Input Needed for Website Improvements

silverbender · Postby **silverbender** » Fri Nov 04, 2016

When at view new posts which is my home page ,have posts which I have read fall of the list when I refresh or come back to it.
It can get very cluttered requiring scanning it all again to make sure I am not missing a new post.
It gets insane during KSAs
edit: did not notice this is a very old thread ,thought it was from the recent upgrade lol.

jcz1 · Postby **jcz1** » Wed Nov 23, 2016

I'd like to suggest an improvement that should be bumped to the very top of the list: encryption via HTTPS.

If the cost of an SSL Certificate is an issue, and this is useful info for anyone who runs a website, there is now a free (donations encouraged!) organization that solves that problem:

https://letsencrypt.org/

Let's Encrypt is a 501.3(c)(3) non-profit organization supported by the Linux Foundation. They've been in beta for about a year now, and to my knowledge they are the only reliable, official free source of SSL certificates that has ever existed.

Postby **ThePowersThatBe** » Wed Nov 23, 2016

Cost isn't the issue with HTTPS. It's a challenge to implement on a site like this because of all the outside content that gets embedded. Charts, photos, videos, avatars, signature images, the KSA countdown timer, etc. First all the various sites hosting that content have to have the ability to serve it over https (we would need to limit images to approved hosts), and then we need a way to force the embed link to https every time somebody posts a photo or video or whatever. Otherwise your browser will throw security warnings on every page that has a non-secure element embedded (which is just about every page of the site). Some browsers will pop up with warnings over and over and some will actually block the non-https content entirely so the site will look kind of broken.

phpBB themselves actually do run their site over https, but to do that they employ a proxy/relay server that fetches embedded content and then re-transmits it to the forum site over https so users don't get nailed with security warnings. It's a pretty involved system. If we just slapped a security certificate on here the site would end up looking less secure in the eyes of search engines and browsers because of all the non-secure embedded content.

I think there is some native functionality in phpBB to support serving just the login page over https. We would still have to do some work with the charts and some images but I think that would be doable. But trying to run the entire site over https is a MAJOR project.

Postby **PeacePeople** » Fri Dec 02, 2016

There are times where it takes a very long time for a message to send to the user. IE I compose the message, click submit and it will take 30 seconds or more for it to "bite". The last one I sent the browser timed me out... just a heads up

jcz1 · Postby **jcz1** » Fri Dec 02, 2016

PeacePeople wrote:There are times where it takes a very long time for a message to send to the user. IE I compose the message, click submit and it will take 30 seconds or more for it to "bite". The last one I sent the browser timed me out... just a heads up

This has happened to me occasionally, but it has been going on since before the recent switch. I have found that the message itself is usually sent just fine, but the loading of the page that tells you so gets stalled. I now open a new tab and check the outbox, and if the sent message is there, I just use that new tab from that point on.

Long John · Postby **Long John** » Tue Dec 13, 2016

I keep clicking PM when I mean to quote-reply in the thread, and don't realize it until after I send the message. Grrrrr. Pilot error.

Postby **MaxGravy** » Tue Dec 13, 2016

Long John wrote:I keep clicking PM when I mean to quote-reply in the thread, and don't realize it until after I send the message. Grrrrr. Pilot error.

natsb88 · Postby **natsb88** » Tue Dec 13, 2016

Long John wrote:I keep clicking PM when I mean to quote-reply in the thread, and don't realize it until after I send the message. Grrrrr. Pilot error.

The PM button is the one that says "PM." The quote button is the one with the quotes. :mrgreen:

bigjohn · Postby **bigjohn** » Tue Dec 13, 2016

Feedback dates still read in European mode :0

Postby **MaxGravy** » Tue Dec 13, 2016

bigjohn wrote:Feedback dates still read in European mode :0

And the default setting for leaving feedback is still 'trade'.

Long John · Postby **Long John** » Tue Dec 13, 2016

natsb88 wrote:
Long John wrote:I keep clicking PM when I mean to quote-reply in the thread, and don't realize it until after I send the message. Grrrrr. Pilot error.

The PM button is the one that says "PM." The quote button is the one with the quotes.

That's what I love about this place, people are so eager to help! :lol:

Postby **PeacePeople** » Sat Mar 11, 2017

Was anybody else getting a socket error last night? SQL or something along those line?

Bucketeer · Postby **Bucketeer** » Sat Mar 11, 2017

Site was hacked, Randy was a busy guy

Bucketeer · Postby **Bucketeer** » Sat Mar 11, 2017

: radio silence :

bigjohn · Postby **bigjohn** » Sat Mar 11, 2017

PeacePeople wrote:Was anybody else getting a socket error last night? SQL or something along those line?

Yes. Couldn't get in for a couple hours, then gave up until morning

MasterBlaster · Postby **MasterBlaster** » Sat Mar 11, 2017

Couldn't get in late last night, also tried at 5am and still got ERROR

Postby **ThePowersThatBe** » Sat Mar 11, 2017

It sort of partially fixed itself for a while. I just completed the rest of the fix. Very similar issue to the last time it happened a few weeks ago. I'm going to do some more digging...

Postby **ThePowersThatBe** » Sat Mar 11, 2017

BTW, it is helpful for diagnosing a problem if you guys can copy and paste the actual error message when something like this happens. Or paste it into a Notepad file and then share it when the site comes back online. Or send me a message on Realcent like MasterBlaster did this time. (of course that still requires me to be awake and near my phone to get my attention, which I was not this morning :oops:

)

Postby **MaxGravy** » Sat Mar 11, 2017

MasterBlaster wrote:Couldn't get in late last night, also tried at 5am and still got ERROR

We got hacked last night. Our host restored the site early this morning. I'm still finding tables that need to be repaired.

If anyone gets a General Error, PLEASE let me know which table and I'll fix it. Thanks!

Postby **joefro** » Sat Mar 11, 2017

A member reported the following to me in a pm, this probably explains it.

Joe,

I'm experiencing some weird errors on the BS website. For instance on the Bitcoins - fad or trend thread I can only access the first 30 pages (same thing if I click on Board Index too), and beyond that it gives me a general error...

SQL ERROR [ mysql4 ]

Table 'phpbb_sessions' is marked as crashed and should be repaired [1194]

An SQL error occurred while fetching this page. Please contact the Board Administrator if this problem persists.