RMweb Premium Ian J. Posted February 21, 2016 RMweb Premium Share Posted February 21, 2016 I'm kind of surprised that such a change as going through all the past posts to 'upgrade' them to UTF-8 has been done while the site is still online. Would it not be better to take the forum offline for a few days and get it stable? That leaves some time for those of us that can to do some modelling (not me, but that's not a problem). Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andy Y Posted February 21, 2016 Author Share Posted February 21, 2016 I'm kind of surprised that such a change as going through all the past posts to 'upgrade' them to UTF-8 has been done while the site is still online. Would it not be better to take the forum offline for a few days and get it stable? That leaves some time for those of us that can to do some modelling (not me, but that's not a problem). That would require organisation and communication! Something I find really quite frustrating with Invision. Raising a support ticket with their U.S-based staff initially gives an ETA for a response, typically I've seen 8 days plus quoted. However the response comes much quicker than that, at least they don't over promise and under deliver. Once any examination or work is underway their communications are non-committal, vague and appear at random times; I often have to prod to get an update on progress. This upgrade has been hard work, I'm sure it could have been worse in some ways but it's certainly not as easy as it should be to have confidence in the communications. I appreciate the fact that someone, somewhere is working unsociable hours to try and improve matters but I don't know who they are, where they are, what they've set out to do and whether they feel they've accomplished anything, whether I can expect to see certain improvements within a given period of time or whether they've just gone for a lie down now. I'm in the dark I'm afraid. Contrast that with the support from our hosting provider, Dediserve, which I can only describe as excellent on every single occasion I've had to raise a ticket. An acknowledgement that they've received the ticket is given within a few minutes and they either get on and fix it giving a reply to test and verify at this end, normally in pretty short order. The first tier support must be in India but there are no communication difficulties whatsoever and if anything needs escalating to their base in Ireland a friendly dialogue happens very quickly, occasionally at director level, even outside normal working hours. They really are superb. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold martin_wynne Posted February 21, 2016 RMweb Gold Share Posted February 21, 2016 I'm kind of surprised that such a change as going through all the past posts to 'upgrade' them to UTF-8 has been done while the site is still online. Hi Ian, RMweb was offline for a couple of hours very early this morning. Not of course with a proper explanation/apology notice, just the usual guru meditating. Martin. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kenton Posted February 21, 2016 Share Posted February 21, 2016 It is a database. 99.999% doesn't change from one day to the next, the vast majority of transactions are additions so affect only a very small number of records in the database. (OK, I am assuming some sensible design here - possibly beyond their brains). All that would be required is a record write lock* on any record that is likely to be hit (like the ones in this topic) or a block lock on the individual records (posts) within a topic while the very small amount of data is processed. The period that such a lock would be effect would be completely indiscernible by any user entering a post and measured in fractions of a second. On the other hand, the idiotic suggestion that we should all go in and manually edit every post we have made that might or might not require a character replacement is about akin to akin someone being told to read War and Peace! (*) write record locks should be happening all the time even on active records. They are near instantaneous - try hitting a like button twice in quick succession. There is even time to process the clash and send you a page of information telling you that it has happened. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Porcy Mane Posted February 21, 2016 Share Posted February 21, 2016 Not sure if this is related to the 'New Skin' but I''ve just had problems trying to view the latest page on 'Wright Writes'. when I go to the page using the latest post command from my content, it goes to the top of the page, Pot 8901 but then starts continually refreshes the screen and doesn't let me scroll down the page, by any means, either the slider, the down arrow in the bottom corner or by clicking on the post and scrolling down. I can just get to post 8902 but no further before it refreshes to the top of the page. This doesn't happen on other threads. Jamie I'm getting a similar thing happen in a number of threads I've posted in. Sometimes I can visit those threads and all appears stable but then under those circumstances I've noticed that the entire last page has disappeared. P The bit that follows is just a test: £-@-"-$-:-;?-_-/->-<- Anything prior is just a PITA Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium dhjgreen Posted February 21, 2016 RMweb Premium Share Posted February 21, 2016 2 days of posts had gone from this thread: http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/47428-where-have-all-our-garden-birds-gone/page-1 but reappeared after I made a post just now. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium Ian J. Posted February 21, 2016 RMweb Premium Share Posted February 21, 2016 That would require... ... ...dialogue happens very quickly, occasionally at director level, even outside normal working hours. They really are superb. Thanks for replying Andy, you can't have much time (or hair!) left for such things. I'd offer to help, but even though I know a bit about PHP I didn't get to train myself fully with it (and the HTML/CSS/Javascript), and I know nothing of Invision's usage of those languages within their system. Despite Invision's level of support, I would ask everyone here to be patient as I do know, unfortunately from some actual experience, that sorting out Extended ASCII to UTF-8 stuff isn't particularly 'easy'. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium dhjgreen Posted February 21, 2016 RMweb Premium Share Posted February 21, 2016 2 days of posts had gone from this thread: http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/47428-where-have-all-our-garden-birds-gone/page-1 but reappeared after I made a post just now. I seem to have fixed "Wright writes" by manually navigating to the last post visible, then posting, the missing posts then reappeared. Some may not thank me though!! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
MikeOxon Posted February 21, 2016 Share Posted February 21, 2016 Very pleased to see, after my earlier pessimistic posts, that much has now re-appeared, albeit with question marks in place of some other characters. At least, the posts are now readable again. I hope that Andy and others involved will now be able to catch up on some sleep Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andy Y Posted February 21, 2016 Author Share Posted February 21, 2016 Not yet Invision have tried to indicate that the 'jumping topics' is something to do with the custom skins we use (they were fine up until this morning!) but if you need access to one of the affected topics until it's properly fixed go to the bottom of any page, click on Change Theme and select IP.Board which is the vanilla skin, it'll show a load of errors in the header but at least the page will load if needed for access until it's fixed. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold martin_wynne Posted February 21, 2016 RMweb Gold Share Posted February 21, 2016 Invision have tried to indicate that the 'jumping topics' is something to do with the custom skins we use Rubbish! They stop jumping once they have been converted to UTF. For example this topic was jumping an hour ago with truncated text: http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/108309-south-west-trains-fare-structure/ And is now fine, with text restored. Martin. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andy Y Posted February 21, 2016 Author Share Posted February 21, 2016 The jumping topics should now be fixed. Apparently this was caused to redirect loops taking place when the system couldn't recognise the latest postings/page whilst posts were recounted. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
eastwestdivide Posted February 21, 2016 Share Posted February 21, 2016 ... Despite Invision's level of support, I would ask everyone here to be patient as I do know, unfortunately from some actual experience, that sorting out Extended ASCII to UTF-8 stuff isn't particularly 'easy'. It may not be easy, but it's hardly a novel problem to have to solve. And a foreseeable one too. We lost all the extended ascii once before and never got it back, which makes it doubly frustrating. Agreed on the patience though. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium jamie92208 Posted February 21, 2016 RMweb Premium Share Posted February 21, 2016 Another potential niggle to let you know about Andy. I used the usual route into the forum going via My Content an as usual find only the topics with new content in bold. If I then use the blue star to go to the first unread topic, no problem, read it to the end then press back to return to the list. At this point many more topics are in bold, back to sometime this morning. I've repeated the exercise a couple of times to double check and the same fault repeats. Cheers Jamie PS do I get a bonus as a beta system tester.? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium uax6 Posted February 21, 2016 RMweb Premium Share Posted February 21, 2016 Looks like the PM system is now having issues. Three or four messages have been sent, and although I get the prompt at the top of the page, the message just isn't there... Andy G Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andy Y Posted February 21, 2016 Author Share Posted February 21, 2016 I've not been able to replicate either of the above but it could be time/cookie related. It may be worth clearing your browser cookies. I note that both of you are using the 2013 theme. It shouldn't make any difference but it does mean I've got more places to look if there's an issue. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
mozzer models Posted February 21, 2016 Share Posted February 21, 2016 as to PM/notice of new posts it take over a hour to get the email if not longer Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium jamie92208 Posted February 21, 2016 RMweb Premium Share Posted February 21, 2016 I've not been able to replicate either of the above but it could be time/cookie related. It may be worth clearing your browser cookies. I note that both of you are using the 2013 theme. It shouldn't make any difference but it does mean I've got more places to look if there's an issue. Thanks Andy, I've changed to 2016 and it seems to be working fine. Jamie Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Oldddudders Posted February 21, 2016 RMweb Gold Share Posted February 21, 2016 I discover there is no longer a delete button. if I post bobbins and want to delete it, the best I can do is "Hide" it, which then requires me to explain why I want to hide it! And the mods will still be able to read it, it says. Is this really an improvement? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium Ian J. Posted February 21, 2016 RMweb Premium Share Posted February 21, 2016 I discover there is no longer a delete button. if I post bobbins and want to delete it, the best I can do is "Hide" it, which then requires me to explain why I want to hide it! And the mods will still be able to read it, it says. Is this really an improvement? Well, it's likely that deleted posts might not actually have been deleted anyway, just marked as such in the database, but kept for admin use. I wouldn't be surprised if edits to posts are retained too, in some fashion, so that admins can see the trail of changes. So 'Hide' is perhaps just being a bit more transparent for us users. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Oldddudders Posted February 21, 2016 RMweb Gold Share Posted February 21, 2016 Well, it's likely that deleted posts might not actually have been deleted anyway, just marked as such in the database, but kept for admin use. I wouldn't be surprised if edits to posts are retained too, in some fashion, so that admins can see the trail of changes. So 'Hide' is perhaps just being a bit more transparent for us users. I don't dissent from mods being able to replay any dodgy exchanges to nail miscreants. But when I hit hide, I get asked why. That is just a delay, and since my decision to delete is almost certainly urgent, it is not what I need, and avails the mods nothing either. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Silver Sidelines Posted February 21, 2016 Share Posted February 21, 2016 Well done Andy (and all of those people involved) ..now fixed.... Just checking in later on Sunday evening. After a quick canter through some of my Blog Posts I can report that all seem to have returned to their previous unaltered state. Somebody has had a busy weekend. Thanks again Ray Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andy Y Posted February 21, 2016 Author Share Posted February 21, 2016 I don't dissent from mods being able to replay any dodgy exchanges to nail miscreants. But when I hit hide, I get asked why. That is just a delay, and since my decision to delete is almost certainly urgent, it is not what I need, and avails the mods nothing either. I'd hoped that the 'hide' facility rather than 'delete' would be an improvement from both sides but hadn't considered the time taken to input a reason. An improvement for the user in that it could be restored if necessary as some people make accidental deletions. An improvement for admin in that removed posts could be seen in context (rather than as a pile in the trash bin) and also that it may deter some excesses where a vitriolic post is made and then deleted as though it never happened. I use the hide function quite a lot and the browser retains a list of previously used reasons that I just click on to suit. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andy Y Posted February 21, 2016 Author Share Posted February 21, 2016 Looks like the PM system is now having issues. Three or four messages have been sent, and although I get the prompt at the top of the page, the message just isn't there... Andy G I flagged up the PM issue and they're being rebuilt so they should correct themselves soon if it's not already complete. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold martin_wynne Posted February 21, 2016 RMweb Gold Share Posted February 21, 2016 I don't dissent from mods being able to replay any dodgy exchanges to nail miscreants. But when I hit hide, I get asked why. That is just a delay, and since my decision to delete is almost certainly urgent, it is not what I need, and avails the mods nothing either. Hi Ian, Click Edit, CTRL+A, Delete key, Type "Deleted" and re-post. 5 seconds. Martin. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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