this is the worst site possible

[Graham MeekParticipant @grahammeek88282]

Have Mortons not realised by the number of postings about the site that things are dire.

I did say sometime back that there is a business mentality these days that thinks given enough time people will just get fed up of complaining and accept what they have been given, or go away.

If this is what they want then I can oblige. It is an easier option than trying to log-in to make a post on here.

Regards

Gray,

Win10

[John HaineParticipant @johnhaine32865]

A few people here who have an interest in horology will be aware of the Horological Science Newsletter site and possibly the Synchronome1 site.  These are hosted by groups.io and there is also a moribund Model Engineering site there at https://groups.io/g/ModelEngineer .  These sites are cheap and highly functional – the Synchronome one for example has areas to post images and most other file types, and the user interface is very simple to use.  They are easy to create too, and for a limited number of users and simpler functions they are free.  At least they provide an example of how things could be done.  I’d be interested to know what people think – maybe the ME site there could be reinvigorated?

[Graham Meek]

On Graham Meek Said:

Have Mortons not realised by the number of postings about the site that things are dire.

 

 

Considering that even on Christmas day I’ve been exchanging emails about the issue with mods and the Mortons IT team, I think they have grasped the scale of the issues.

It seems something has changed today as I’ve stayed logged in, been able to access the site via my phone without issues and the latest post lists are up to date.

Anyone wanting to stay logged in needs to accept cookies – that’s how the site recognises someone coming back.

 

Neil

[Neil Wyatt]

On Neil Wyatt Said:

On Graham Meek Said:

Have Mortons not realised by the number of postings about the site that things are dire.

 

 

Considering that even on Christmas day I’ve been exchanging emails about the issue with mods and the Mortons IT team, I think they have grasped the scale of the issues.

It seems something has changed today as I’ve stayed logged in, been able to access the site via my phone without issues and the latest post lists are up to date.

Anyone wanting to stay logged in needs to accept cookies – that’s how the site recognises someone coming back.

 

Neil

As Neil says, cookies are now an integral part of browsing and websites, not using or accepting cookies just means that things like staying logged in or going straight to the first post in a thread that you have not read is not possible. Users of other ‘conventional’ forums are used to features that we on this MEW?Me forum can only dream of.

Ian P

[SillyOldDufferModerator @sillyoldduffer]

Umm, wish I had more time to investigate.

Two days ago I set up Wireshark to look at the network traffic between my Browser (Ubuntu Firefox, both up-to-date) and noted that the initial page load appeared ro be cached locally, ie read from a copy stored on my computer not retrieved from the server.  May be a false conclusion because Wireshark takes careful setting up.   After logging in, I got server  updates.

Just tried again and it looks as if a major change has been made at the server end.   Two days ago, my Browser and the server communicated in standard HTTPS (web pages) and TLs (encryption set-up and refresh) both TCP.   The network connection is IPv6. (old network used IPv4).

Different today:  still IPv6, but the protocol has changed to QUIC not TCP.   QUIC is faster than TCP, but not everything supports it.  It means behind the scenes the new forum is doing a more complicated job than the old.  Nothing to do with look and feel, but it’s switching how it connects to individuals/  Presumably anyone with an ancient Windows-7 box gets an old-school IPv4 /’ TCP connection, whilst those with up to date hardware and software get a different service.  Both are risky: ancient because out-of-date software gradually becomes obsolete, whilst brand-new technology tends to be bleeding-edge – buggy!!!

Therefore individual experience could vary significantly.   Results depend on our hardware, the software it is running, how it is configured, our router, what our ISP supports, and a similar stack of dependencies at the host end, plus the performance tuning needs of a largish database and account management system.  The host end is more likely to be up-to-date.

Mortons were forced go live before the forum was fully debugged and are now struggling with a difficult IT problem, which is debugging a live site.   In development mode, there are no external host, network or client problems: bugs can only be due to the forum software, and the developer can experiment with solutions freely to find a fix.  Now the developer has to identify where in a very complex environment the bug really is, and there’s a high risk of causing new problems by changing the configuration experimentally.   Nasty, and applying fixes takes much longer.

From user end, there are two false views:

• Those who experience the worst think the whole thing is beyond redemption.  They’re wrong.
• Possible for occasional users not to notice there is anything odd going on.  This is wrong too.
• The truth is the forum is poorly – not delivering as intended, and fixing it has proved difficult.   A serious engineering problem,  and a hard slow slog to get it ‘just so’.  No doubt some annoying cosmetic problems haven’t been touched yet because the developer is embroiled in difficult stuff.

At the moment, I think suspect two or more bugs are interacting:: initial login, cache(s) not being refreshed causing old data to stick in the system, posts appearing in threads, or disappearing, and sluggish performance.    It’s possible all are cache related.   Simply put, if data hasn’t changed since the last request, use a local copy, i.e a cache.  But this only works if the cache refreshes correctly when the source data is changed.  Quite complicated to configure, and it can go wrong, causing peculiar misbehaviours!

Out of time, have to hit the road  – hope this makes sense.

Dave

 

[Ian P]

On Ian P Said:

On Neil Wyatt Said:

On Graham Meek Said:

Have Mortons not realised by the number of postings about the site that things are dire.

 

 

Considering that even on Christmas day I’ve been exchanging emails about the issue with mods and the Mortons IT team, I think they have grasped the scale of the issues.

It seems something has changed today as I’ve stayed logged in, been able to access the site via my phone without issues and the latest post lists are up to date.

Anyone wanting to stay logged in needs to accept cookies – that’s how the site recognises someone coming back.

 

Neil

As Neil says, cookies are now an integral part of browsing and websites, not using or accepting cookies just means that things like staying logged in or going straight to the first post in a thread that you have not read is not possible. Users of other ‘conventional’ forums are used to features that we on this MEW?Me forum can only dream of.

Ian P

You can get to the most recent page of a thread by clicking on the most recent comment on the right side of the list rather than thread title.

 

It would be nice to default to latest unread.

[Neil WyattModerator @neilwyatt]

P.S. I’m experimenting with using my phone, which has been difficult previously but seems to have improved. I apologise in advance for typos etc…

 

Neil

[JasonBModerator @jasonb]

Log in problem and topics showing upto 22th seems to be OK now. I just logged in on first attempt and even if logged out can see upto date replies

The blue preferences iconbottom left has also now disappeared so seems adding that on Friday 22nd was what mucked things up.

 

Was me and Dave initiating the emails on Christmas day and me making the top brass aware of the type of posts here yesterday and pointing out that others were out of touch with what the general feeling about the site was. That is likely to have prompted the action

[Ian PParticipant @ianp]

The.’general feeling’ about how bad this site was has been around since it was restarted. Why have the top brass only just been made aware of it….

Isn P

[JasonBModerator @jasonb]

They and the editors have constantly been made aware of problems by me and Dave, I got a bit more P**sed off yesterday and drove the points home.

[JasonBModerator @jasonb]

Login problem is back along with the Blue preferences Icon, I feel like giving up. Taken me 10mins to get back into the site and only then by making use of my wordpress login not the usual site one.

[ChrisLHParticipant @chrislh]

How common is my recent experince ? Today is the first time I have been able to access posts more recent than 22/12. I had to respond to the blue disk bottom left (which I confess I have not noticed before) in order to get in.

[Graham MeekParticipant @grahammeek88282]

I logged-in using the earlier technique we have had to use over the past few days, so I cannot verify if there is anything different.

The Blue Icon is there, but it does not say what it is so I have left it alone. Most of the time it is obliterated by the paper in the printer. This symbol may mean something to the general computer based reader, but to me it is just another pretty symbol that makes no real sense. Its a bit like the Privacy terms in the other corner. Neither are requesting that I action them.

Regards

Gray,

 

[Michael GilliganParticipant @michaelgilligan61133]

On the subject of the Cookies !!

I mentioned before, that I had Rejected All [except for ‘Necessary’] and had saved that preference.

As a result of Neil’s comment … I clicked the little cookie icon this afternoon, and the list popped up with everything Accepted, not Rejected … so obviously, for whatever reason, my preference was not saved.

Not blaming anyone [it might even have been my own fault], but I am now about to repeat that rejection process, and will look back occasionally for reassurance that my preferences are saved.

MichaelG.

.

[Graham MeekParticipant @grahammeek88282]

MichaelG,

From what I can see there is no choice, clicking on either of the other two buttons does nothing. It does not alter the colour on the “Accept All” button. I would have thought once you had made your choice the Icon would disappear as it does on other sites.

Regards

Gray,

 

[Graham Meek]

On Graham Meek Said:

MichaelG,

From what I can see there is no choice, clicking on either of the other two buttons does nothing. It does not alter the colour on the “Accept All” button. I would have thought once you had made your choice the Icon would disappear as it does on other sites.

Regards

Gray,

 

For me, on W10 desktop, it works more or less as expected.
I had previously “Rejected All”, and when I clicked on the icon, it confirmed my previous choices, with only the top line as Always Active.
As an experiment, I just enabled Analytics, and selected “Save My Preferences”

It worked as expected and showed that option ticked when I re-clicked the round blue Cookieyes icon.
I left it as selected, then “Rejected All” and upon checking the only active option was the top one again.

It seems that “Reject All” & “Accept All” do exactly what they say; as does Save My Preferences, for any lines where you chose to opt in.

Bill

[John McCullaParticipant @johnmcculla]

Today is the first I’ve seen any new posts since the 22nd, and I checked pretty much every day.

Tbh I thought the site had finally died a death.

Pleased to see it back working, but clearly problems yet!

[Michael GilliganParticipant @michaelgilligan61133]

Thanks for the sanity-check, Bill

… looks like it was either finger-trouble on my part, or a momentary glitch somewhere

I’ve just been working on the Mac [where I had not set any preferences yet] and the Reject All preference has carried across, because it’s the same account.

All seems fine

I would edit my earlier post if I could.

MichaelG.

.

Edit: __ Mmm, I wonder why the screen-shot that I attached to my previous post is not showing [?]

[roy entwistleParticipant @royentwistle24699]

Why do I get emails when other people post on this site?  I just got one now from the gentleman wantng to give away square tube. I have never clicked on the box asking for notification of replies and I only read his post.

Roy

[JasonB]

On JasonB Said:

…

Kiwi, looks like it is the 4th reply down this page, shows for me.

…

Oh, good grief! Was it there all the time? Clearly I’m losing it – whatever ‘it’ is.

Thank you JasonB for your continuing efforts to get this mess sorted out. And thanks to everyone else who is probably tearing their hair out, addressing the problem.

Comments about the difficulty of fixing a live system noted. Would it really be unacceptable to shut down for a few days? I think a lot of members would be perfectly happy with that, provided there were sufficient notification.

Incidentally, there doesn’t seem to be any need to allow ‘cookieyes’-related scripts. Also, on log-in, the ReCaptcha box, when ticked, just obligingly tells me I’m not a robot (which confirms my suspicion) and does not bring up the multi-box ‘puzzle’. Not much utility, it seems. Time to dump it, then we don’t have to allow a snooping Google script?

[Michael Gilligan]

On Michael Gilligan Said:

Thanks for the sanity-check, Bill

……………..

.

Edit: __ Mmm, I wonder why the screen-shot that I attached to my previous post is not showing [?]

I’m guessing it relates to the caching issue that Dave mentioned earlier.
I’ve had it happen several times recently; When I posted my screenshot a bit below your comment, your own screenshot was absent, just showing a file name.
I’ve now re-visited this topic, and your image was still absent.
I then went to the top of Page 2, spent more time reading Dave’s reply; by the time I’d scrolled back down to your post, your screenshot has miraculously appeared.

I guess this will be the case until things settle down a bit more; unless a developer can actually see it happening in real time, it must be hard to track down the bug.

Bill

[Michael GilliganParticipant @michaelgilligan61133]

Thanks again, Bill

Yes, I can confirm that the screenshot is now showing on both iPad and Mac

We tend to assume that these things work at the speed of light, and stay in synch. but it’s evidently not true.

MichaelG.

[JasonBModerator @jasonb]

I’ve also noticed it with your posts Michael with the actual image showing up some time later. But as you tend to post more images than others it could simply be that rather than your images being slow.

[JasonB]

On JasonB Said:

Frances, There is another thread(s) on this but I’ll repeat it here as a lot of people are getting the same problem including me this morning.

If you log in and then get logged out as soon as you click “Forums” then that can often be solved but pressing F5

We had the problem a few weeks ago and it was then said to be fixed however the powers that be decided to add the “consent Preferences” Last Friday which seems to have brought it back. Not helped by the fact they have now gone on holiday until the 3rd.

There is no F5 on an iPad.

[Nicholas FarrParticipant @nicholasfarr14254]

Hi, well here’s a new one on me, went to log-in, and it told me that I was logged in, with the page that you normally get, but when trying to access the forum or my profile, it says I need to log in, so tried to log in again, and the same page came up saying that I was logged in but I still got the message to say I need to log in to make replies etc. This happen several times, so I thought I’ll log out, and up comes a new message asking if I really wanted to log out, with the log out highlighted to click on, so I did that, and tried to log in again. This went on again and again as if I was stuck in a loop, so I shutdown my laptop and then restarted it, only to find the same thing happening again. Eventually I came across a Log-in No. 2 tag below the normal log-in one, which at last, actually let me log-in.

It seems that every time something gets fixed, it creates a new problem, which really is getting frustrating.

Regards Nick.

[Author]

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