Tech Issues/Suggestions

[DC_1908]

Hi all.  I just found this board.  One suggestion to keep the Penguin trolls away would be to change the captcha and force them to type "Ovechkin is the greatest hockey player of all time" every time they want to make a post.

Welcome Houston!  Don’t worry we got the Hens Trolld covered 


One of the many reasons we started our own boards was the moderaoers protecting them.


So should any of them find there way here, they’ll be luckey if they’re only banned onsite.  This is an uncensored, unoffilated, non-profit site, which takes their shield (aka Jags and Paid) away, so any of their attempts will amount only to our amusement 

[alta]

and welcome to our dysfunctional family

[ArJunaZ]

This is a post/support ticket I posted on the SMF forum.  It's a bizarre problem and I am obviously not the first person to report an issue with using the word "from" in some longer posts.  I found this exact issue going all the way back to 2009.  i am just posting a copy here for reference.
AJ



I have been running a board using SMF 2.0.15 Since mid-December and it has worked great.  I've noticed on rare occasion when I post a fairly long post, but not longer than the 40,000 char max I have set in settings, the server will throw up an "internal server error".  The complete error is down below.
 
After careful troubleshooting I isolated the problem to the word "from".  Regardless of where I place this word it causes the error. If I change any of the characters in the word "from", even a single letter to upper case, then there is no problem.

If I create a simple post using the "from" word only there is no problem. In longer posts it does not matter where in the post I place the word "from", it will cause the error.

Here is an example: The first post on this page has a few instance of the word "frum" in it. If I change ANY of those to "from" it will not post, but will throw the error.
  URL - galactichub[dot]com/CapsForum/index.php/topic,76.0.html


I did a search on this problem and found the exact same problem from 2009 in this thread.

Internal Server Error By Using "from" Word in Post
«  on: November 18, 2009, 05:16:27 AM »
https://www.simplemachines.org/community/index.php?topic=348813.0;nowap


I do hope this can be resolved. This is sure to frustrate some users.




Below is the complete error. There is nothing in the log. Again, this is a very clean install.




Internal Server Error

The server encountered an internal error or misconfiguration and was unable to complete your request.

Please contact the server administrator at webmaster@aims-association.org to inform them of the time this error occurred, and the actions you performed just before this error.

More information about this error may be available in the server error log.

Additionally, a 500 Internal Server Error error was encountered while trying to use an ErrorDocument to handle the request.

[Surreylily]

Maybe you cleared your cookies or something, or used a different browser.  I never have to login.  I set it up to be really easy for all.

I clear the cookies every time I do a scan, which is at least once a week.  I've never had this problem before.   

[ArJunaZ]

I clear the cookies every time I do a scan, which is at least once a week.  I've never had this problem before.   

I don't know of any website that will not log you out if you clear the cookies for that site.  This includes the NHL Capitals forum.  Without the cookies which store the information about who you are there is no way for a website to keep you logged in.  The only other possible way for a site to connect you to a browser session is by your IP address, but since many people get assigned a new IP address every time they boot their PC no one uses this.  Using an IP address to remember a user would also be very problematic for shared computers and Internet cafe's.  Cookies are the only method to remember who you are.  When you click on "Remember Me" when you login to a website you are basically telling it to track you via cookies that have a long expiration time, but if you delete cookies then these are gone and you will be logged out.

To get more technical: There is on our forum a session ID that is used to track users who do not click on "remember me".  I set the limits on this to I think 4 hours to prevent people having to log back in during a typical GDT if they are not storing cookies.  This is done on the server side and uses resources on the server, which is why you really don't want to make these last too long. Some sites, such as banking sites, shopping carts, etc. will use both session ID's and Cookies as this offers a little more security that someone won't hijack your session and execute transactions on your behalf. These ID's are long randomly generated keys that are often tied to your IP address for a short period of time.  These are not practical to use to keep track of a user's login over long periods.

You will need to maintain the cookie for the forum if you want to remain logged in for extended periods of time.  Even cookies expire, normally after 365 days if not renewed.

I hope this helps.

There is no way around this.

[Surreylily]

I don't know of any website that will not log you out if you clear the cookies for that site.  This includes the NHL Capitals forum.  Without the cookies which store the information about who you are there is no way for a website to keep you logged in.  The only other possible way for a site to connect you to a browser session is by your IP address, but since many people get assigned a new IP address every time they boot their PC no one uses this.  Using an IP address to remember a user would also be very problematic for shared computers and Internet cafe's.  Cookies are the only method to remember who you are.  When you click on "Remember Me" when you login to a website you are basically telling it to track you via cookies that have a long expiration time, but if you delete cookies then these are gone and you will be logged out.

To get more technical: There is on our forum a session ID that is used to track users who do not click on "remember me".  I set the limits on this to I think 4 hours to prevent people having to log back in during a typical GDT if they are not storing cookies.  This is done on the server side and uses resources on the server, which is why you really don't want to make these last too long. Some sites, such as banking sites, shopping carts, etc. will use both session ID's and Cookies as this offers a little more security that someone won't hijack your session and execute transactions on your behalf. These ID's are long randomly generated keys that are often tied to your IP address for a short period of time.  These are not practical to use to keep track of a user's login over long periods.

You will need to maintain the cookie for the forum if you want to remain logged in for extended periods of time.  Even cookies expire, normally after 365 days if not renewed.

I hope this helps.

There is no way around this.

AHA! 
VERY well explained AJ     I actually understand now.   
It doesn't explain why my poker site remembers me.... but hey-ho, not going to complain about that.

[alta]

can we get a barfing emoji?

[ArJunaZ]

There you go!!

 




awsome , thanks


 

[Surreylily]

Is it possible to get a "ding" when there are new posts in an active thread?  ie: GDT's?  No biggie or anything, but I'm still doing the flipping back and forth between the game and the on-line commentary on this notebook and having techs' getting back to the game after checking for recent posts.


To clarify, I have an HP Notebook thingammy, that has Windows 10 installed.  Keeps telling me I have no more disc space.  My dad explained that this model isn't suited to that program and that the W10 program takes up all the disc space.
Pops (my dad), is an amateur comp expert....
We did find out that I can't replace my disc with a larger one.  Naturally, I would have the only model, or thangammy, that can't.    [size=78%] STRAIGHT FACE EMOTE.   (Hint,hint AJ [/size] [/size][size=78%]l)[/size]
[/size]
[/size]
[/size][size=78%]WHAT is with the random script sizes?[/size]

[alta]

Is it possible to get a "ding" when there are new posts in an active thread?  ie: GDT's?  No biggie or anything, but I'm still doing the flipping back and forth between the game and the on-line commentary on this notebook and having techs' getting back to the game after checking for recent posts.


To clarify, I have an HP Notebook thingammy, that has Windows 10 installed.  Keeps telling me I have no more disc space.  My dad explained that this model isn't suited to that program and that the W10 program takes up all the disc space.
Pops (my dad), is an amateur comp expert....
We did find out that I can't replace my disc with a larger one.  Naturally, I would have the only model, or thangammy, that can't.    [size=78%] STRAIGHT FACE EMOTE.   (Hint,hint AJ [/size] [size=78%]l)[/size]


[size=78%]WHAT is with the random script sizes?[/size]

do you mean a audible ding? and not a pop up?

[Surreylily]

do you mean a audible ding? and not a pop up?

Audible.

[alta]

Audible.

ArJ will get right on it,

[ArJunaZ]

Is it possible to get a "ding" when there are new posts in an active thread?  ie: GDT's?  No biggie or anything, but I'm still doing the flipping back and forth between the game and the on-line commentary on this notebook and having techs' getting back to the game after checking for recent posts.


To clarify, I have an HP Notebook thingammy, that has Windows 10 installed.  Keeps telling me I have no more disc space.  My dad explained that this model isn't suited to that program and that the W10 program takes up all the disc space.
Pops (my dad), is an amateur comp expert....
We did find out that I can't replace my disc with a larger one.  Naturally, I would have the only model, or thangammy, that can't.    STRAIGHT FACE EMOTE.   (Hint,hint AJ

WHAT is with the random script sizes?

I don't know what you are doing to change the size of your text and exposing the underlying code.  I do notice that you very often quote messages and then post your reply within the quoted text, which both makes your response tiny and not separated from the quote. I wrote a news item a few weeks ago for you (top right of page) explaining how to place your reply text AFTER the /quote in brackets.

On the notification of a new post; there is no facility built into this software to maintain a push connection with the users. I sometimes use a Firefox plugin called "Check4Change" which sounds an alarm when a new post is made on a specific page I am monitoring.  If you have Firefox 57 or higher the newer version is required and is called "C4C".  It's a little tricky to use for some people, but I love it.  Mostly, I just refresh once in a while and see the new messages.

I'll look into possibly adding some third party plugin to the site that might add push technology to notify members of updates to threads via popups.  Adding third party plugins is not a good idea since they often cause problems. If I was running a for profit site I might expose myself to the hassle, but I don't need any extra headaches doing this for free.

On your computer. Is it a PC or some kind of tablet like a Microsoft Surface?  I find it hard to believe that any Windows 10 PC does not have at least 25 times more space than the operating system requires.  A tablet is different.  A Microsoft Surface 3 with minimal memory (like 64GB ) running Windows 10 could run out pretty fast since Windows 10 would use at least half of it. Getting a larger SSD in it would be one solution. Removing some apps or data would be another way to clear space.

[Surreylily]

I don't know what you are doing to change the size of your text and exposing the underlying code.  I do notice that you very often quote messages and then post your reply within the quoted text, which both makes your response tiny and not separated from the quote. I wrote a news item a few weeks ago for you (top right of page) explaining how to place your reply text AFTER the /quote in brackets.

On the notification of a new post; there is no facility built into this software to maintain a push connection with the users. I sometimes use a Firefox plugin called "Check4Change" which sounds an alarm when a new post is made on a specific page I am monitoring.  If you have Firefox 57 or higher the newer version is required and is called "C4C".  It's a little tricky to use for some people, but I love it.  Mostly, I just refresh once in a while and see the new messages.

I'll look into possibly adding some third party plugin to the site that might add push technology to notify members of updates to threads via popups.  Adding third party plugins is not a good idea since they often cause problems. If I was running a for profit site I might expose myself to the hassle, but I don't need any extra headaches doing this for free.

On your computer. Is it a PC or some kind of tablet like a Microsoft Surface?  I find it hard to believe that any Windows 10 PC does not have at least 25 times more space than the operating system requires.  A tablet is different.  A Microsoft Surface 3 with minimal memory (like 64GB ) running Windows 10 could run out pretty fast since Windows 10 would use at least half of it. Getting a larger SSD in it would be one solution. Removing some apps or data would be another way to clear space.

Not doing anything to change the size of my text, it just seems to happen.  I'm not the only one either.  I have mentioned it before.

[Surreylily]

As for the rest of your reply/post.......

[Surreylily]

My current device is an HP notebook.  It looks, and sounds and works like a laptop.  It just isn't, is it.


It seems it has Windows 10 installed,which appears  to be taking up most, if not all of the disc space allowed.  I believe it should have Windows 7 as it's natural installation, but then got up-graded before I inherited it.

[Surreylily]

Is there a way to uninstall W10 and re-install W7???
Would it even help, and what difference wold it make to this device?

[ArJunaZ]

Not doing anything to change the size of my text, it just seems to happen.  I'm not the only one either.  I have mentioned it before.

I've not had any trouble, but I am methodical in how I do things.   The only thing I can think of is that you are resizing text and then either editing or copying and pasting pieces of the message.  I have noticed when you cut and paste a post with embedded codes (such as size, URL, etc) in the WYSIWYG editor instead of code view that you can potentially grab and split up parts of the underlying formatting code. Then inserting this code within other formatted text can combine and/or split the code up to where it doesn't make sense.  I would recommend either not using resizing or do your complex edits in code view.  Another solution might be to complete editing your post before you change the text sizes and add other formatting.  Preview your post to make sure you haven't scrambled it.

[Surreylily]

I've not had any trouble, but I am methodical in how I do things.   The only thing I can think of is that you are resizing text and then either editing or copying and pasting pieces of the message.  I have noticed when you cut and paste a post with embedded codes (such as size, URL, etc) in the WYSIWYG editor instead of code view that you can potentially grab and split up parts of the underlying formatting code. Then inserting this code within other formatted text can combine and/or split the code up to where it doesn't make sense.  I would recommend either not using resizing or do your complex edits in code view.  Another solution might be to complete editing your post before you change the text sizes and add other formatting.  Preview your post to make sure you haven't scrambled it.

Wha??
I'm not the only one.  I can't see a pattern where it happens.

[Surreylily]

Are you okay luvvie?