PROBLEMS WITH THIS (NAS) FORUM - February 2018

So updates and fixes have been applied this morning 20:03:2018, 

I have noticed despite checking my settings and all boxes are checked for receiving alerts be they at the top of screen or email .

I am now getting alerts at the top but opening them via that route invariably leads to issues as not all replies are always visible, even when opening embedded sections.

Also I have had no email alerts since 28:02:2018.

One more thing new is if I am NOT logged in I cannot see the green lights telling if someone is online or not?

it was always possible before the updates.

Also I am confused as to just were to post my comments as WebPM has moved things around, it may be justified but for me I struggle to understand. This was started to replace the very old long general problems with the forum post, zThank you Disallowed Cynisure very much.

Not convinced things are much better, different maybe, but still unstable. Oh and a picture I posted showing my aspie chart score did vanish after the update to stop it happening. 

) ( said:

Also I have had no email alerts since 28:02:2018.

Because there is a separate thread on email alerts, I have replied there. The advantage of a separate thread is that it's easier to find for anyone else who may have a separate issue. I don't think there's any forum that has an ideal solution on this. However, I am regarding this current (forum problems) thread as being an overview, intended for looking at the situation as a whole. If there is a specific thread (as there are e.g. for pictures, messages and email notifications), I suggest that posting there is more helpful to others because it's easier to understand. In the same way, if another substantial issue develops, I suggest that a separate thread for that may be useful.

One of the issues we've had here is in understanding the discussions in complex threads. My experience of a number of different forum packages is that none work well if several conversations are going on at the same time, in the same thread. Generally, a Community will develop its own ethos as to when a new thread is needed, and senior members will suggest starting one when someone asks a related, but separate, question. These are my suggestions, but it is for you all to develop the way of working.

In an ideal world, I think we'd have a forum for user issues. However, on this version of the package, we have only five forums in total. A future upgrade is possible, but there would be implications for the charity's budget. Where I think the forum is valuable is when I look at all the other questions that are being asked in parallel to these discussions, and the way that they are answered. Many who post in this and related threads are involved in helping others by answering those posts.

WebPM said:

In an ideal world, I think we'd have a forum for user issues. However, on this version of the package, we have only five forums in total. A future upgrade is possible, but there would be implications for the charity's budget.

...EEEEEK!?!

...Sorry, Typo.

I don't think this is exactly what you're asking for, and I imagine that you know this already. However, for the benefit of anyone else who may find it helpful, in your profile area you can see your Questions (the threads in which you have participated). There is a drop-down giving various alternative views.

Your contact details can be reviewed using My Account (on our WWW site as opposed to this Community site). That doesn't give a way to download, but it does allow you to review everything.

Regards

...I also re-posted a lot of LINKS upon the newer Thread. They were posted here, yet scattered and older and harder to find. Again -Why I began the newer Thread. Anyone who recently Posted here may please re-post upon the newer Threads, is what I say. (Closing this FYI-Post now.)

...Sorry to bother you, Mr WebPM, but I am replying upon this sub-Thread within this 4-month old Thread, so as not to lose the position concerning recent replies...

This old Thread has been revived, but I wanted to draw attention (again) to its successor. Because this here Thread is so fer-lipping LONG now...

community.autism.org.uk/.../strange-random-errors-upon-this-forum

...Also there is a sort of counter, if anyone wants to post good Tips, Hints, Compliments, or whatever (as well as in the Main NAS Feedback Thread):

community.autism.org.uk/.../things-that-are-good-to-be-done-when-upon-this-nas-forum-thanks

...To "Graham", With regards to Disappearing replies, I know that MrWebPM says that it is still being worked upon. The new Thread is not long enough for that yet. To find missing replies, access any Thread via the Title, not via the reply. The Disappearing Replies thing is a reason why I started the next new Thread after this one. If Mr. WebPM replies to that newer Thread, then I guess everyone will start to reply there...? Thanks.

It's just plainly that the forum is free, it isn't riddled with adverts. 
For that, I will make do with the niggles of the forum. 
No more, no less.

Ah, was it a compliment to the NAS web team?

While this thread is active as general feedback on the forums, can I throw in a feature request for the forum software? They're probably already thinking of it because of GDPR Article 15.

Could we have some easy way to download all the text we've written (and any other personal info), the way social media sites provide? I'd just want it so I can search it (and check for anything too incriminating...).

No I haven't. You may have missed the point of my response.

To Mr LoneWarrior...

I keep Thanking you, and that still applies. I shall add now, that I stayed succinct the past couple of days, because you were handling this Thread and WebPM better than I could - you recalled all of those things, which I would have to write down or something, and it is as if posting the same thingS over and over and over is the only way to get one thing done.

WebPM is alright, NAS is still... well, NAS... and now it is the weekend, and so WebPM might not Post again until Monday, again. (With regards to the vote-up, I suspect a certain latest poster, there...)

...I do not know what else to say - just now, again. This Thread is waaay long, yet it had to become this long to expose certain troubles...

Thank You Kindly, Mr LoneWarrior, for all of that.

WARNING! Long tired rambling post.apologies,

Hi DC,,,,it is all getting very confusing, 

We are both trying to help by pointing out issues within this valuable resource, this I strongly feel would benefit not only the users but the forum as a whole. May apparently left when the new software package was first introduced, we don’t embrace sudden change,no it may have been necessary but the sudden change inevitably drove some away, instability ranks high innmy life, I like stability with everything, 

Sorry to hear you cannot get the vote up to work, issue number 13 maybe?

anyway, I apologised to WebPM on several occasions as I feel he has a very difficult task ahead of him, I am sure my frustration isn’t helpful.

I listed only the issues I have heard about whilst I have been here, some no longer exhist as issues, some still remain, some are only specific to certain members and the devices they use.

 What I tried to convey was that the issues exhisted or still do. Not everyone will start a new post to highlight such things, they are members not administrators, they come here for help or guidance, some just to give support,

As WebPM decided to move non relevant replies about other issues and post links to find them it seemed a reasonable request for him or somebody to harvest the comments on each subject and place them accordingly with a link from a general thread,

He cannot monitor every thread, that is unreasonable, but they were mostly appearing here under the thread banner of “ Problems with this NAS forum”.

 Seemed reasonable to post comments about any problems, there was such a thread started by NAS , it grew fast, it was long, it took avgreatvdealnif time to go through the embedded replies, often only to find a three word comment to an earlier reply, 

I am not sure I am helping him any?

 I am not gifted in posting links, I cannot copy and paste when typing replies such as this. I copy before starting a reply, so one copy and paste, 

enough now I am very tired and ramble on much.

 Sorry WebPM. I will try not to keep adding ever growing comments about issues, 

DC I will continue to support you if I can, You have worked hard to try and give support, as I say sorting out issues will benefit all in the long scheme of things.

 Take care.

x()x

I wanted to "like" your reply, but it at the moment no longer votes up. Yet due to all of this, I have edited and made something (!) of that other Thread as WebPM suggests an appreciation of it. The new link to it is this:

http://community.autism.org.uk/f/miscellaneous-and-chat/12022/disappearing-messages-posts-2018-edit

(...This Post with its Link stays put, now.)

To Nas35494 - Please read the entire Thread, here. You may have missed the point of it.

The forum is free and not full of adverts.  I can grin and bear the niggles for that.

That is a considerable list. One or two issues were new to me. I'm actually trying to steer a middle course on this. I don't necessarily believe that I should start a thread for each topic above; I'd like to spend time on the most important ones (which means the ones that seem to cause most problems to most people here).

However, anyone who is having real problems with any such issue is welcome to start a thread about it. Starting a separate thread will mean more chance that I see the issue (it's hard to spot new issues in a long thread on any forum, irrespective of how it works). It will also increase the chances of anyone else who is affected seeing the thread and joining in - both to provide more evidence and to benefit from any solutions that you or I may post.

At the moment, we're about to go back to looking at modifications to help with finding new postings in longer threads (after diverting to look at the image issues). Brief comments on your points, therefore - again, a new thread would be easier for any that need attention now or soon:

1) Using the quote function and it not working: This wasn't high on my awareness. It may be sensitive to connection issues, or temporary glitches. I have not seen it happen a lot. I would suggest trying again if this is just happening occasionally.

2) missing images: Please post about this in the separate thread. My understanding is that we aren't getting the same number of problems with this, since the update we deployed earlier this week. There may be some confusion caused by images sometimes uploading slowly, which is not the same issue as them disappearing after successful posting (see also 9 below).

3) apparent missing replies within long threads: I believe this to reflect difficulties in locating the messages in the thread, but that they are there. As above, this is where I propose to concentrate our efforts next.

4) Sudden loss of typed content within an old reply( edited and removed losing any context of original discussion): There may be an issue with editing complex messages, where this takes significant time (i.e. minutes): I've just had a problem like that, so I'm writing this in a text editor, and will paste it in when ready

5) logging out very often as time out settings need looking into: as already noted, this relates to our single sign-on system. We do have plans for that, but not in the short term, sorry.

6) typed replies sometimes vanishing if sudden logging out occurs! I think this is similar to 4.

7) no email alerts: I commented on that previously. We fixed an issue where the alerting system broke. I believe that we are now sending alerts properly, but email delivery involves various players. I think that things are happening outside our control, and that affected users here should contact their email providers.

8) little red light staying on in the new post notification.even when all notifications have been read? This seems to be limited to one or two people. I have offered, with permission, to force in a temporary password for an affected user, so that I can see and investigate the problem, but I would need to take over the account in that way to make progress with this.

9) not able to post pictures within threads: I have noted that uploads can be slow, especially if images are larger, or of course if you have connection issues. I have found that I sometimes need to wait for an image to appear. I would recommend waiting up to 20 seconds, although this should only be necessary occasionally.

10) not able to post any images within the PM area,( now at last fixed thank you).

11) why is the reply box so small when using a smart phone and some laptops, only one line of text visible and scrolling to read any replies within PM area near impossible. I don't think I was aware of this before. I get two or three lines on my phone, which, given the lack of screen space and the need to have the characters large enough to be legible, is probably a reasonable balance. A screen shot and a statement of which phone or computer was used (preferably in a new thread) would be helpful. It can be difficult to make a system work well on every screen type.

12) why when using the search function it comes up with many seemingly unrelated topics: Again, I wasn't aware of this. Could you give some examples? (Again, preferably in a search thread.)

However, I'm really going to struggle to keep up with 12 issues all at once, so could we identify the most important?

Thanks

That is a considerable list. One or two issues were new to me. I'm actually trying to steer a middle course on this. I don't necessarily believe that I should start a thread for each topic above; I'd like to spend time on the most important ones (which means the ones that seem to cause most problems to most people here).

However, anyone who is having real problems with any such issue is welcome to start a thread about it. Starting a separate thread will mean more chance that I see the issue (it's hard to spot new issues in a long thread on any forum, irrespective of how it works). It will also increase the chances of anyone else who is affected seeing the thread and joining in - both to provide more evidence and to benefit from any solutions that you or I may post.

At the moment, we're about to go back to looking at modifications to help with finding new postings in longer threads (after diverting to look at the image issues). Brief comments on your points, therefore - again, a new thread would be easier for any that need attention now or soon:

1) Using the quote function and it not working: This wasn't high on my awareness. It may be sensitive to connection issues, or temporary glitches. I have not seen it happen a lot. I would suggest trying again if this is just happening occasionally.

2) missing images: Please post about this in the separate thread. My understanding is that we aren't getting the same number of problems with this, since the update we deployed earlier this week. There may be some confusion caused by images sometimes uploading slowly, which is not the same issue as them disappearing after successful posting (see also 9 below).

3) apparent missing replies within long threads: I believe this to reflect difficulties in locating the messages in the thread, but that they are there. As above, this is where I propose to concentrate our efforts next.

4) Sudden loss of typed content within an old reply( edited and removed losing any context of original discussion): There may be an issue with editing complex messages, where this takes significant time (i.e. minutes): I've just had a problem like that, so I'm writing this in a text editor, and will paste it in when ready

5) logging out very often as time out settings need looking into: as already noted, this relates to our single sign-on system. We do have plans for that, but not in the short term, sorry.

6) typed replies sometimes vanishing if sudden logging out occurs! I think this is similar to 4.

7) no email alerts: I commented on that previously. We fixed an issue where the alerting system broke. I believe that we are now sending alerts properly, but email delivery involves various players. I think that things are happening outside our control, and that affected users here should contact their email providers.

8) little red light staying on in the new post notification.even when all notifications have been read? This seems to be limited to one or two people. I have offered, with permission, to force in a temporary password for an affected user, so that I can see and investigate the problem, but I would need to take over the account in that way to make progress with this.

9) not able to post pictures within threads: I have noted that uploads can be slow, especially if images are larger, or of course if you have connection issues. I have found that I sometimes need to wait for an image to appear. I would recommend waiting up to 20 seconds, although this should only be necessary occasionally.

10) not able to post any images within the PM area,( now at last fixed thank you).

11) why is the reply box so small when using a smart phone and some laptops, only one line of text visible and scrolling to read any replies within PM area near impossible. I don't think I was aware of this before. I get two or three lines on my phone, which, given the lack of screen space and the need to have the characters large enough to be legible, is probably a reasonable balance. A screen shot and a statement of which phone or computer was used (preferably in a new thread) would be helpful. It can be difficult to make a system work well on every screen type.

12) why when using the search function it comes up with many seemingly unrelated topics: Again, I wasn't aware of this. Could you give some examples? (Again, preferably in a search thread.)

However, I'm really going to struggle to keep up with 12 issues all at once, so could we identify the most important?

Thanks

I don't think this is exactly what you're asking for, and I imagine that you know this already. However, for the benefit of anyone else who may find it helpful, in your profile area you can see your Questions (the threads in which you have participated). There is a drop-down giving various alternative views.

Your contact details can be reviewed using My Account (on our WWW site as opposed to this Community site). That doesn't give a way to download, but it does allow you to review everything.

Regards

...I also re-posted a lot of LINKS upon the newer Thread. They were posted here, yet scattered and older and harder to find. Again -Why I began the newer Thread. Anyone who recently Posted here may please re-post upon the newer Threads, is what I say. (Closing this FYI-Post now.)

...Sorry to bother you, Mr WebPM, but I am replying upon this sub-Thread within this 4-month old Thread, so as not to lose the position concerning recent replies...

This old Thread has been revived, but I wanted to draw attention (again) to its successor. Because this here Thread is so fer-lipping LONG now...

community.autism.org.uk/.../strange-random-errors-upon-this-forum

...Also there is a sort of counter, if anyone wants to post good Tips, Hints, Compliments, or whatever (as well as in the Main NAS Feedback Thread):

community.autism.org.uk/.../things-that-are-good-to-be-done-when-upon-this-nas-forum-thanks

...To "Graham", With regards to Disappearing replies, I know that MrWebPM says that it is still being worked upon. The new Thread is not long enough for that yet. To find missing replies, access any Thread via the Title, not via the reply. The Disappearing Replies thing is a reason why I started the next new Thread after this one. If Mr. WebPM replies to that newer Thread, then I guess everyone will start to reply there...? Thanks.

It's just plainly that the forum is free, it isn't riddled with adverts. 
For that, I will make do with the niggles of the forum. 
No more, no less.

Ah, was it a compliment to the NAS web team?

While this thread is active as general feedback on the forums, can I throw in a feature request for the forum software? They're probably already thinking of it because of GDPR Article 15.

Could we have some easy way to download all the text we've written (and any other personal info), the way social media sites provide? I'd just want it so I can search it (and check for anything too incriminating...).

No I haven't. You may have missed the point of my response.

To Nas35494 - Please read the entire Thread, here. You may have missed the point of it.

The forum is free and not full of adverts.  I can grin and bear the niggles for that.