Try to fix one thing, break another

[Susan Bradley]

Long story short we were trying to fix an issue with a duplicating post and ended up causing issues with the replies. You may not see any replies, or
[See the full post at: Try to fix one thing, break another]

Susan Bradley Patch Lady

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7 users thanked author for this post.

WSCape Sand, Coldheart9020, jburk07, SueW, abbodi86, woody, OscarCP

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[OscarCP]

Susan and all the rest trying to fix this unwelcome inconvenience:

Thanks, good luck and godspeed!

Windows 7 Professional, SP1, x64 Group W (ex B) & macOS Mojave + Linux (Mint)

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[E Pericoloso Sporgersi]

I asked a question in “Questions: Browsers and desktop software”

Moonshine posted a reply, as shown in screenshot 2346194 .

I was notified of that reply by e-mail as shown in screenshot 2346195 .

But Moonshine’s reply doesn’t show, screenshot 2346196 .

Moonshine mentions software Ghost-It. An advanced search for “Ghost-It” in post contents comes up empty, screenshot 2346197 .

There is definitely a dung beetle at work. (Not that Moonshine’s reply is dung.   It actually was helpful.)

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[OscarCP]

It seems that most things in comments posted anywhere here before the last few hours is missing, or I hope, unreachable at the moment, regardless of forum (as far as I have been able to ascertain from looking at a small sample of the whole). So anyone searching here for information on some topic, item, or word discussed in any thread’s comments earlier than a few hours ago, if my observation is also generally correct, is likely to come up empty right now.

Windows 7 Professional, SP1, x64 Group W (ex B) & macOS Mojave + Linux (Mint)

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[Paul T]

And anon users can’t see most posts.

cheers, Paul

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[Zig]

Thanks  for getting on top of this, Susan. BTW, there doesn’t seem to be any particular place for website/forum problems to be reported.

Zig

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[Susan Bradley]

Don’t thank me, I triggered this problem in the first place.

Susan Bradley Patch Lady

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[doriel]

Everybody makes mistakes, the goal is learn from our own mistakes. But lot disapeared on Askwoody.. This is completely empty thread now for example. How ironic. Name of the thread is saying it all. What were you trying to achieve anyway?

https://www.askwoody.com/forums/topic/when-the-patch-is-worse-than-the-attack/

Dell Latitude E6530, Intel Core i5 @ 2.6 GHz, 4GB RAM, W10 1809 Enterprise

HAL3000, AMD Athlon 200GE @ 3,4 GHz, 8GB RAM, Fedora 29

1 user thanked author for this post.

Cybertooth

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[Susan Bradley]

https://testaskwoody.holbihost.com/forums/topic/when-the-patch-is-worse-than-the-attack/

As a test can you see it there?

Susan Bradley Patch Lady

1 user thanked author for this post.

doriel

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[OscarCP]

Susan, I can see it OK, down to this comment #2343926 There is also something that looks like a green bug near the top of the simultaneously visible part of the brown right side-bar, when looking, for example, at this comment. I suppose is just some marker that means “this is a test”?

Windows 7 Professional, SP1, x64 Group W (ex B) & macOS Mojave + Linux (Mint)

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[Susan Bradley]

It means there’s a debugger installed to be able to test and check what’s going on in the database.  The consultant was using it to diagnose.

Susan Bradley Patch Lady

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[doriel]

As a test can you see it there?

Yes, I can see debugger tool. Im using chrome 88.0, Vivaldi does the job too. Egde also displays the page. Iexplorer freezes, but after minute or so, it displays the green bug too.
Hope this can help.

Dell Latitude E6530, Intel Core i5 @ 2.6 GHz, 4GB RAM, W10 1809 Enterprise

HAL3000, AMD Athlon 200GE @ 3,4 GHz, 8GB RAM, Fedora 29

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[wavy]

That is not the solution you are looking for …

👍

🍻

Just because you don't know where you are going doesn't mean any road will get you there.

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[Alex5723]

When checking ‘Replies Created’ under my profile, I got none.

1 user thanked author for this post.

doriel

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[OscarCP]

Alex: Join the club. But you should be able to see what you have posted most recently, in the last eight hours or so. If you don’t see at least that, yours might be a new aspect of the current problem.

Windows 7 Professional, SP1, x64 Group W (ex B) & macOS Mojave + Linux (Mint)

1 user thanked author for this post.

doriel

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[Alex5723]

I can see NEW replies posted in the last hour..

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[doriel]

Mine are gone too.

Dell Latitude E6530, Intel Core i5 @ 2.6 GHz, 4GB RAM, W10 1809 Enterprise

HAL3000, AMD Athlon 200GE @ 3,4 GHz, 8GB RAM, Fedora 29

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[doriel]

In the topics Im interested in, I can see posted replies in my mail inbox 😉

Dell Latitude E6530, Intel Core i5 @ 2.6 GHz, 4GB RAM, W10 1809 Enterprise

HAL3000, AMD Athlon 200GE @ 3,4 GHz, 8GB RAM, Fedora 29

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[doriel]

I mean even replies that I cant see now. I know its not solution, but at least sending emails works normally.

Dell Latitude E6530, Intel Core i5 @ 2.6 GHz, 4GB RAM, W10 1809 Enterprise

HAL3000, AMD Athlon 200GE @ 3,4 GHz, 8GB RAM, Fedora 29

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[Cybertooth]

There are still tons of missing posts. In this thread, for example, the counter at the top says there are “2 replies and 3 voices”, yet only 1 reply and 2 different “voices” are shown on the page.

Note that the link I provided above is for a post that no longer appears on that page.

This is what my profile page says about the hundreds of replies I’ve posted at askwoody.com over the years:

The hope here is that this problem of posts gone missing en masse gets fixed soon. Many of us Woodyzens have put in a considerable amount of work into certain topics and we would not want that work to simply go down the drain–nor in many cases, I suspect, would we feel inclined to try to re-create it.

 

Keep Running Windows 7 Safely for Years to Come  
Make Windows 10 look and work like Windows 7

• This reply was modified 1 month, 2 weeks ago by Cybertooth.
• This reply was modified 1 month, 2 weeks ago by Cybertooth.

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[Susan Bradley]

They are only missing from your view, they are still there on the back end.  We have the site restored to a testbed so that we can do a dry run on the test site first.

Susan Bradley Patch Lady

6 users thanked author for this post.

Mele20, doriel, SueW, Alex5723, OscarCP, rexr

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[Susan Bradley]

See- still there.  Again, my apologies. It’s being worked on.

Susan Bradley Patch Lady

2 users thanked author for this post.

Wheel_D, Cybertooth

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[OscarCP]

I hope that when the site is restored, what has been posted here during this emergency does not disappear instead. But if that is the price to be paid for most of the things in this site being back for all of us to see again, well …

Windows 7 Professional, SP1, x64 Group W (ex B) & macOS Mojave + Linux (Mint)

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[Susan Bradley]

I’m making sure that backup it kept but ideally that’s really really worse case scenerio.

Susan Bradley Patch Lady

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[Cybertooth]

Thank you, Susan.

In case it helps to diagnose or track down the underlying problem, I noticed that whereas the stats below my avatar in forum posts credit me with 32 Topics, my profile page says that I have started 29 Topics.

 

Keep Running Windows 7 Safely for Years to Come  
Make Windows 10 look and work like Windows 7

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[Moonshine]

I’m surprised that the ability to reply to existing posts is still allowed while the forum is having issues.
I remember a similar scenario some years ago, in a forum that’s now long gone, when only the original posts were showing and all past replies suddenly had vanished.
Members were still allowed to reply to the single original post showing and when the forum was finally restored, what a mess with all the original replies mixing with newer replies that had been added during the forum problem period. Nothing made sense.

Let’s hope all goes well here.

2 users thanked author for this post.

Microfix, Kirsty

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[Susan Bradley]

We’re not rolling the database back, it’s just an indexing problem.

Susan Bradley Patch Lady

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[OscarCP]

I would suggest making copies of the more important comments we have posted during this period to be able to re-post them after this situation is over, in case they get lost in the process of fixing the problem. But even if that may seem then necessary, to wait first until their disappearances are quite clear, to avoid messy duplications.

Windows 7 Professional, SP1, x64 Group W (ex B) & macOS Mojave + Linux (Mint)

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[Susan Bradley]

Please please no. That’s way too much work and unneeded.  Again all of the posts are still here in the database it’s just that they are missing a certain bit of information flagging to make them visible for all.  Just be patient, the information is not going to be lost.  We’re not rolling back to a prior backup, we’ve tested the solution on a copy of the site. The only thing we’re waiting for now is a good time for the consultant and I to be around at the same time.

Susan Bradley Patch Lady

1 user thanked author for this post.

doriel

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[OscarCP]

I am merely saying that if there is something important that one posted today and wants to make accident-proof, could copy it (most likely as text) in a file in his or her computer and keep it there just in case.

I am not sure how that could be a massive problem or be too much work, from the point of view of the people saving some comments in their computers (I have only one comment posted today, on the longer-term problems caused by the multiplicity of programming languages, that I think worth saving)  or that of the moderators that have to check them out, as I have indicated saving in one’s computer only the important comments posted today (even if people, unwisely, re-posted everything they posted today, those are not so many) and I think we can trust people to be sensible about it, to only re-post those things they put some considerable effort in writing, or are about questions important to the commenter. And something that would not be necessary, if those of today’s comments that are up right now show back when the repairs are completed and then that is the end of it.

As to what is important? As an example I would say the comments in this thread, by and large, being about a temporary malfunction at this site and it’s immediate effects, do not qualify as “important” enough to re-post if they happened to be lost in the shuffle. That is all.

Windows 7 Professional, SP1, x64 Group W (ex B) & macOS Mojave + Linux (Mint)

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[anonymous]

Okay, Susan, you’ve made your point. We won’t complain any more about the “No politics and religion” ban or the new cartoon drawing of you and woody on the website masthead, or do any of the many other silly things we do that undoubtedly cause you to roll your eyes, or exhale in frustration, or shake your head in disbelief.

Please put the site back up. We’ll be good. We’ll be very good, you’ll see. We promise. Just give us another chance. Pleeeeeeze…

Hope this helps.amuses.
😀

5 users thanked author for this post.

WSCape Sand, SueW, OscarCP, Wheel_D, Cybertooth

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[Susan Bradley]

No this one was my fault.  Site is honestly still here, it’s just got a database tummy problem that we’re fixing.

Susan Bradley Patch Lady

3 users thanked author for this post.

WSCape Sand, E Pericoloso Sporgersi, Cybertooth

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[Rick Corbett]

doriel wrote:

In the topics Im interested in, I can see posted replies in my mail inbox

Think yourself lucky, Doriel. I haven’t had an email notification for many, many months. 🙁

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[OscarCP]

Rick Corbett: I do not think it is luck, but has more to do with being subscribed to a Forum

If you are subscribed to one or more, you should be getting emailed about comments posted there, I think automatically; if not, something is wrong. I get just about every day emails telling me to go see what Alex has posted somewhere. Occasionally, those of others, mostly about some outrageous cybersecurity attack affecting billions of people, and even more occasionally, some are emails giving notice that someone has a message for me waiting in “Direct Message.”

Windows 7 Professional, SP1, x64 Group W (ex B) & macOS Mojave + Linux (Mint)

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[doriel]

Thats pity. I dont know if its by design or just coincidence, but sometimes it seems like Im “unsubscribed automatically” from certain forum topics, but still, most of them works. I think the site is OK the way it is.
This havoc is what you get when you mess too much with your settings, I think.
AskWoody is (was) complete service for users with giant knowledge database. What more do you want? People like it. Dont break it please! Pleeeaaaase!
Can just one thing remain the same? Do we REALLY need to do this patching and repairing damages after patching on and on again?

Dell Latitude E6530, Intel Core i5 @ 2.6 GHz, 4GB RAM, W10 1809 Enterprise

HAL3000, AMD Athlon 200GE @ 3,4 GHz, 8GB RAM, Fedora 29

3 users thanked author for this post.

Charlie, Cybertooth, OscarCP

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[OscarCP]

Doriel: ” Can just one thing remain the same? Do we REALLY need to do this patching and repairing damages after patching on and on again? ”

True enough, as a general principle. But some of the patching (if the reason for what follows is really some of the patching) has resulted in the site running faster, while editing a comment quickly and repeatedly is now less likely to get it spirited away by the spam filter. Also it is possible to put up to 3 or 4 URL links in a comment without it automatically being sent away, immediately “for moderation”, before one has a chance to edit anything that might be the matter with it; then, by the time it comes back, it is already much too late to edit in order to correct whatever might be wrong.

So not all patching and fiddling and tinkering can be bad, as long as it is done well and it is meant to improve, but not to change substantially, what is already good enough, except for a few problems such as those mentioned. But, going by what she has written already about her causing the current situation, I do not think that working on one unnecessary “improvement” was what Susan was trying to do but went wrong.

Windows 7 Professional, SP1, x64 Group W (ex B) & macOS Mojave + Linux (Mint)

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[doriel]

Thank you for your explanation.
I also use WordPress to build sites and last time I managed to “demolish” my webpage by single change in “settings >> general” by editing URL.
I managed to repair it via myPHPadmin, but it was crucial hour before I found it 🙂
So I can uderstand that and I believe in admins of this site, that they will resolve this issue.
I wish them luck of course, but I personally considered this webpage as perfect. Even more since Woody managed to do big update of the site back in 2019.

Dell Latitude E6530, Intel Core i5 @ 2.6 GHz, 4GB RAM, W10 1809 Enterprise

HAL3000, AMD Athlon 200GE @ 3,4 GHz, 8GB RAM, Fedora 29

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[opti1]

I’m confident Susan and the team will get the forums back to normal in due course.

In the meantime I am curious if we’re going to see a DEFCON change in the next day or two . . .

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[Susan Bradley]

Yes.  Sunday night when the newsletter goes out.

Susan Bradley Patch Lady

4 users thanked author for this post.

WSCape Sand, SueW, Chris B, opti1

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[Bob99]

Update II:  Indexing fix is scheduled for Sunday morning Pacific time.  Once again thank you for your patience.

Susan- ( @sb )

Any idea on the approximate time in the morning? 0000-0800PT or more like 0600-1200PT for example?

That way folks can be a little better prepared for the occurrence and either not try to use the site or, if they’re using the site, keep an eye on the clock to be able to leave the site before it goes down so they don’t potentially lose a post they’re working on.

I’m looking forward to Sunday afternoon/evening to see just how things look afterwards. Wishing you and the others who toil behind the scenes the best of luck in the endeavor!

BTW, you’re very welcome to at least my patience!

• This reply was modified 1 month, 2 weeks ago by Bob99.
• This reply was modified 1 month, 2 weeks ago by Bob99.

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[Paul T]

Expected downtime is 15 minutes. I’m sure you can find something to do for half an hour, tempting as it is to spend all day here. 🙂

cheers, Paul

1 user thanked author for this post.

doriel

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[doriel]

Seems AW is back on tracks. My replies are back (in my profile), quick check some topics seems to be good too. Good luck there!

Dell Latitude E6530, Intel Core i5 @ 2.6 GHz, 4GB RAM, W10 1809 Enterprise

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