Is improvement work on this forum/website still ongoing?

[bernard towersParticipant @bernardtowers37738]

are the For Sale/Wanted icons going to be moved to the top of the page as they are the first option most people require not having to scroll through the whole of the first page of ads to find them ?

[Michael GilliganParticipant @michaelgilligan61133]

The site is still working to the customary level of mediocrity here in iPad land.

I haven’t bothered counting, but I doubt if it has logged me out more than four times in its life.

Plenty of other grumbles, but that’s not one of them.

MichaelG.

.

P.S. __ I will shut-down and re-start the iPad now … just to see if it invites the horsemen of the apocalypse !

.

Edit: __ Nope ! … same as it was

[JasonBModerator @jasonb]

Bernard, I do hope so along with making them the same shape as all the other “buttons” or at the very least have the red file icon the clickable bit not the text below. Originally it did not even have those two until I asked so you had to open any ad to see if it was Sales or Wants so be grateful for what we have now and hope for better

[CirclipParticipant @circlip]

Wotch out, Sloth has just announced Doze 12.

Regards  Ian.

[JAParticipant @ja]

Without logging in I cannot see any postings since 22 December.

So one logs in, twice (that is what it wants!), refresh the screen otherwise the screen reverts to logout when I click on “Forums”. I then want to add some photos to a posting from my gallery only to find I have to upload them from my computer.

I am sure I am the only person with problem. All I can say is that using Hollerith cards on an IBM1130 was easier. Still, that is progress.

Happy Christmas and a good New Year to anyone who can read this. Many thanks to those working to improve this site.

JA

 

[Keith LongParticipant @keithlong89920]

Hi JA, no you’re not the only person with that problem, I’ve got it as well.

It seems to have arisen since we were given the dubious privilege of being able to alter our “Consent Preferences” for cookies in the lower left corner. Pity they didn’t hang around to see if it all worked properly before they cleared off on holiday for Christmas and the New Year. I have flagged it up and Jason has notified “those that ought to know” about it but it seems that they won’t be back in until 3rd January 2024. It’ll be a good advert for the site if new folks try accessing over the holiday period!

[JasonBModerator @jasonb]

I’ve just replied to an email from a member who is having the same problem, may as well post it here too.

Hi *****

They said they had solved this problem last week after you and some others reported the problem. But it seems to have come back again on Friday when a small change was made. I let Darren and Andy know then but Andy is now away until the 3rd January according to the automated reply. Not a sausage from Darren even though Andy’s message says Darren will be there to help with web-related problems. Neil does not get a good signal at weekends so seldom looks in and not that often even when he has a signal.

I have a feeling nothing will happen until at least Wednesday but more likely not until the 3rd when Andy gets back.

[File HandleParticipant @filehandle]

Whilst waiting for my wife this morning I perused the forum on my phone. The latest post I saw was from the 22nd. Back home now on my laptop and its up to date. logged in on my laptop, but not on the phone.
So it looks like the phone feed was coming from a cache / proxy, This may be the fault of an ISP rather than the website per se.
I had a similar issue on a different website a few years ago, were the blogg was similarly out of date, but only for a few of us. It was a couple of years before the issue resolved itself and I didn’t need to refresh the page.

[peak4Participant @peak4]

Certainly there’s something odd going on.
I now get regular forced log-offs, which has never happened on this new site before.
Also when I logged back on just now, hit Forums-Latest Replies, the last one showing was 10.12 this morning, even after a screen refresh.
When I clicked on an earlier post, the Latest Replies list then re-populated, showing this more recent topic again.

Bill

[bernard towers]

On bernard towers Said:

are the For Sale/Wanted icons going to be moved to the top of the page as they are the first option most people require not having to scroll through the whole of the first page of ads to find them ?

.

Until they fix it, Bernard … you could just bookmark the two links that I provided for Emgee.

MichaelG.

[Michael Gilligan]

On Michael Gilligan Said:

On bernard towers Said:

are the For Sale/Wanted icons going to be moved to the top of the page as they are the first option most people require not having to scroll through the whole of the first page of ads to find them ?

.

Until they fix it, Bernard … you could just bookmark the two links that I provided for Emgee.

MichaelG.

Hah!

Could be a long wait, they seem to be breaking more than they fix at the moment

Ian P

[not done it yetParticipant @notdoneityet]

First visit for a fair while.  Certainly faster than it was but still not an exactly exhilarating experience, as yet.

[JAParticipant @ja]

This would not happen with an IBM 1130. I have just discovered you can get an emulator for running FORTRAN on a PC. If I had known earlier…………..

Still happy Christmas, again, and an alternative New Year to all. Somehow I feel it will be slightly too cold for the workshop.

JA

[Grindstone CowboyParticipant @grindstonecowboy]

Still staying logged in OK, latest posts seem to be keeping up to date, and speed is acceptable.

So nothing much for me to complain about, apart from a distinct feeling there’s a lack of Christmas spirit around here! “They’re having time off? How very dare they! Why aren’t they working to fix this free access forum over the holidays? Well, I never!”

There’ll be some ghosts visiting you if you’re not careful….

🙂 Merry Christmas to all!

[File HandleParticipant @filehandle]

A couple of hours or so ago I logged out to see what happened, Latest post was from the 22nd, logged back in and it was fixed. However, logging back in wasn’t straight forward, took a while for it to work. Now will stay logged in again.

[File Handle]

On File Handle Said:

Whilst waiting for my wife this morning I perused the forum on my phone. The latest post I saw was from the 22nd. Back home now on my laptop and its up to date. logged in on my laptop, but not on the phone.
So it looks like the phone feed was coming from a cache / proxy, This may be the fault of an ISP rather than the website per se.
I had a similar issue on a different website a few years ago, were the blogg was similarly out of date, but only for a few of us. It was a couple of years before the issue resolved itself and I didn’t need to refresh the page.

As far as I’m aware, this has been the case since the latest iteration of the Latest Replies function.
When logged on, the list is contemporaneous and updates with every screen refresh.
When logged out, you see some previously generated list; even forcing a screen refresh fails to update the list.

It’s something I’ve mentioned on the forum many times, as well as directly to the developer(s) in a private mail.
I still wonder if it’s why the forum is a bit sluggish, and if the delay is caused by re-compiling the Latest Replies list; I’m referring to the actual list here, not the topic list in the right hand panel.

Logged out screen refresh still seems faster, but as you note, the Latest Replies is historic rather than current.

Bill

[peak4]

On peak4 Said:

…<br class=”bsp-quote-title” />When logged on, the list is contemporaneous and updates with every screen refresh.
When logged out, you see some previously generated list; even forcing a screen refresh fails to update the list.

It’s something I’ve mentioned on the forum many times, as well as directly to the developer(s) in a private mail.
I still wonder if it’s why the forum is a bit sluggish, and if the delay is caused by re-compiling the Latest Replies list; I’m referring to the actual list here, not the topic list in the right hand panel.

Logged out screen refresh still seems faster, but as you note, the Latest Replies is historic rather than current.

Bill

I have also noticed that logging in does not necessarily solve the problem for all threads at the same time. I was logged out (by the forum) and assumed that the ‘Latest Replies’ list was out of date. Logged in and the list duly updated. I could see that there was a post in a thread made today (25/12/23) clicked on that post and got taken to the top of the replies for that thread but today’s post was not there, the list had terminated yesterday.

Tried browser refresh and coming at the list from a different direction with the same result I know the post is there but I cannot reach it. Have noticed this a couple of times now. Keep getting logged out. Works better, but not well , on PC my Samsung Android tablet refuses point blank to update the Latest Replies List properly so the forum is basically unusable on that.

John

[Michael GilliganParticipant @michaelgilligan61133]

There may be a logical explanation … but it seems odd that John’s quotation of Bill’s post has HTML code showing.

Surely such quotation is one of the ‘automated’ features

MichaelG.

[Nicholas FarrParticipant @nicholasfarr14254]

Hi, I haven’t logged in for a few days, but have looked in to see it there were any new replies, just to find that it seemed to be stuck on the 22nd Dec. and was thinking it may have been on hold over the Christmas period, or that everyone was to busy with their own Christmas plans. The logged in, and then been told to log in again when attempting to make a reply, has happened to me every time for the last week or so, and I’ve had to refresh the page one way or another after logging in, to make a reply, including this one.

I have for a month or two now, wondered along the same lines as what Keith Long has said in the last part, in his last paragraph in – https://www.model-engineer.co.uk/forums/topic/is-improvement-work-on-this-forum-website-still-ongoing/page/3/#post-701056

Regards Nick.

 

[JourneymanParticipant @journeyman]

Took me 4 tries this morning to log in to get beyond the Latest Replies for the 22nd. Definitely going backwards at the moment.

Just tried to go to the link in the post above and ended up on the replies for 22nd again and logged out. Hit the browser back button and I’m back here but still logged in. Seems to be remembering different status setting for different threads or something like that… Very confusing.

John

[VicParticipant @vic]

I had to log in twice this morning, and when I tried to reply to the drill bit thread it said I needed to log in again. I tried several times but I can’t reply to that particular thread because I get logged out when I view it! I’m still logged in on some other threads though. This forum software is just weird. I’m only looking in once in a while now but I can see me giving up if this type of nonsense continues, and the pop up Warco adverts are seriously irritating. If I was the boss of Warco I’d be asking them to remove the advert because it’s giving them a bad name.

[JourneymanParticipant @journeyman]

Some of the problems may be down to the way caching has been set up. When you call for a web page it can arrive from several different sources:

1. It can be provided directly by the server
2. It can come from a server-side cache
3. It can come from a browser cache.

This all needs very careful setting up and it is quite possible that different bits of the page you are looking at have come from different places and images for example may come from a completely separate CMS (content management system) All the various bits are assembled on the fly when you call for a particular page. It is possible indeed necessary to set this up carefully. Especially with settings that control how long cached items are stored.

Not helped by some browsers, Chrome for example, that like to try and keep everything cached locally to make browsing seem quicker. Can be extremely difficult to clear the browser cache sometimes even pressing F5 or Ctrl F5 doesn’t necessarily remove everything.

John

[Graham MeekParticipant @grahammeek88282]

Sadly this site is getting worse, instead of better. I am still seeing latest replies dated the 22nd before I log-in, and it has taken 8 attempts to log-in with an umpteen “Refresh” buttons in between. No doubt it will be well into the New Year before the latest improvement is sorted.

Just when I thought it was safe to start a new post.

Regards

Gray,

 

[Anonymous]

Hang in there Gray. The site is working more or less normally as-intended now for me (although I stick mostly to the forums and don’t roam around much). Like others I’m not a fan of the “new look” – though I distinctly remember discussions on the old site – before Morton’s time – about redoing the software and changing to a new, lighter “more modern” look comparable to other forum sites. The people that preferred the old look were portrayed then as “stick in the muds”.

I know a lot of people are still having technical issues but my experience says that it can work even in its current incarnation. It’s a matter, I think of the software’s sensitivity to different user setups.

For example, in your browser settings, are you flushing cookies and/or cache at browser shutdown?

The use of various devices for access also seems to run the gamut. I use a stock standard Windows desktop but I know some use i-whatevers and phones. Nothing would surprise me about an Android phone (personal opinion)!

[Ian PParticipant @ianp]

*!**%$!!
I have just spent 20 minutes writing a long reply to the last two posts (Gray’s and Peter’s) only to have Chrome close all windows and close itself when I hit ‘Submit’. (its never done that before)

My reply was robust but measured and it did include the fact that despite all the login and update issues seen by others, I generally have not seen any of those problems but covered the fact that the site itself is truly terrible.

Its debatable whether its worse or better than it was when it was first re-launched but it irrelevant really because its just so bad. I see posts from users saying that it works for them, or we will get used to it, or adjust the zoom (or some other settings), or clear the cache, or try a different browser but it is all irrelevant as none of those fixes are needed for other websites.

I really do despair that a large company can make such a hash. even more worrying to me is the fact that if work is being done to improve the site, what guidelines or plan is being followed? If the aim is for the site to meet the so-called specification (which we were assured was ‘Good’) then heaven help us.

Ian P

 

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