• Our booking engine at tickets.railforums.co.uk (powered by TrainSplit) helps support the running of the forum with every ticket purchase! Find out more and ask any questions/give us feedback in this thread!

Forum Update

Status
Not open for further replies.

Domh245

Established Member
Joined
6 Apr 2013
Messages
8,426
Location
nowhere
Is that the one that now mentions "search child forums also"?

That's been there since the upgrade as far as I can remember. It's the smaller one that in the picture has two options - Cancel, and Search for 'xyz'

tr7Pn5a.png


My assumption is that it is try and simplify the search system, but I don't know.
 
Sponsor Post - registered members do not see these adverts; click here to register, or click here to log in
R

RailUK Forums

Mojo

Forum Staff
Staff Member
Administrator
Joined
7 Aug 2005
Messages
20,382
Location
0035
It would have been courteous to the website membership if someone from the forum staff had made an advanced notification that the said log out would be taking effect as part of the system upgrade.

Forewarned is forearmed.
If it was known that
a) an upgrade would take place at a certain date & time
and
b) such an update would cause customers to have to login again
Then yes that would be a good idea. However as neither of this is known, then I could not provide advance (no d) warning.
 

A Challenge

Established Member
Joined
24 Sep 2016
Messages
2,823
What difference does it make if there's a warning - its not like its down and you can't access the forum - it just logs you out and you have to log back in?
 

Xenophon PCDGS

Veteran Member
Joined
17 Apr 2011
Messages
32,270
Location
A semi-rural part of north-west England
What difference does it make if there's a warning - its not like its down and you can't access the forum - it just logs you out and you have to log back in?

I was not the only person to have been taken aback when the requirement to log on again occurred and I am sure that the other website members like I all had used the "keep me logged in" function when the new XenForo system first was put in motion. Have a look back at the postings from other website members on this thread that were made at the time of the occurrence to see what their views were at the time.
 

Crossover

Established Member
Joined
4 Jun 2009
Messages
9,247
Location
Yorkshire
Being logged out is a mild inconvenience but not the end of the world. Some websites seem to expire the cookies after a while anyway - I knew when it happened here that it was likely to be something the hosts had been up to as that's when it usually occurs here
 

GusB

Established Member
Associate Staff
Buses & Coaches
Joined
9 Jul 2016
Messages
6,546
Location
Elginshire
It's a complete non-issue, and I don't see what all the fuss is about. You've been logged out? All you have to do is log in again. What's the problem?
 

Xenophon PCDGS

Veteran Member
Joined
17 Apr 2011
Messages
32,270
Location
A semi-rural part of north-west England
It's a complete non-issue, and I don't see what all the fuss is about. You've been logged out? All you have to do is log in again. What's the problem?

The "problem" is that it caused me to wonder if there was some software glitch in my computer, not anything whatsoever to do with this website, noting what I have already intimated about using the "keep me logged in" function as I could not recall this happening previously in the seven years that I have used this particular website.
 
Last edited:

GusB

Established Member
Associate Staff
Buses & Coaches
Joined
9 Jul 2016
Messages
6,546
Location
Elginshire
The "problem" is that it caused me to wander if there was some software glitch in my computer, not anything whatsoever to do with this website, noting what I have already intimated about using the "keep me logged in" function as I could not recall this happening previously in the seven years that I have used this particular website.
I've experienced a few software glitches in my time, but I do not recall any of them causing me to wander any great distance ;)

EDIT. To be a bit more serious, you wouldn't ever expect to be able to log into a work system permanently, so why should this be any different?
 
Last edited:

Xenophon PCDGS

Veteran Member
Joined
17 Apr 2011
Messages
32,270
Location
A semi-rural part of north-west England
I've experienced a few software glitches in my time, but I do not recall any of them causing me to wander any great distance ;)

EDIT. To be a bit more serious, you wouldn't ever expect to be able to log into a work system permanently, so why should this be any different?

Why, then, does the website have a "keep me logged in" facility, it that be the case?
 

GusB

Established Member
Associate Staff
Buses & Coaches
Joined
9 Jul 2016
Messages
6,546
Location
Elginshire
Why, then, does the website have a "keep me logged in" facility, it that be the case?
Without being entirely au-fait with intricate details of how the forum works, I do not know. Have you never come across a situation whereby a gadget of some kind needs a reboot? I don't see why this is such a big issue; even if you have to log in again, most web browsing software will allow you to save usernames and passwords, so no big deal!
 

krus_aragon

Established Member
Joined
10 Jun 2009
Messages
6,042
Location
North Wales
The "problem" is that it caused me to wander if there was some software glitch in my computer, not anything whatsoever to do with this website, noting what I have already intimated about using the "keep me logged in" function as I could not recall this happening previously in the seven years that I have used this particular website.

I appreciate that there could be cause for concern when such an unexpected change happens. It's not unreasonable for someone to worry, particularly when we're being told to be wary of scam phonecalls and we have "seet it say it sorted" posters at railway stations. In an (extremely far-fetched) alternate reality, hackers might have compromised a server, cleared all cookies, and were harvesting users' passwords as they logged back, to try those username/passwords on other websites to gain access to more personal information. That's not the case here, but asking for reassurance isn't unreasonable. (This is why standard advice is not to use the same password for more than one website.)

I can recall being "forgotten" by the previous forum software several times over the years. I couldn't say how many were due to the forum server losing track of my cookie, or due to the cookie on my computer being corrupted or deleted. I don't know if the new forum software is more prone to such an event or not, but in some instances just restarting the web server the forum is hosted on can reset all the server-side cookies. (Naturally, the company that gives Railforums it's server space may have to restart a web server without notice for any one of a number of reasons.)
 
Last edited:

krus_aragon

Established Member
Joined
10 Jun 2009
Messages
6,042
Location
North Wales
I've experienced a few software glitches in my time, but I do not recall any of them causing me to wander any great distance ;)

EDIT. To be a bit more serious, you wouldn't ever expect to be able to log into a work system permanently, so why should this be any different?

Why, then, does the website have a "keep me logged in" facility, it that be the case?

Perhaps it would be better phrased as "don't ask me again for my password for a while". (Some websites treat it as "remember me for up to a month".)

Let me offer this analogy: if you're a regular customer at your local pub, you may ask the barman to pull a pint of your favourite for you when you walk in. This will will work if they recognise you, but if you dye your hair or grow a beard, you might have to remind them when you next visit. (The cookie on your PC has been deleted or expired.) Likewise, if a new member of staff is working behind the bar, they won't recognise you (no server-side cookie) and you'll have to introduce yourself.
 

Crossover

Established Member
Joined
4 Jun 2009
Messages
9,247
Location
Yorkshire
Not a bad analogy, but I don't believe the server side will store any cookies - as far as I know, it is a client-side only thing
 

A Challenge

Established Member
Joined
24 Sep 2016
Messages
2,823
The server won't recognise the cookie and can't be sure if it genuine presumably!
 

krus_aragon

Established Member
Joined
10 Jun 2009
Messages
6,042
Location
North Wales
Not a bad analogy, but I don't believe the server side will store any cookies - as far as I know, it is a client-side only thing
A server-side cookie is more commonly known as a "session" (and is used in conjunction with a session identifier cookie on the client).
 

Crossover

Established Member
Joined
4 Jun 2009
Messages
9,247
Location
Yorkshire
A server-side cookie is more commonly known as a "session" (and is used in conjunction with a session identifier cookie on the client).

Yes, I was looking this up last night, as this side of web technology isn't my strong point. Funnily enough, I read that session cookies can be prone to not survivng a web server restart. Whether it is related to the "issue" experienced on here the other day, I am unsure
 

BlueFox

Member
Joined
20 May 2013
Messages
759
Location
Carlisle
The default behaviour of the forum software is to store the session data in the database.
To improve performance the session data can be cached in RAM instead. If that's what's happening on this site, a reboot will log everyone out.
 

Xenophon PCDGS

Veteran Member
Joined
17 Apr 2011
Messages
32,270
Location
A semi-rural part of north-west England
I have just come across a heading called "areas" on my profile page that I cannot recall seeing before How long has that been one of the headings?

Incidentally on clicking on it, a list of all the forums and the total number of postings made upon by me on those forums is shown. I know that since I joined the website in 2011, I have made many postings on the Quizzes and Games forum threads, but was amazed at seeing a figure of 93,626.
 

krus_aragon

Established Member
Joined
10 Jun 2009
Messages
6,042
Location
North Wales
You keep discovering bits of this new forum interface that I hadn't seen either, Paul!

(For the benefit of newer members: posts in the Quizzes & Games don't get added to your message total: this decision was made back in 2011 as some games generate huge numbers of posts very quickly, and it was felt they were skewing the figures.)

By comparison, I have ~400 posts in each of the Quizzes and General Discussion forums, equalling my total in the Infrastructure forum but less than the ~700 in UK Railway Discussion. And one solitary post in the London Underground section!
 

Crossover

Established Member
Joined
4 Jun 2009
Messages
9,247
Location
Yorkshire
"Areas" is definitely new - makes for some interesting reading, actually!

EDIT: Although adding up the numbers in there, it doesn't equal my actual posts (I hadn't counted Quizzes) so some others must be excluded from the count as well
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Top