Report problems for the Build Team

[Cory]

I have a question for Cory and the Build Team.

After the latest changes, I now see buttons at the bottom of posts for "Promote to Article" and "Blog this Post". I guess I could just push them and see what happens, but maybe you could explain what these do. And are these things that the entire membership sees, or only Admins/mods/etc.?

I also wanted to publicly thank Cory for his recent work and for keeping everyone informed.

Yeah those got turned back on in an update. I don't think anyone's using them for any dark secrets so I've turned them off again.

You're welcome. Let me know if there's anything else I can help with. I guess this thread's as good as any so just keep posting them here. I'll put it in my toolbar so I'll hopefully check it frequently.

[Swift]

I just retested this, and got about the same result as I reported in post 518 - it is better than it was (which was approaching infinity to return to the thread); it is now about 25 seconds, but it used to be like 5 or 10 seconds (a guess from memory, not measured).

I reported a post this morning and it seemed as slow as ever (it the Report worked, it just never returned me to the thread). So, whatever is broke is still broke.

I guess this thread's as good as any so just keep posting them here. I'll put it in my toolbar so I'll hopefully check it frequently.

That would work for me. We could also start with a new, clean thread with a title like "Report problems for the Build Team"; whatever works for you.

[Cory]

I reported a post this morning and it seemed as slow as ever (it the Report worked, it just never returned me to the thread). So, whatever is broke is still broke.

Ah right. I have some ideas that I can try.

That would work for me. We could also start with a new, clean thread with a title like "Report problems for the Build Team"; whatever works for you.

That sounds like a good idea actually. I'd like a clean thread. I'll go ahead and make it.

[Swift]

I've created this thread as a dedicated thread to report any problems to the Build Team. It was split off of the old "Foulup Thread".

Problems to report are problems with the physical database and forum (making or editing posts, problems between your brower and the forum, etc.). Problems can either be new ones or on-going. It will also be a place for the Build Team to report back to the community.

Concerns about moderation, management, other members, etc., should not be posted here, but should be posted in a new thread or an appropriate old one.

[Cory]

Hello, I'm in charge of keeping the forum functional and spiffy. If there are any problems you'd like to discuss with the build team, this is the best place to do it.

Currently I'm only aware of the extremely slow post reporting, which I'll probably work on tomorrow. I have a pretty terrible memory, so if I don't get to anything after a week or so or forget about it, remind me at will. I'm not in any way offended by being reminded repeatedly.

Lately we've been reorganizing things so we can put more effort into the forum, but be aware that the forum is still far from our only priority, so it may take a while to fix or even respond to problems. I'll try to be timely though.

[Swift]

Cory and I are both being pro-active. I've merged our like threads and I will make it a sticky.

[Hornblower]

The last three times I attempted to post simple replies, including this one, in the Quick Reply field, I was blocked by a "no security token" message. I then copied the message, right-clicked on the regular Reply icon to open it in a new tab, and pasted the message there. It posted without a hitch.

[Cory]

The last three times I attempted to post simple replies, including this one, in the Quick Reply field, I was blocked by a "no security token" message. I then copied the message, right-clicked on the regular Reply icon to open it in a new tab, and pasted the message there. It posted without a hitch.

Can you try clearing your browser cache? I've made a few changes over the past few days, and one of them might have fixed your issue. I think you know how, but here's a link just in case: https://support.google.com/accounts/answer/32050?hl=en

[LookingSkyward]

qick reply test - edit: no issues on quick reply for me

[Hornblower]

This is a test.

[Hornblower]

This is a test.

No recurrence of security token issue after clearing cache. Thanks for the advice.

[Cory]

No recurrence of security token issue after clearing cache. Thanks for the advice.

Okay cool. Let me know if it happens again. No idea how it was doing it at all in the first place.

[NoisyAstronomer]

Subscribing to this thread as well, so if for some reason Cory is MIA, ping me.

Thanks, Cory! Warning: Since I'm finally over my con crud I will give you a big hug on behalf of everyone here in tomorrow's meeting.

[caveman1917]

Just testing latex display modes

So apparently we can put latex in display mode by using [tex=null]...[/tex] but it centers it horizontally.

[tex]\lim\limits_{x \to \infty}[/tex]



Ok, this seems to work. However this cannot be automated with some setting.

It should be possible to change the setting for [tex=null] so that it doesn't center horizontally but aligns to the left. Apparently any admin can do so, the settings are here: Admin CP > Settings > Options > vLaTeX - Math Parsing. Could any of you see if that works?

[ToSeek]

Just testing latex display modes

So apparently we can put latex in display mode by using [tex=null]...[/tex] but it centers it horizontally.

[tex]\lim\limits_{x \to \infty}[/tex]



Ok, this seems to work. However this cannot be automated with some setting.

It should be possible to change the setting for [tex=null] so that it doesn't center horizontally but aligns to the left. Apparently any admin can do so, the settings are here: Admin CP > Settings > Options > vLaTeX - Math Parsing. Could any of you see if that works?

I went to the settings page but don't see anything about setting orientation, or anything about "tex=null".

[caveman1917]

I went to the settings page but don't see anything about setting orientation, or anything about "tex=null".

Thanks anyway. The documentation (link) is a bit sparse, it only really says "go to the admin page to set the options" so i had hoped there would be a setting there. Presumably it is then set in one of its css files. Oh well, centered will do . Might it be worth it to update the FAQ to show also the "tex=null" option to get it in display mode and centered, or perhaps just with a link to the documentation of the plugin?

[Jeff Root]

I have no idea what "tex=null" is supposed to do, but be
careful you don't start using it for centering if that isn't
really what it's for.

-- Jeff, in Minneapolis

[HenrikOlsen]

Icons are failing with 403 Forbidden again.

[NoisyAstronomer]

Not seeing this... can you describe? I wasn't around last time this happened. :-/

[Van Rijn]

It looks okay to me now, but I saw this too last night. If you looked at a forum page, for instance:

http://cosmoquest.org/forum/forumdis...s-and-Feedback

You wouldn't see the envelopes to the left, the double arrow "go to last post" icons to the right, etc. Some are more important than others - the "go to last post" spot becomes essentially invisible, for instance.

Of course, it wasn't just the forum pages, but I'm using that as an example.

[Cory]

I'm not sure what's up with the icons, but any issues with things looking funny is almost certainly related to the cache. There's no easy way for me to force people to refresh it, so you'll have to do it yourself. Again, link: https://support.google.com/accounts/answer/32050?hl=en
If you refresh it and it happens again, let me know. It's possible Amazon is doing funny things with their image storage thingy.

The latex tex=null bits should look like you want them. I don't really see an easy way of making =null be the default. There's also an issue with viewing the source latex code that I'm trying to fix. You shouldn't have to refresh the cache to see the changes, so if you do let me know.

Also I fixed it by including a CSS file at the bottom of the page that overrides the stuff keeping the latex in the middle of the page.

[Van Rijn]

I'm not sure what's up with the icons, but any issues with things looking funny is almost certainly related to the cache. There's no easy way for me to force people to refresh it, so you'll have to do it yourself. Again, link: https://support.google.com/accounts/answer/32050?hl=en
If you refresh it and it happens again, let me know. It's possible Amazon is doing funny things with their image storage thingy.

It wasn't client side. After Henrik reported it, I got it in both Firefox and Chrome. Browser refresh didn't help. However, the icons came back the next day.

Maybe it was the Daylight savings time change. I don't know much about Amazon web server setup, but I tried googling about Amazon and 403 errors and found this on S3 storage:

https://aws.amazon.com/articles/Amazon-S3/1109#04


Why do some of my requests randomly fail with a 403 Forbidden?

Check the system clock and time zone settings on the offending machine. Amazon S3 requires all machines making requests be within 15 minutes of an Amazon S3 webserver's clock. Setting up your machines to sync their times with an NTP server in addition to making sure they are patched for the recent Day Light Savings changes should resolve this issue.

This is a common error when a developer decides to deploy their application to another machine.


So maybe a server clock inconsistency? Do you use S3?

[slang]

So maybe a server clock inconsistency? Do you use S3?

Yes, I believe we do (or did). Nice find.

[caveman1917]

Also I fixed it by including a CSS file at the bottom of the page that overrides the stuff keeping the latex in the middle of the page.

Thank you.

[Selfsim]

Just a quick note for Cory:
The 'Preview Post/Go Advanced missing text' problem seems to have gone. I haven't had a recurrence since your posted message about the fix for it (a couple of weeks ago).

Thank you .. very much appreciated.

Can you advise what caused it? .. This would aid in leading to a speedy resolution if it ever comes up again. I'd rather not have to go through ~5 months of trying to describe the problem again to a newbie Build Teamer (should such folk begin to appear in the future).

[HenrikOlsen]

Can you advise what caused it? .. This would aid in leading to a speedy resolution if it ever comes up again. I'd rather not have to go through ~5 months of trying to describe the problem again to a newbie Build Teamer (should such folk begin to appear in the future).

I would strongly second that request, one of the most frustrating characteristica of IT support boards is that 90% of the threads consist of a description of a problem, a series of posts suggesting various fixes and a "Thank you, it works now" post with no indication of which suggestion was the one that solved the problem, thus rendering the entire thread worthless.

Many of the problems experienced after the last upgrade were some that had been seen in previous upgrades both in BAUT and CQ times, knowledge from the previous people who ran the board wasn't brought along and made the fixes take far longer than needed.

[Moose]

It's not so much that _we_ need this information as much as it's a best practice that problems, what's been tried, and what's actually gone and fixed it should be clearly documented and available to whoever's maintaining the board, whenever that happens to be.

[Jeff Root]

Don't be like Richard Harris in 'Juggernaut' !

-- Jeff, in Minneapolis

[Jeff Root]

I just now had the "security token" error while trying to post.
I tried again after about 30 seconds and it worked.

My guess is that it had to do with a post from a new member
that had a time stamp from earlier this morning but appeared
in the thread only after I posted. It must have been approved
by a moderator while I was composing my post.

-- Jeff, in Minneapolis

[NoisyAstronomer]

I'll see if I can get find out from Cory what he did and have him share.

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