I am using Windows 10, Internet Explorer, and everything seems to be working okay. Presently, the threads I have read are a light gray text and new threads are in a red color.
Sometimes there is a very long wait for a page to load or refresh. When that happens, I can close the tab in the browser and open a new tab to the top level URL of Trains dot com. That often seems to bring the page up quickly. If that doesn't work I close the browser and run CCleaner to clear cookies and the Cache, then rerun IE and open Trains dot com and have to log-in again (the logged-in flag is in a cookie, so when they are cleared, so I have to log-in again).
Some time ago, when the thread titles were remaining all red instead of going gray when I had read the threads, I began to open threads I wanted to read in a new tab (right click the title and click "Open in a new tab"). This left the list of topics unchanged in the original tab. After reading the threads, I'd close the tabs. When I'd get back to the original list, I'd make a mental note of the time of the latest post in the list and then refresh the page to get an updated list. Regardless of the color of the thread titles in the list I could just scan down the list to the time I had noted and know that only the threads above that point are new to me.
Semper Vaporo
Pkgs.
charlie hebdo I think some folks here take this way too seriously. It's a free forum for hobbyists and enthusiasts. It works OK most of the time for me and I am using Chrome and Android. Let it be.
I think some folks here take this way too seriously. It's a free forum for hobbyists and enthusiasts. It works OK most of the time for me and I am using Chrome and Android. Let it be.
I agree. I'm glad I'm not a perfectionist. They're never happy.
_____________
"A stranger's just a friend you ain't met yet." --- Dave Gardner
I use Safari on the computer and the phone. Everything is much faster now, basically what I consider normal.
But threads I am current on are still entitled in red, as if I am not current. But that's no big deal, as it shows the date of the last post; and I always have a rough idea of how long it's been since I was reading a thread.
Well, I subscribe to "Trains," "Classic Trains," and "Classic Toy Trains," so in a way I AM paying for it, which is why I get so annoyed when the site goes haywire.
Now that being said, I AM very grateful the various Forums are provided, Kalmbach doesn't have to do this, and I don't begrudge non-subscribers on here either.
You know, it's a quandary. A business like Kalmbach can't survive without computerization, networking, and Internet connections. That means one of two things, either they have to hire full-time IT employees to set-up and monitor the network and to trouble-shoot when something goes wrong. But if things hardly ever go wrong then IT employees are essentially "human fire extinguishers" that you pull out of the wall mounts as needed, and how often do you need a fire extinguisher? So the other option is out-sourcing, where how fast you get service depends on their call load and manning level. And of course the old saying's still true, "You get what you pay for!"
Yep, it's a quandary all right.
How about "you get what you pay for"? Many here say that they aren't even subscribers, so it's free for them. I only subscribe to Classic Trains and occasionally buy Trains at B&N, but I don't complain, either...
BaltACDIf you are happy with less than good - that is what you will get.
"You get what you accept"?
charlie hebdoI think some folks here take this way too seriously. It's a free forum for hobbyists and enthusiasts. It works OK most of the time for me and I am using Chrome and Android. Let it be.
If you are happy with less than good - that is what you will get.
Forum software in the IT world is not rocket science or brain surgery.
Never too old to have a happy childhood!
CMStPnPThis discussion software is packaged software they bought as a package. I have my doubts they have more than 3-5 people in their IT Department.....if they have an IT Department. I would venture to guess that IT is completely outsourced by contract and they do not have an IT Department.
I think Brian (and perhaps some others) have mentioned that forum support is outsourced, and somewhat deprecated (as there are many other 'priorities' that make more money or provide 'better purchase relationships' in their various site codings).
My complaint is precisely that these forums run on a commercial package. As CMStPnP just posted, there are many hooks provided in that code to simplify handling errors and problems, almost certainly including excessive access latency, issues with login security and its 'failures', or problems when a piece of malformed advertising locks up the interface or the browser. A couple of savvy high-schooler script kiddees on a summer internship could probably walk the source with a good editor, see where everything in the error handling is documented and write an architecture with fixes, then recompile or whatever to go live (in our modern paradigm where you go live and address your efforts to where users complain 'it didn't work')
One thing that I think has been happening, repeatedly, is that they change 'ad environment providers' when someone promises more eyeball metrics or information capture for targeted ads, and they incorporate this into the site code without knowing, or caring, that there are unanticipated issues. All of us probably remember indefinite waits while, down in the corner, we see the browser is waiting for [advertising host], perhaps to provide a list of stored metadata including preferences and history harvested from us.
Kalmbach announced last year (now year-before-last, how the time flies!) that they intend to become a much larger player in the 'hobby' and 'enthusiast' spaces. They specifically cited railroads and 'classic trains' in their discussion of communities to which all sorts of targeted marketing appeals would produce a higher take rate, return business, and all sorts of other etc. metrics that appeal to virtual company sales departments.
I do think the least Kalmbach owes us, as one of the high-profit aggregate sources, is a forum 'experience' that either "just works" or plainly tells where the problems are. Even if that results in custom error pages of one sort or another a lot of the time...
Here is an example of the junk cominig from IT.
<!-- Web.Config Configuration File --> <configuration> <system.web> <customErrors mode="Off"/> </system.web> </configuration>
Notes: The current error page you are seeing can be replaced by a custom error page by modifying the "defaultRedirect" attribute of the application's <customErrors> configuration tag to point to a custom error page URL.
<!-- Web.Config Configuration File --> <configuration> <system.web> <customErrors mode="RemoteOnly" defaultRedirect="mycustompage.htm"/> </system.web>
zugmann It's a miracle this site even exists. Most other publications gave up discussion forums long ago for Disqus, facebook, and twitter comments (if they even allow commenting at all).
It's a miracle this site even exists. Most other publications gave up discussion forums long ago for Disqus, facebook, and twitter comments (if they even allow commenting at all).
Yes, and I'm grateful for it. Those other modes are not very satisfying to me.
This site does the job well, particularly now that they've fixed the slow download issue.
Overmod Convicted One Unfortunately, it's not just Kalmbach. "Enhanced" cookies seem to be the brown acid* of the new millennium. More like the "black bottle". I see the issue with 'read posts' changing color has been fixed within the past couple of hours. However, I still can't reach PMs from a phone via any workaround, I still can't log in to the forums with Chrome, and I still can't enter text in PMs with Firefox. That's an awful lot of sloppy code support for functionality that was not rocket science even 30 years ago...
Convicted One Unfortunately, it's not just Kalmbach. "Enhanced" cookies seem to be the brown acid* of the new millennium.
More like the "black bottle".
I see the issue with 'read posts' changing color has been fixed within the past couple of hours. However, I still can't reach PMs from a phone via any workaround, I still can't log in to the forums with Chrome, and I still can't enter text in PMs with Firefox. That's an awful lot of sloppy code support for functionality that was not rocket science even 30 years ago...
Chrome works fine for me but I can gain access to PMs only on my laptop using Windows, not on my Android phone. However, CMStPnP and zugmann are correct. Kalmbach is small fry in a shrinking pond. We should be thankful for what we get these days with minimal interference.
The opinions expressed here represent my own and not those of my employer, any other railroad, company, or person.
OvermodI see the issue with 'read posts' changing color has been fixed within the past couple of hours. However, I still can't reach PMs from a phone via any workaround, I still can't log in to the forums with Chrome, and I still can't enter text in PMs with Firefox. That's an awful lot of sloppy code support for functionality that was not rocket science even 30 years ago... Add Quote to
Just to be clear and I am not sure if you have ever been to the Kalmbach Publishing Office in Waukesha but......it's tiny and Trains Magazine or for that matter Kalmbach Publishing from what I observed has at most one floor of a 5 story office building, maybe 20-30 employees in office cubes mostly.
This discussion software is packaged software they bought as a package. I have my doubts they have more than 3-5 people in their IT Department.....if they have an IT Department. I would venture to guess that IT is completely outsourced by contract and they do not have an IT Department.
It is kind of funny how some of you guys assume it is this giant multi-storied company. Long ago they had a larger building when they probably did their own publishing. Now that is outsourced entirely to Quad Graphics.
Also would venture to guess that most of the writers or Kalmbach authors, editors and contributors in Trains Magazine do not just produce exclusively for Trains Magazine but produce for the entire family of Kalmbach magazine publications.
I guess that one of the reasons that hosts tend to be uncooperative in these matters is they would rather not own up to the invasive nature of some of the things being placed on our computers? Not so much actual malware, but rather "pups" and snooperware.
Convicted OneUnfortunately, it's not just Kalmbach. "Enhanced" cookies seem to be the brown acid* of the new millennium.
BaltACDNothing creates the excitement and confusion like Kalmbach IT
Unfortunately, it's not just Kalmbach. "Enhanced" cookies seem to be the brown acid* of the new millennium.
*Wavy Gravy 1969
Nothing creates the excitement and confusion like Kalmbach IT
The site was slow coming up this morning, but I have had no other problems except posts that I have read and asked that they be marked "read" will turn up as "unread". This applies on all the Trains topics and on Classic Trains.
Johnny
I was able to post yesterday, but couldn't log in all day today. I finally managed to do so through Microsoft, where usually I do it through Bing/Google. I've never had any problem until today.
I usually don't use Microsoft because for some reason the Forum won't remember my log-in like it does when I use Bing/Google. But right now I'm not choosy, just annoyed.
I've gotten that "loss of cookie" issue with this forum. Once a week, a malware program scans, then deletes mostly cookies. Lately it's gotten smart enough to leave this forum in place.
Of course, having a hosts file helps too - you'd be surprised how many ads I no longer see...
Larry Resident Microferroequinologist (at least at my house) Everyone goes home; Safety begins with you My Opinion. Standard Disclaimers Apply. No Expiration Date Come ride the rails with me! There's one thing about humility - the moment you think you've got it, you've lost it...
The following is likely unrelated to the problem here yesterday, but I offer it merely to illustrate a point.
I can no longer log on to my Amazon account from any computer that does not have their authentication "cookie" already set in my system.
For instance, if I were to go to my public library and try to log on to amazon, despite having the correct user name and password, their system would note the absence of the required cookie, and require me to go through a two step authentication process where they would send me a temporary code to my registered e-mail account.
Once I employed their temp code I would be good to go.
Likewise If I delete all cookies on my home machine, I'll get put through the same process.....just one time until the new cookie is set in place.
I mention this because you often see people claim that cookies are just used to perform benign tracking and other services of that nature, and that they cannot prevent you from logging in. Obviously they can be used for a great deal more than that, as my Amazon experience proves.
That's a two ended process.....the failure can be on the hosts end (a failure to read your cookie correctly) or on your end, having either corrupt or missing cookies.
Wouldn't surprise me if something along the lines of the former was the culprit here yesterday. (again, just speculating in the absence of hard facts)
Convicted OneGood point,...I wonder if any of them noticed a problem with code.jquery.com?
I didn't get that message, but I could not log onto my forum account until a short while ago.
It's amazing how many non-online things I can accomplish when I can't login.
York1 John
Good point,...I wonder if any of them noticed a problem with code.jquery.com?
Judging by how few posts, I would guess the problem affected many members.
Evidently I was one of the lucky "unaffected" ones, as I was able ton post yesterday, albeit none of the tools just above the text entry block would appear.
I wish they had mentioned something about what the malfunction was, because perhaps just coincidently a totally unrelated forum that I participate regularly in, yesterday would not allow me to log in...and I kept getting this message "waiting on code.jquery.com".. And just due to the timing and similarity of problems I wondered if they could somehow be related.
code.jquery.com has to do with verifying 3rd party sites, likely (but I admit I'm just guessing) an adserver of some sorts.
Unfortunatly this other forum can never admit fault, their default troubleshooting instruction is always to "dump all your cookies and see if that helps", leaving me again to suspect the 3rd party sites had updated their snooperware, and obsolete (for their purposes) cookies were mucking up the traffic flow.
Was anybody else here who was having a problem experiencing the "waiting for code.jquery.com" message?
OK, looks like it is working again now. Now I need to locate what I attempted to post before on railroad litigation if I can find it again. :(
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