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Web Forums Should DIE!! — Parallax Forums

Web Forums Should DIE!!

Bruce BatesBruce Bates Posts: 3,045
edited 2006-10-30 16:59 in General Discussion
Folks -

After two pages of reply, I checked "Preview before posting" hit SUBMIT and the following error message (below) is what I get. It's NOT the error message that irks me but the COMPLETE LOSS OF TWO PAGES OF REPLY!! That is UNCONSIONABLE!

If I need to compose my responses offline to prevent this, LET'S GO BACK TO AN EMAIL ONLY SET-UP (NO WEB NONSENSE!) WHICH WORKED FINE 99.99% of the TIME!

Server Error

Description: An application error occurred on the server. The current custom error settings for this application prevent the details of the application error from being viewed remotely (for security reasons). It could, however, be viewed by browsers running on the local server machine.

Details: To enable the details of this specific error message to be viewable on remote machines, please create a <customErrors> tag within a "web.config" configuration file located in the root directory of the current web application. This <customErrors> tag should then have its "mode" attribute set to "Off".

attachment.php?attachmentid=73800
Notes: The current error page you are seeing can be replaced by a custom error page by modifying the "defaultRedirect" attribute of the application's <customErrors> configuration tag to point to a custom error page URL.

attachment.php?attachmentid=73801



Regards,

Bruce Bates - angry as hell!



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Comments

  • SSteveSSteve Posts: 808
    edited 2006-06-19 13:55
    I hesitate to ask, but did you try 'Back' in your browser? I've never run into an error like that, but I have noticed that when I go back to the post editing page, my text is still there. It might be a browser-dependent behavior.

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  • Ken GraceyKen Gracey Posts: 7,389
    edited 2006-06-19 14:38
    Hi Bruce,

    I've had the problem before, too. We're not going back to an e-mail only setup, but it's possible we could improve the e-mail "component" of these forums in the future.

    To prevent this problem from repeating itself, I suggest that you edit in Notepad and copy/paste into the forum.

    And I'm sorry about the time you wasted. There's no way to replace lost time.

    Ken Gracey
    Parallax, Inc.
  • Chris SavageChris Savage Parallax Engineering Posts: 14,406
    edited 2006-06-19 14:46
    Bruce,

    ·· To help us in identifying such problems, could you confirm something for me?· The only time I have seen this is when you reply to a post which has a POLL and you haven't "voted" in that POLL.· Did this happen on such a message?

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    Chris Savage
    Parallax Tech Support
    csavage@parallax.com
  • DunnseptDunnsept Posts: 115
    edited 2006-06-19 15:03
    I've had this happen to me both on submitting new posts (no poll) and on replying to a post (no poll)..but my entries were small and it wasn't too big of a deal at the time. The back button did not get me my text back, only the empty form.
    Since it is aspx complaining, there should be an entry in the web log and there should be an entry in the application log on the server too

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  • Bruce BatesBruce Bates Posts: 3,045
    edited 2006-06-19 19:05
    Chris -

    That is EXACTLY SO! And a USELESS POLL as well!

    SSteve -

    That was the FIRST thing I did in the hopes of ressurecting the reply. The entire reply area was totally BLANK.

    Ken -

    Improving the email component isn't going to help this or any web based system. They ALL suffer from one major malady - there is NO RECOVERY from an error, and everything you've done is LOST! Why someone hasn't thought to copy the user message to scratchpad, IN CASE an error occurs, and later DELETE it is all goes well, doesn't sound like it would take a rocket scientist to implement it EVEN in the ORIGINALCODE. The problem is - advocates of web based BBS systems claim they are BULLET-PROOF and nothing could be further from the truth.

    "Pride goeth before a fall" and web based BBS systems have been falling all over themselves since their inception. This comes from someone who ran a BBS system for over 20 years without any loss of data ever, and the only time the system was down was: a) because the phone lines were down, b) for scheduled maintenance. That was all done on a paltry TRS-80!

    Regards,

    Bruce Bates

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  • stamptrolstamptrol Posts: 1,731
    edited 2006-06-19 23:06
    Bruce,
    While I haven't seen this myself on this forum my ISP web email program does do this from time to time.

    At the risk of irritating an obvious sore point vis a vis losing the time if the web based message crashes into never-never land, why not just highlight the text and save to clipboard before hitting Submit? That way, if it does crash, a simple CTRL-V will replace the message.

    Cheers

    Tom
  • DigitalManDigitalMan Posts: 42
    edited 2006-06-20 09:45
    I gotta agree with that. I post journals on a site that has frequent posting problems, so I write it all out in Wordpad first. Same goes for·any comment I put a lot of thought into.·But then the problem was the frequent power outages here, so I had to buy a battery backup too turn.gif

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  • John R.John R. Posts: 1,376
    edited 2006-06-20 17:49
    Bruce;

    As a point of perspecitve:

    You've made over 1300 posts. Of those, how many have been "lost" by the above (or other) error?

    How much have you gained from those posts, and replies made to them?

    Have you ever lost work because of any other (e.g. local to your machine) problems, like power outages, software and/or machine crashing, forgetting to save, etc.?

    Point being:

    Is this situation really so bad as to condemn all web based applications because you had a bad experience? It seems to me like you are over-reacting.

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    John R.

    8 + 8 = 10
  • SN96SN96 Posts: 318
    edited 2006-06-20 20:10
    I have not had any problems. The forums have been liquid smooth for me. yeah.gif

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    Mike



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  • Paul BakerPaul Baker Posts: 6,351
    edited 2006-06-25 15:44
    In my many posts I have lost some due to:

    1. Server errors such as you encountered Bruce (maybe half a dozen times).
    2. Server going down (a couple times).
    3. Sign in certificate expiring (about a dozen times).
    4. Server time-out (a few times).
    5. Power loss at my end (a few times).
    6. Network failure on my end (a few times).
    7. My router acting funny and loosing all DNS entries without being able to get them again (several dozen times in the last 6 months).

    While entries 1-4 are in part due to the web based forums, but the last 3 are not related, and by the numbers the latter 3 far outweights the first 4.

    What Im trying to say is that nothing is perfect, and since Ive been experiencing the problem with #7, I have gotten into the habit of doing a Ctrl-C of the text before posting especially when its a long message, that way you don't loose it (unless #5 happens).


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  • PJAllenPJAllen Banned Posts: 5,065
    edited 2006-06-25 21:53
    ...but, other than that, did you enjoy the play, Mrs. Lincoln?·· turn.gif
  • Paul BakerPaul Baker Posts: 6,351
    edited 2006-07-06 15:31
    I have another catagory to add:

    Since returning from vacation, my home computer no longer behaves properly, at random times the primary disk spins down and causes a reboot. This has happened a half dozen times since my return two days ago, twice when I was writing a post.

    So you'll likely see fewer posts from me until I isolate the problem.

    The clue I have to go on is that there was really bad weather just before I left and for quite a few days after. While gone the power died repeatedly (according to our cat sitters), and while I shut the computer down, I didnt unplug it. So it could be the power supply or the motherboard being non-fataly zapped. Or it could be unrelated such as overheating due to dust accumulating on the various heatsinks, or my drive is just going bad. In the interm I'll only be making posts at work when time allows.

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  • Tommy BotTommy Bot Posts: 60
    edited 2006-10-28 22:37
    STAFF

    I just want to thank you guys for hosting this forum for free. I know that problems happen, and it's frustrating when they do, but thanks for providing a very fun and useful service for those of us that don't know much.

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    ·
  • Chris SavageChris Savage Parallax Engineering Posts: 14,406
    edited 2006-10-29 02:51
    Tommy,
    ·
    ·· On behalf of all Parallax Staff, Thank you!· We hope you enjoy these Support/Discussion Forums and gain much useful knowledge in the process.· Take care.

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    Chris Savage
    Parallax Tech Support
  • MacGeek117MacGeek117 Posts: 747
    edited 2006-10-30 16:59
    I feel the same way as Tommy Bot. I've only had 1-2 problems since I joined,·but I·have gained priceless knowledge. Thank you, Parallax!
    RoboGeek

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