Unable to read comments or comment on posts

Hi folks, could I ask the moderators how I can comment on posts, or even read the comments on posts?
I'm new here so please forgive me if I've missed something. I've read the rules and the 'getting started' advice.

When I click on a comment (eg on Wazen's wonderful piece about his travels from 2006) this is what I get:

>>>Beansprouter, you do not have permission to access this page. This could be due to one of several reasons:
Your user account may not have sufficient privileges to access this page. Are you trying to edit someone else's post, access administrative features or some other privileged system?
If you are trying to post, the administrator may have disabled your account, or it may be awaiting activation.<<<

As far as I am aware, my account is activated. I got an email from webmaster at indiamike.com on 13 April to say so. I am not trying to edit someone else's post, access administrative features or use any other unauthorised privileges. I would just like to read comments and post comments if that's ok.

Can you help?

Many thanks and keep up the good work,

Beansprouter

Tricky to say here and for me as just another member, but Wazen's thread that you're referring to has long been promoted to be an article. This could mean further comments are closed, or restricted, or maybe you're trying to respond to it in the wrong way, I don't know. The thread as it started out to be may well just be closed, so no longer open to further replies. I'm not checking now.

That message you get is just some standard message, don't pay it too much attention.

There are a very few sub-forums here that are not open to newer members to start threads in (such as Chai and Chat, sort of the goofy chat forum); fewer even where no members can (notably India For Beginners and the Meetups threads, to keep some semblance of order there); then a very few that aren't accessible at all to newer members (typically known as the Off-Topic forums on most any web forum. You'll never get to see them if you can't.)

Other than that, you should have access to most anything you have access to, be able to at least reply there, etc.

Hope this sort-of explains it.

Given that you're able to post in this thread makes me think that things are configured OK for your account. Can you send me a link to the thread where you got the error message please?

Nadreg, I have trouble finding it back right now in a jiffy using the search engine or scouting around the articles here, but Wazen is/was an older member (not necessarily in age, but in terms of membership), had quite some interesting tales on his life on the road in India and Pakistan. (I think in fact how that all ended finally never became all that clear. In other words, let's hope he's doing well. He had some rough spots there to go along with the good, if I recall, then in the end there was just never a word how it all turned out.)

I'm quite sure one or some of those threads ended up being promoted as "articles" here. If so, probably created from existing threads. So I'm thinking if so, it could be there's a discrepancy between responding to those threads or to those articles, or perhaps those threads are just closed, and then how it is with replying to articles when those threads are in fact closed I just have no idea. Never tried. Do articles allow for replies as such, at all? It's an honest question, I really have no idea.

Wazen's article must in fact be one of the classics out here, it regularly appears among the randomly circulating ones on the homepage still. He's that goofy young white guy with the bandana featuring in the pic to go with it. Strange in fact how I can't find it back just like that, I must not be looking right.

That standard message Beansprouter quoted is just what you'll get here when trying to access some page that isn't or is no longer accessible, or not to regular members anyway. So including any reply screen that in fact isn't functional.

I think a simple answer is probably she came across that article on the homepage and wanted to reply to it, then found this impossible. Maybe Beansprouter can confirm or deny this. If so, it wouldn't have to mean anything: Chances are you just can't.

ps The article by Wazen happened to be featured on the homepage just now. It is here: http://www.indiamike.com/india-artic...-starting-now/.

It doesn't seem to state in so many words what thread it was created from, but its "article comments" section leads back to this thread, and indeed of course of the same title: http://www.indiamike.com/india/masal...ng-now-t20055/.

The latter is however in the Masala Chai & Chat forum (formerly the Off-Topic forum). It appears to be open to posting replies, but so newer members will indeed be neither able to see that nor to reply there, so indeed have no access to it, and get a message to that effect, such as the one quoted by Beansprouter.

Hope this may explain it.

Ah pps so I see on that thread now that:

In fact he did call back in in early 2010 to let us know he was back home safe and sound. I hadn't found that back before, since the Masala forum isn't searchable, either.

Mod Note:
You are correct, Mach. The Original Poster in this thread had received a message earlier today from the mod team to this effect. Just noting for the record that the reason why Masala is now the home to Wazen's thread is that some of the content is sensitive. For this reason, Wazen is happy to have the article on the front page and the thread itself in Masala.

Thanks to all of you good folks, including the moderators, for your detailed explanations about this. Much appreciated. Wazen's article was absolutely riveting - one night I was so enthralled by it I could not go to sleep and had to boot up my computer again and keep reading. I know it's years ago now, but I guess I wanted to know what happened in the end and how he eventually got home after being ill, etc. This was why I was interested in reading the comments. But thank you all: I'll keep reading/posting etc and look forward to more of these brilliant contributions from IndiaMikers. :-)

So just to clarify was the journal/article ever finished? I really enjoyed reading and was left wanting more! which is testament to his writing abilities.

Also, is there another journal floating around of his next trip? Or is that the one that some of us cannot view.

Would be great if someone could give us some insight!

Thanks