MGOBLOG 3.0 sticky for bugs

Submitted by Seth on

We are using this thread to collect all the (fixable) feedback for the new site in one spot, and if you're seeing it on the main page it means I've updated the OP content.

If you've noticed any bugs in the site post them here and if you have constructive criticism we very much appreciate it. The developers are also going to be in this thread. Even if we can't always respond, you're being heard.

UPDATE 8/23/2018:

We met at HUEL HQ today and worked through a lot of things.

THINGS THAT GOT FIXED

1. You are now able to edit your account info (and your avatar) by clicking on your account name while logged in. Eventually your history and more (see below) will be tabbed from a single user page but this was the quick fix for now.

2. The points issue is still the top priority that they're working on. We're one step further and testing a possible fix in a test environment right now.

3. Next week or so we'll have the ability to vote on Diaries and Board posts (the OPs) themselves. Could have launched today but we wanted to move it from where they were appearing but it works on the dev environment.

THINGS WE ARE FIXING

Please note that while this is a priority tree it's not necessarily the order things will get fixed. We have multiple developers who have their different skills and as each comes free from a project they grab the next highest one they can handle.

1. Points problems

The issue seems to be in the module we wrote for counting points:

Voting module.PNG

Now that they've narrowed it down we have high hopes of getting to the root of the situation.

Lastly IF YOUR POINTS WERE RESET TO ZERO please post in here and let us know 1) A little bit about your points history, 2) When you lost them (was it during the transition), and anything else that can help us track down whatever behavior is creating this. We can't fix this because we don't know why or to what class it's happening to.

(new) 2. User permission issues.

So right now at 100 points you should be able to vote and post new threads, and at 500 points you should be able to post diaries and edit wikis.

THIS IS NOT WORKING because of an issue with the core module. We are trying a fix that might make everything work right away.

It's a permissions issue. What's supposed to happen is once you hit a points threshold you are automatically bumped up to the next user level. It's not doing the bumping because of the "Actions" module, which comes with Drupal. Now that we've identified where the problem is we're working on a patch.

2. Embedding youtubes and tweets automatically by posting a link

So because of site security we have to use Oembeds. There is a module for Drupal 8 for this but it's a paid service, which with our volume is cost-prohibitive (like they want tens of thousands of dollars per month so screw those guys).

So we're going to develop something. We would prefer to have a system that automatically turns a link you post into an image or youtube or twitter embed. That's a better long-term solution and putting something in place in the meantime would cost us time and resources we'd rather put toward more permanent changes. It's a high priority so we just ask for patience now to be paid off with a better final product than the old site had.

For now you can still post these with regular html tags and most sites will give you the source code if you can't remember how to write <img> tags in html language. We had the option to change the post-a-picture box in the comment editor with the ability to post a link instead of upload an image to our site, but we didn't want to lose that ability to post to our site since it's a feature we really wanted for the new site.

3. Side rail becoming unglued. 

I've seen it and several users have as well but we haven't had a developer get into it yet because it doesn't happen too often.

4. "Continue Reading" links on front page will jump to the break tag, not the top of the article.

Another thing on the list for a dev to get to.

5. Comments bubble should link to comments

Right now it goes to the top of the article in article view.

6. Voting shows totals not aggregate

We have to rewrite the module ourselves.

7. (new) Latest post timestamp behavior

Haven't looked into it yet but it's a known issue that the latest post says there's something from a few minutes ago and there isn't. It may be bots causing this behavior.

8. (new) Clicking on a comment in a readers' post history should take you to that post.

Moderators need this.

9. (new) Some content is breaking containers

Design issue. When designer gets back from maternity leave we'll get an estimate.

10. (new) We are developing a "User Page" that will be tabbed thusly:

  • Change your user info (name, email, avatar, password)
  • See your recent post history
  • See replies to your posts
  • Your points history

Most excited about the second-to-last one, which is one of many new properties we plan to add that the old site missed.

Things Over the Horizon

1. Showing New comments in a thread as "New"

We got an estimate of big money to rent a specialist in order to build out this module. This is the next big project after we get the points figured out. Personally I wanted to address it sooner but more people complained about points so that got moved ahead. Be mad at the people who complained about points because it's all their fault.

2. Changing Scroll Behavior

We had a specialist look at this and what's happening is a problem with the order things are loaded. When you post a new comment the page DOES take you to your just-posted comment, but then it loads other comments and that pushes your screen down. If you use the up or down arrows it should take you right back to your comment. This is a problem buried deep and got another big expensive estimate to fix. So we have to wait.

(updated) 3. Apps

The process has begun. We might have a couple of light ones first then more developed ones later. FYI the problem with the old apps is they were not built to play nice with the site. If they worked great on your phone that was because they were downloading the whole site before you went to read it, and that was placing a huge drain on our resources and causing the site crashes. We will have apps and I hope to have a timeline in a few weeks. The latest is there's a drupal module we're going to try. Maybe it'll work the first time with no kinks.

(updated) 4. Saving User Preferences

We want comment settings to stick permanently for each user. Right now it resets when you post a comment. This is a BIG fix so it comes after we get other things done.

 

Also they're working on a bunch of functions we need internally, like the process for creating breaks, windows live writer issues, and lightbox for UFRs.

MWolverine7

June 11th, 2018 at 7:18 PM ^

I keep having password issues.  I rest my password on my laptop but cannot connect with the same password on my phone.  I keep getting an error " Too Many failed attempts from your IP address."  Do I need to rest on the phone and laptop too??? ugh

MGoGrendel

June 14th, 2018 at 8:43 AM ^

I didn't reset my password while I was in Orlando this week (Cisco Live! conference; cool story bruh).

When I got home, my old password worked on the first try.  Same device, too.  Weird...

Also, when you mis-spell a word and get the squiggly red underline, there is not recommended corrections when right clicking.  MOAR first world problems.  

Craptain Crunch

June 11th, 2018 at 9:35 PM ^

Ditto. I can now log on but I don't see anywhere where I can access my account to see the email I originally used to create this account 2 years ago. I forgot what email I used and I do not see anywhere on the new site that allows me to see my account info.

Maybe it is from all the rubbing alcohol I drank this weekend or maybe it is because the stie doesn't allow you to access your account yet. 

chatster

June 11th, 2018 at 7:19 PM ^

Inserting Images In Posts

That Imce File Manager system involves many more steps to insert an image than what was relatively simple in MGoBlog 2.0.  Through trial and error, I had to learn that I (a) first had to save an image to my computer, then (b) click on the Images icon in the Imce File Manager box, then (c) click on the Upload button, then (d) click on "Add File", then (e) find the image in the Photos file in my computer, then (f) click on that image, and then finally (g) click on "Select" in order for the image to appear in the body of the post.   And I still have no idea what it would take to resize the image OR how to embed a video -- two things that were relatively easy for me in MGoBlog 2.0.

Inserting URLs for Links

It took some time before I figured out that the way to post links in MGoBlog 3.0 is to (a) copy the URL for the link, (b) click the link icon at the top of the message box, (c) paste the URL in the box and (d) click save.  That's how you can insert the link in your post so that it takes just one click to connect to the YouTube video.

Also, if, like I do, you prefer to insert the link into some text like Michigan Marching Band Pregame, so that the lengthy URL doesn't appear in the body of your post, (a) copy the URL for the link, (b) highlight the text where you'd like to insert the link's URL, (c) click the link icon at the top of the message box, (d) paste the URL in the box and (e) click save. The link then should be inserted in the highlighted part of the text.

Hoping that some day soon, we'll get the MGoBlog 3.0 Instructions Manual.  Hope that I've helped.

twotrueblue

June 11th, 2018 at 7:27 PM ^

I know that many people can upvote/downvote, but there's also a lot of us which can't for some reason. It would be nice to be re-instated to the blog community. I've definitely lost my addiction to the site. Being able to upvote/downvote on threads and create new threads means a lot!

East Quad

July 17th, 2018 at 6:20 PM ^

I'm having issues with points.  I am not getting credit for postings and when I told other users they attempted to vote me over 100 points but none have registered.  Someone said there is an upvote downvote glitch.  Of course, I can't see the votes.

München

July 17th, 2018 at 6:31 PM ^

Same issue for me.  I cannot see voting on any post and cannot vote on any post.  Also, I see no link to create new posts. In the login block in upper right corner it shows:  “Points: 104” and “You need at least 100 MGoPoints to create new posts.”

Jibbroni

June 11th, 2018 at 8:07 PM ^

I think the site works quite well.  I followed the instructions to place an icon on my iphone and have had no trouble connecting and am almost always logged in if I dont clear my cache.  

Winchester Wolverine

June 11th, 2018 at 8:56 PM ^

I was extremely excited for this update but, and I mean this with a hell of a lot of respect, I'm disappointed. To my understanding, the bones are there for a fully functional, interactive design but I guess I just didn't fully grasp the level of ridiculous work it took just to move the behind the scenes stuff from 2.0 to here. I'm extremely ignorant when it comes to 1's and 0's, so it's hard for me to fully appreciate something I can't see. I guess I just expected more. Learning how to code to insert a gif has never been a big deal to me, I'll just avoid that. But now just creating content seems past my skill set, which is basically nill. 

I don't know man. Any Mgoblog is better than no Mgoblog, but I figured we'd be treated to some truly, next level badass-ed-ness. It seems I jumped the gun on that, at least for now. I'm sure improvements will roll out eventually.

Seth

June 11th, 2018 at 9:52 PM ^

The biggest thing was getting the hell off an old platform that was dying. Drupal 6.0 was Mars, man. We had site crashes, and couldn't add new modules because nobody cared to write them or update them for such an old version anymore.

We're back to a pretty barebones thing but it's a thing we can work with now.

Grampy

June 28th, 2018 at 10:05 AM ^

All software migrates over time because it is easy to believe that re-use is cheaper than rebuilding from scratch.  Hence the amount of Legacy code simply carrying on in our daily lives.  The natural tendency is to wait until migration becomes a necessity, and (particularly in the dynamic world of web programming) lots of what your legacy source deck used to do isn’t supported and you are faced with creating lots of work-arounds.

I only bring this up to add some perspective to the scope of change MgoBlog’s staff (and contractor) has to contend with.  Rigorous testing of heavily modified Legacy Code is mind-numbingly tedious and expensive, I can tell you from years of professional experience, and these cats are running a FREE BLOG.  Take your time, Seth (et al.), and don’t hurry the process if it means not doing it right.  I’m happy to wait and grateful for the existence of MgoBlog in whatever form.

Also, my point total hasn’t changed since May,  Can you get on that?