PUBLIC-NOTICES: Forum Changes/Fixes. Any Questions?

[TheCotMan]

Re: PUBLIC-NOTICES: Forum Changes/Fixes. Any Questions?

Received bug report from 3 users:

Attempts to access https://forum.defcon.org/ resulted in a 404 page claiming /ical/ did not exist, which was a bogus error from an html file. I removed the file and the forums can be accessed from https://forum.defcon.org/ now. (Before this fix was applied, access to the forums using other URL like https://forum.defcon.org/forum.php worked just fine.) (If you still see this error, force a reload of the page denying use of cache, or clear your cache.)

Thanks to the people that reported these bugs in private. Since the reports were in private, and not in public, I'm not including their names here to give them credit... they can make this claim in public if they want. :-)

(I really try hard to keep private conversations private, but also like to give credit to people that deserve it. When these are in conflict, usually, privacy wins.)

[b0n3z]

Re: PUBLIC-NOTICES: Forum Changes/Fixes. Any Questions?

YAY I'm helping

[JustaBill]

Re: PUBLIC-NOTICES: Forum Changes/Fixes. Any Questions?

YAY I'm helping

Yea you are.... helping to keep kids off drugs!

[shrdlu]

Re: PUBLIC-NOTICES: Forum Changes/Fixes. Any Questions?

The list of things that are now broken is high, notably that the landing page after logging in tells me I have no privileges. When I clicked on "What's New" it had the effect of taking me to what had been posted since I last logged in. I'm thinking that the "hourglass" going on the "Reply" button for this question is not a bad thing, but I'll post this and make sure. If it doesn't post, you'll just get this in an email.

[TheCotMan]

Re: PUBLIC-NOTICES: Forum Changes/Fixes. Any Questions?

This was a related problem. An old doc dumped people off on "content.php" instead of "forum.php" and if people are still seeing problems with this, it is proably because their browser has a cached copy.

in firefox, I think you can force-reload without using cache byu presing control-shift and click the "reload" button. I'm not sure about other browsers.

This cache issue is the same for the 404 error reported from root of https://forum.defcon.org/ : after the offending file was removed, the error persisted until a non-cached copy was requested.


Sorry about these troubles... the last major upgrade left behind a large collection of old files that were no longer needed or used, but not removed. These would have been a security issue as scripts untested with the rest of the new software. For this upgrade, I applied a "clean" install, after moving all old code to a backup dir, then copied back those items that "we" created. The result is an install free of odd crap with unknown risks, but problems with file-edits being needed to fix things that would not be broken if I went the lazy route, and left behind the junk from 2 major releases ago.

There are also issues with the styles. (Mostly the Classic1, and High-Contrast-Dark) which I am fixing as I find them. Many of these have to do with old labels being obsoleted or replaced, leading to black text on black background, or white text on white backgrounds. If you see problems like this, please let me know so they can be addressed. (10 fixed so far.)

[shrdlu]

Re: PUBLIC-NOTICES: Forum Changes/Fixes. Any Questions?

As this will make clear, the other issues have mostly cleared off. Firefox is not pleased with your certificate for SSL (but that's probably related to my clearing cache and other items). The white background style I'm using (aka High Contrast White) currently has black on black title bars for posts (but only posts). Thread Information, below (for example) is just find and dandy.

I don't remember that little spinning thing on the Reply button before, but I usually use the "Reply With Quote" so perhaps that's always been there, and I never saw it before. Have I said lately how much I appreciate your work? I do. :-D

[TheCotMan]

Re: PUBLIC-NOTICES: Forum Changes/Fixes. Any Questions?

As this will make clear, the other issues have mostly cleared off. Firefox is not pleased with your certificate for SSL (but that's probably related to my clearing cache and other items). The white background style I'm using (aka High Contrast White) currently has black on black title bars for posts (but only posts). Thread Information, below (for example) is just find and dandy.

Thanks for the report.

Please reload this thread and see if this is now fixed. Since this is *supposed* to be high-contrast-white/light, it is supposed to primarily be dark fonts on light backgrounds. I've changed this from black on black to black on gray. Should the gray be made lighter? Suggestions welcome. it is presently #CCCCCC while #FFFFFF is pure white and #000000 is pure black.

I don't remember that little spinning thing on the Reply button before, but I usually use the "Reply With Quote" so perhaps that's always been there, and I never saw it before.

It is "new-ish" since the major upgrade in December and part of the new post editing/composing. It happens when it is trying to download the quoted content (or other content) for inclusion in a post.

Have I said lately how much I appreciate your work? I do. :-D

Thanks, and thanks for the feedback on problems!

I expect there to be more problems with the styles as a result of this minor upgrade. We are up to 22 problems found and fixed, and I am sure there are more.

[TheCotMan]

Re: PUBLIC-NOTICES: Forum Changes/Fixes. Any Questions?

The "Content" section has been disabled since the December upgrade. We had not content to include there. Today I publish a simple item explaining the content section.
The normal behavior of the forums is to dump people into the content section when they visit the forums. We alter this to have them get dumped into the forums.

The content section should now be open with just one post. When you click on the "NavBar" item "Home" it will take you to this new section that should be now open for reading. Feedback welcome.

[shrdlu]

Re: PUBLIC-NOTICES: Forum Changes/Fixes. Any Questions?

That spinning wheel thing happens when I click on Reply, so I don't think it's trying to download anything. Actually, the "Reply With Quote" took so long I gave up, hit refresh on the page, and just used "Reply" instead.

I think the Black on Black I was seeing was an artifact somehow, since your changing it has fixed this item, also. I'm going to try a reply with quote thing on your next comment, and if it doesn't work, that'll be a separate issue.

[Edit] Okay, I gave up after 60 seconds. It just never brings up a window for me with quoted items. I don't remember this probably before tonight. Adding a comment was simple. That hourglass thing is REALLY annoying.

[TheCotMan]

Re: PUBLIC-NOTICES: Forum Changes/Fixes. Any Questions?

That spinning wheel thing happens when I click on Reply, so I don't think it's trying to download anything. Actually, the "Reply With Quote" took so long I gave up, hit refresh on the page, and just used "Reply" instead.

I think the Black on Black I was seeing was an artifact somehow, since your changing it has fixed this item, also. I'm going to try a reply with quote thing on your next comment, and if it doesn't work, that'll be a separate issue.

[Edit] Okay, I gave up after 60 seconds. It just never brings up a window for me with quoted items. I don't remember this probably before tonight. Adding a comment was simple. That hourglass thing is REALLY annoying.

"Reply-with-quote" worked for me, but we probably don't have the same browser, browser version, and platform.

Which are you using? (Feel free to emal me if you don't want these published in public.)
Also, if you have any extra plugins, I'd like to know which ones.

[shrdlu]

Re: PUBLIC-NOTICES: Forum Changes/Fixes. Any Questions?

In response to a couple of things from our emails, and from here. I still cannot use the "reply with quote" option. I just now realized that there aren't any of the fancy choices I used to have, either. I'll try the "go advanced" thing in a bit, but I believe something's broken here.

Your color choices for the headlines are just fine. I think my aging eyes are a good test for this. If I can read them easily, probably anyone can.

From your email, concerning the spinning hourglass thing, and inability to type:

"I am going to guess that it would have appeared for you before this upgrade, but
not appeared long enough to be observable. Something was broken as a result of this
upgrade, and because it is broken, it is taking longer than a fraction of a second,
thus making the spinning pointer obvious. I'll see if I can duplicate that problem,
too."

No, there was not an issue before. I typically look at the forums when I'm still drinking my first cup of coffee, and lack any patience at all. I'd have noticed this. Actually, I'm noticing it right now. :-(

I'll check back in a bit. [When I used the "edit post" option, then I got stupid smilies, but still no other editing choices.]

Edit again: Bleach. Even when using the so-called "advanced" editing options, none of the options I used to see are there. I loathe stupid smilies. They are the opposite of communication. need more coffee, dammit.

[TheCotMan]

Re: PUBLIC-NOTICES: Forum Changes/Fixes. Any Questions?

In response to a couple of things from our emails, and from here. I still cannot use the "reply with quote" option. I just now realized that there aren't any of the fancy choices I used to have, either. I'll try the "go advanced" thing in a bit, but I believe something's broken here.

I found some options for posting interface and changed them. Feedback is desired. Better? Worse? no change?

Also, would you be willing to logout of the forums, clear cookies for *defcon.org and login again to see if the problem goes away?

I've not been able to duplicate the described behavior of stuck horglass, yet.

Your color choices for the headlines are just fine. I think my aging eyes are a good test for this. If I can read them easily, probably anyone can.

OK, I'll leave the new colors for post header/divider as they are now for that style.

[shrdlu]

Re: PUBLIC-NOTICES: Forum Changes/Fixes. Any Questions?

I didn't get email notification that you'd made this reply, so am just seeing it now. I just logged in to the site, using Chrome (which I LOATHE), so that there would be a browser that has never ever accessed the site before, and there would be no worries about caching issues or cookies. I still have the same problems. "Reply With Quote" doesn't work, and I don't see any of the editing choices that I used to see, even if I select "Go Advanced" as an option. The hourglass effect is still there on the "Reply" as well.

I can't get to your site from stupid IE because it doesn't like your certificate (and there's a limit to how much work I'm willing to do over this). I may check this later, from an older browser on my FreeBSD machine (which often has no problems when I encounter problems with later things).

Is it just me, and just my account? Or is it that others aren't really reporting when they have issues?

[Edit] I could send you a screen shot of what I see on the "Go Advanced" thing if you think it will help.

[shrdlu]

Re: PUBLIC-NOTICES: Forum Changes/Fixes. Any Questions?

In addition to other problems with authentication, when I attempted to refresh the page via chrome, after I'd logged out via Firefox, it got very weird, and very messy. If you're honestly checking whether an account is logged out, and then somehow changing a setting on the account, something is not working right. It somehow decided that the Chrome browser had logged out too (I hadn't), and then wouldn't take me to a page where I could log back in until I hit refresh a couple of times. This may simply be due to Chrome (did I say I LOATHE Chrome? I do.).

I'm making this additional post in an effort to see if it happens without FF being logged in.

[Edit] Nope. It really seems to have been related to my being logged in twice, from two browsers, on the same machine.

[TheCotMan]

Re: PUBLIC-NOTICES: Forum Changes/Fixes. Any Questions?

In addition to other problems with authentication, when I attempted to refresh the page via chrome, after I'd logged out via Firefox, it got very weird, and very messy. If you're honestly checking whether an account is logged out, and then somehow changing a setting on the account, something is not working right. It somehow decided that the Chrome browser had logged out too (I hadn't), and then wouldn't take me to a page where I could log back in until I hit refresh a couple of times. This may simply be due to Chrome (did I say I LOATHE Chrome? I do.).

Shared cookies between browsers? Try this with another site, and see if you are logged-in with chrome after loggin-in with firefox.

I'm making this additional post in an effort to see if it happens without FF being logged in.

[Edit] Nope. It really seems to have been related to my being logged in twice, from two browsers, on the same machine.

Thanks for the reports. I have not given up, but also have not been able to duplicate these reports on my own. I'll keep trying.

Speaking of cookies... in other (unrelated) news, another maintenance cycle coming soon for: TamperevidentWiki, Forums, testforums, pics. Major upgrade of software used to support the forums.