[Sticky] Forum and Website Maintenance this Friday

Just bumping this post to the top to remind everyone that the Forum will be "off the air" for a while today so that I can install some upgrades and perform some much-needed maintenance. 

😎

Bill

The forum maintenance is complete, you may now use the forum. If you spot any odd occurrences or non-functional pages please let me know.

😎

Bill

@dronebot-workshop

Unsure if this is just a problem at my end or happening with others but here it is -

When I load the Forum - https://forum.dronebotworkshop.com - I do not see the "Login" button anywhere on the page. Then, I refresh the page a couple of times, and it appears back. - This happened yesterday for the first time, and when it reappeared, I thought it must me my Browser's cache. Today again, the same thing happened.

I am using the latest version of Mozilla Firefox on a Windows 10 laptop with the following plugins on the browser - Colorzilla, AdBlock (this is disabled on DroneBot website and forum as well), Web Developer and Gammarly.

I have also tried loading it up on Google Chrome but there as well, the same problem persists. I have to reload the page twice before I get to see the Login and the Register Buttons.

Edit/Additional:

This might also help - I clear up my browser's cache every time it is closed. I have this setting turned on - "Delete cookies and site data when Firefox is closed".

@sid  That is odd, I haven't experienced that myself on any of my computers that I'm not already logged into.

So are you not seeing either of the login buttons?  Are the other menu items still there?

If you do experience this can you can try going directly to the login page - https://forum.dronebotworkshop.com/?foro=signin

Thank you for reporting it. Is anyone else experiencing this?

😎

Bill

@sid I just managed to duplicate the issue you ran into. If it happens again (to you or anyone else) can you please let me know the following:

• Does it only occur when you get the "Cookies" warning?
• If you accept the "Cookies" warning and then refresh the page does the login button return?

It would be great to hear from you, or anyone else, to confirm this. The "Cookies" setting may be conflicting with one of the new updated files, but I'd like to know that it isn't a coincidence. I have now duplicated it on two computers, one with Opera and another with Firefox.

On the plus side, I have now managed to finally modify the forum code so that the "Register" links all point to the "Join the Forum" page, instead of the " registrations have been disabled" message.

😎

Bill

@sid I think that I have repaired this issue, I have replaced the "Cookie Consent" notice with a different one that rises up on the bottom (fold) of the screen instead of the top.

If you get a chance can you please let me know if the issue still persists for you? You might need to clear your cache, but probably not as it uses a new Javascript file that your browser will need to load instead of relying upon a cached file.

Please let me know your results.

Thanks

😎

Bill

@dronebot-workshop

Thanks for the quick action that you have taken.

The earlier issue - I was not able to see the one on the right side (the menu was all good, just that I find it easier to access via the one on the right - followed by the register button - and both of them were not visible when I loaded the page the first or the second time).

Seems that you have been able to fix the issue because this time, when I opened Mozilla Firefox, it displayed me the login and the regsiter button (the ones on the right side - the menu was visible as always).

Once I clicked the login, it displayed me a popup stating that you are resolving the issues with the cookies.

I found the posts from the right sidebar (just for reference -the sidebar's was never a problem, it was just those two buttons) and I found that you had replied here. So despite the warning popup, I tried logging in.

First attempt - I received a red alert on the right side top (please refer to the screenshot) stating that I was trying to repeat my login attempt.

I waited for a minute or so and retried. Logged in successfully.

@sid

If you (or anyone else) are still getting the pop-up saying that I am working on the forum it is because your browser has cached it. It has been deleted from the site and the server cache and I cleared the DNS cache on Cloudflare, but on many of my computers, it stubbornly persists. 

Clearing your browser cache (CTRL-F5 on Windows & Linux. on a Mac you need to use your browser menu) seems to get rid of the "phantom" message.

Not sure why you got the lockout, it's part of the security system to prevent someone from repeatedly trying to guess someone's password, but I don't know why it was activated for you. Let me know if you get it again.

Thanks for your update!

😎

Bill

I just got the same red flagged pop-ups that Sid reported. Immediately tried to login in again and it was smooth sailing.

@photo-bud  Thanks for reporting it. I'm not sure what is causing that, I'll do some investigation later today.

😎

Bill

@dronebot-workshop

I too sometimes get those 'red-flag' warnings when creating and testing newly created accounts.  I have begun to contribute it to logging into multiple accounts to rapidly from the same IP address, thereby tripping off the forum's intruder alert algorithms.  If I proceed a little slower they seem to stay at bay.

Posted by: @dronebot-workshop

@sid

Not sure why you got the lockout, it's part of the security system to prevent someone from repeatedly trying to guess someone's password, but I don't know why it was activated for you. Let me know if you get it again.

Thanks for your update!

😎

Bill

Just for the update - It (the red alert) did not appear this time. So I guess it is all good.

Thanks Bill for being there 🙂 Much appreciated.

The message is regarding a "cooldown" period, it is supposed to stop you from posting too fast (which a bot might do). It is set for 10 seconds for "regular" users and 5 seconds for administrators.

Unfortunately, there is no setting for this parameter in the administrator's console. On the support forum I do see some folks have figured out how to do it by modifying the forums internal code, but unfortunately, their examples were for an older version, and the new code is different.

This may have been occurring because I deleted and rebuilt some internal caches yesterday. As such I'm going to just monitor it now and hope it resolves itself. 

I'm trying to avoid modifying the forum's internal code, I modified it last year to block people from registering but with the new version I was able to do this by adjusting settings. And it works better in the new version, my modifications last year were unable to affect the "Register" popup you got when trying to add content without being logged in - instead, it went to a message that said "Registrations have been disabled", which apparently disturbed a number of people (including one who sent me a particularly nasty email about it questioning my intelligence, which I didn't think was warranted).  Now it goes to the "Join the Forum" page as it should.

Because I modified the forum code last year I wasn't able to update the software this year, as updates would have overwritten the modifications. That is why I waited until Friday to do it during my annual "Xmas Maintenence" period.  So I'm trying to avoid modifying the code so I can apply future updates on the fly.

However, if its problem persists I will take a stab at it. So if anyone is still getting this error I would really like to know about it. If you could tell me what you were doing (i.e. responding to multiple posts) it would be valuable.

I appreciate all of your reports, thanks!

😎

Bill

I trust the person who sent the nasty note has not been allowed to join us.