Update from Internet Brands

Terry, I am just going to hang tight and wait till the storm passes, but it has not been fun.

Terry, I know you are doing the best you can, but the fault is on the real tech in California, or where they may be. This problem started last Wed. No notices were sent, an no one from admin replied to anyone's cry for help. No explanation, nothing.

The issue manifested itself on Wednesday, and was reported by MULTIPLE users At. That. Time. If Alison didn't get around to doing anything about it until Saturday, then that is yet another case of mismanagement of this site. THEY (the "techs) are the ones that made this issue "really complicated", right from the start. Your comment about her "overseeing multiple sites" speaks volumes. She obviously can't handle doing that, when it takes days for her to report such a glaring error to the "techs".

Trying to re-create the entire site to be optimized for mobile was the most absurd thing they could have done. It has rendered what used to be one of THE best resources on the net, useless on ALL platforms. It's fine to optimize the site for mobile IF you're going to run a script when a user logs in, to send them to the proper site for the method they're using to connect (mobile, desktop, etc). The other alternative (probably a better solution) was to leave the site alone, and create separate apps for Android and Apple devices.

We're now so far into this screw up, it's far too late to simply revert back to a backup from before this downgrade (I refuse to call it an upgrade - it simply is not). It's a shame that someone's idiotic vision of how this site should be, has all but rendered it useless. The forums are hosed. The "new" version of the Plant Files is a joke, much too difficult to navigate, and the *cough* advanced search is atrocious. In the meantime, all of the rest of the site's features are being largely ignored. I entered a company into the Watchdog weeks ago, and have heard nothing about it.

Okay, this is crazy...now, all of a sudden I can't get rid of "Update From Internet Brands" from my thread watcher list. I have returned three times in the last couple of minutes thinking there was a new post. The first time the number of posters changed from 333 to 334, but the last post was still the same. Now it's staying on 334 posts, but it still won't go away.

My other watched threads seem to disappear after I read the last post just like they're supposed to. What gives? The real reason I'm posting right now is to see if posting makes it go away.

I'll edit this message to let you know.

Edited to say: Okay, that got rid of it, but that's not the way it's supposed to work. Why only with this thread I wonder.

BTW - My non-active forums from my screen shots yesterday have continued to refresh constantly to show the current time, including today's date.

This message was edited Mar 9, 2016 9:14 AM

One has to wonder just how MANY sites these "techs" are "upgrading" that anything that is sent to someone from here enumerating the problems, say, on Wednesday (like has been said here) and still by the WEEKEND there have been no replies from said techs? Reeks highly of either incompetence or, pardon my French............"their give-a-damn's busted".

Terry, you were notified, by members, last Wednesday of this huge screw up. It's hard for me to believe that nobody in admin or management knew about it until Sat. It seems like admin could have notified Alison since we notified admin on Wed.

This site used to be informative and relaxing but not anymore. Can't you see on your end that a banner hasn't been sent out? Since this started on Wed this has nothing to do with "this weekend". I can't blame Alison and the techs....we notified you but you didn't respond.

Maybe DG should stop with the rollouts bc the only changes I've seen are a disaster.
You keep mentioning the problem with time zones but the members never seemed to take issue with this and all Internet sites have to deal with this....

I hate to keep harping on this, but whatever happened to the things Alison mentioned in her very first post of this thread (dated January 28, 2016)?

Because of the info in her post, many of us were confused both that this current glitch even happened and that there was no banner or other announcement to let us know what was going on.

The things mentioned in her post along with the "goodwill" free month's subscription led many of us to feel very upbeat about the future going forward at DG.

I'm one of the members that will stick it out no matter what, but how many apologies after-the-fact should we expect. After a while they start to sound less sincere and more like just words.

Terry, I understand you're probably caught in the middle of all this being both Admin and a member at the same time, but try to put yourself in our shoes.

Because I use a desktop computer I have very little knowledge of mobile devices. But the comments by others that said mobile apps shouldn't try to contain everything on the site, but rather a simpler version really do make sense.

Those of you that use mobile devices, is that how it's normally done on most sites? I'm really curious. If so, why did DG try to redesign the entire site for mobile?

When I first saw this, I was wondering if it is somehow related to this thread being "stickied" on this forum. But unlike your situation, this thread disappeared from my list after I viewed it.

I too wonder what happened that they did not notice until Saturday. I did not see it until Thursday morning because I was not on the computer later in the day Wednesday. But it clearly was an issue then, when I saw all the "we need help" posts after I logged in, then running into the trouble myself. You were so helpful, nuts, during that time, explaining it so well. :)

Terry
Thank goodness this thread was stickied at the top.. And thank goodness that it was one of my 'Watched Threads' in one of my Watched Forums or I never would have figured out to look at the top of a thread or the tail end of a forum!

Since we couldn't post without our posts and their forums 'disappearing' into the black hole between -0001 and the year 5200, I suspected that perhaps our multiple reports of trouble on the site might not be reaching you all because they were all cued up at the end of the Help Desk line with no notice of 'new' requests. My dmail also did not show any new after I made my trouble reports so I sent an email to admin@davesgarden.com, which also received no reply. In my best 'canary in a coal mine' voice I called Internet Brands directly.

Some questions:
Was the Help Desk effected in any way be the wonky time stamp? If so, how?
When you or Melody aren't on the Help Desk. who (or what) is responding to reports?

Do you and/or Melody as Admins have the authority apart from Alison and IB to create and post a site wide banner notice.? Is it a complicated or time consuming thing to do? Did one just not get posted or did the banner notice 'disappear' into the time void?

Thank you in advance for your reply.

PS I would luve to know what prompted Alison to get the tech team involved on Sat for a partial fix later in the day!!

PPS We regular and even causual users of this site need some alternate ways of finding out what is going on with this site when communication within this site is impaired! Even Facebook page drew a blank.

Judy

Yes, Nutsaboutnature, you and so many others were very helpful in pieceing this all together and keeping as many of us together in peace as possible! As someone said, "A real bonding experience"

Thanks all
Judy

Live long and prosper! May the force be with you.

My dmails, to other members, all worked fine during this time/date thing. Dates were normal, got responses. I assume that they were going to admin but maybe not???

It still think that admin as members should have noticed what other members noticed. Especially that there was no banner.

Thank you Nuts and all the others for so much help.

Some questions:

Was the Help Desk effected in any way be the wonky time stamp? If so, how?
The help desk is basically a forum - it's just not visible to everyone. So yes, when this issue affected the date/time stamps on forum threads, it's a safe guess that it also affected the reports that were filed at that time. I was working on/off in the help desk on Thursday and Friday and I didn't see any notes - and that's most likely the reason why I didn't. I could see them after the issue was corrected, and I'll be working to clear them out, although they will have a lower priority since the issue has been resolved.

When you or Melody aren't on the Help Desk. who (or what) is responding to reports?
The short answer is no one. If we were going to be out for an extended period of time, I assume Internet Brands would assign someone to take over for us, but that's never been the case since the inception of DG.

Do you and/or Melody as Admins have the authority apart from Alison and IB to create and post a site wide banner notice.?
Yes, we can post a site-wide banner - it's the same access Alison has.

Is it a complicated or time consuming thing to do? Did one just not get posted or did the banner notice 'disappear' into the time void?
I confirmed with Alison today that she did post one, but it was only up briefly because it appeared to that everything was working fine.

That begs the question, could we/should we have paid closer attention? Ummm, yes. Hindsight says we should have. And we've discussed a game plan for the next release - because we still have fixes to make: the banner will stay up longer, and we will be watching the site much more closely instead of going about our daily tasks, some of which involve being on the site and some of which don't.

That's helpful information.

Not that I get one, but I'd vote for a banner notice to stay up at least a day - if not a couple.

I'd also vote (maybe we should caucus, since it's the season) that when errors/bugs are spotted, that contact be made through multiple venues to avoid the pitfalls discovered from this latest situation.

Used to be a single swear word got lots of attention. Now, we have to work a bit harder...

Just wanted to add that there are still forums at the bottom of my watched forum list that are having the same issue as mentioned numerous times in the above posts. Don't know if there is a fix waiting or what but just wanted admin to know that they aren't fixed.

Same here. They just keep refreshing with current date and time. I also keep having "hanger-ons" on my thread watcher. It only happens with some threads.

This one has been harder to pinpoint, because it's not happening for everyone, but I'm working on tracking down enough examples to give the techs something to work from.

BTW - Thank You Chilly, coleup and lisac for your nice comments, but really, I think we all jumped in to help each other work through this and figure out how to navigate the site while all this time traveling was going on.

I have to say, I was (and still am) really proud of our members for all the little things everyone did.

Chilly started new threads in more than one forum to attempt to explain what was going on, Dream, Eggs_Zachtly and others explained some of the intricacies of software workings and ViburnumValley and others helped us all to see the humor in the whole thing.

Once people were aware of where the threads and posts were ending up they jumped in to let others know.

In the end, because of the efforts of our wonderful members, we continued to post in different forums and generally function within the site even though it was completely broken.

For me, that's something to really feel good about!

For me, it is the bottom three forums... Rural Gardening, Organic Gardening, and Wildlife Gardening. Do you want a screenshot? Currently, all three show the same date and time. Today's date and one minute behind my current local time when refreshed.

Here are some side-by-side comparisons of my two watched forums that keep refreshing/updating to show current times and dates. I forgot to take a screen shot yesterday so these are from 3/8 and 3/10.

It's probably a coincidence, but Chilly mentions the same ones causing her problems in her above post (Organic Gardening and Wildlife Gardening). But other people have mentioned entirely different forums doing the same thing.

Those screenshots are helpful - thank you! I'm adding them to the trouble ticket for the techs. If any other forums are behaving this way for you, please let me know.

Nuts, I have been tempted to post on those forums to see if it would break the cycle, but would it? (I have plenty of things running around in my head that would suit any of them.) Also, would it make it harder for them to find the bug? Anyone can post at any time, so if someone else posts, I'll see what happens. :)

Chilly - I'd probably wait to post on them since it gives the techs something to look at. You're right, though, anyone can post at any time. For now I don't plan to post on those forums.

Terry - I wonder if the forums that keep "refreshing" were all posted on during the "time travel" phase.

I just checked and the two on my list both had activity on March 5, right in the midst of it.

Most, but not all, of the threads that ended up with the -0001 and 5200 dates had new activity during the time traveling fiasco. Most other threads with no activity were fine UNTIL there was activity.

Here is a screen shot from me. I already mentioned which forums have the trouble.

This is a problem that has been brought up before by others, maybe I mentioned this as well. This screen shot shows 3 updated threads, but the two with the problem are "Status of PlantFiles issues" and "Looking for past post re: problem wi freezer on bottom fridg". I have clicked on those links multiple times.

This problem is intermittent it seems as I will have posts "stuck" for awhile, but then they do eventually disappear.

These are the threads that are on my home page. All the same date and time.
No Insect and Spider Identification lovylovy123345 Mar 10, 2016 11:54 AM
No Happy Birthday taters55 Mar 10, 2016 11:54 AM
No Trash to Treasure Monicad32 Mar 10, 2016 11:54 AM
No Computer Talk growin Mar 10, 2016 11:54 AM
No Greenhouse 843rphyllis Mar 10, 2016 11:54 AM

Okay, I think I've forced my home page to behave in this same way, both on watched threads and favorite forums. That will help me do some "show and tell" with the techs so they can work on it on staging. Thank you for the input and screenshots - they were very helpful!

Hmmm... that's interesting. The same two threads that Chilly says keep getting "stuck" on her home page are stuck on mine as well.

The one about the freezer was one I saved a while ago, more out of curiosity than anything. I've never actually had that problem.

That thread popped up out of nowhere on my thread watcher during the time travel phase with the date of 5200. At that time the last post had been January 28th. In fact it was the only thread without recent activity that did that.

Then it had activity on March 5th (there's that date again) and since then it's been stuck on my home page. I wonder if the activity was prompted because it was stuck on the homepages of everyone "watching" it.

I may have to unwatch it or post to get rid of it, but I don't really care to do either.

I too have threads that just won't go away from my thread watcher.
Up till now, I have actually not been reporting bugs like this, as I don't want to just keep pestering y'all while you are frantically trying to fix all these problems. I am gradually starting to think that you need more bug reports, as they help you get to the bottom of the problems, and often you are unaware they are impacting all site users. I am going to try to act more like a beta tester.

Pistil - I see you also have "Status of Plant File Issues" stuck on your thread watcher. It seems to be particular threads that are doing this.

I also think it's important to report these bugs, especially because some of them might be related.

Yes they do help us a lot, especially when we're in the throes of sorting out something as big and unwieldy as this issue has proven to be. We typically do not expect our members to act/think like Beta testers, but it is helpful to get reports when you realize something is not working right, especially if you have first verified that it isn't something on your end (browser settings, cookies, etc.)

I also have that same problem, except that in my case there are 5 Forums at the bottom of my 'watching' all of which display the exact same date/time stamp, a date/time stamp which updates to the current date and time each time I refresh my screen. For me the effected forums at present are: wildlife gardening, computer talk, pets, frugal living, and trash to treasure.

I have attached 3 screen shots, all show the bottom of the list labeled 'watching', but the were taken on 3 different days and show that while some forums continue to be part of the group with identical date/time stamps, others seem to have been 'fixed' over the past few days.

(If they are displayed in the order I specified), The 1st pic below is from today. The 2nd is from Mar 7, and the 3rd is from Mar 8. Even if they get posted out of order, the date/time repeated on the last several items will tell you when each pic was taken.

Terry,
I have 4 'stuck forums I watch: Greenhouse, Organic, Rural and Tropical.

I just got Greenhouse Forum to take its rightful place in the time stamp sequence by bumping up the post by Phyllis which was made during time warp.

I suspect that any 'watched threads' posted to during time warp will not clear even though they now have corrected time stamps until that Forum is also cleared. The Forum has to know that that thread that was at the end of the line now again has a place at the top as an old new thread.
Poor Forum gremlins!

The Forum stickies may also have time warp posts.

The tropical Forum has a number of stickies. My watched forums on 3/8 showed Keith as last poster
Post 10204726
And today 3/10 shows last post by Larkie Post 10206716

Rural Forum has two posts by CajininKy made during time warp.

The last poster can readily be seen on a Wathced Forum, and finding that thread and post can unstuck things for forum and thread.

Can someone please post in Greenhouse Forum so I can see if my Watched Grenhouse forum upgates properly and show as New? Thanks.

Welcome Mat just appeared on my stuck at the bottom Watched Forum list

No Tropicals & Tender Perennials Larkie Mar 10, 2016 2:56 PM
No Welcome Mat cjst Mar 10, 2016 2:56 PM
No Organic Gardening katesflowers Mar 10, 2016 2:56 PM
No Rural Gardening CajuninKy Mar 10, 2016 2:56 PM

There are definite patterns. Many of us have some of the same forums constantly updating to the current date and time. I can only compare the two that I'm having the issue with: Organic Gardening and Wildlife Gardening, but several people have mentioned those same forums.

Coleup, yes the forums displaying the current date/time do all seem to have time-warp posts (mine show posts on March 5). That was the first thing I checked because most of the other issues were the result of time-warp posts.

I'll post for you in the Greenhouse forum. Then we can see what happens.

Coleup, it looks like you just posted in the Greenhouse forum a little while ago so I didn't bother to post.

Did it change anything when you did?

Nuts, it moved the Greenhouse Forum from where it has been stuck at the bottom of my Watched Forum list to the top of the list with a real life time stamp!

No Greenhouse coleup Mar 10, 2016 1:40 PM

I was hoping you or someone would post there to see if a now post will show as a New in my forum watcher. If it does, then that forum should be cleared for everyone.....

Okay, I'll go try it right away.

Thank you!!!! It worked.

So, like you said, together we can find ways to work around some of the glitches we encounter with a little help from our friends.

Off to do some IRL gardening!

I also have 5 threads continuing to show up at the bottom of my home page. The time changes to whatever time I click on home. No idea how to do a screen shot but these are the threads.

Also, I sent a d-mail to powers that be about 6:30am on March 3rd. about all the problems and no I never received any reply.

No Computer Talk growin Mar 10, 2016 4:17 PM
No Jokes & Humor kittriana Mar 10, 2016 4:17 PM
No Water Gardening bellieg Mar 10, 2016 4:17 PM
No Tropicals & Tender Perennials Larkie Mar 10, 2016 4:17 PM
No Pets MollyMc Mar 10, 2016 4:17 PM

Yay...Glad it worked. Maybe that's the way to fix it. Chilly suggested it earlier, but I wonder if the techs need to look at it first.

Terry - what do you think? It looks like posting on the forums (all we did was bump up a couple of threads) might break the cycle.

Should we be posting on those forums which might fix them for everyone or is it better to let the techs look at the issue first?