[thedoc (OP)]

Please record below any problems you come across whilst visiting the site. Please try to give specific details which will help us to fix the problem.

[NakedScientist]

Prostate cancer on 2002.04.07 - spelling error.

[NakedScientist]

Fixed 11.11.02 and 18.11.02 location errors

[chris]

link to forum on streaming media page is broken - spelling error.

[chris]

7th July show still contains the line "Streamed content...coming soon" despite streamed content being available.

Chris

[Exodus]

on the links page, the link to STAR107.9 doesnt work.

Thats Economics...

[chris]

Thanks- the link was taken off when their website shut down for about 6 months. It's not been replaced because their site is crap.

[Exodus]

makes sense. [8D]

Thats Economics...

[Exodus]

I was wondering if you knew how the old insert image works on this forum version, it creates some kind of code but i don't really know what it wants you to do. In other forums, it gives the option to upload images so they actually appear on your post... wondering if this might be possible as it will brighten up the forum if we can get some piccys on to compliment what we write, or even for fun caption competitions etc...

Essentia non sunt multiplicanda praeter necessitatem...

[pat]

Broken link on 2001.11.11 show from the interview with john henry - its looking for some file called "factfile_johnhenry" which doesn't exist anymore.

Also, link to archive from martin redfern's review is broken

also, on links page the connection to cdc website is broken

and on columnmenu the link to archive and background doesn't work

P

[Exodus]

Any ideas on the picture side of things?

Essentia non sunt multiplicanda praeter necessitatem...

[NakedScientist]

The 'code' you are referring to is the tag that defines a picture URL. This means that you can insert a link to a picture which will be displayed on the page, but only if the image is available online somewhere. So if you know the URL to your image, you can post it.

It isn't possible to past images directly into the forum.

TNS

[Exodus]

Righty Ho Boss! []

Essentia non sunt multiplicanda praeter necessitatem...

[Donnah]

The file folders don't always turn pink when there's stuff I haven't checked out, and sometimes they are pink after I've been there.  I rely more on dates.

[Donnah]

Exodus, why does it say that you were in Lake Nicaragua on May 18 when there's nothing posted there from you?

[Exodus]

To make it easier for people to either search for a specific subject on the forum OR when someone searches for it on the internet, i changed the title to "Lake Nicaragua", i believe before it was something like "can anyone answer this...". It just makes it easier to find info on a specific subject. I have changed a few titles in this way as well.

Richard.

Resident Tour Operator - The Naked Scientists

[christianchick]

sometimes when i reply to a topic it does not appear, though somehow people respond to what i have written...

I WILL RULE THE WORLD, so suck up now before its too late(ha ha ha ha ha)


Greetings in Christ Jesus my Lord[]

[qpan]

I think most of your posts have appeared. Your signature has been removed by the moderator on several occasions though.

"I have great faith in fools; self-confidence my friends call it."
-Edgar Allan Poe

[qpan]

I think most of your posts have appeared. Your signature has been removed by the moderator on several occasions though.

"I have great faith in fools; self-confidence my friends call it."
-Edgar Allan Poe

[neilep]

Around 2-3pm today (approx)...the site was inaccessible...and then when I did manage to log on, it was painfully slow....perhaps there was maintenance happening eh ? Obviously it's ok now ,and letting you know this now is probably pointless !!

'Men are the same as women...just inside out !'

[chris]

Strange - I was in bed then (it being our night time) - but the server is usually extremely quick. Perhaps it was your provider (ISP) experiencing a busy period, or a batch of viruses ? Did you compare other sites to see if they were equivalently slow ?

Even from my present location in Australia the service is lightning fast !

Chris

"I never forget a face, but in your case I'll make an exception"
 - Groucho Marx

[neilep]

Alright Alright !!..you're in OZ !!........That was the first thing I did was check other sites and they were fine...I'm sure you're probably right about the server, though it is PIPEX and I'm using 1mb ADSL......when I have noticed it before It's been in the middle of the night...I assume on those occassions it might be planned maintenace eh ?...I'll keep you 'posted' if  i notice again. Enjoy the Southern Hemisphere Chris *extreme jealousy*...though I was in Oz last year..so there !!!

Neil

'Men are the same as women...just inside out !'

[tweener]

I've seen occasional delays and even outages in the middle of the UK night (afternoon for me).  Not often.

----
John - The Eternal Pessimist.

[neilep]

at 10:42 am today...there was definitely an outage....lasted 3 mins and all i got was the 'action cancelled' screen.....all other websites were fine.

'Men are the same as women...just inside out !'

[neilep]

Same thing happenned yesterday (tues 27th April)about midday for 10minutes...the site was inaccessible with the usual 404 type error page....all other links in my favourites were working !!!..now I'm getting a complex that the site itself doesn't like me !!!!

'Men are the same as women...just inside out !'

[chris]

This sounds bad - the host promote themselves as offering 99.9% uptime. This sounds like it might need a phone call. Thanks for letting me know guys.

Chris

"I never forget a face, but in your case I'll make an exception"
 - Groucho Marx

[tweener]

Just to report that I haven't been able to get in for the last 10 minutes or so.  Now it seems fine.  The pages just never finished loading.  No errors.

----
John - The Eternal Pessimist.

[neilep]

My head aches when I spend too long on the site !! Please make the site Head Ache friendly !!


OK Ok...I'll keep it to serious error logs !!

'Men are the same as women...just inside out !'

[Donnah]

Sometimes when I post a reply it punts me out to the "All Forums" level.

[neilep]

quote:Originally posted by Donnah

Sometimes when I post a reply it punts me out to the "All Forums" level.

YES....(me being serious now)...that happens to me a lot too....already a few times in the last 24 hours.......

It also happens when I post a New Topic

'Men are the same as women...just inside out !'

[neilep]

A bit of lag happenned for the last 10 minutes.....each page loaded but was very very slow....seems ok now.

'Men are the same as women...just inside out !'  

[tweener]

Me to.  For the last half-hour or so I've been getting slow response.  A couple of times, the page errored out with the "this page cannot be displayed...." error.  Most of the time they load, sometimes fast sometimes really slow.

----
John - The Eternal Pessimist.

[valley]

Can't hear the radio shows or interviews. It isn't just me either; a friend says they can't either. Doesn't work on Windows Media Player or Real Player (just re-installed real player and still no luck). On Windows Media Player it just never starts, and on Real Player it looks like it's playing but there's no sound. My volume is up and is not muted.



Ps: You also seem to have some non-working and dodgy (to ad sites) links on your news bit (general & bio science sections IIRC)

[thedoc (OP)]

Thanks for letting us know about these points. Have you been listening via "latest show" because that takes its feed from the BBC. As the show is currently between series there is no audio to hear !

However, if you visit the archives - http://www.thenakedscientists.com/html/shows/archive.htm see if those shows work. I know there is a problem with the 1st Feb. show (the audio file has been lost) but the others should work. Please bear in mind that some firewalls will not accept streamed content - the NHS, British Antarctic Survey, and Babraham institute are three such institutions.

Let me know if it is still not working and I'll make more enquiries. Has anyone else had this problem ?

[valley]

Woo it works! Maybe I just tried the broken ones before?! Thanks anyway []

[neilep]

I don't this is a problem, but when I do a search I often get a time-out-thingy-technical message with no result, then, when clicking on the browsers back button and reinitialising the search it responds immediately with the results !!...

'Men are the same as women...just inside out !'

[NakedScientist]

Yes, this is a frequent problem with large databases on Snitz. I've checked the snitz homepage and many people report this.

An alternative to using the forum search is to use the whole site search and add "discussion forum" to the search terms. Here's a link to the search page http://www.thenakedscientists.com/html/search.htm

TNS

[rosy]

I've noticed a few times in the last couple of weeks that sometimes people make posts which show up in the "latest posts" section and make the folder show pink to indicate posts I haven't viewed, but the post itself is invisible in the forum.
Today's example is a post from neilep at 19:59 today on the Just Chat / To pull or not to pull thread. The other one I noticed was comments by PhirePhly (sp??) on atmospheric gases.
I don't know what's causing it, but I'm assuming the post's there somewhere...

[neilep]

Rosy, i think I might have the answer.....if you make an ' edit'  to an existing post it still shows up as if a new post has been added. I did in fact edit my post on the To Pull or not to Pull thread just only a few minutes ago, just before you posted this error log.......

I'm sure that's the answer.

Neil


Men are the same as women.... just inside out !!

[rosy]

Ah ha! That would probably be it.
Thanks Neil

[ukmicky]

This isnt a problem, but is there any way the forum software could be configured so it would be possible for the forum members to see which other members are logged in at any given time

[neilep]

quote:Originally posted by ukmicky

This isnt a problem, but is there any way the forum software could be configured so it would be possible for the forum members to see which other members are logged in at any given time

...and perhaps one of those java applet chat thingies might be nice too....perhaps....maybe...sort of []

Men are the same as women.... just inside out !!

[ukmicky]

Yeah some form of live chat would be handy.
maybe beyond the scope of this software though

[chris]

The problem with a live chat system is that it is precisely that - chat. Here all of the discussion is preserved for the benefit of others, and moderated to ensure reliable content. It's possible to build in a chat module, but I think that might be deleterious to the forum overall, except under certain circumstances such as live webchats with interesting people who are guests on the radio, for instance.

As to the 'who is online at any given time', that also is feasible I think, and a great suggestion. I'll have to look into that. I believe there's a mod for it.

Chris

"I never forget a face, but in your case I'll make an exception"
 - Groucho Marx

[another_someone]

I had included a URL within a post of the form http://www.dict.org/bin/Dict?Form=Dict1&Database= [Links inactive - To make links active and clickable, login or click here to register]*&Strategy=*&Query=mutation.

This url was wrapped in url start and end tokens (i.e. url within square brackets) so:

http://www.dict.org/bin/Dict?Form=Dict1&Database=*&Strategy=*&Query=mutation [Links inactive - To make links active and clickable, login or click here to register]


It seems as if the asterisks in the url, while they are still there when the post is edited, seem to break the url when it is simply viewed.

Looking at how this post is displayed, it seems as if the url without the wrappers works ok, but actually breaks because of the wrappers.

[neilep]

At least 5 or 6 times a day I find that when I return to view the page of active topics (which I leave to update automatically) that I'm faced with just a blank page....also, often, when posting..it takes ages to respond and finally says that ' the host is not accesible ' etc etc..the inability to access the site lasts around 3-5 minutes..sometimes a little longer.

I think the site is finally trying to tell me something (uh oh...paranoid mode)

Men are the same as women.... just inside out !!

[ukmicky]

yeah ive had that posting problem.

Michael                 HAPPY NEW YEAR                    

[another_someone]

quote:Originally posted by neilep

At least 5 or 6 times a day I find that when I return to view the page of active topics (which I leave to update automatically) that I'm faced with just a blank page....also, often, when posting..it takes ages to respond and finally says that ' the host is not accesible ' etc etc..the inability to access the site lasts around 3-5 minutes..sometimes a little longer.

I think the site is finally trying to tell me something (uh oh...paranoid mode)

Men are the same as women.... just inside out !!

Yep, had that.  It seems to be suggesting that the system is overloaded, and the ASP scripts are taking too long to execute.  Either speed up the ASP scripts, or increase the timeout value in IIS (IIS is assuming the ASP script might have got itself into a permanent loop, but given the script works later, I suspect this is not the case, and is simply taking too long to execute).

Also, sometimes have had timeouts when posting a reply.  Went back, and resposted, and it worked OK.  The system simply appears to be overloaded.

[neilep]

another_someone..I am sure you've hit the nail on the head there !.................don't know what the hell you said but it sounds good !!....actually...I've heard Chris mentioning overloading a few times...so..I reckon the odds are good that you're right...I bet two carrots at 3 to 1 that another_someone is right.

Men are the same as women.... just inside out !!

[chris]

Yes, the problem is that we're running from an access database which is not stable at high loads. All it takes is a few search engine spiders to start tucking in, and a few users too, and the whole thing grinds to a halt. On one particular day a month or so back three search engines arrived simultaneously and the whole thing just collapsed. Part of the problem was the gut-bustingly large zetacap thread ! Once Neil administered a liberal dose of forum-slimming liposuction (aka the delete button) everything calmed down again.

We're actually going to migrate over to a much more stable mysql db at some point, but I'm currently just too overloaded to be able to do it.

Chris

"I never forget a face, but in your case I'll make an exception"
 - Groucho Marx