Author Topic: NASASpaceflight.com and NSF Forum Bug Reports (Read 146683 times)

cwr · « **Reply #40 on:** 12/01/2020 06:04 am »

When I compare the behaviour of viewing the forum threads from a few months ago
[before the changes for how twitter entries are displayed], I remember wondering
why the tweets entered in a post didn't actually show the tweet, just the text from it.

It was no big deal to click on the link and open the tweet in another tab or window.
Particularly since most tweets had been viewed on my twitter feed 12-24 hours earlier,
so I rarely needed to click on the twitter hyperlink.
I typically run with a few Firefox windows and one of them has 1-2 dozen NSF threads as tabs.
and there's a tab which I use to view unread threads. It used to be that when I clicked on a tab that had
new post(s) that the window showed the last post I'd read and when I refreshed the tab I'd see
the new posts.

Then the recent changes went into effect.
I find the vm usage of firefox has gone up significantly and the thread takes a lot
longer to display after a refresh - I think thats's all due to all the extra images from the twitter tweets in a thread. Then the tab starts jumping around as the tweets are displayed in full.
But where the tab settles down to is not always as deterministic as it used to be.
There are some threads that seem to like jumping me back a week or a month.
It's possible that these might be due to moderator action but I don't think so.

So these days I find myself waiting for a tab to display a lot more, waiting for
the display to settle down and then scrolling to the posts that I haven't read.

All in all, I would vote for going back to the previous scenario where the tweets
aren't expanded with images. I much preferred that behaviour.

Carl

the_other_Doug · « **Reply #41 on:** 12/01/2020 01:28 pm »

Sorry, Carl, but the tweet images have always expanded for me, with the text repeated in a quote box below the tweet. As with most of these HTML issues, it's an interaction between the forum software and your particular system. If you went to a different computer, you would have seen different behaviors.

PreferToLurk · « **Reply #42 on:** 12/05/2020 02:15 am »

So I had nearly given up on my issue of the new tags getting cleared where they shouldn't, especially after seeing the five year old post on simple machines forums that was left unresolved.

BUT Then I got bored at work today, and did some browsing on the site. I noticed that the bug was still effecting me on my work computer, which means it almost cant (?) be a problem on my side. I've attached a couple screenshots of what is happening.

cdebuhr · « **Reply #43 on:** 12/05/2020 03:56 am »

Quote from: PreferToLurk on 12/05/2020 02:15 am

So I had nearly given up on my issue of the new tags getting cleared where they shouldn't, especially after seeing the five year old post on simple machines forums that was left unresolved.

BUT Then I got bored at work today, and did some browsing on the site. I noticed that the bug was still effecting me on my work computer, which means it almost cant (?) be a problem on my side. I've attached a couple screenshots of what is happening.

I've been having this exact issue as well. Not sure when it started, but probably in the last few days.

PreferToLurk · « **Reply #44 on:** 12/05/2020 04:20 pm »

Thought of one difference in my setup that might make the bug more apparent to some people over others. I have my settings tweaked to show 50 comments per page instead of the default of 20. This makes it much more likely (in my favored topics anyway) that I will have only one page of unread posts, which will guarantee that the new tag will disappear after only one click of the tag. If you are set to only 20 comments per page, it will be more likely that your unread posts will span more than one page, which means that the new tag will not disappear altogether, but it will still affect you since clicking the new tag on the bugged topic will skip showing you the unread posts on the previous page.

I explained the mechanics of this a couple posts up, basically clicking the new tag (in a perfect world with no bugs) will only clear the "unread" status of posts on the page that it takes you to. If you click the back button, you will still see the new tag, but it will now take you to the next page of unread posts. Right now, (in the bugged world) the same thing is happening for the topic underneath the one you clicked.

I am a C# programmer by trade, but I know enough about javascript to give myself headaches trying to read it. If I had to guess though, there is a bug in one of the places that iCurMessageId is being reset.

Thats about all the digging I can do before my pity for javascript devs overwhelms my ability to debug. :-) I salute you, javascript devs.

the_other_Doug · « **Reply #45 on:** 12/05/2020 04:56 pm »

I have mine set to the maximum number of posts per page, which is 100 IIRC. And yeah, sometimes the New tag does the same thing to me. Which would normally not be what you'd expect.

the_other_Doug · « **Reply #46 on:** 12/09/2020 05:49 pm »

Interestingly, I was not having the issue very often, but after I read this post yesterday I am now seeing that, when I go into a topic that has multiple threads marked with the New tag, once I click on New to read the new posts on one thread, when I come back to the topic, all of the New flags have been cleared. Going out and back in to the topic doesn't restore them.

On the plus side, up until today when I exited any of the topics lower down in the forum (and this is all using Chrome on my Windows 10 HP PC), the whole topics list, i.e. the forum index, would come up with the last-visited topic at the top, and then automatically back up two or three sets of topics. It's no longer doing that. I guess you win some, you lose some...

the_other_Doug · « **Reply #47 on:** 12/11/2020 06:41 pm »

Update on the New tag glitch, as it seems to be happening more of the time, now. This is all on Chrome running on Windows 10.

The simplest way I can put it is that now, when you enter a thread by clicking on its New tag, when you come back into the thread list you will most commonly see the threads that had New tags that are lower down on the list (i.e., older) will have lost their New tags. But the newer threads with New tags above the thread you just read will still have their tags. There are variations, however.

For example, let's say the topic SpaceX Missions has five threads which have New tags. If I open them from oldest to newest (my normal MO), I don't notice the glitch, the New tags on the newer posts are not normally affected.

But if I open the newest thread (let's say it's about a flight launching in the next few minutes, and I want that update first), when I return to the list of threads, *all* of the New tags have been cleared. If I open the second thread down, when I come back to the list only the New tag on the newest thread remains, the flags on the older threads have been cleared.

But... the variations. Sometimes, in the above case, if I open the second thread in the list, when I come back to the list the second and third threads will have lost their tags, but the first, fourth and fifth threads still have their New tags. In other words, on occasion it *only* clears the tag from the next-oldest thread, while in other cases it clears the tags from all of the older threads.

And the least common variation is that opening *any* thread by clicking its New tag will, when you come back to the thread list, have removed all New tags.

I don't believe the New tags are consistently restored after a new post to a thread in the topic, either. You can't restore them by going back to the Topic index (i.e., the main forum index), but they do sometimes restore after someone makes a new post to a thread in the affected topic.

I hope this glitch pattern capture helps in tracking down the source of the bug. Sorry to have the bad news that the bug is inconsistent...

Mandella · « **Reply #48 on:** 12/14/2020 06:10 am »

Also have PerferToLurk's issue with the NEW button disappearing when the one above it is clicked. It only started a few days ago that I noticed.

Also on Chrome with Windows 10.

modemeagle · « **Reply #49 on:** 12/14/2020 04:51 pm »

Quote from: PreferToLurk on 11/30/2020 07:46 pm

When I click on the "new" link next to a forum topic that has new posts in it, the "new" tag from the thread below the one I actually clicked through will go away, along with the tag from the topic I clicked into.

This only happens if i click the NEW tag (which takes you to the first unread post), it does NOT happen if I enter the thread through the normal thread title link, nor if I click in through the last post link.

I am on chrome, fully updated and public version.

This has been happening for at least a week. Cant remember exactly when it started, but it hasn't been that long. I recall being confused and questioning my sanity for a day or two before I realized it was a bug.

I notice mine started doing it the day "Starship SN8 Test Launch Campaign - UPDATES" thread was started. Not implying a cause but that was the day it started for me. (11/28)

Chris Bergin · « **Reply #50 on:** 12/14/2020 05:26 pm »

Just a quick note to say all is being read. Mark will update on any fixes required as he does them. But just a post to say we're not ignoring these posts

Paul451 · « **Reply #51 on:** 12/14/2020 06:11 pm »

Just to provide a counter example: Under both Chrome and Vivaldi (Chromium-engine), current versions, on the same ancient Win7 box, the "new" tag seems to work the way it's intended.

Clicking through it gives me the most recent read page. If I go back to the topic list, the "new" tag will now target the next most recently read page (if available, otherwise will be cleared). And none of the threads below have their newness altered.

Tried changing the number of topics per page, and number of messages per page, couldn't reproduce the described behaviour.

PreferToLurk · « **Reply #52 on:** 12/15/2020 02:38 pm »

I added a comment to a bug report on the "new tag" bug over at simplemachines tech support forum. There were a few very interesting replies including one potential temporary fix. Additionally, a longer explanation of the root cause along with a link to a Chromium bug report (which the chromium team appears to actually be taking seriously).

https://www.simplemachines.org/community/index.php?topic=575914.msg4075383

^ that is the thread starting at my comment and includes the several very helpful posts in the replies since.

Edit: spelling

NSF Webmaster · « **Reply #53 on:** 12/15/2020 03:41 pm »

Quote from: PreferToLurk on 12/15/2020 02:38 pm

I added a comment to a bug report on the "new tag" bug over at simplemachines tech support forum. There were a few very interesting replies including one potential temporary fix. Additionally, a longer explanation of the root cause along with a link to a Chromium bug report (which the chromium team appears to actually be taking seriously).

https://www.simplemachines.org/community/index.php?topic=575914.msg4075383

^ that is the thread starting at my comment and includes the several very helpful posts in the replies since.

Edit: spelling

Very nice work ! Thanks so much for digging into this. I have disabled the prefetch prev/next links for logged-in users for now, so please let me know if this works around the issue ?

PreferToLurk · « **Reply #54 on:** 12/15/2020 04:31 pm »

Quote from: NSF Webmaster on 12/15/2020 03:41 pm

Quote from: PreferToLurk on 12/15/2020 02:38 pm
I added a comment to a bug report on the "new tag" bug over at simplemachines tech support forum. There were a few very interesting replies including one potential temporary fix. Additionally, a longer explanation of the root cause along with a link to a Chromium bug report (which the chromium team appears to actually be taking seriously).

https://www.simplemachines.org/community/index.php?topic=575914.msg4075383

^ that is the thread starting at my comment and includes the several very helpful posts in the replies since.

Edit: spelling

Very nice work ! Thanks so much for digging into this. I have disabled the prefetch prev/next links for logged-in users for now, so please let me know if this works around the issue ?

Super! Everything is working correct for me! Now I don't have to read my unread threads in reverse order any more.

old_geez · « **Reply #55 on:** 12/18/2020 07:30 pm »

Hi,
Woke up this morning to find NSF had disappeared from my Tapatalk menu.
As it’s the only way I view forums it was pretty disconcerting.
Is the a bug, or has something weird happened.
Really missing my SN9 information

xor · « **Reply #56 on:** 01/29/2021 09:36 am »

I have a theory on some of the "new" tags throwing people backwards in the thread, maybe it helps jive with the reports I've seen.

I've noticed that modifying an existing or old post resets the timestamp (or whatever per-user-thread read indicator exists) to back where that post occurred in the thread. This seems reasonable. I usually just look at the bottom of the post and it's got that new modified notification and time on it--makes sense.

Every once in a while, I get to a post where it's not obviously modified. Or, it's not the right post at all. This seems to happen in the busier and more contentious threads.

What I suspect happens is that an existing post is first modified and then moved or deleted (likely mod action). My guess is that the pre-move/delete modification resets the user-thread new indicator backwards, but the "new" tag no longer corresponds to an existing post in the thread.

As an example, I just ran across this "new" tag now, where:

https://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?topic=52701.msg2184784#new

...goes to that referenced URL, but shows me a different initial message:

https://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?topic=52701.msg2184797#msg2184797

...which appears to be the first message past the one referenced (which no longer exists). I've been refreshing that page as I'm catching up, and I know I recently caught up on that thread. Reading further down, no new messages had yet appeared, and the message number the "new" URL references doesn't exist in the thread.

Probably only a mod could verify this. One mitigation might be to modify the post after moving it, or don't modify it before deleting it.

As to a quick way to troubleshoot: when you get that thread deja-vu, check if the message is marked as modified. If not modified, check your URL versus the first message you're taken to. They won't match if it has been moved or deleted.

It's a rare issue for me, but I'm proffering this as rational explanation from occurrence patterns. Or you know, the forum got fed after midnight.

Syskey · « **Reply #57 on:** 02/04/2021 05:29 am »

This is my first post and came to the forum specifically because I couldn't find a way to get direct help. However, I recently became a member on YouTube and one perk is the discord channel. (The $9.99 one, I forget the name ATM). I have waited since the sn9 launch(and crash) live stream to be added to the discord and nothing. I've linked my YouTube to discord as per the instructions on the perks page...
Can someone help me with a solution? I'll provide whatever info is needed via pm or email as necessary. I don't want to not get something I'm paying for.

Spider1 · « **Reply #58 on:** 02/04/2021 10:22 am »

Hi NASA Spaceflight forum participants!
My dad has been following these forums as long as I can remember (based in Australia) but he is for some reason he cannot open any as it is ‘timing him out’, nor allowing him to access to apply to the L2 forums.
I am entirely new to the forums, just trying to work out this issue on his behalf. Is there an email address for the powers that be here in case he has been kicked out for some reason?
Thank you, hope someone can help.

Chris Bergin · « **Reply #59 on:** 02/04/2021 04:15 pm »

A few Aussies have said Australian IP Optus blocked access to the forum (as apparently they think all PHP forums are pushing sites (stupid). Tell him to use a different provider or a proxy. That's out of our control, but the two who flagged it say alt provider or proxy solves that.

Tell him to send "NSF is not a phishing site to [email protected]

Also:

If you use an Australian ISP and use their default DNS servers, you will encounter these issues. In Australia, only DNS blocks are enforced.

If you wish to bypass it, you don't need to use a VPN. You can simply change your DNS server to any DNS server you like.

Common ones are:
--
8.8.8.8 / 8.8.4.4 (Google)
1.1.1.1 / 1.0.0.1 (CloudFlare)