Something weird is happening

[bUU]

Something weird is happening. Things work fine in the lists of threads, but inside the threads themselves it seems to lose track of who I am.

[travelover]

It is just the NSA messing with you. Ignore them.

[bradaz2488]

Quote:

Originally Posted by bUU Something weird is happening. Things work fine in the lists of threads, but inside the threads themselves it seems to lose track of who I am.

I see the same thing. I think they did a server update recently. Not sure if this explains this. Does not seem to affect posting or navigating thru the forum. Yesterday it was throwing me off the forum several times (lost site??). I try not to take it personal ...

[target2019]

I'd log out, clear the cache and cookies, and log back in...
If problem persists, notify a MOD.

[sengsational]

Quote:

Originally Posted by bUU Something weird is happening. Things work fine in the lists of threads, but inside the threads themselves it seems to lose track of who I am.

Same here. The quote button was there and worked, which is why I'm able to do this. But on the same page as the quote button, the upper right did NOT have "Welcome, sengsational" like it usually does (it does on this page, though). I'm not sure what's going to happen when I press 'submit reply'. If you're reading this, it means it worked

[sengsational]

Quote:

Originally Posted by sengsational Same here. The quote button was there and worked, which is why I'm able to do this. But on the same page as the quote button, the upper right did NOT have "Welcome, sengsational" like it usually does (it does on this page, though). I'm not sure what's going to happen when I press 'submit reply'. If you're reading this, it means it worked

Well, not really. It didn't completely work. The post did show up (obviously), but when the page came back, it went into a JavaScript endless loop. This was using Firefox with NoScript configured to allow this domain (but maybe not all domains). The base problem, though, was happening both here on my desktop Firefox and also on my Android Tablet with Firefox (with no add-ins running).

[Walt34]

When you log in, check the "Remember Me" box. That should take care of it.

[sengsational]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Walt34 When you log in, check the "Remember Me" box. That should take care of it.

That seems to be a recent change, but it helped. Thanks!!

[Donzo]

Quote:

Originally Posted by bUU Something weird is happening. Things work fine in the lists of threads, but inside the threads themselves it seems to lose track of who I am.

Sounds like you are suffering from an identity crisis.......

[redduck]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Walt34 When you log in, check the "Remember Me" box. That should take care of it.

If the above doesn't work, try logging in with your pants on.

[karluk]

Perhaps I'm being excessively paranoid, but I've always refused on general principles to use the "Remember Me" option for the web sites I frequent. I'm uncomfortable depositing my login credentials who knows where for a hacker to potentially exploit.

Regardless of the wisdom of this precaution, I don't plan on changing just because ER.org isn't working the way it should be. Please fix this problem instead of requiring everybody to use a work-around.

[karluk]

Another issue I hadn't noticed until recently is that the "last reply" is visible on the portal screen several minutes before it appears in the thread detail. The portal screen will show a post by MichaelB, for example, but when I click on the thread no post is there. A few minutes later, though, it does appear.

I don't know if this lengthy lag time is a recent phenomenon. Perhaps I just didn't notice it until now. In either case, it's pretty weird that parts of this site know more about what's being posted than others.

[karluk]

As a concrete example of this lag time issue, take thread http://www.early-retirement.org/foru...ml#post1407791 The first reply in this thread is timestamped 11:01am by jimnjana, and I did see jimnjana's id listed as responding to this thread at that time. But I wasn't able to click on the thread and see the actual text of jimnjana's reply until 11:04. Could one of the forum admins explain why this is happening?

[Walt34]

Quote:

Originally Posted by karluk Perhaps I'm being excessively paranoid, but I've always refused on general principles to use the "Remember Me" option for the web sites I frequent. I'm uncomfortable depositing my login credentials who knows where for a hacker to potentially exploit.

It doesn't save your login and password. It sets a cookie that lets the system know that you are logged in or not. If it doesn't see the cookie it thinks you're not logged in.

Saving the login/password is a separate function in your browser.

[REWahoo]

Quote:

Originally Posted by karluk Perhaps I'm being excessively paranoid...

I vote yes.

The software is allowing you to agree to something (setting a cookie) that many (most) sites do without your knowledge or permission. It can't tell (and doesn't care) whether you have your pants on or not...

[karluk]

Quote:

Originally Posted by REWahoo I vote yes. The software is allowing you to agree to something (setting a cookie) that many (most) sites do without your knowledge or permission. It can't tell (and doesn't care) whether you have your pants on or not...

Gotcha. It's not a bug, it's a feature.

Is there an equally simple explanation of why I'm seeing a time lag before being able to read new posts?

[REWahoo]

I'm not seeing any delays. A problem with your IP?

[karluk]

I believe the time lag happens only when logged in and not using the "Remember Me" option. At least I haven't seen in the short time I've been using "Remember Me".

I guess I'm willing to believe that the option to not remember that a session is logged in from one screen to the next is a feature ER.org generously provides to its members which other websites mandate, but it's less clear why that option should lead to a several minute delay in the visibility of new posts, as I described above. I would tend to describe such behavior as a "bug", not a "feature".

[REWahoo]

If no one else is reporting that delay "bug", and I haven't heard anyone do so, is it E-R.org or is it something on your end?

[karluk]

I certainly can't debug other people's sessions or decide for them what odd behavior is worth reporting, but since I didn't notice the lag time problem until the other "Remember Me" issues started happening a few days ago, I would speculate that the lag time is happening to everybody but was either unnoticed or went unreported because it was considered a secondary problem to the failure to carry login info from one screen to the next.

Then when the admins started recommended using "Remember Me", that fixed the lag time issue as a beneficial side-effect.

I would suggest, however, if you want to continue making "Remember Me" optional rather than mandatory, you should stress test it and make sure that it is working in a reasonable way for people who persist in keeping "Remember Me" unchecked.