CHANGES TO FORUM?

[Albertslad]

Like a few others I was banned a while ago, and admin apologised and told me that changes to various elements that affect the user experience of the forum are planned.

Things seem better of late, and I’m no longer experiencing the issues that I was.

Have changes been made? Will the appearance of the forum indicate the implementation of the changes?

And will there be an announcement?

Thanks

And best wishes to all.

[Barryd999]

No, they have not happened yet and there is still an issue with members showing as being banned now and again. Changing browsers for a short while usually sorts it.

[Tracker]

Often a simple log off and try again in a few minutes resolves that individual occasion, but not always.

Sometimes it takes a shut down of the browser, sometimes a change of browser and sometimes a restart of my PC.

You never can tell, except the bannings do seem to be more frequent as the days pass.

I was given to understand that the forum change of life was due to happen on or about 28th May but that may or may not be correct.

Let us hope, for the sake of our mental health (including Warner's staff!) that the change of life is not menopausal in it's introduction!!

[Derek Uzzell]

Just for the record, the 'banning' message reads as folows

 

You are banned from the system.

If you believe you are seeing this page in error, contact the administrator

 

Although when this message appears the O&AL forums become unusable, as has been said time and time again the message is the result of a problem with the Warners computer system and has no 'personal' implications for forum members.

 

Do NOT waste your time contacting the forum Administrator as he/she cannot fix this fault.

 

Just be patient. Give it a few minutes and the problem should have self-corrected and you ought to be able to use the forums as normal - until the computer glitch happens again...!!!!

 

(I have 'stickied' this thread.)

[Brian Kirby]

It is noticeable that since this message began appearing the number of members logged on seems to have diminished quite sharply. In view of the immediate impact of the message: i.e. "You are banned" I do wonder if this apparently personal message has caused people to simply say, "Sod you then, I'll go elsewhere"!! :-D

 

As the underlying fault can't be rectified in the short term, might it not be possible to re-word the message so that it is more apologetic, perhaps saying "System error, please close browser and try again in 5 minutes" or words to that effect? I assume the actual message was originally authored by someone in Warners? Could this be suggested?

 

Personally, I find that when I'm banned all I have to do is simply close the browser, re-open it, and then try to log in again. Very occasionally it takes two tries, but usually just closing and re-opening is all it takes.

 

If the message is provoked when "submitting" a post, the best approach seems to be to use the "back" button, to go back to the "preview" screen, highlight and copy the contents of the edit screen, and either paste and save them into a word processor to uas once logged in again, or simply close and reopen the Warners site as above and, once logged back in, use the "reply" button in the relevant string and, once the cursor is in the edit screen, hit "paste" - and the clever little computer will still have all you wrote in its clipboard to paste straight in! So tedious, but not disastrous.

[witzend]

Derek Uzzell - 2022-05-21 10:41 AM

 

Do NOT waste your time contacting the forum Administrator as he/she cannot fix this fault.

 

How can contacting them be a waste of time Surely if no one contacts them they won't know how bad the problem Really is

[Keithl]

I have exchanged emails with Daniel and Rachel over the last week or so and they basically say they are currently transferring the existing threads over to the new software then have some testing to undertake and then forum members will be invited to register on the new forum.

This should only take another week or so now, fingers crossed.

 

And as the move is so imminent they are not planning any action on the problem with this old software, unfortunately emailing them every time you are 'banned' will not speed up the process.

 

I have found simply going away and doing something else for 5 to 10 minutes then refreshing the forum is all that is needed to regain access.

 

Keith.

[Derek Uzzell]

Brian Kirby - 2022-05-21 4:04 PM

 

...As the underlying fault can't be rectified in the short term, might it not be possible to re-word the message so that it is more apologetic, perhaps saying "System error, please close browser and try again in 5 minutes" or words to that effect? I assume the actual message was originally authored by someone in Warners? Could this be suggested?...

 

 

The "You are banned from the system..." message will have been hard-coded into the software that was written 16 years ago and that is maintained by a 3rd party not by Warners personnel. The message would be legitimate if an O&AL forum Administrator actually banned a forum member, but 'non-banned' forum members began to receive the message spontaneously and at random in late-March 2022.

 

The 3rd party that maintains the O&AL forum's ancient software could, undoubtedly, alter the message to make it apply to the present glitch, but then the message would be unsuitable should an Administrator want to ban a forum member. The appropriate action would be to address the glitch that results in the message appearing haphazardly, not to modify the message wording - but (as Keith has said) the imminent switch to the new forum platform makes that approach non-cost-effective.

 

I remember talking to a ex-work-colleague who had left the organisation in the 1980s to write software for a printer company (Hewlett Packard?). She told me that, once in a while, printouts relating to the company's accounts included an obscene reference to the firm's directors. These were the days when computer programming was an art not a science and the programs themselves could comprise thousands of lines of code with little or no documentation as to how it was meant to function. It was plain that somewhere in the programs that created the accounts printouts a (presumably disgruntled) programmer had embedded the rogue code that produced the obscenities, but it was feared that trying to find and remove that code might trigger an even worse response from the software, so they just checked the accounts printouts very carefully and reran the programs if an obscenity was found. She said that all the programmers thought it was a huge joke, though the directors were much less amused.