Site upgrade - comments

277 posts / 0 new
Last post
Catchfire Catchfire's picture

New post seems to always work for me. Maybe it's a browser issue? Have you tried refreshing the page, Unionist, instead of simply re-clicking TAT?

Unionist

Just tried refreshing. No apparent difference - even if it worked, it really should not be necessary.

I've now had a chance to try both Firefox and Safari. Same issue on both. And it always eventually refreshes the new post link after a seemingly random number of iterations. I've seen as few as 1 and as many as 6.

Will do some more tests and report back. I may even dust off the reviled Innternet Explorer, provided this remains between us...

Boom Boom Boom Boom's picture

Laughing

 

PS: Our power just went off. Oh, the joys of Quebec Hydro!

NDPP

Validation Error repeatedly experienced and unable to post. When will all this bloody nonsense end?

Boom Boom Boom Boom's picture

It will never end. Kiss

Brian White

Well well well, Still screwed up. Loyalty is great but why follow a lemming?  I only thought of you because I was in a Resturaunt and I got the visuals of half popped extra-buttery constipation and got a fit of laughter.   You cannot talk about popcorn constipation in a good eatery.   And they are not doing the best with the resources available. (unless  they got stuck in a timewarp in 1995.)   Caissa wrote:

 The loading times make it very clear that Babble should have been left well enough alone.

Yeah, it's about as slow as half popped, extra-buttery, popcorn constipation.

 

onlinediscountanvils Joined: Jun 7 2012 Send PM August 20, 2012 - 12:01pm #55 Brian White wrote:

Really, guys, you have either hired the cable guy from the movie or you have seriously pissed off the harper god of the internet.

I cannot believe that it is still not fixed. Did you hire a complete fucking idiot to do your tech work? 

If you are still alive, maybe it is time to get somebody else to do the tech work?

 

Pretty over-the-top for a pro-labour site, no?

Maybe they're doing the best they can with the resources available to them.

NDPP

Wilf Day wrote:

Boom Boom wrote:

Validation error, please try again. If this error persists, please contact the site administrator.

I just got that tonight for some reason.

Me too...when will this be resolved?

kropotkin1951

I've been getting them regularly.  I usually cut and paste and then go out and back into babble and repost.  It varies some days it happens often and then some days it might be once and a few days there were none.

Brian White

Blazingly fast for me today.  Congrats.  You are back online!   Perhaps you should  give it a few days to make sure all is really ok and then email people to let them know your slow connection problems are in the past?  People have left and they  might never come back unless you remind them.

This really happens.  I left Opera (which is better quicker and easier  than firefox) because for a while it had problems with youtube movies or flash upgrades. I never went back. 

So yeah, don't pretend you didn't have problems. Send out an apology email, and a "we are not dead, just stronger" after whatever virus or spam or harper attack happened to you.

Brian

Slumberjack

NDPP wrote:

Wilf Day wrote:

Boom Boom wrote:

Validation error, please try again. If this error persists, please contact the site administrator.

I just got that tonight for some reason.

Me too...when will this be resolved?

Yeah, every time I get one its a trigger from when I was suspended.

Catchfire Catchfire's picture

I've contacted the tech people. Hopefully they'll get it fixed in a jiffy. In the meantime, I can only suggest kropotkin's work-around.

 

Unionist

Thanks for that, Brian. I think the upgrade has come a long way and overall things look stable and improved.

 

 

NorthReport

mapleleafweb.com forums seems to work with minimal disruptions, so perhaps it is time for a major overhaul of our technology.  

A customer satisfaction survey such as the one below from realclearpolitics.com might be a good place to start:

 

 

 

Customer Satisfaction Survey

Thank you for visiting our site. You have been randomly selected to take part in this survey to let us know what we are doing well and where we need to do better. Please take a minute or two to give us your opinions. The feedback you provide will help us enhance our site and serve you better in the future. All results are strictly confidential.

Required questions are denoted by an *

*On a scale 1-10 (1=Poor-10=Excellent)

Top of Form

 

1: *Please rate the accuracy of information on this site.1=PoorExcellent=10

1=Poor

Excellent=10

1

 

2

 

3

 

4

 

5

 

6

 

7

 

8

 

9

 

10

 

Don't Know

 

2: *Please rate the freshness of content on this site.1=PoorExcellent=10

1=Poor

Excellent=10

1

 

2

 

3

 

4

 

5

 

6

 

7

 

8

 

9

 

10

 

Don't Know

 

3: *Please rate the usefulness of the services provided on this site.1=PoorExcellent=10

1=Poor

Excellent=10

1

 

2

 

3

 

4

 

5

 

6

 

7

 

8

 

9

 

10

 

Don't Know

 

4: *Please rate the ability to accomplish what you wanted to on this site.1=PoorExcellent=10

1=Poor

Excellent=10

1

 

2

 

3

 

4

 

5

 

6

 

7

 

8

 

9

 

10

 

Don't Know

 

5: *Please rate the ease of navigation on this site.1=PoorExcellent=10

1=Poor

Excellent=10

1

 

2

 

3

 

4

 

5

 

6

 

7

 

8

 

9

 

10

 

Don't Know

 

6: *Please rate the consistency of speed on this site.1=PoorExcellent=10

1=Poor

Excellent=10

1

 

2

 

3

 

4

 

5

 

6

 

7

 

8

 

9

 

10

 

Don't Know

 

7: *Please rate the reliability of site performance on this site.1=PoorExcellent=10

1=Poor

Excellent=10

1

 

2

 

3

 

4

 

5

 

6

 

7

 

8

 

9

 

10

 

Don't Know

 

8: *Please rate how this site provides comprehensive search results.1=PoorExcellent=10

1=Poor

Excellent=10

1

 

2

 

3

 

4

 

5

 

6

 

7

 

8

 

9

 

10

 

Don't Know

 

9: *Please rate the organization of search results on this site.1=PoorExcellent=10

1=Poor

Excellent=10

1

 

2

 

3

 

4

 

5

 

6

 

7

 

8

 

9

 

10

 

Don't Know

 

10: *Please rate how the search feature helps you to narrow the results to find the information you want.1=PoorExcellent=10

1=Poor

Excellent=10

1

 

2

 

3

 

4

 

5

 

6

 

7

 

8

 

9

 

10

 

Don't Know

 

11: *What is your overall satisfaction with this site?1=Very DissatisfiedVery Satisfied=10

1=Very Dissatisfied

Very Satisfied=10

1

 

2

 

3

 

4

 

5

 

6

 

7

 

8

 

9

 

10

 

12: *How well does this site meet your expectations?1=Falls ShortExceeds=10

1=Falls Short

Exceeds=10

1

 

2

 

3

 

4

 

5

 

6

 

7

 

8

 

9

 

10

 

13: *How does this site compare to your idea of an ideal website?1=Not Very CloseVery Close=10

1=Not Very Close

Very Close=10

1

 

2

 

3

 

4

 

5

 

6

 

7

 

8

 

9

 

10

 

14: *How likely are you to return to Real Clear Politics?1=Not Very LikelyVery Likely=10

1=Not Very Likely

Very Likely=10

1

 

2

 

3

 

4

 

5

 

6

 

7

 

8

 

9

 

10

 

15: *How likely are you to recommend Real Clear Politics to someone else?1=Not Very LikelyVery Likely=10

1=Not Very Likely

Very Likely=10

1

 

2

 

3

 

4

 

5

 

6

 

7

 

8

 

9

 

10

 

16: *How likely are you to use Real Clear Politics as your primary resource for obtaining information related to politics?1=Not Very LikelyVery Likely=10

1=Not Very Likely

Very Likely=10

1

 

2

 

3

 

4

 

5

 

6

 

7

 

8

 

9

 

10

 

17: *How frequently do you visit Real Clear Politics?

 

Several times per day

 

Daily

 

Several times per week

 

Once a week

 

Several times per month

 

Once a month

 

Less than once a month

 

This is my first visit

18: *Would you consider Real Clear Politics to be one of your favorite sites?

 

Yes

 

No

19: *How trustworthy is the information you receive on RealClearPolitics website?

 

Extremely trustworthy

 

Very trustworthy

 

Somewhat trustworthy

 

Not that trustworthy

 

Not at all trustworthy

20: *In thinking about the news and information you get from TV, newspapers, and websites, which of the following, if any, do you think are trustworthy news sources? (Select all that apply)

 

CNN

 

FOX News

 

MSNBC

 

NY Times

 

RealClearPolitics

 

Washington Post

 

None of the above

21: *Which of the following activities have you participated in during the past 12 months? (Select all that apply)

 

Written or called any politician

 

Written a letter to a newspaper or magazine

 

Attended a political rally, or protest of any kind

 

Worked for a political party

 

Made a speech

 

Attended a public meeting on town or school affairs

 

Written an article for a newspaper or magazine

 

Held or ran for political office

 

Member of any group that influences policy or government

 

Served on a committee for some local organization

 

Called a radio or TV show to express an opinion

 

None of the above

22: *How interested are you in learning more about the candidate's proposed policies?

 

Very interested

 

Somewhat interested

 

Not that interested

 

Not interested at all

23: *What is your age?

Please SelectUnder 2021-2425-2930- 3435-3940-4445-4950-5455-5960-6465+Prefer not to answer

24: *What is your gender?

 

Male

 

Female

25: *What is the highest level of education you have completed?

 

Less than high school graduate

 

Graduated high school or received GED

 

Attended college but did not graduate

 

Graduated from college

 

Some graduate study

 

Masters Degree

 

Doctoral Degree

 

Prefer not to answer

26: *Which of following best describes your present employment status? (Select all that apply)

 

Employed full-time

 

Employed part-time

 

Not employed

 

Temporarily unemployed

 

Homemaker

 

Retired

 

Other

 

Student

 

Prefer not to answer

27: *What is your job title or position?

 

Owner/Partner

 

Chairman, President, CEO, COO, CFO, CMO, CIO

 

Other C-title

 

SVP, VP

 

Director

 

GM

 

Manager/Supervisor

 

Consultant

 

State, local or Federal government position

 

Accountant

 

Sales

 

Physician

 

Lawyer

 

Craftsman

 

Teacher

 

Journalist

 

Other (please specify)Other (please specify) 

28: *In what kind of business/industry do you work?

 

Agriculture

 

Finance/Banking

 

Business Services

 

Construction

 

Education

 

Government

 

Insurance

 

Manufacturing

 

Media

 

Publishing

 

Real Estate

 

Retail Trade

 

Technology

 

Transportation

 

Student

 

Other (please specify)Other (please specify) 

29: *What is your annual household income?

Please SelectLess than $49,999$50,000-$74,999$75,000-$99,999$100,000-$124,999$125,000-$149,999$150,000-$174,999$175,000-$199,999$200,000-$249,999$250,000-$299,999$300,000-$349,999$350,000-$399,999$400,000-$449,999$450,000-$499,999$500,000-$999,999$1,000,000+Prefer not to answer

30: *Which of the following regions do you reside in?

East Coast

 

West Coast

 

South

 

Mid-West

 

Not in the US

30.1: *Which, if any, of the following states do you reside in?

 

New York

 

New Jersey

 

Washington D.C.

 

Maryland

 

Delaware

 

Virginia

 

West Virginia

 

None of the above states

31: If you could make one improvement to the Real Clear Politics website, what would it be?

 

 1,000 Characters Remaining

Thank you for your time in completing this survey. Your input is very valuable to us and we will take it into consideration.

CancelSubmit

Bottom of Form

Copyright 2012 - all rights reserved

ForeSee Results 

Privacy Policy

Survey Support

2075                                                                                                                     

 

 

Left Turn Left Turn's picture

I'm still getting wonky numbers in the unread posts column on the TAT. For instance, this thread has had no new posts since I read it last night, and yet showed up today as having 87 unread posts. The Manitoba PC Leadership thread, which I've never opened, only shows 8 unread posts of 23. And the Canada housing bubble set to burst thread showed no number in the new posts column, despite it being at the top of the TAT with the last post time as 3:43 EDT.

Boom Boom Boom Boom's picture

I've had nothing but wonky numbers - in red - since the upgrade started, apparently a result of having a slow dialup connection. I ignore the red numbers altogether.

Caissa

Is traffic ever going to pick up on this site again or did the "upgrades" essentially kill it?

Catchfire Catchfire's picture

So, a couple of babblers are reporting new error messages when they try to login to their accounts. It says "You are not authorized to view this page" or some such. If you are experiencing this problem, can you please email me or rebecca? catchfire[at]rabble.ca and rebeccawest[at]rabble.ca

Bärlüer

Since a couple of days, I no longer stay logged in between visits to Rabble – I have to log in every time. Anybody else seeing that?

(Having to log back in, and go back to Babble is more of an irritant these days since accessing Babble still takes, most of the time, somewhere between 10 and 20 seconds. [Whereas before, it used to take 1-2 seconds.] Again, I don't know if other uses also experience that kind of connection delay.)

Boom Boom Boom Boom's picture

I still get 'validation error' messages sometimes when I post, but I am able to log on okay. I still think this whole upgrade totally sucks, though.

Unionist

Connection speeds are sometimes extremely slow - but I must say that's been the case off and on for years. It seems to be better now (most of the time) than in the earliest days of the latest upgrade.

And while I had the logout issue a few times last month, it hasn't happened since. Browser issue? Cookies? Who knows.

ETA: Examples of connection speed issues from April 2011 - [url=http://rabble.ca/babble/rabble-reactions/ongoing-issues-site-upgrade?pag...'s complaint[/url] and [url=http://rabble.ca/babble/rabble-reactions/ongoing-issues-site-upgrade?pag...'s reply[/url]. It's a longstanding problem which deserves special attention, because slow connection will definitely discourage newcomers.

ETA squared: And check these speed complaints from [url=http://rabble.ca/babble/rabble-reactions/whats-happening-rabble-over-nex... 2008[/url], after the great elbbaB upgrade. Virtually every babbler complains about the slow loading speed. That has to be a server issue, unless one of our experts here (Fidel? pi r squared?) tells me otherwise...

Lou Arab Lou Arab's picture

Bärlüer wrote:

Since a couple of days, I no longer stay logged in between visits to Rabble – I have to log in every time. Anybody else seeing that?

(Having to log back in, and go back to Babble is more of an irritant these days since accessing Babble still takes, most of the time, somewhere between 10 and 20 seconds. [Whereas before, it used to take 1-2 seconds.] Again, I don't know if other uses also experience that kind of connection delay.)

Me too.

Caissa

The "upgrade" has been a collosal failure from where I sit.

Boom Boom Boom Boom's picture

Got this message THREE TIMES IN A ROW while trying to post to the Marois cabinet thread, and finally just gave up. Let's face it, this thread upgrade has totally fucked up babble.

Validation error, please try again. If this error persists, please contact the site administrator.

 

Unionist

I'm going to try to strike a balanced tone.

PROS:

  • No more closing threads for length - we asked for it, we got it.
  • User-controllable pagination lengths.
  • Ability to jump to first unread post in a thread.
  • Can use CTRL-V to paste in the Comment box again (as in pre-elbbaB days), instead of spraining my wrist doing a rim shot with the mouse.

CONS:

  • Jumping to first unread post doesn't always work. About 50-50.
  • Validation errors (though I get them only rarely).
  • Connection speeds (though I'm convinced this has plagued babble for ages, off and on, see above).
  • No alert on new PM arrival - though I think I'm getting an email instead. Prefer old system.
  • Logging people out (though this stopped for me a few weeks ago).
  • More minor irritants ... "Save" instead of "Post"... Code flashes briefly at moment of clicking "Save"... Can't click on the forum name in TAT as previously.

I'm certain 2 or 3 of the CONS are just growing pains (aren't they?), so overall, I have to say I appreciate the effort and the improvements.

Boom Boom Boom Boom's picture

Amazing!!!  I didn't know that Michelle - thanks!!!!

ETA: Like much of the upgrade, this feature doesn't work for me.

Caissa

Unionist, first two points were available before upgrade. The third rarely works and I could always use control v, thus there are no pros that are directly attributeable to the upgrade.

From where I sit all of the cons are attributeable to the "upgrade".

What the hell were people thinking?

 

kropotkin1951

Seems to me the fundamental objective of the upgrade was not to improve babble but to improve Rabble.  The upgrade may be a success from that perspective.  It also seems that the board is down to its last couple of dozen addicts and not attracting may new posters.  One is not a cause of the other however they are interconnected. 

Unionist

kropotkin1951 wrote:

It also seems that the board is down to its last couple of dozen addicts and not attracting may new posters.

Addicts? [b][i]ADDICTS!!??[/i][/b] Speak for yourself. I'm not an addict. I babble because I like to. I'm just a casual babbler. I could stop babbling any time I want. I just don't feel like stopping. Why should I? It's a free world, isn't it? Addicts. Hrumph.

 

Lou Arab Lou Arab's picture

I've always assumed elections and NDP leadership races drive up traffic around here.  Since it's a fairly quiet time politically in the country, could that not be a reason for the reduced posting?

Sean in Ottawa

I suspect it is a number of things and together they have caused a bigger reason: the lack of posts itself is a reason for even fewer-- people stop coming back if that last update was days ago. Some may have backed away when they had errors a while back -- you spend time writing a post and then it won't let you post it. Hopefully, more will come back. Perhaps there is a need to promote the site somehow to get back enough posters because some threads become less viable if nobody is writing in them.

 

Boom Boom Boom Boom's picture

I don't post nearly as often as I used to, because this upgrade - on dialup ISP - just sucks. How much patience am I supposed to have with getting those error validation messages when I try to post?

ETA: This post went through okay, no problems.

Unionist

Lou Arab wrote:

Since it's a fairly quiet time politically in the country, ...

Heh come visit my country sometime...

 

NDPP

Many of the regular and interesting progressive posters have been run off. The reasons are well known and have been discussed ad infinitum. As with most political spaces in Canada, the right appears to be in the ascendancy. As for the upgrade, it seems like a bad doctor, everything done to 'fix' things appears only to have made things worse...

Catchfire Catchfire's picture

To everyone except NDPP (lol! You big joker!), I share your frustrations with the site and its glitches, new and old. We're working on the validation errors right now, but it's proving a problem difficlut to diagnose accurately. Aside from copy and pasting and reposting your contributions in a new window, I can only suggest hitting your rich uncle up for a million dollar donation to rabble, earmarked for babble, so that we can direct all the necessary resources to designing and maintaining a fluid discussion board.

Caissa

or go back to the way things were before the upgrade.

Catchfire Catchfire's picture

1. ... c6

Left Turn Left Turn's picture

Unionist wrote:

I'm going to try to strike a balanced tone.

PROS:

  • No more closing threads for length - we asked for it, we got it.
  • User-controllable pagination lengths.
  • Ability to jump to first unread post in a thread.
  • Can use CTRL-V to paste in the Comment box again (as in pre-elbbaB days), instead of spraining my wrist doing a rim shot with the mouse.

CONS:

  • Jumping to first unread post doesn't always work. About 50-50.
  • Validation errors (though I get them only rarely).
  • Connection speeds (though I'm convinced this has plagued babble for ages, off and on, see above).
  • No alert on new PM arrival - though I think I'm getting an email instead. Prefer old system.
  • Logging people out (though this stopped for me a few weeks ago).
  • More minor irritants ... "Save" instead of "Post"... Code flashes briefly at moment of clicking "Save"... Can't click on the forum name in TAT as previously.

I'm certain 2 or 3 of the CONS are just growing pains (aren't they?), so overall, I have to say I appreciate the effort and the improvements.

I agree with Unionist here about the increased functionality of babble, this is definitely an upgrade in my books. This also includes the upgrades to the other parts of rabble, such as the thumbnails next to article titles on the "top stories" page.

As for the cons, I'm experiencing some of these, but not all, and some of these are not issues that I care about.

I definitely do have an issue with the unread post number not always being accurate, and not always getting to the first unread post when I click on the unread post number.

I havn't received any validation errors since the first couple of weeks after the upgrade.

rabble.ca/babble takes significantly longer to load than it did before the upgrade. No other page within rabble or babble takes any longer than it did before the upgrade.

I rarely ever get pm's -- I've only received a handful since the 2008 upgrade to the Drupal software, so I could care less about the lack of pm notifications.

None of the cons are significant enough to make me want to undo the upgrade, which I agree is definitely an upgrade. Not to mention that undoing the upgrade would not necessarily undo any of the performance issues that have been caused by the upgrade.

lagatta

I've been getting logged out every time I leave the site, since yesterday. Frustrating.

I couldn't access it at all from my home computer until I got high-speed. (The lack of any availability of high-speed in many rural and remote areas is galling - many people need it for work now).

I love the little red numbers to the right indicating unread posts - I can see those on my computer. And they remain as is if I log on from another computer.

By the way, I found rabble and babble extremely slow yesterday.

Indeed, not slow news time at all in "mon pays" ... yet another "22nd" demo today, the swift fulfilment of several progressive PQ promises (warning folks, they are not to be trusted...) alas the bad news not only of the PQ election meeting gunman/firebomber but the damned creep actually giving a press interview...

Boom Boom Boom Boom's picture

TELUS has been moving a lot of equipment here to their microwave tower facilities, but so far no mention of providing high speed other than to the school. So, I'm stuck with dialup, and an upgraded babble that refuses to work properly with dialup.  Frown

lagatta

If they can provide high-speed to the school, there is no reason they can't provide it to townspeople. When the new road is finished, this will open up opportunities for local outfitters and inns, and mean more frequent overland grocery deliveries will be possible from Sept-Iles. Those are done by internet, and the software requires high speed.

It should make it possible for you to gain access to the BANQ system (Bibliothèque nationale du Québec). They have a lot of books in English, as well as French of course, and are expanding their collections in indigenous languages.

Boom Boom Boom Boom's picture

Hi lagatta, and thank you for the comment. Unfortunately,  Route 138 here now faces a substantial delay, as the building of the bridge over the Natashquan River has been halted indefinitely due to local concerns that the salmon fishery will be impacted by this bridge. We were expecting the bridge - and thus the road - to be officially opened in October 2013, now it appears that the actual construction and opening will be well past that date - if ever.  Also, the contractor is waiting for a new contract to build the smaller bridges between Natashquan and Kegaska, and the previous government was working on that. We have no signals yet from the Marois government on any of this, so there is great uncertainty here. Frown

 

ETA: We're talking about a 44 km stretch of road, between Natashquan and Kegaska. There's no construction this year between Kegaska and the communities east of us - still about 300 km to go before the Lower North Shore is fully connected.

Unionist

lagatta wrote:
. It should make it possible for you to gain access to the BANQ system (Bibliothèque nationale du Québec). They have a lot of books in English, as well as French of course, and are expanding their collections in indigenous languages.

BANQ is amazing - you can get free online access to thousands of professional journals in all fields, full text (although sometimes, not always, with a 12-month delay, meaning all the volumes up to last year's). But why shouldn't Boom Boom be able to access that even with dial-up?

Caissa

Catchfire wrote:

1. ... c6

 

I'll presume that I played 1.e4

In that case 2.d4

ETA: Is moderator chess a new upgrade? Wink

Unionist

All aboard for Zugzwang!

 

Caissa

I thought sitzfleisch would be more your style. Wink Helps with contract negotiations.

Unionist

Caissa wrote:

I thought sitzfleisch would be more your style. Wink Helps with contract negotiations.

LOL! Ok, I concede.

PS: Unionists also need good feet. For walking out of talks, walking off the job, and walking the line. And walking the talk.

 

Lou Arab Lou Arab's picture

Unionist wrote:

Lou Arab wrote:

Since it's a fairly quiet time politically in the country, ...

Heh come visit my country sometime...

 

The politics in your country/nation/society of distinctness make my head hurt when I try to figure them out.

I generally try to stay out of those discussions.

Unionist

Lou Arab wrote:

Unionist wrote:

Lou Arab wrote:

Since it's a fairly quiet time politically in the country, ...

Heh come visit my country sometime...

 

The politics in your country/nation/society of distinctness make my head hurt when I try to figure them out.

I generally try to stay out of those discussions.

Haha, so do I, but then they come marching past my window and pounding on my door. What a noisy country this is!!

Catchfire Catchfire's picture

Caissa wrote:

I'll presume that I played 1.e4

In that case 2.d4

ETA: Is moderator chess a new upgrade? Wink

Why yes it is, Caissa! I'm glad I have your attention.

1.e4 c6
2.d4 Qxe1#

When the moderator does it, it's not illegal. I consider your complaints dealt with and the matter closed. Thanks for the game. You played very well.

Caissa

The Goddess of chess clearly outranks a mortal moderator. I shan't smite thee this time but shall let thee take back thy move and play one in keeping with thee rules of chesse.

Pages