I had searched for a thread such as this before I posted my message. I'm glad for the merge of the two threads. I was surprised (when I couldn't find a reference to this problem) that it wasn't being discussed. For a while I thought that I was the only one that was noticing this.
I read all the messages. Some of the messages are suggesting that this issue isn't considered a high priority item. There are numerous workarounds that are tossed into this thread, as if that should be the fix.
I already had workarounds that were annoying, and work just as well as the other workarounds that are posted. I can't use the one that appears to be the most accepted, “FF the loading of a Cookie Manager and specific settings”. I have FF installed, but I use Opera for my serious forum participation. Opera has some word warp features that makes forum reading much easier than the other 4 browsers I have, and use for other purposes.
I also have 915 book marks in Opera. Many of them are reference form threads where I pickup where I left off. I only have a few 10's in the other browsers.
It would be a shame for me to loose the convenience of my forum browsing over something that I believe could easily be resolved on the server side it the matter were given serious attention.
The remember-me features is very important. Many people use those features/conveniences and don't even realize what they are doing. When the convenience is missing, they would never make a comment. The would have a hard time finding the workaround threads (as I did), and many would never be able to think of descriptive words to even report it as a problem. So the masses will go without the convenience.
After posting a question, when they come back they will stumble on their answer with trial and error. If the fix works it would be come less likely that would put so much energy into coming back and finding out where they left off so that they could mark the topic solved. So I'm sure, followups will suffer.
People will also often find themselves rereading things they have already read, because they are not performing the steps and workarounds to get back to the new messages. Some people will have 15 or 20 minute windows to spend on the forum and spend most of that time trying to figure out where they left off. By the time they locate their place, they have spent their computer time and may be off to something else.
I know I'm spending a lot of words to describe something that I consider very simple. But I'm trying to stress the importance of bringing back the remember-me feature. Unless enough people understand the importance of it, it'll stay something of low priority that will cause such a lost to our community.
If the managers can't figure out how to incorporate this with SSO, maybe they should go back to the vBulletin board database, or use some different database. One of the forms I used to frequent so much, http://www.vatsim.net ) uses a different database from the original vBulletin board database and they have no problems with the remember-me function. They use a database that manages a flight server and a number of other versions of bulletin boards from their many divisions.
Many forum systems use Facebook, Google and other authentications and the remember-me feature works.
I can't believe this functionality would be so hard if it were taking serious, by the people who are actually developing the most powerful OS on the planet.
Again, when someone has a question, they will go through anything possible to go through to get their message posted and find their answer. But they won't go though that maze as a casual thing when it comes to followup and giving back to the community after their emergency or issue is resolved. We need to make it easy and convenient for them to perform that next step.
-- L. James
--
L. D. James
ljames@apollo3.com
www.apollo3.com/~ljames
Last edited by apollothethird; August 23rd, 2013 at 02:25 PM.
The Ubuntu developers have absolutely nothing to do with this, and perhaps you missed this:
@everyone, a ticket has been raised for Canonical IS, the sysadmin team who deal with all servers in the Canonical/Ubuntu ecosystem, to deal with this. As Elfy said, you are welcome to talk amongst yourselves, but it won't make it happen any faster, since the sysadmin team have their own set of priorities and a very large number of support tickets to work through, not just ours.
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Actually I didn't miss that:
I read it and thought my detailed message had addressed that, plus a number of other messages from the thread. I read all of them. I believe you missed the gist of my message.Originally Posted by Elfy
This thread can go round and round in circles for as long as people want.
The ticket has been done for IS - they will look at it when they look at it - we have no control over them at all.
When it's done or being physically looked at by then - until then talk amongst yourselves.
Thanks.
As far as the developers having nothing to do with it, I don't think that is fully correct. Also, if the developers are not involved or concerned I believe that is another element of the problem that needs to be addressed.
There are some people that are working with development (webpage development, Ubuntu One, Development, the server and support). I believe all that should be somehow worked in as such as to resolve the issues. The web managers won't be able to interface the SSO into the web without some cooperation from whoever is maintaining and giving support for this.
I might not be able to express the exact words/terminology for fixing the problem. The gist of what I'm trying to express is the urgency of it.
A number of the messages has suggested that this is of low priority. Whether it's low priority or should be considered high priority is a matter of opinion and my change from person to person. Of course I don't have the power to set the priority, but I'm hoping to place insight with people who do have the power or influnce to have this serious matter addressed.
Again, when I referred to developers, I meant (Canonical IS, sysadmin team, and anyone else that might be able to come into play in fixing the issue. I also meant to include the developers of vBulletin. I had read somewhere (I can look up the information and post a like to if you you think I'm making it up) that the people responsible for getting the forum back up had contacted vBulliten for some type of assistance/support.@everyone, a ticket has been raised for Canonical IS, the sysadmin team who deal with all servers in the Canonical/Ubuntu ecosystem, to deal with this. As Elfy said, you are welcome to talk amongst yourselves, but it won't make it happen any faster, since the sysadmin team have their own set of priorities and a very large number of support tickets to work through, not just ours.
I appreciate that you're also mentioning in your message above that it's alright for us to have a discussion on this while it's being worked on.
It was my intentions to point out elements of importance which I hadn't saw referenced yet. There might be other elements of importance that even I might fail to mention. Then again, some people (such as you) might see this as a very low priority, and stress that the workarounds are sufficient. Some people might feel that we don't need to make it easy for people who fail to understand how to activate these workarounds.
For some, easily picking up where you left off doesn't matter.
-- L. James
--
L. D. James
ljames@apollo3.com
www.apollo3.com/~ljames
So... When will we be able to stay logged in?
I am really tired of having to click 4 pages to log in when I stepped away from a post to eat dinner and than tried to reply, found I was logged out, lost my reply and than decided not to bother. I also check the forums a lot less often because it is more of a pain than it needs to be.
Bumped the ticket again this morning.
Ubuntu 20.04 Desktop Guide - Ubuntu 22.04 Desktop Guide - Forum Guide to BBCode - Using BBCode code tags
Member: Not Canonical Team
If you need help with your forum account, such as SSO login issues, username changes, etc, the correct place to contact an admin is here. Please do not PM me about these matters unless you have been asked to - unsolicited PMs concerning forum accounts will be ignored.
Thanks for the efforts and the updates Elfy.
I appreciate it more than things I got after 'resurrection' of the forums.
I wish they had bestowed more trust and power on forum admins than they currently have. I wonder if such issues make anyone besides me think about advantages of decentralization of powers.
Just think of the novice, mothers and grandmothers who can't figure out the 4 pages to click.
Thanks, Elfy, for keeping this important issue on top.
I had forget to do my tedious clicks and found that I had read all the new message, but they were still marked unread until I tried to post. That's because, at times, the browsing is seamless and you don't realize your two hours has expired and you're nolonger logged in.
-- L. James
--
L. D. James
ljames@apollo3.com
www.apollo3.com/~ljames
With this morning bumping of the ticket this morning, I would like to add, that while it's extremely frustrating getting the clicks right to pick up where I left off, I'm still more concern for the issues that novice are having trying to do this than my own problems. I hope this gets fixed for them.
I'm sure the management who logs in should see the problem and notice a serious lost that ubuntuforums.org is suffering. If you visited other places that are plagued with this affliction, you'd probably visit those places less because of the annoyance in having to log in so frequently.
Also, it wouldn't bother me if the forum weren't so important in using Linux.
Of course if the popularity dropped far enough, it might be replaced with a forum that is easier to use.
If someone things the remember me function isn't important, take a look at:
Hundreds of request for "Remember-Me" Support over the years:
https://www.google.com/#fp=724e09b70...e%22&start=210
There you will find hundreds of request for "Remember-Me" support over the years. That was when it was easy, just one click and you were in with any browser. Now you have to go through 4 or 5 pages, and you still might not get it right to find where you left off at.
I'd love to hear from some of the forum's administrators who are working on this. I'm sure I could help to resolve this serious problem. I'm surprised if they can't see it as a serious problem. If they don't, I'd still love to hear their rational.
-- L. James
--
L. D. James
ljames@apollo3.com
www.apollo3.com/~ljames
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