The ATS Issues Thread

reply to post by serbsta

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In 2001 Skeptic Overlord was taken by the Jupiter monolith and transformed into a powerful being. Now, in the year 2010, Drs Springer and Crakeur, the men held responsible for Discovery's failure, are going to Jupiter. They and their crewmates must reactivate the psychotic HAL-9000 moderator, so they may learn what happened, and they must find out the meaning of Skeptic Overlord's's last transmission... "My God, it's full of off topic posts ..." *

That's what I'm going with!

reply to post by schrodingers dog

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That's quite a theory you have there. But while these dudes are going to Jupiter who's going to be running the site?

Methink it's just a redesign.

ISSUE / COMPLAINT / SUGGESTION / WHATEVER

I was just caught in an ATS “speed-trap.” After composing a reply for about 20 minutes,
replete with a heartfelt response on topic and germane links I anxiously hit REPLY
proud to share my erudite contribution with my ATS brethren. To which I received:


It is frustrating to say the least because it seems avoidable.

Yeah, I know all about composing in a 3rd party word editing program...yada, yada,yada. But if I was going to go to that much extra effort, I’d start my own blog.

I am also aware of the global nature of this community and realize there may not be an
optimal “slow” time or day. (Although this occurred to me 10am, Saturday, US. Seems like a peak post time.)

In the spirit of “It is better to light a candle, than curse the darkness” I humbly offer
some suggestions.

Prior to future scheduled server maintenance:

* Send out a mass U2U to alert members with warning.
* Display a Warning page @ Home page or upon log on.
* Disable "Reply" & "New Thread" function.
* Temporarily lock all threads.
* Establish a routine day/ date / time for such operations.

With so many options out there on the web, a user experience and GUI should be simple, enjoyable and hassle-free.

Naturally I realize there are a myriad of unintentional snafu’s and malicious threats lurking out there. Just my .02¢ KK




[edit on 21-11-2009 by kinda kurious]

Tip:

Highlight and copy all replies before you do so.

That way if you hit an error or maintenance time, then you can simply paste it into wordpad and re-post it later.

reply to post by mr-lizard

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Thanks Mr. Lizard. I will also carry an umbrella on a sunny day.

I appreciate your help. Regards...KK

nah umbrellas are for fools and those afraid of sky water.

That also happened to me, but as I use Opera I just had to go back and I had my post as I had just left it when I hit the "reply" button.

Many people do not read their U2Us.

Wouldn't work for me, I do not use the home page and I do not log out.

Only works if that is done before you enter the page where we create our posts.

Same problem, those looking at the pages before that is done would see the reply button still active.

I think that would be the best way, but I don't know if it's possible.

Then they'd have no excuse to complain despite being warned.

OK "It it is what it is" I suppose. But thanks just the same.

Congrats on your Mod status. Can I have your old optimism?

I'll watch my P's and Q's.

Regards...KK

9AM - 11AM EST on Saturday is the routine window for such operations, as it's our slowest period of the week both in overall traffic and new posts.

And (not to seem insensitive), but every browser I've ever used retained form data (such as a post or reply) if I encountered a problem, then hit the browser back button. Perhaps there are some browser settings that could be refined?

reply to post by SkepticOverlord

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Let's see if that happens with Firefox 3.5.3...

Edit: it didn't happened, going back shows the original text area as it was before writing the post.

[edit on 21/11/2009 by ArMaP]

And with Internet Explorer 7...

Edit: Doesn't happen either, the text area always appears in its original state.

[edit on 21/11/2009 by ArMaP]

Any news on this Terminator advert.
I complained on the Ads thread, but didn't hear anything back.

It seems to be quite difficult to "X" out of it and can lock up the browser (firefox) for a while too.

Any reason why the big ad along the top isn't enough?

Do we need pop-ups too... that just come out randomly and then wont go away?

reply to post by SkepticOverlord

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Since I am only testing during "Non-Server Maintenance" period it seems to work with Safari. (Mac) However, when it did occur that was my first option and no joy. I will try again next Saturday. Thanks for the time window, good to know.

I'll have to be more prudent or have a few more cups o' Joe before posting.

No worries, not complaining. I still love ATS. My favorite haunt besides on-line Scrabble.

Regards...KK

I have tried and tried, I did a thread on this:

From my other thread:



Does nobody else think that this kind of situation is undesired?

reply to post by kiwifoot

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As far as I understand it, two threads about the same news are usually accepted if one is on the "Breaking Alternative News" forum and the other on any other forum.

Three threads about the same event are too much, but in cases like this you just have to use the "alert" button to alert the staff.

What happened with member Book Reviews? I thought that was a great idea

reply to post by MajorDisaster

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We do have a Literature Forum.

Feel free to post book reviews there.
.