Amiga.org

Amiga News and Community Announcements => Amiga News and Community Announcements => Amiga.org site announcements => Topic started by: System on March 26, 2002, 04:55:23 PM

Title: Site Update
Post by: System on March 26, 2002, 04:55:23 PM
As you might have noticed, there have been a couple of changes to the site and I wanted to bring you up-to-date.

- Advertising system back online
Before you guys get started, I put the advertising system back online for two reasons;

1) First and foremost, I still owed some advertisers banners from before we were hacked last year

2) We want to be able to continue to offer you this free service.

We will be moving it to the right column of the site shortly.  We're waiting on updated banners from our advertisers in order to do that though.

- Subject color
The subject color from Site News is now a different color.  Hopefully this will help you all realize that when site stuff is posted, you need to read it  :-)

Wayne Hunt
Site Manager
Amiga.org
Title: Re: Site Update
Post by: System on March 26, 2002, 05:49:15 PM
Hard to miss the orange color - good stuff!

I have also noticed more guests and members online when I log on!   AmigaInc. News is more and more encouaraging too.

Great timing and Congrats Wayne, Amiga.Org has a nice look 'n feel!

Bob C.
Title: Re: Site Update
Post by: SilvrDrgn on March 26, 2002, 06:00:56 PM
Thanks for the update, Wayne.  It looks good.
Title: Re: Site Update
Post by: Dr_Righteous on March 26, 2002, 08:00:00 PM
"More Boing for your Buck?" HAHAHA! I like it! :-D
Title: Re: Site Update
Post by: nrose on March 26, 2002, 08:17:58 PM
While you're moving things around, is it possible to change the login so that going to one's personal info page is optional?  Just to make it quicker.
Title: Re: Site Update
Post by: System on March 26, 2002, 08:27:56 PM
Quote
While you're moving things around, is it possible to change the login so that going to one's personal info page is optional? Just to make it quicker.
No, I can't.  Sorry.  I know it's a minor inconvenience, but changes in your account are the first sign that something might be wrong, so accordingly, every single time, you will see your page.  

This is to say that keeping in mind I didn't write this package, so I can't do anything about it.   Besides, if this is the worst of your daily problems, we really need to find you a life mate. :-P

Wayne Hunt
Amiga.org
Title: Re: Site Update
Post by: System on March 26, 2002, 09:17:34 PM
I love the updates, good job!
Title: Re: Site Update
Post by: Chathurawind on March 26, 2002, 09:44:35 PM
Looking good, glad you're still here!

Any way we can auto login?  My amiga browsers won't save passwords in a page!

Gloves.
Title: Re: Site Update
Post by: amigamad on March 26, 2002, 09:47:05 PM
amiga org is getting better and better all the time i like the layout
it is still the best news site and the forums are great
Title: Re: Site Update
Post by: Marky_D_Sahd on March 27, 2002, 02:32:57 AM
Thanks just for keeping the site open, Wayne!

I really don't mind banner ads so much.  As long as you don't move to those *$#!!%@) popups which eat away at your system memory until your cache locks up, or, in the case of the M$ system I'm borrowing now, it crashes altogether.  That's a "no on popups" vote, BTW.

"More BOING for yor buck," eh?  Tell me, on exactly what streets do you shop for BOING?
Title: Re: Site Update
Post by: Chathurawind on March 27, 2002, 04:13:42 AM
Quote
No, I can't. Sorry. I know it's a minor inconvenience, but changes in your account are the first sign that something might be wrong, so accordingly, every single time, you will see your page.


Okay, that's interesting.

Quote
Besides, if this is the worst of your daily problems, we really need to find you a life mate.  


So kind!  You want the rest of the list?  :-P

nrose
Title: Re: Site Update
Post by: Chathurawind on March 27, 2002, 06:22:43 AM

What I found inconvenient was that when I came to the site I would enter my nickname and password, click "Login" and promptly get taken to my Profile page. However, for some reason, for a long while, this would display hardly any details about me except my avatar and signature and some statistical bumf. Trying to edit the profile at this point would be futile as there would be no edit option.


Upon clicking on another link I would then discover I wasn't logged in at all. At which point I would have to login again to continue.


However, upon logging in a second time, everything would be fine. My full profile would appear, I'd be able to edit it, and I could safely click on another link without fear of becoming logged out.


And, before you suggest it's my browser, it didn't matter which browser I used: Microsoft (*spit*) Internet Explorer 6 or Netscape 6.2. The result would be the same. So after a while I stopped bothering to login.


I say for a long while, but it gets better. I just tried logging in tonight and I can't get in no matter how many times I enter my nickname and password, or which browser I use (Internet Explorer 6, Netscape 6.2, Opera 6 or Netscape 4.7. Heck... may as well try all of 'em tonight ;-) ). Yet every time I enter my nickname and password I get:



 

Hello reticuli, taking you to your profile page...
 


 

If the page does not automatically reload, please click here
 



This suggests the problem is not at my end - after all, the above clearly indicates the system has successfully verified my username and password. To verify this I enter an incorrect password which results in:



 

Incorrect Login!
 


 

If the page does not automatically reload, please click here
 



However, to contradict this, I know other people are getting in ok... I can see them. And an awful lot of them must surely be using IE6 and Netscape. Which beggars the question - wtf?


At first thought I wondered whether my cookies were disabled. But they're not.


Has anyone else experienced this problem?


Title: Re: Site Update
Post by: scorchio on March 27, 2002, 12:59:52 PM
Ain't nothing wrong with ads as long as they pay the bills, I can't see how anyone can complain!

Title: Re: Site Update
Post by: System on March 27, 2002, 02:29:04 PM
Mr. Anonymous.

I know this sounds stupid but what you describe is perfectly normal.  It sounds as though you are getting the "taking you to your profile page", getting impatient and not letting it finish loading your profile.  Not much programming can do to fix that.  

I have now tried the login procedure on every PC and Mac browser I can find. I have also tried every Amiga browser I can bother with (I hate all Amiga browsers equally at the moment, hope PPC Ibrowse is more than a quick conversion to PPC) and I have not had any login problem with any browser.  

I've tried creating about a dozen accounts in a dozen different ways, and cannot recreate the problem you describe UNLESS I hit reload as soon as the site displays "taking you to your profile".

Wayne Hunt
Amiga.org
Title: Re: Site Update
Post by: Quixote on March 27, 2002, 05:15:30 PM
What the reluctantly annonymous Mr. Reticuli reports affects me as well.  I have a registered copy of
IBrowse 1.12, and it will not log in even with cookies set to always accept.  My login page has
"Welcome Quixote" at the top, and "You are Annonymous User" at the bottom.

The demo version of AWeb that was bundled with OS 3.9, however, works successfully.  Perhaps it's a
java thing.


Quixote
Title: Re: Site Update
Post by: System on March 27, 2002, 05:21:55 PM
More than likely a crappy Amiga browser that doesn't work correctly with sessions.  I've also seen some paranoia buffs who install a browser and turn all the security settings to "absolute maximum so don't allow ANYTHING" and they wonder why it doesn't work. :-)

Wayne
Title: Re: Site Update
Post by: shIva on March 27, 2002, 07:03:51 PM
... g00d update, looks well, and mozilla does it ;-)

shIva
Title: Re: Site Update
Post by: reticuli on March 28, 2002, 04:43:53 AM

As you can see, I managed to log in tonight. However, you are wrong about the refresh. I'm a fairly patient person and don't generally use the refresh button. (I'm usually loading about 5 other Amiga related sites, in addition to Amiga.org, in the background, while I do IRC). And in every case I let it continue until it reached the profile page (which always resulted in a profile with hardly any details and no edit button) because I know interupting pages can cause problems with some systems.


I feel I must clarify something. When I said:



 

However, to contradict this, I know other people are getting in ok... I can see them. And an awful lot of them must surely be using IE6 or Netscape.
 



What I suppose I should have stressed better was that an awful lot of those people who are *successfully* logging in must be using IE6 or Netscape. Otherwise I'm fairly sure someone would have pointed out similar problems to that which I have been having much earlier and en masse. Which in turn suggests it isn't the browser that is causing the problem.


Anyway, I digress. Out of interest I decided to try your theory. And what happens is this: If I try to refesh the page while on the screen that displays:



Hello reticuli, taking you to your profile page...


If the page does not automatically reload, please click here



A window pops up:



 

"The page cannot be refreshed without resending the information. Click Retry to send the information again or click Cancel to return to the page that you were trying to view."
 



I stress again... I have NEVER clicked refresh at this point before - I've ALWAYS let it continue to the profile page as naturally it should.


At this point clicking on retry would sometimes result in me staying on that page and at others would take me on to my profile automatically. When it didn't take me to the page automatically, as soon as I clicked "Click Here" it logged me in fine. There was at no stage a situation where I ended up being logged out. All of which is in complete contradiction to what you say about you only being able to reproduce the problem by clicking refresh.


Then I had another idea and decided to make sure the profile page NEVER loaded. First by logging out. Then by logging myself back in but deliberately clicking "Stop" as soon as the above "Hello reticuli, taking you to your profile" screen appeared. If my theory was correct getting to the profile page was a red herring and I should already be logged in the moment I got the "Hello reticuli, taking you to your profile page" screen. To prove the point I then typed http://www.amiga.org into the address bar and I was right - I was logged in.


The conclusion? This has got nothing to do with whether I let the profile page load or not. In the above process I made sure I didn't reach it and still found myself logged in.


All I know for certain is it's strange.


Hopefully it won't happen again but if it does I'll make a point of getting more information on the problem.


Anyway, keep up the good work and I hope this is taken constructively (as it is intended)

Title: Re: Site Update
Post by: System on March 28, 2002, 02:33:08 PM
Reticuli,

I appreciate your efforts, I truly do, but I cannot recreate the problem, no matter what I do.  You are correct in that about 85% or higher of our users use either IE or Netscape.  

The biggest problems we appear to have come from people who either use antiquated versions like Netscape 4.x or in some cases even IE3.x.  As such, at this point, there are only two things I can really blame here (considering 99% of all people log in ok).

1) The security settings of the browser
2) Connection problems.  

I stayed up the majority of last night trying and I simply cannot reproduce this problem, no matter what I do, which platform, or which browser and version I'm using.  How else can I test?

I digress however, this should have been solved in e-mail, not in a news item labelled "Site Update" as we're not only way off topic, we're badly flawed in the approach.

Wayne Hunt
Title: Re: Site Update
Post by: MasterOfReality on March 29, 2002, 02:57:22 AM
Hi Wayne.

FWIW, all the latest versions of the Amiga browsers work fine.

Advertising is OK. I'm quite hapy with it where it is. If you move it
down the side, the AO logo will look a bit odd with nothing to fill the space next to it.

If you're going to keep the orange colour for site info (certainly
stands out well enough), you might want to think about changing the
colour you use for links, since the "Amiga.Org" link in the orange bar
on this update is rendered in red in voyager and is a bit difficult to
read.

Anyway, keep up the good work :-). AO is still great.