Simtropolis 7.3.3 Bugs/Issues Report Thread

[Darth Apple 54]

The people behind them know exactly what they are doing. Dealing with them is one of the more painful aspects there is to being a server administrator. 

[Jim14409 448]

Whatever the cause...it's still not over as I am getting more "Failure to connect..." notices than I am getting web pages. It's too bad some people have nothing better to do with their life and seemingly need to grow up.

I wish Admin the best in dealing with this.

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

The Internet is a machine made up of computers.  It does what it is told.  So what do you think?

[Tropod 144]

ok so I've tried but to no avail being a techie n all ......

Is there somewhere where there's info on chatroom requirements? ie minimum specs, java/javascript, flash, firewall, browser, settings needed etc. As it is buggy at best I find. It works, doesn't work. It's random. The other day I managed to get in, then short while later no dice, despite making no changes. I've now done a complete OS install (not related to this), & Java, flash, firefox, etc all upto date & I can't seem to pinpoint any particular setting & it still won't load completely (no error displayed, just blank page). I've even tried firefox safe mode, disabling firewall, going through the add-ons, disabling popup blocker, even adding ST as safe site to both Java & firefox. I've looked into the JavaScript debugger for chat whilst loaded, says my browser doesn't support java script or it's disabled, neither of which is correct. I've managed to have it load under IE, but that's not an option .

 

EDIT: should have added: I've confirmed that javascript & flash are both indeed installed & working.

 

on a side note; is there a way to filter searching the STEX for just SC4 only related files?

[Cyclone Boom 16,938]

Hi Tropod,

The client requirements on RealChat's site are quite basic, just stating flash is needed. JavaScript should also be added, but sounds like you've got that covered. I think it might help to narrow down whether it's an issue with the chat software, or accessing the chat room here at Simtropolis. As a test, see if you can reliably open the demo chat page over at RealChat with Firefox.

In their FAQ page, it vaguely mentions about using proxies. Are you using something like this, which changes your internet connection? Still, this doesn't really explain why it intermittently fails to load in FF, yet works with IE.

Maybe the chat doesn't like how FF handles flash.

When the window has opened, maybe try: right clicking > This Frame > Reload Frame.

on a side note; is there a way to filter searching the STEX for just SC4 only related files?

Yes, this is possible using the advanced search (accessed from the gear icon next to the search bar).

Below there's a listbox, allowing files to be filtered from different categories. Selecting "SimCity 4" will include all the sub-categories (BATs, mods, lots, etc).

[Tropod 144]

Hi Tropod,

The client requirements on RealChat's site are quite basic, just stating flash is needed. JavaScript should also be added, but sounds like you've got that covered. I think it might help to narrow down whether it's an issue with the chat software, or accessing the chat room here at Simtropolis. As a test, see if you can reliably open the demo chat page over at RealChat with Firefox.

In their FAQ page, it vaguely mentions about using proxies. Are you using something like this, which changes your internet connection? Still, this doesn't really explain why it intermittently fails to load in FF, yet works with IE.

Maybe the chat doesn't like how FF handles flash.

When the window has opened, maybe try: right clicking > This Frame > Reload Frame.

 

I was going to say, that demo chat works no problem, but that's not 100% correct. I've just reset firefox & ST chat works, loading ONCE. Demo chat works, 2-3 times at best. After that they both refuse to load properly. If I reset firefox again (& make sure I don't restore previous windows) chat works again, once etc. This is replicable. Almost seems like a bug, with what though don't know. I've tried everything else I can think of & that you've suggested .

Would there be anything anywhere (ie registry for example) that gets changed on first load for chat?

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

Well, Tropod, perhaps we can diagnose your problem together.  I don't have a problem getting into chat, and I am on Firefox 28.0 as modified by Canonical for Ubuntu 1 running Ubuntu 14.04.  I just got into chat, and back out.

 

In my experience of some 50+ years in computers I've sometimes seen situations where the O/S didn't clean something up properly at termination of a session.  Couple of questions:

 

1. Do you leave your browser running all the time?  Which one?
2. Which operating system are you running?

 

Programs are not forever.  No matter how well built they tend to decay over a short time.  Even robust systems like Ubuntu/Linux need to be refreshed occasionally.  Currently I've been up 1 day, 21:47.  I don't boot very often, and usually only for kernel updates.  I don't leave my browser running.

 

Your problem really sounds operator related, old boy.  What do you do at the keyboard?  Just got in and out of chat second time.

[meister1235 92]

Another reason is a high ping paired with a slow internet connection. Chat doesn't seem to like that.

[Tropod 144]

Your problem really sounds operator related, old boy.  What do you do at the keyboard?

 

Eat, sleep, shower, work, you know the usual..........all from the comforts of my keyboard, amazing how technology has transformed my life

 

1. Nope. FF 28.

2. Win7 64bit. This is is a pretty clean OS install (minus *some* WinServices I've adjusted ). I do have my old WinXP still set up on a harddrive. I'll have to see if it's a problem on that (still), as I don't remember.

 

My PC's always get turned off completely when not in use (ie from wall).

 

 

Another reason is a high ping paired with a slow internet connection. Chat doesn't seem to like that.

 

Possible. I am after all in a far far away land .... Really though, I'm on ADSL2, ping times for chat are not overly high ~270. Also doesn't doesn't explain why all of a sudden it works if I reset FF, but only once/twice. IE works no problem & loads it pretty quickly.

 

 

I'm inclined to think something in FF becomes invalid/corrupted after chat gets loaded or some registry setting gets changed.

 

 

 

EDIT: I'm going through FF troubleshooting to see if I can't pinpoint problem, because this is annoying .

[Tropod 144]

sorry for the bump, but worthwhile given my post    ..............and in case others have issue.

clearing cache.

This seems to be cause/source of the problem, or least partial culprit. If I clear this each time, chat loads no problem. Which is odd really as it's not something that should be required, each time.

 

 

Thank you all who helped   for you each .

[Shadow Assassin 336]

It's a shame RealChat is the best we have because it's pretty buggy, all things considered.

 

I know we tried other chat software but they didn't work very well for what we needed...

[Mr Saturn64 742]

Hey, uh, I'm trying to upload an image, but for whatever reason I can't click "OK" after I paste the URL of the image (a JPEG) on the image properties. 

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

This is an embedded image > < so I don't think the problem is this site.  What site were you trying to embed your image from?

[Mr Saturn64 742]

Imgur.

 

I took the image, made it a JPEG via photoshop then uploaded it to imgur, then attempted to embed it here, and I could not.

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

On imgur there are several choices for picking up the url.
 
First you have to be logged in.
 
Next choose: Direct link and click on its icon.  This copies the URL to the clipboard, and then
 
Use the image box in this editor, and you get:

Hi there!

[Wiimeiser 444]

If I don't visit a thread for a while (I think about a week), ST unreads all the read posts in that thread and makes it as if I've never read the thread at all, even if I've posted in it. I believe this has been happening since the site scheme was overhauled.

How has this not been fixed?

[Cyclone Boom 16,938]

Imgur.

I took the image, made it a JPEG via photoshop then uploaded it to imgur, then attempted to embed it here, and I could not.

 

Yes, make sure to use the direct link the the image. For this the address will have the .jpg extension at the end.

If the OK button can't be clicked, try logging out, refreshing your browser's cache, then logging back in. The cache seems to be the cause of a number of problems.

As a workaround, the manual way to embed images is using:

 

[img=<URL>]

(Replace <URL> with the image's direct link).

 

If I don't visit a thread for a while (I think about a week), ST unreads all the read posts in that thread and makes it as if I've never read the thread at all, even if I've posted in it. I believe this has been happening since the site scheme was overhauled.

How has this not been fixed?

 

Have you tried the Mark Community Read options at the bottom? Maybe this will refresh things.

Though I suspect any bugs with the forum software will require fixing by the developers. It doesn't sound like a local server-side issue. If able to be reproduced, maybe it could be fixed in the next version (we're currently running IP.Board 3.4.6 , as shown below).

By the way, here's a list of reported issues and the status of them being fixed. Is this report possibly anything to do with it?

[Mr Saturn64 742]

Ok, let's try this out.

 

 

That's pretty big.  Bigger than I expected it to be.  I took that, by the way.  

 

And also, Hi Nonny.  (Hey, he said hi, it's only nice I do)

[downloader2000 0]

I got 5 errors at the top of the page. i hope this is enouh information.

i  was just browsing on the most popular sim city 4 mods.

 

this page also get the same error:

 

[Yarahi 1,816]

Is there PFB happening to this site again? The "show us"-threads seems to be stuck on the same page forever now.

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

I got five lines containing three errors on that STEX link.  But not on calling up the STEX in general.  Were/are you using a special skin or coming in off a smart phone? 

 

Let me see if I get errors on any of my "canned" links: . . . must be something specific about that file.  I can't reproduce that error on anything I have tried.

[meister1235 92]

I assume that the bug downloader2000 reported is due missing screenshots on the download description (or maybe this is a result of this bug). There is definitly something wrong with this file and/or the database entry.

[Cyclone Boom 16,938]

This also seems the case for this member's other files, resulting in the same errors: Division by zero & Cannot modify header information.

Strangely, all have an invalid image preview, but clicking "screenshots" still brings it up (for me at least). An exception is which is not affected.

 

The only noticeable difference is this file has a rating. Could this be something to do with it? Maybe the ratings have become "lost" in the database from a past site upgrade.

 

 

EDIT: After testing, rating the file seems to solve the problem! Can someone confirm this works for the remaining files?

[timmie 988]

 

Have you tried the Mark Community Read options at the bottom? Maybe this will refresh things.

Though I suspect any bugs with the forum software will require fixing by the developers. It doesn't sound like a local server-side issue. If able to be reproduced, maybe it could be fixed in the next version (we're currently running IP.Board 3.4.6 , as shown below).

By the way, here's a list of reported issues and the status of them being fixed. Is this report possibly anything to do with it?

 

No, that report is not what Wiimeister meant, I think this is the issue:

 

Normally, using the 'Browse New Content'-page shows you the threads you participated in and if there are new posts or not. If you click on the star that shows you there's a new post, the site takes you to the first new post in that thread. But, if you don't visit the site for a week or so, it will still show threads with new posts, but if you click the star, the site seems to have forgotten where in the thread you were the last time, and doesn't take you to the new post, but to the first page of the thread instead.

 

Is this formulation a bit understandable?

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

The site loses its long term memory?  How unlike a computer.

[Mr Saturn64 742]

For whatever reason, a bunch of mods I attempt to download from here don't work, even with all the dependencies installed. 

 

Two in particular I want to use are the Museum of SimNation and Church Packs, both by SimGoober.

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

Please post some of the URLs you are having trouble with as links.  I am running Firefox, and I will try them.  I have version 29.0.  What are you using?

[MandelSoft 2,769]

For some reason, "Browse New Content" just returns an empty list. It behaves quite odd today, since it's often full with posts. I got it working once today, but only for page one. When I went on to page two, same story: empty list.

[Wiimeiser 444]

For some reason, "Browse New Content" just returns an empty list. It behaves quite odd today, since it's often full with posts. I got it working once today, but only for page one. When I went on to page two, same story: empty list.

Might be related to my bug report above.

[MandelSoft 2,769]

Tried to clean it up by marking all forums as read. It didn't help, even with new replies coming in...

EDIT: Nevermind. I accidentally clicked on the filter "Just items I follow". Switched that off, now it's working again