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In an attempt to be positive... I like the blue box with the post details and it's pretty quick today too (at the moment ;))
Is fixing the keyboard on the list? It's fairly annoying and I can see it's not just that's affected by it.
Can we have an update on these issues please?
Which keyboard?
I know there's an issue with Swiftkey. I can't see fixing it being a priority when a) it affects a subset of a subset of users and surely must be be less important than issues which affect everyone, and b) many other keyboards are available (I'm a fan of Swype).
In any case, the devs are tied up at the moment with GDPR compliance and... something else, I can't remember, so there's not likely to be many bug fixes in the very immediate future I don't think.
Just to add to that,
It's easy as a forum user to see the forum as the be-all and and-all of STW, but the reality is that it is not. It's a part of a greater whole.
Prioritising work for a very small dev team has to be a business decision rather than driven by the heart. Mark said something to me a little while ago about decisions by committee. Paraphrasing, "I'm making decisions that the committee may not like, but without those decisions there wouldn't be a company left."
If you have a choice between doing something which say fixes an issue affecting a minority of users, or doing something else which means you get to pay your staff that month, which would you focus on?
The same one as last time - standard Chrome on a standard Android phone, not very esoteric.
I can’t see fixing it being a priority when a) it affects a subset of a subset of users and surely must be be less important than issues which affect everyone....
That's disappointing.
I wasn't aware there were any issues still affecting everyone?
Everything else seems to work now, apart from the html, keyboard and the crazy link button, which I'd forgotten.
Is that an official update cougar?
On the keyboards thing I raised some questions a few pages back, if the idea was to build a clean start without all the fixes on fixes it's sounding like a bad start. This stuff really should work out of the box.
As usual though comms in fits and starts isn't helping.
. Paraphrasing, “I’m making decisions that the committee may not like, but without those decisions there wouldn’t be a company left.”
And I don't want to share with them what, why, how or any of that...the hey we are working through gdpr stuff which is really important, as the forum fixes are overruning we will not be fixing anything for a bit but the updates are a priority as soon as we get that done....
Crossed posts.
If you have a choice between doing something which say fixes an issue affecting a minority of users, or doing something else which means you get to pay your staff that month, which would you focus on?
I agree completely. But again, communication is the key.......
It’s easy as a forum user to see the forum as the be-all and and-all of STW, but the reality is that it is not. It’s a part of a greater whole.
Mate, all I'm doing is what we've been asked to do, which is to report issues.
Nothing more sinister than that.
And I have no idea how big the development team is tbh, what their priorities are and what other aspects of STW they are working on. I know about the forum and the magazine. If there's other aspects to the business I'm unaware of them.
Again, communication.......
standard Chrome on a standard Android phone
Chrome isn't a keyboard, it's a browser.
That’s disappointing.
What would you expect /suggest instead?
I wasn’t aware there were any issues still affecting everyone?
Aside from the rogue HTML editing issues you mention in the same post? There's a bunch of other stuff too, mostly minor.
Is that an official update cougar?
It's my interpretation and best-guesses. I said "I can't see... " rather than "Mark said that... " in response to the keyboard question. If I were Mark or one of his dev team, something like that would be near the bottom of the to-do pile for me for reasons as I've just explained. It could be their absolute number one priority for all I know but I'd be shocked if that were the case.
https://singletrackmag.com/forum/topic/forum-update/page/105/#post-9964027
So how did this chat/update go?
What would you expect /suggest instead?
You know some of that sounds patronising or dismissive at the very least.
Chrome isn’t a keyboard, it’s a browser.
Well it's the standard keyboard that came with my Motorola G3 and appears when I open Chrome.
I'm a care worker. I know little of IT.
Aside from the rogue HTML editing issues you mention in the same post?
I thought you mentioned previously that this was only affecting some users?
I posted today to try and help.
As we have been asked to do.
I genuinely wish I hadn't bothered now.
Have a good one fella.
It’s my interpretation and best-guesses
Don't bother, then. Seriously, why are you still fighting that corner? If someone on the payroll wants to communicate officially, let them, but you shouldn't have to be the 'official' voice here. Its not helping users, and I'm sure it's not helping your annoyance. So, don't bother.
communication is the key
Which is exactly what I'm trying to facilitate here. And yes I know and we've done this to death already, it'd be nice if official updates were more regular, but here we are.
Mate, all I’m doing is what we’ve been asked to do, which is to report issues.
Oh, I know, and it's appreciated. Context is difficult in text, I'm not having a pop or singling you out. Sorry if it came across that way.
If there’s other aspects to the business I’m unaware of them.
... which was my point. (-: Mark's made an open offer for anyone to go visit them and find out what they're doing, but to date no-one's taken him up on it (other than me a year or so ago).
For all the wailing and gnashing of teeth, and the cries of the imminent demise of STW, the site is in a much stronger place now than it was six months ago.
Again, communication
Playing devil's advocate here for a moment, really it's none of our business. We complain of a "lack of communication" but I can't think offhand of another commercial website / forum which is as open as STW in what's going on, or would even allow this kind of discussion to run for over a hundred pages. (And please, everyone, don't all run out looking for examples just to prove me wrong, there probably is somewhere but that's missing the point.)
Mark might not be on here every five minutes discussing the intricacies and inner workings of their business, but should he really have to?
So how did this chat/update go?
I never got round to it, sorry. You could always ask him yourself of course.
You know some of that sounds patronising or dismissive at the very least.
I'm sorry that's what you've inferred, that wasn't my intent. It was a genuine question.
I thought you mentioned previously that this was only affecting some users?
Maybe we're talking about different things then? I'm not sure what you're referring to.
I genuinely wish I hadn’t bothered now.
As I said (crossed posts), I'm not having a go, I'm trying - seemingly badly - to answer your questions.
Don’t bother, then.
See, this is the problem, and not specifically this comment but some of the responses in general. In the replies to my last post I've already been told I'm patronising and also seem to have inadvertently pissed off someone else. Number of people saying "thanks for the response"? Zero.
It's the same every time (and yes, see repeating actions and the definition of "stupid"). Every time I (or anyone else) tries to post an update here, whether that's official info from STW or me just making my own best guesses, it's met with negativity. I'm trying to help and for a small subset of users I'm just giving them ammo (not necessarily in this instance, but generally). And then everyone sits here going "well, I don't know why Mark can't tell us himself!" It seems pretty bloody obvious to me why he might not want to reply in here very often, and you're right, I don't know why I bother sometimes either.
Mark might not be on here every five minutes discussing the intricacies and inner workings of their business, but should he really have to?
Every 5 mins? No.
Updates more than he is yes, his business 'relies on customers. His business decisions have set a number of his customers, there were promises and assurances that certain things were being fixed. Then silence.
As cfh said on the previous page unofficial comment from you isn't helping as you don't have the facts but want to try and tell people something. In a couple of posts you told rs his issue was trivial and not worth fixing and probably his fault for using the keyboard on his phone.
but I can’t think offhand of another commercial website / forum which is as open as STW in what’s going on
I can't think off hand of another forum that I have to pay for a supposed better user experience (with ads enabled the page is a riot in my experience)
The importance of signing up as a paid user has often been pushed by those in charge at STW, which is completely understandable as they're a business not a charity
Now that user experience is being really compromised and a lot of paying customers are understandably annoyed. Then we have a volunteer mod trying his best to offer some unofficial insight.
It's a bit crap really.
Right!
(Smiley, now also not working).
First, thanks for the responses. You know that your efforts are appreciated.
I was referring to the html issue. I'm sure someone mentioned a couple of pages ago that it was only affecting certain people.
You mentioned on the last page that it seemed to be affecting everyone, hence the confusion.
I have been to the office recently, but given that, at the time, the devs seemed to be working round the clock I thought it best not to impose and take up their valuable time.
I understand your frustration completely.
Once again, your efforts are very much appreciated. Thank you.
In a couple of posts you told rs his issue was trivial and not worth fixing and probably his fault for using the keyboard on his phone.
Except, that isn't what I said. Read it again. I said I expected that it would be a low priority, and offered an alternative.
This just highlights what I was saying just now. I don't know if it's my writing style being misinterpreted or if people just love to pick holes in things or what, possibly a little of both.
I can’t think off hand of another forum that I have to pay for a supposed better user experience
You don't subscribe to the forum, you subscribe to the magazine. That may not be the reason why you (and others) personally choose to subscribe, but as I understand it that's the business model. The forum is a Brucie Bonus on the back of the magazine subscription.
If STW dropped development of the magazine / published articles in order to concentrate solely on the forum, there would be a massive outcry (briefly, before the site folded).
Now that user experience is being really compromised
In what way is it "really compromised"? There's still glitches but a vast number of the initial issues have been fixed, Rusty (I think) said as much earlier.
Mike drew attention on the previous page to a "top three" issues: search, member history and formatting issues (presumably referring to the C&P glitch in the editor). The first one of these has been resolved, the second still outstanding and the third nowhere near as bad as it was. I have a couple of pages of bug reports and feature requests but the bulk of them are minor things like the US spelling of Favorite.
Sure, it's not perfect and there are a number of annoyances. These will no doubt be addressed over time but as I said in my initial response the devs have to concentrate on other things just at the moment.
I was referring to the html issue.
Meaning, what, the rogue HTML being injected into the editor when copying and pasting into posts? It only affects some users in the sense that different people interact with the site in different ways, but it's a site-wide issue. Ie, if everyone used the site in the same way, it'd affect everyone (or I guess, no-one).
<p>FWIW no issues with SwiftKey on Android 7.1 and latest Firefox here.</p><p></p><p>Not tried it in Chrome.</p>
Meaning, what, the rogue HTML being injected into the editor when copying and pasting into posts?
It's not just when copying and pasting into posts.
It often happens if editing a post to remove spaces or to make corrections.
Sometimes it seems to appear even when a post hasn't been edited.
Mike drew attention on the previous page to a “top three” issues: search, member history and formatting issues (presumably referring to the C&P glitch in the editor). The first one of these has been resolved,
Search was returning different things on android and pc last week - report in this thread to a comment from you and Drac, it didn't find posts in mobile that it did on desktop.
You keep going on about people from stw not posting due to responses, the last one was positively received and people said that. However there is a locked update thread that Mark can post in and never have to read a negative response.
On the how why when, things are being looked at if you don't know we don't need an opinion.
As for what people are paying for... They know you don't. Subs were sold as ad removal from the site, I'm sure stw know how many people with a sub read the emag vs use the forum.
GDPR came into force 24th May 2016 the only reason the 25th May 2018 is classified as a "deadline" is because the ICO have the Legal Process of application of the new Fine structure.
Like most businesses it seems complying with the regulation has been left until the last moment..
I do realise, and support, the new forum. No doubt it goes 80% of the way towards complying with the new rules and Middle Office documentation required to fulfil the new regulation.
All seems fine in the "i" world, except the copy/paste <div> <span> stuff but sure you're all onto the that.
Hi Forum Update thread.
Embedding videos doesn't seem to work.
Please help.
Copy and paste the URL. It should Just Work.
Well, duh! yeah it has done until today.
Hmmm!
I've tried shortlink longlink https http no tags with {video} tags. Dunno how else to post em.
Wonder if vimeo works...
Nuh
Dunno if it's cookies or something, but when I edit and repost, the edit doesn't show up until I refresh. Not been like that before either.
It's definitely getting better.
What, the weather?
Weather is getting worse.
I think I'm going to emigrate.
Edit:
Was trying to demonstrate how easy it is to embed videos but it does seem borked at the moment.
Had a 504 timeout trying to post that though so not sure if that affected it or not?
Which keyboard?
Gboard. If I swipe a word incorrectly and tap the correct word it rarely changes. Usually just leaves it or becomes nonsense.
I understand it's a low "proiprio" (there we go) priority but wondered if it was on a list or brushed aside.
Edit: it's only this site too.
Was trying to demonstrate how easy it is to embed videos
See 5 or 6 posts above yours. I’d copy it but...
ERROR: Slow down; you move too fast.
ERROR: Duplicate reply detected; it looks as though you’ve already said that.
Good catch added 😁😎
That should cut post numbers a lot!
<p>Also discovered when I edit it doesn't carry the changes.</p><p></p><p>C'mon it's Chrome FFS even if it is an older version it's not that old, less than a year.</p><p></p><p>Version 60.0.3112.113 (Official Build) (64-bit)</p>
You don’t subscribe to the forum, you subscribe to the magazine. That may not be the reason why you (and others) personally choose to subscribe, but as I understand it that’s the business model. The forum is a Brucie Bonus on the back of the magazine subscription.
If STW dropped development of the magazine / published articles in order to concentrate solely on the forum, there would be a massive outcry (briefly, before the site folded).
Sorry, but that's bollocks. There's lots of folk who have only subscribed to remove ads and/or support the forum (Jeesus - I've been one of the main protagonists on getting folk to sign up!) and for whom the mag makes no difference. Mark has already said that the forum supports the mag - not the other way around.
I’d say you need to update that squirrelking for your own security.
Sorry, but that’s bollocks. There’s lots of folk who have only subscribed to remove ads and/or support the forum (Jeesus – I’ve been one of the main protagonists on getting folk to sign up!) and for whom the mag makes no difference.
+1. I'm not a big fan of the mag (although I did subscribe for a few years) and certainly not of the website. They're just not for me. I subscribe digitally for an ad free forum. If Pinkbike had a decent forum I'd be over there. They don't so I'm here.
You’ve missed what Cougar actually said.
‘Ere! when you copy text from a previous poster on iPad, has it always been the case that you have to select it before you click in the reply box? Cos now, once you start typing you can’t select anything. Don’t remember it being that irritating before.
Been like that since the update yes.
I’d say you need to update that squirrelking for your own security.
Corporate sanitised environment, that's not an option even if I wanted to. Still doesn't change the fact that Chrome can't have changed that much in a year for all that HTML bollocks to be messing everything up.
This website is fundamentally broken. This is literally the only site I have ever used that has had these sort of issues - consistent, intermittent, user specific, user wide or otherwise. I will never know why anyone would continue to stubbornly waste time trying to fix something so broken instead of getting an off the shelf solution that would cost less in real terms, time and heartache. It makes French car ownership look almost sensible by comparison.
Looks like the plug in for Instagram is broke too, possible that it's the same plug in.
Videos working yet?
Guess that’s a “no” 😂
I'm still having to log in nearly every time I visit the forum. Not the biggest issue in the world but it is irritating
WTF is this?
Compliance with the law.
Weird how new ones work but the old ones are still broken...
I clicked Do not accept and I still continued to the site.
Is this where we post any peculiarities? Hope so 😃
I can't view any/all of the photos in the Atco lawnmower restoration thread. I simply get a white/grey no entry symbol where the picture would be.
I haven't checked any other threads as due to a cripplingly slow rural broadband and the update process which made it painful to even open a page, I tend to ignore the threads with pics. Which is a shame.
Anyway, iPad 4th gen iOS 10.3.3 Safari browser and native pop up blocker enabled.
Forum is much better now, quite possibly all your implementation nightmares in one go, so thank you for giving us this recent opportunity for personal development and growth. 😉
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/17/nyregion/kushner-deal-qatar-666-5th.html
So is somebody playing about with the link posting widgets?? It's fairly unpredictable at the moment one above posted by just pasting the link
this one via the Link Button
In case this is still the place for logging issues...
In your profile the line that indicates if you are signed up for the news letter or not has a link to search for the user called 'Yes' or 'No'. Pretty sure that shouldn't be there!
It's an interesting link though, 71,430 "active" members (though some haven't been active for a very, very long time....)
Although... some ways of sorting it's more than 85,000 members
And have only 134 signed up for the Newsletter? (133 really - I don't think chipps counts)
Link quickly disappeared though still works if you know what it was :D.
A quick test of toggling my news letter subscription on and off also confirms its enumerating the news letter subscriptions! Whoops!
also confirms its enumerating the news letter subscriptions! Whoops!
Should it not do that? (I've never used it.)
Can you explain what you mean a bit more please? I don't think I understand what you're saying.
Hmm. Spot the lurkers 😉
It appears the member search is searching more than just the members name. This appears to include the value that indicates if a user is subscribed to the newsletter or not. By searching on the correct value I can therefore extract the list of users who are subscribed. Pretty sure that is not the intention of the member search page.
I'm hesitant to post more detail in the open forum as I think its a bit of a hole. Can message you the search if you'd like.
It now appears there are 451 newsletter subscribers. I'm assuming it hasn't tripled over the course of the day so maybe it's broken
scotroutes GDPR email went out today which indicated that everyone was unsubscribed and to resubscribe if you wanted to receive it. That makes it likely that it is correct as people act on the email.
n0b0dy0ftheg0at wtf would you post that link!
Why would you click that link, nixie, if you are not a STW mod? lol
That link hijacked my STW forum tab, again, earlier. Just like it did last week, several times.
scotroutes GDPR email went out today which indicated that everyone was unsubscribed and to resubscribe if you wanted to receive it. That makes it likely that it is correct as people act on the email.
Aha. That makes sense!
Now 525
n0b0dy0ftheg0at I didn't but doesn't mean someone else wouldn't.
Ok, cool.
And now it’s fixed
<div class="bbp-reply-author">
<div class="bbp-author-role">
<div class="">Subscriber</div>
</div>
</div>
<div class="bbp-reply-content">And now it’s fixed
</div>
Unless you know the URL to use 😉
Edit: 770
lol can't you quote scotroutes!!
Search box removed? Not entirely fixed... You can still manipulate the query string to get the same result. Sorry.
Can you tell what I do for a day job.
On another topic. When browsing on my mobile phone hitting a link to thread only around 20% of the time it takes me to where I want. the rest of the time it takes me to other parts of the STW empire that I don't want to go to. It often takes half a dozen taps to get to the place I want to be. Today on the hamburger menu hitting "forum" kept taking me to reviews ad other places.
Cheers Nixie I’ve not even tried to be honest.
<div class="bbp-reply-author">mikewsmith
<div class="bbp-author-role">
<div class="">Subscriber</div>
</div>
</div>
<div class="bbp-reply-content">
lol can’t you quote scotroutes!!
Don't worry, I'll teach him.
</div>
I'm still getting text in the reply box disappearing before its sent. Only occasionally but very annoying (or it would be if I ever wrote anything meaningful)
Feedback on the submit button now. That's a step forward.
