Mac-Forums Issues Thread

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@Ember1205 If I engaged in conspiracy theories I might agree with your assessment of the situation but there is a hughe problem with it. Let's assume that the current owners have the site for the purely altruistic motive of keeping our little community together. Isn't it likely that they would likely want to at least break even on covering the costs of running the site? You can't effectively do that by limiting traffic because that means fewer eyeballs looking at the ads and thus fewer perspective buyers.

In the real world, the goal is more likely to generate at a profit. I have no problem with that but once again how does limiting the traffic in any way lead to a profit.

Who are the current owners at this point? Where is the site being hosted today? What makes up the "Announcement" that was alluded to?

NOTHING has been shared about what all of this means, so it's absolutely impossible to understand what pieces have changed. Given that there is absolutely a functional issue going on here, and everything is hush-hush about what's going on in the background, the assumption has to be made that the site is in the process of being migrated in some fashion. That means a potential change in the entirety of the infrastructure used to deliver the content. And in this case, seems to be alluding to the introduction of a security device (most likely a Web Application Firewall or very similar) that has the power to block specific URL's, certain text strings, etc. and "drop" users from being able to connect based on the assumption that they are trying to do something malicious.

There's nothing wrong with using a product like a Web Application Firewall, but you can't simply drop it into the mix with rules and signatures that were not built for the specific site, and expect it not interfere with the operation of the site. My best guess at this point is that is exactly what is going on here, but again... No one will share any info about what's going on.
 
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Ember1205, I understand your frustration, but here at my site I have exactly the same situation: multiple Macs on the site with multiple browsers at the same time. Never once have I been sent to, in your terms, La-La Land. With regard to long PM's being the culprit, can you define "long?" I just tested and sent myself a message with 46 lines of text and it worked perfectly. From that test, it would seem that the problem is not systemic with the site, but with something else in your particular setup.

Could it be your ISP is doing some throttling?
 
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Ember1205, I understand your frustration, but here at my site I have exactly the same situation: multiple Macs on the site with multiple browsers at the same time. Never once have I been sent to, in your terms, La-La Land. With regard to long PM's being the culprit, can you define "long?" I just tested and sent myself a message with 46 lines of text and it worked perfectly. From that test, it would seem that the problem is not systemic with the site, but with something else in your particular setup.

Could it be your ISP is doing some throttling?

It isn't my ISP: Attempting to send the same exact message, in the same exact way, from each system results in the exact same error. The two ISP's in use are completely different.

It isn't the OS: One machine is MacOS X and the other is Windows 10.

It does not APPEAR to be the browser: Chrome on both was able to successfully send shorter messages, but failed on the longer ones. Safari on the Mac had issues with the longer message as well, but I did not try sending a shorter one.

Since you were able to send a long string of text, then it isn't purely about the message length. Did you have purely text? What about punctuation? Special characters? My longer message had dashes, parens, an ampersand, dollar sign, and more. It also had quotes. I tried removing those special characters and reverting as pure a text message as possible, and it didn't seem to help.

While you are operating multiple machines without issue, take care to understand that I'm not citing that as a creator of a problem... The issue seems to be A) generating errors (when my PM sending attempts fail and I get site errors) and then B) complete blocking of the IP Address. After generating the issue on my Mac with Chrome, for example, attempting to connect from Safari on the same machine doesn't result in a working connection. Attempting to connect from other devices on the same local LAN and being address translated to the same public IP results in no ability to connect - further strengthening my stance that the site is hard-blocking a specific IP after deciding that the error rate is too high from that IP.

This kind of intelligent packet handling comes from a Web Application Firewall, an Application Delivery Controller, and/or an Intrusion Protection System. Something has been added to the flow of traffic and it's "sticking its nose where it doesn't belong" and affecting users.
 
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My PM had punctuation and special characters (*"_~). I had quotes, apostrophes, question marks, periods. Basically, I sent myself your post #29 to myself and then responded when it came into my inbox (which was virtually instantaneous). So that got sent twice. I've also sent it from Opera and received it in Safari, those are the two browsers I use. I don't use Chrome, I don't trust it. I cannot duplicate what you see. I'm not saying it isn't happening to you, I just cannot duplicate it with anything I've tried.
 
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I also just sent from my iPad using Safari there and it worked when I responded with that same long email.
 
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For me, the way that this entire process has been handled to this point has turned me off to being a community member here. And that stinks because there used to be a lot of really smart and helpful folks here that I learned a lot from. That sort of spirit has absolutely dwindled in the last six months and I don't see any sign of it getting back on track.

For now, I'm out. Maybe one day I'll be back, if whomever is now overseeing this site at the highest level can steer it back out of the shallow waters before it completely runs aground.

Sorry Ember...but almost totally disagree. I agree with you that there are some transition issues that need to be taken care of...and they will be...but it will take some time. Your suggestions that the Mac-Forums Community has changed is totally unfounded. The Mac-Forums Community is based on the registered membership and Mac-Forums Staff. The bulk of the Mac-Forums membership and the entire Mac-Forums Staff are still in place. If this were 12 months ago...the names, the faces, and the personalities would be unchanged. It is these personalities & the Mac-Forums Community Guidelines that define the experience visitors receive...and these parameters have NOT changed!

You're totally cooking up some sort of self-imagined negative-parallel-universe where some sort of "Evil" Mac-Forums resides. From a Mac-Forums membership & Staff perspective...Mac-Forums is the same exact "personality & attitude" that it was 12 months ago. The same exact helpful & friendly faces that have always been here are still here! Helping with member questions & issue's like we've always done...and throwing in a little humor from time to time.:)

It of course is your choice to take a break from the site. But I think you're going to find the "waters" outside of Mac-Forums to be full of sharks. Mac-Forums has always been a fun, friendly, helpful, safe place for visitors from all over the world to visit. It has always been the "Mac-Forums Way" to encourage the expression of opinions, encourage diversity, encourage participation...while at the same time discourage bullying, cursing, personal attacks, etc, that are commonly found on other sites. Mac-Forums is about quality not quanity.

Please consider the much bigger & longer term picture...and have a little more patience with the website transition speed-bumps in the short term.:)

Thanks,

- Nick
 
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Sorry Ember...but almost totally disagree. I agree with you that there are some transition issues that need to be taken care of...and they will be...but it will take some time. Your suggestions that the Mac-Forums Community has changed is totally unfounded. The Mac-Forums Community is based on the registered membership and Mac-Forums Staff. The bulk of the Mac-Forums membership and the entire Mac-Forums Staff are still in place. If this were 12 months ago...the names, the faces, and the personalities would be unchanged. It is these personalities & the Mac-Forums Community Guidelines that define the experience visitors receive...and these parameters have NOT changed!

You're totally cooking up some sort of self-imagined negative-parallel-universe where some sort of "Evil" Mac-Forums resides. From a Mac-Forums membership & Staff perspective...Mac-Forums is the same exact "personality & attitude" that it was 12 months ago. The same exact helpful & friendly faces that have always been here are still here! Helping with member questions & issue's like we've always done...and throwing in a little humor from time to time.:)

It of course is your choice to take a break from the site. But I think you're going to find the "waters" outside of Mac-Forums to be full of sharks. Mac-Forums has always been a fun, friendly, helpful, safe place for visitors from all over the world to visit. It has always been the "Mac-Forums Way" to encourage the expression of opinions, encourage diversity, encourage participation...while at the same time discourage bullying, cursing, personal attacks, etc, that are commonly found on other sites. Mac-Forums is about quality not quanity.

Please consider the much bigger & longer term picture...and have a little more patience with the website transition speed-bumps in the short term.:)

Thanks,

- Nick

First time in my life I've ever been labeled a conspiracy theorist. Oh well.

FWIW: Registered members doesn't tell the whole story. Look at the post frequency and which of those members is still active today they way they were 9 months ago. There is definitely a drop-off, and it's extremely unfortunate. There is a change. My assessment is not unfounded.

I agree with you that this forum has always been fairly open, accepting, accommodating, and pleasant. The problem is that seemingly big changes are afoot and no one will tell the members what's actually going on. If you want my patience, and even maybe my input / assistance, in working through the transition, TELL ME WHAT'S HAPPENING so I understand what to expect, when to expect it, and maybe could even push some limits to test things to ensure that they truly are working properly.
 
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Also as a reminder (if you don't already know) If anyone is having issues wih loading or accessing Mac-Forums with Safari (or knows someone that is)...please try Chrome or FireFox. We are aware of an issue with Safari...and are looking into it.

As far as PM's (private messages). I think for the most part...the PM system is working for the majority of members. Yes the PM notification email's are jumbled up (and we are looking into this)...but if you visit the site and go to your notification/message area...everything is fine.:)

Thanks,

- Nick
 
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It's your choice to leave. It seems a bit precipitous to me, given that the folks here are still here, but before you go, can you show the science behind your assertion of limiting? I have had multiple windows in multiple browsers open to the site simultaneously on multiple machines in my location and not seen any evidence of rate limiting or security dropping of any session. If you are going to heave that rock, it should be possible to show the mods how you came to that conclusion. Just saying "it doesn't work" is not helpful to them to find and fix any such issue.
It may have to do with you being a Premium Member (paid?), or so I would assume.
 
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Bob, I haven't paid in years. The payment system was broken when the site moved to Penton, never worked again. So I don't think that's it at all. I suspect that there is something at Ember's location that is contributing to the problem. For a while I was just "guest" and PMs worked then for me. That was how I got to Charlie to report the "guest" status and how he let me know it had been fixed.
 
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@Ember1205 If I engaged in conspiracy theories I might agree with your assessment of the situation but there is a hughe problem with it. Let's assume that the current owners have the site for the purely altruistic motive of keeping our little community together. Isn't it likely that they would likely want to at least break even on covering the costs of running the site? You can't effectively do that by limiting traffic because that means fewer eyeballs looking at the ads and thus fewer perspective buyers.

In the real world, the goal is more likely to generate at a profit. I have no problem with that but once again how does limiting the traffic in any way lead to a profit.
Maybe adblockers or content blockers, are causing the issues?
 
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Who are the current owners at this point? Where is the site being hosted today? What makes up the "Announcement" that was alluded to?

NOTHING has been shared about what all of this means, so it's absolutely impossible to understand what pieces have changed. Given that there is absolutely a functional issue going on here, and everything is hush-hush about what's going on in the background, the assumption has to be made that the site is in the process of being migrated in some fashion. That means a potential change in the entirety of the infrastructure used to deliver the content. And in this case, seems to be alluding to the introduction of a security device (most likely a Web Application Firewall or very similar) that has the power to block specific URL's, certain text strings, etc. and "drop" users from being able to connect based on the assumption that they are trying to do something malicious.

There's nothing wrong with using a product like a Web Application Firewall, but you can't simply drop it into the mix with rules and signatures that were not built for the specific site, and expect it not interfere with the operation of the site. My best guess at this point is that is exactly what is going on here, but again... No one will share any info about what's going on.
I agree, a little specifics would help alleviate confusion?
 
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Bob, I haven't paid in years. The payment system was broken when the site moved to Penton, never worked again. So I don't think that's it at all. I suspect that there is something at Ember's location that is contributing to the problem. For a while I was just "guest" and PMs worked then for me. That was how I got to Charlie to report the "guest" status and how he let me know it had been fixed.
Even though you haven't paid in years, your account is still registered as a paid account, and may have different settings.
 
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Bob, as I said, PM worked when I was a "guest" account, below even Member, so the settings most likely have zero to do with what Ember says he sees.
 

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Ember, Did you ever think that maybe Apples move to mostly Glued together systems that can not be repaired or even more RAM added might have caused less people to buy them and less people posting? I know many who feel that way. It's NOTHING TO DO with the members here or the staff or the migration of the forums. I have noticed less posting since those new systems came out but I still will never use Windows as my main OS. Things in the computer industry has changed and it will never again be like it was in say 2010. I post less due to health issues and no other reason.

Give the admins a chance to get the few issues fixed. So far my only issue here on 3 macs is the PM Emails being code.
 
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Maybe adblockers or content blockers, are causing the issues?


Speaking of which, I haven't seen any ads here recently but I also changed to using Firefox as my main browser as my Mavericks' Safari was just not working on many sites, yet this one did.




- Patrick
======
 
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The problem is that seemingly big changes are afoot and no one will tell the members what's actually going on. If you want my patience, and even maybe my input / assistance, in working through the transition, TELL ME WHAT'S HAPPENING so I understand what to expect, when to expect it, and maybe could even push some limits to test things to ensure that they truly are working properly.

The primary mission of Mac-Forums is to discuss Q&A involving member issues with their Apple/Mac/iPhone/iPad/etc and other electronics issue's...and discussion of other topic's of interest involving consumer electronics.

The announcment thread said it all...Mac-Forums is here to stay. That's the most important thing to focus on.:)

- Nick
 
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I think the decline in posts is more to do with the dramatic announcement that the board was closing. That alone probably (definitely) drove some people to leave, thinking it was gone. But it's been here all along, helping those who asked for it. I think traffic will grow, slowly, as new people come here, get answers, and let their friends know about it.
 
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I think the decline in posts is more to do with the dramatic announcement that the board was closing. That alone probably (definitely) drove some people to leave, thinking it was gone. But it's been here all along, helping those who asked for it. I think traffic will grow, slowly, as new people come here, get answers, and let their friends know about it.
You hit the nail on the head with that post Jake. That was the reason I started going on other Mac Forums more and this one less because of the announcement of this one closing. Now I can spend more time here knowing the Forum is not closing.
 

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Just saw a message from the Facebook group. be aware that the "my Posts link may not be working as expected. Rather than take you to a list of your posts as expected it takes you to the advanced search page with your username already filled in. If you click search and it looks like nothing happens look near the bottom left of the screen and see if you are being asked to enter a word or phrase.
 
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