Shadowrun
Shadowrun General => General Discussion => Topic started by: 忍 on <11-14-17/2326:26>
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How was everyone's break?
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Not bad, managed to not shoot anyone. Yours?
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We're back!
(For another month or two, at least.)
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Hopefully a little longer this time ::)
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It's always nice to see the site working again.
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Amen to that. I neeeeeds my Srun fix!
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Naturally, this site died right when I needed to make a PC for a campaign.
My break was decent. It's nice to have all the smart people here to rely on, though.
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"Holy ****, the forums are back."
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Very happy to see things back up and running. :)
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Thank goodness. I was having to do work! 8)
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Hooray!
Only saw one critical glitch over the holiday --- unfortunately they were headed down a flight of stairs on ship in a storm. ;D I had nothing to do with that one!!! <Evil GM Grin>
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And it only took about two weeks...
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yea, these forum crashes are a PITA... I think the server needs some fresh water and food in its cage..
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It has been awhile this time.
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So, anyone want to make a betting pool on how long until the next outage?
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only if it pays out in beer and cookies. (Its the Christmas season after all!)
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So, anyone want to make a betting pool on how long until the next outage?
If I didn't know better I'd swear someone was trying to make it indefinite.
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AJ, you gotta stop going on vacation. The kids wreck the house when you're not here....
;D
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Things have never been the same since my mind went wandering...
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Things have never been the same since my mind went wandering...
Dang it Jack! You had one job! ;D
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Back again? I'm betting the next outage will take just one week to recover from.
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Guess who's back. Back again. Forum's back. Tell a friend.
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I feel like I'm inside "There's a monster at the end of this book".
We will tie ropes around the website, that way it will no
*CRASH*
... That ... did not work. Okay! This time, using thick metal chains, we wil-
*CRASH*
Oh my. Well, now, with Brick 2.0, we're CERTAIN to stay open for at lea-
*CRASH*
... has anyone ever told you that you are very strong?
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So, anyone want to make a betting pool on how long until the next outage?
Less than a month probably ::)
Happy if proven wrong...
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it's been going down about once a week so my bet is within 7 days the script kiddies will be killing the server via the same unpatched exploits.
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We just need to keep AI's and dissonance technomancers from touching the code.
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*sigh*
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These poor hamsters...
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So, odds on the forum staying up until after Christmas?
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So, odds on the forum staying up until after Christmas?
You mean uptime in one continuous stretch, or it still existing at all after that point?
I think we have to give the decision-makers time to come back from vacation before they pull the plug.
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One can hope whatever is causing the forum seizures take a holiday too.
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The forums came back up a lot quicker this time round and I'm told that the "web guys" are diving in to this to figure out what the issue is.
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Glad to hear that the Server Hamster is getting a vet check up :P
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@Reaver
I'm now picturing the emergency power supply from the game Rex Nebula which was a hamster running in a wheel to power his spaceship.
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*sigh*
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OK, forget the betting pool on whether the forums will be up for Christmas. How about a pool to see how many outages we have between now and then?
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My bet:
1
Fixed sometime next year.
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A lot of people thought that the statement in Data Trails that nobody know how Hosts fundamentally work to be odd, that surely all the corporations in the SR world would not build their entire structures around something that they don't understand the working of.
But I'm beginning to feel that this is just a reflection of Catalysts experience with web pages ...
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Think you that a better betting pool will be how many days the forums are down for the rest of the year? My bid is 5.
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Let's do the time warp agaaaaaaaaaaain!
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Well, you know, we're a wholly-owned subsidiary of NeoNET, so...
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Aaaaand down and up again :-X
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Hey the forums are ba
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I think these outtages are being caused by database errors with the site infrastructure. Unlike the attacks, back when we first started having major problems, these ones are displaying differently.
When it is down, if I try to connect from a computer I normally use to connect (cookies saying I should be logged in), I get a one line error message. No page loading whatsoever.
But when I try to connect from a fresh device, the forum structures load, but it says something about a database error.
I guess I'm just pointing out that we have even more reason that these forums need to be overhauled...
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Is that again, or still, Kiirnodel?
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Hmmm? I'm not positive (I don't really know anything about setting up or maintaining a website or forum), but I think the times we've had outtages these last couple of months it has been the same problem reoccurring. I don't know what triggers it, though.
Several months ago, the forums were hacked and out-right attacked (they even altered the page to boast their attack on the site. But that isn't what we're seeing now, I don't think the site is going down because of malicious action.
However, it is possible the two are related. The attack(s) may be the underlying cause of the frequent crashes we're seeing now. Like I said, I don't know how it all works exactly.
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Yea, their appears to be a corrupted file or structure to the webpage that is causing the crash for the last few times.
I think it may be just a case of of outdated software, as I have noticed that many of the other sites I visit have all done an update to their page interfaces over the last few months...
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Whereas these forums did some sort of roll-back after the second hack: as indicated by the Banner's reversion to the 4e logo and the "News" referring to old books.
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Yes? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
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And we seem to be back again.
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But for how long?
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So ... do a complete reconstruction without using backup’d files?
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Think you that a better betting pool will be how many days the forums are down for the rest of the year? My bid is 5.
Well this was way too optimistic. Lol.
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Obviously its some deckhead screwing about with an Azteca 200.
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Three days left till the end of the year. Will the forum go down again before then?
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Three days left till the end of the year. Will the forum go down again before then?
Yes
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Three days left till the end of the year. Will the forum go down again before then?
Yes
The real question is whether it will go down, come back up, and then go down again before then.
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Three days left till the end of the year. Will the forum go down again before then?
Yes
The real question is whether it will go down, come back up, and then go down again before then.
Come back up in less than three days? No way
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Three days left till the end of the year. Will the forum go down again before then?
Yes
The real question is whether it will go down, come back up, and then go down again before then.
Come back up in less than three days? No way
Well, it has better odds than a non-petnomancer TM against a decker in... pretty much anything.
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And we're back again, after the first outage of the new year.... ::)
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Yea, there appears to be a corrupted file or structure to the webpage that is causing the crash for the last few times.
So, no idea if other people are seeing this message, but I went ahead and wrote it down this time to share (just in case that helps somehow). When the forums have been down the last several times I have been seeing just a single line of text instead of the page loading:
Table './shadow_23r98uysdhj/smf_messages' is marked as crashed and last (automatic?) repair failed
Hope somebody in the higher-ups can do something with that to help fix the problem...
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That is the same message I get as well.
They ("web guys") have been trying to address the issue, but (obviously), no luck so far.
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Maybe it is time for some new web guys?
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But that costs money :p
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But that costs money :p
They can take it out of what they pay their current web guys.
Or hell, I'm certain there are plenty of fans who would be willing and able to maintain a simple website and forum for free or get paid in product.
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snip
Or hell, I'm certain there are plenty of fans who would be willing and able to maintain a simple website and forum for free or get paid in product.
I mean we, the community, already sub for the editing/copy, and PR departments, why not IT too?
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CGL: the people's company. *Where you make your own products*
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CGL: the people's company. *Where you make your own products*
They'd probably be better. *glares at non-insect insect spirits in the newest release*
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Okay, we can cut it off now.
Like to volunteer for the time to do all this stuff without pay, step forward. No one here is getting paid for the forums, and we do it out of love for the game. If you're more inclined to bad mouth developers and freelancers, you can do it elsewhere. If this thread just continues to be complaints, I can lock it down.
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Ok, I'm a total layman in technical stuff, but what is the biggest barrier to redoing the forum and updating the webpage. I don't want to make accusations, or being snarky, I just don't understand why a company publishing one of the longest-running, well-known and popular games can't do it, while infinitely smaller companies can do it. Would it really cost that much money?
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Excuse me for thinking if it is going to be done it should be done well. And on that topic I will be happy to assist with the forums. Feel free to PM me.
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It might not be a case of money, but of people and time. Many people are under the impression Catalyst is some huge company and makes money hand over fist....
In reality, I think the company is actually really small (maybe a half dozen fulltime people) and most of the revenue/assets are tied up in inventory and warehouse space.
Game companies are not multi-million dollar operations anymore as tabletops is a dying industry for many reasons.
Nothing stops someone from opening a fansite forum if they so choose (dumpshock).
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Is it me or the number of posted messages has been significantly reduced since the forum started to be unstable? (I mean, only taking into account days where the forum is up)
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It might not be a case of money, but of people and time. Many people are under the impression Catalyst is some huge company and makes money hand over fist....
In reality, I think the company is actually really small (maybe a half dozen fulltime people) and most of the revenue/assets are tied up in inventory and warehouse space.
Game companies are not multi-million dollar operations anymore as tabletops is a dying industry for many reasons.
Nothing stops someone from opening a fansite forum if they so choose (dumpshock).
Quoted For Truth
Is it me or the number of posted messages has been significantly reduced since the forum started to be unstable? (I mean, only taking into account days where the forum is up)
I'm unsure if the numbers dropping are because of people not coming back, or if it's because of the amount of days we were down. It's true that we've dropped considerably the last two years, but I also know even strong forums sometimes go through cycles of inactivity.
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I can only speak for myself, but the instability of the forum certainly has discouraged my participation over the last two months. Especially the pbp crowd has moved to dumpshock and similar fora.
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I can only speak for myself, but the instability of the forum certainly has discouraged my participation over the last two months. Especially the pbp crowd has moved to dumpshock and similar fora.
I can only agree with this. I used to post a couple of times a week (sometimes even multiple times per day) but now my last 15 posts have been in the course of six months.
especially for PbPs it's very tricky as they are often quite difficult to keep going as it is. Add to that the forum being unavailable for some time and it's almost impossible to keep one going.
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For PbP it is clearly showstopper, however I do not read those parts of the forum, so my feeling does not even take them into account....
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I'm also not a PbP player, so I can't attest to that part.
I used to use dumpshock more, and I've paid closer attention to the other sources more recently with the outtages. But I feel like these forums are still more active than the dumpshock forums...
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The most active parts of the forum seem to be threads like this one.
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Well, of course, we could always jump onto create other threads ;D
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But this is such a relevant topic!
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Can it be that we have had more up time than down so far this year? *Knock on wood*
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I'm not jumping to conclusions quite yet... ::)
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And in a rather strange turn of events, it looks like the BT forums are suffering the same kind of issues we've been (though this is the first I've seen it over there).
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Speaking personally this is the first time I've looked in since my last post because it's been down so much.
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So when the forums are up, but are only working half ass, what do we call it?
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So when the forums are up, but are only working half ass, what do we call it?
Is something not working right?
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So when the forums are up, but are only working half ass, what do we call it?
Is something not working right?
I have the text, the avatars, and the buttons, and the shadowrun logo at the top, and that's it. There's basically no layout, there's no color. It would seem that it is my computer, however. Time to clear that cache. My apologies, I just automatically blamed the website without testing it.
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Phew 8)
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Always Ctrl+F5 (Opt+Cmd+E on Macs) before calling Tech Support. ;)
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(http://s2.quickmeme.com/img/4a/4a102f0529cd0acddfa88a8dea431001d8e671f9def8ecaa6992bc455cee56f4.jpg)
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"Let me go get a flashlight so I can see if the computer got unplugged, because the power's out."
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(http://s2.quickmeme.com/img/4a/4a102f0529cd0acddfa88a8dea431001d8e671f9def8ecaa6992bc455cee56f4.jpg)
I'm fairly certain that's what they've been doing with the forums for the last couple years.
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I'm fairly certain that's what they've been doing with the forums for the last couple years.
It was intended to be an answer to ShadowcatX
I have the text, the avatars, and the buttons, and the shadowrun logo at the top, and that's it. There's basically no layout, there's no color. It would seem that it is my computer, however. Time to clear that cache. My apologies, I just automatically blamed the website without testing it.
But indeed it seems the forums have been turned off more than enough to rule out this as a potential solution...
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Im happy it’s stabile again. Now if people could only return ...
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i hope people return as well but im not betting on it.
most of what remains of the online community seems to have transitioned to reddit for obvious reasons.
i think catalyst lost their chance on this one (the "news" at the top of this site is still offering notifications for 4e stuff ffs).
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Im happy it’s stabile again. Now if people could only return ...
Ackkk begone ye tempter of fate. *knocks on wood*
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Im happy it’s stabile again. Now if people could only return ...
Why did you invoke Murphy?
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Murphy ain’t that bad once you expect him
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It seems like the spoiler tags got lost in the aether again though, or weren't strong enough to make the trek out of the underworld with the rest of the website.
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Murphy ain’t that bad once you expect him
That's Anonymous.
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i hope people return as well but im not betting on it.
most of what remains of the online community seems to have transitioned to reddit for obvious reasons.
i think catalyst lost their chance on this one (the "news" at the top of this site is still offering notifications for 4e stuff ffs).
And yet, over 125+ new members to the forums in the past week.
As for the News... I've removed it. I'll admit it got pushed to the back burner, but I'll see about new updates.
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i hope people return as well but im not betting on it.
most of what remains of the online community seems to have transitioned to reddit for obvious reasons.
i think catalyst lost their chance on this one (the "news" at the top of this site is still offering notifications for 4e stuff ffs).
And yet, over 125+ new members to the forums in the past week.
As for the News... I've removed it. I'll admit it got pushed to the back burner, but I'll see about new updates.
New members don't mean people are coming back, it means new people who don't know how bad the forums have been are coming in. In a way, that's better, they are a blank slate and a chance to do things right.
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And yet, over 125+ new members to the forums in the past week.
Half of those new members (I'm exaggerating) are probably *me* trying to create an account but could never get validated because the account didn't receive a Validation Email no matter how many times I requested that a Validation Email get resent. For the first few days I assumed your Forum was unable to send Email (an assumption based on comments about it's stability). But eventually I realized it was because comcast.net throws away Email from the forum because you've shared an IP address with a spammer too often. I created this login using a non-comcast Email address and received the validation Email the first time so this is my first post. Wheee.
I found no way to communicate with the forum about lack of Validation email without having a validated account.
You might want to check how many of those 125 are still unvalidated after a week.
I'm glad we're back.
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"Let me go get a flashlight so I can see if the computer got unplugged, because the power's out."
Don't laugh, I've had that call. They also had to go outside because the computer was plugged into a electrical plug outside for some reason. Then they said they'd "get that guy" to check it out and I was happy to never have to talk to them ever again.
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Is the forum up or down right now? ;-)
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I’m pretty sure it’s up though the framework is very messy
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Personally, I think it's side-to-side at the moment, Carmody.
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I’m pretty sure it’s up though the framework is very messy
Oh good, so I'm not the only one seeing a twisted bare-bones version of the forum here.
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There are some issues at work. Reading this might help.
https://forums.shadowruntabletop.com/index.php?topic=27127.msg496689;
GL!
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Heh, thanks. Guess I shouldn't be all that surprised at the fix. I've had "security" issues at other sites in the past like this, where supposedly my computer was at risk just by going there, and one was required for work.
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New format! Fancy!
There's a bit more white space than I would prefer due to the size of the profile pics (on short posts) and the ~4 rows of extra padding at the bottom of the posts themselves (for longer posts that extend past the profile pic), but overall I kinda like it.
Hmm, might be some goofiness around word wrapping right now. My last paragraph just pulled my entire screen to the right, pushing content off-screen to the left.
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Two issues I've already found are that Quick Reply doesn't open, and that there's no "View All Unread Posts" and such anymore. The latter I'm particularly worried about... I made a lot of use of that to view new topics, in order to find questions I could help answer and so-forth. I'm concerned it'll be a lot less convenient and get in the way of me helping people on the forum.
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Two issues I've already found are that Quick Reply doesn't open, and that there's no "View All Unread Posts" and such anymore. The latter I'm particularly worried about... I made a lot of use of that to view new topics, in order to find questions I could help answer and so-forth. I'm concerned it'll be a lot less convenient and get in the way of me helping people on the forum.
yea, I agree. I used the "View unread posts" function all the time, shame its gone (for now?)
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O_o Ahhhhhhhh
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In case anyone else gets confused like I did, you can't log in on just any page. Go to the home page ("Shadowrun General" page) and there will be a box in the top-left corner.
https://forums.shadowruntabletop.com/index.php
From a usability standpoint, this is obviously not as convenient as being able to log in on any page and may not be intuitive to new (or veteran) users.
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Quick reply from the development team - 'quick replies' should be functional again.
To address a few of the other comments:
- security errors should be demolished now....we just finished up the last of the mixed security warnings.
- you should be able to login from any page (from the login button in the top menu or hovering over the 'guest' avatar in the top right. If there's something we're missing there please let us know (screenshots are good).
- still looking into the 'view unread posts' function.
- attachments/new avatars: should be working again
- new user emails going to spam: investigating - any other emails going to spam or just those?
- new theme: let us know if you guys see anything else funky - we've tested pretty thoroughly on our end but definitely let us know if you uncover anything. (and hey, it's finally responsive/mobile friendly!)
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After all these years...
I almost can't believe there is a new forum software
So instead of nitpicking, I say:
Well done! (Just wondering what you did with the old hamster...)
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Thank you for this more than welcome change!
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+1 ! This new look is pretty slick! :)
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There's themes you can choose in your settings but most don't have css
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Really liking the new layout!!
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Love the new look! Thank you!
I'll miss the "View unread posts" feature, but it's worth the trade.
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nice new looks, thank you. now if it will stay up.
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And the mobile format is really nice as well.
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Nice!
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Well, nice to see an update. Hopefully this will be more stable than the old forums.
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I did not find any easy way to go to my profile (the only solution that I found was to click on my name in the list of on-line users at the bottom of the home page, which is not very practical).
Did I miss something?
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I did not find any easy way to go to my profile (the only solution that I found was to click on my name in the list of on-line users at the bottom of the home page, which is not very practical).
Did I miss something?
Under profile at the top of the page, select profile?
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In Chrome the top area with the SR logo, Home, Help, Login, etc. wasn't showing up and it seems AdGuard was blocking it. So, if you're not seeing that section, your ad blocking add-in may be the issue.
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Anybody knows why did the forums went offline for a while?
Not too long ago I was searching on google for SR related stuff and everytime I found a link to this forums I would get dead ends.. It made me worried about Catalyst pulling the plug on SR..
Then it's all back online,, happy to be here
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In Chrome the top area with the SR logo, Home, Help, Login, etc. wasn't showing up and it seems AdGuard was blocking it. So, if you're not seeing that section, your ad blocking add-in may be the issue.
On both my home and work computers, with Chrome, I have the advertisement for Dark Terrors & Shadows of Morocco on top, then right below is the search button (right) and the current path (left). But I cannot see any Shadowrun logo in the top area :o
I just checked with Edge and I can see what you are talking about... very obvious indeed, but I promise I cannot see it with my Chrome...
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- you should be able to login from any page (from the login button in the top menu or hovering over the 'guest' avatar in the top right. If there's something we're missing there please let us know (screenshots are good).
Ah, there's the problem. This top nav does not appear on my laptop using the latest version of Chrome (65.0.3325.162). My phone is running Chrome 65.0.3325.109 and I do see the hamburger menu in the top-right that you can click to get the drop-down options. I don't know if the issue is due to the slight version differences or the desktop/mobile configurations of the site's design.
The top nav does appear in Firefox and Internet Explorer.
Edit: Looks like Carmody found the same thing.
Edit #2: Disabled my ad blocker per tequila's recommendation and that resolved the issue.
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I disabled my adblock and it works,
Thanks Tequila for the tip... and thanks Tecumseh to pointing to Tequila message which I only read up to half :-[
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I have to admit I wandered through half a dozen times in the past little while and got annoyed at the fact that I couldn't even find the catalyst forums with my google search anymore. Then I went through the main website and realised the forum I kept getting was actually the catalyst one with a new look.
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...looks really nice and loads a lot faster than the old site did.
So glad I don't have to look at that basic HTML mess anymore as well.
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I like the new look but the warping news box makes reading on a smartphone slightly annoying
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The new forum looks pretty good. Good job :)
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Okay...
Once you are logged in... How do you log out?
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You can log out any time you like, but you can never leave.
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Once you are logged in ... How do you log out?
After you're logged in, "Logout" appears at the right end of the main navigation bar at the top of the page. Also at the bottom of the user drop-down menu in the upper right corner.
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Once you are logged in ... How do you log out?
After you're logged in, "Logout" appears at the right end of the main navigation bar at the top of the page. Also at the bottom of the user drop-down menu in the upper right corner.
It does?
(https://preview.ibb.co/nmgOVS/Untitled.png) (https://ibb.co/kMpox7)
private image sharing (https://imgbb.com/)
Isn't it grand that the banner was the one with the "Exit" sign in it... :P
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Odd. My browser has a black bar above the rotating "Morocco" / "Dark Terrors" banner image, with the Shadowrun logo on the left, then main nav (Home, Help, Search, Profile, My Messages, Members, Logout), and the user menu on the right.
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I'll have to check if any of my privacy add-ons are blocking it. Back in a bit to edit this with my findings.
EDITed to add:
uBlock Origin prevents the menu bar. So, a heads up to anyone else using that add-on.
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I'll have to check if any of my privacy add-ons are blocking it. Back in a bit to edit this with my findings.
EDITed to add:
uBlock Origin prevents the menu bar. So, a heads up to anyone else using that add-on.
Adblock does as well. I'd say it safe to assume that most adblockers will hide the menu items.
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Funny, I hadn't noticed that something was missing. Also, AdBlock didn't actually say it was blocking anything. Peculiar how that was.
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Adblock on my phone doesn’t block the menu when you prompt it so case by case?
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To address a few of the other comments:
.....
- still looking into the 'view unread posts' function.
I hope this is still being looked at :)
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If you bookmark this link: https://forums.shadowruntabletop.com/index.php?action=unread;all;start=0 (https://forums.shadowruntabletop.com/index.php?action=unread;all;start=0), it will open showing the unread topics on the site, instead of a list of the unread posts.
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White listed the site and now I've got that navbar at the top of the screen working. Still one thing missing though. Where's the link I can click that shows me only threads I've posted in that have new posts? Seems like every time I see a forum gets updated, that's the first feature that disappears. Am I the only one that ever uses it? :(
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I believe with the update, that link no longer shows on the page. But, here it is if you want to bookmark it!
https://forums.shadowruntabletop.com/index.php?action=unreadreplies (https://forums.shadowruntabletop.com/index.php?action=unreadreplies)
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I believe with the update, that link no longer shows on the page. But, here it is if you want to bookmark it!
https://forums.shadowruntabletop.com/index.php?action=unreadreplies (https://forums.shadowruntabletop.com/index.php?action=unreadreplies)
I hope someone can sticky this post.
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Yaaaaay!
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I believe with the update, that link no longer shows on the page. But, here it is if you want to bookmark it!
https://forums.shadowruntabletop.com/index.php?action=unreadreplies (https://forums.shadowruntabletop.com/index.php?action=unreadreplies)
Perfect, ty
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Cool! I like the new look! 8)
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To address a few of the other comments:
.....
- still looking into the 'view unread posts' function.
I hope this is still being looked at :)
We added a link to this from the main sidebar (below recent posts) - it's subtle as we weren't sure how prominent it used to be but it should do the trick.
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Immense Happy Feelings.
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We added a link to this from the main sidebar (below recent posts) - it's subtle as we weren't sure how prominent it used to be but it should do the trick.
Thank you so much! That is my usual way of viewing of the forums, so very much appreciated :)
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We added a link to this from the main sidebar (below recent posts) - it's subtle as we weren't sure how prominent it used to be but it should do the trick.
Thank you so much! That is my usual way of viewing of the forums, so very much appreciated :)
Agreed. Thank you!