics fix (we do too!), we clearly weren’t prepared for just how passionate our community is.
What happened? The short version: our relaunch encountered more hiccups than there are panels in a Sunday edition of Garfield.
What we’re doing: Our team is working around the clock to improve load times and squash bugs faster than Snoopy chases the Red Baron. You may still experience some glitches today as we continue these improvements.
We’ve received thousands of messages from concerned readers like you. While it will take some time for human eyeballs to review each specific inquiry, please know that we WILL get to yours, so please do not submit additional emails or leave additional voice messages, which will only slow down our response time. Your message really does matters to us, because we understand these comics aren’t just entertainment—they’re part of your daily routine and support the livelihoods of creators we all admire.Comics have a wonderful way of finding humor in life’s challenges. We’re trying to channel that spirit now, even as we take these technical difficulties very seriously.
Thank you for your continued patience and understanding. After all, even Charlie Brown kept trying to kick that football.
At least they’re willing to admit that they f*ed up, and have a sense of humor about it. Still, I miss being able to read all my daily comics.
Ah, I’ve never had an account there, so if the issues are all account-related, that explains why it was smooth for me.
All I follow there is Frazz.
If I’m remembering correctly, the reason I had gotten an account there was because my local newspaper had done a major restructuring of their comics page, dropping a lot of my favorites. Gocomics carried most of the ones I liked, but in order to set up a favorites page so I wouldn’t have to search the site for them every day I needed to open an account.
At the time the annual membership fee was fairly low, but I think along with the new “improvements” the cost is practically doubling.
The comics I follow can be found elsewhere online, usually in newspapers like Seattle Times, USA Today, or Washington Post. That’s how I get Mary Worth and Rex Morgan (two strips I love-to-hate). Arcamax has quite a few.
I never created sn account but I bookmarked the strips I felt like following. Put them all in a folder and that became my “favorites page.”