Did something suddenly change?

[ScotL]

Dear MIS,

When I started posting on this cafe, I’d log in once and just keep posting. Now, all of a sudden, and without me changing anything like operating systems or phones or passwords or how I do anything, I’m having to log in with every post. When I try to post, it forces me to log in again. Usually several times.

Any other members of the cafe having this problem?

[pelmut]

[...]I’m having to log in with every post. When I try to post, it forces me to log in again. Usually several times.

Any other members of the cafe having this problem?

I've had it happen after I forgot to tick the "Remember me" box when I first logged in.  It has also happened when I accidentally deleted the cookies for this website.  Check if you have got your browser set up to reject cookies or delete them when closing each webpage.

[crfriend]

I can state with some level of confidence that unless we've been cracked nothing has changed configuration- or software- wise with the forum system.

Depending on human behaviour and browser settings things can sometimes be a bit confusing, though. Pelmut offered good advice in his reply, and I'll also point up that "sessions" time out after an hour of "inactivity" with the countdown clock set to 3600 (seconds) with any button-press. Thus, a session can time out if you walk away from your computer for a bit and can also time out rather unexpectedly if you're in the midst of composing a long response and aren't occasionally selecting the "Preview" button (which resets the clock). When the clock strikes zero, the session is cleared and you're effectively logged out. That setting has not changed in years, in spite of much whining to lengthen it (potentially to infinity), which makes no sense from a security point of view.

[Fear i Sciorta Dubh]

Not sure if this is similar but on a recent holiday to the US, I had a lot of problems logging in to the Skirt Café. I was getting a message saying my password was incorrect despite me inputting it correctly.

When I did get in I was frequently logged out well before automated timeout period had elapsed. All the while the Remember Me function failed to keep me logged in when I did manage to log in. It was so bad I was on the verge of an email to the Master Barista to see was there a issue with my user profile but held off.

On my return home to Ireland, absolutely no problems since and Remember Me functionality working perfectly.

I’m pretty sure I didn’t delete cookies at any point so I’m not sure why this should be.

[crfriend]

OK, this is starting to look like it might be some sort of failure mode, and I'm working on a way to actually detect what's going on with what I have on hand here in my lab (a few months' old copy of the entire site) and what the operating code looks like today. I'll speak up when I have an answer to that.

Another possibility is a change in IP (Internet Protocol) address behind the scenes which is very possible with cell' 'phones and wi-fi connections if the IP address of the user's "terminal" changes (and it may not be the actual one assigned to your device but something upstream). I think the current setting allows the last octet (8 bits) of the thing to change but locks a session to the first three. This is an attempt to thwart session "hijacking", but may break in certain very dynamic IP environments.

I need time to think.

[ScotL]

Thank you Carl!!

[ScotL]

Not sure if this is similar but on a recent holiday to the US, I had a lot of problems logging in to the Skirt Café. I was getting a message saying my password was incorrect despite me inputting it correctly.

When I did get in I was frequently logged out well before automated timeout period had elapsed. All the while the Remember Me function failed to keep me logged in when I did manage to log in. It was so bad I was on the verge of an email to the Master Barista to see was there a issue with my user profile but held off.

On my return home to Ireland, absolutely no problems since and Remember Me functionality working perfectly.

I’m pretty sure I didn’t delete cookies at any point so I’m not sure why this should be.

This is the exact thing that happens to me. Thank you for sharing

[Brad]

I haven't experienced any issues.

[Big and Bashful]

I have had no issues either, even when viewing on my iPhone and iPad.

[crfriend]

A quick sweep of the forum code indicates no changes. As a precaution, I flushed the cache, so things might be a bit sluggish for a few minutes.

[Brad]

Let's take this opportunity to thank Carl and the other mods for maintaining a well- run and spam free site. There is a lot of work accomplished in the "back room" that we don't see. This site is very important to me and I know that when I go there, it will function as expected.

[crfriend]

Thank you Brad for the high praise. It means much.

Yes, there is a fair bit of "back room" work involved, and for the most part it's entirely thankless as the intent is to really make the work "disappear" and have everything just "there" for the community, much in the same vein that we expect water to flow from the tap when we turn it on.

It sort of boggles the imagination to think that I've been doing this for very close to 20 years! How does one put that on a CV?

[Fred in Skirts]

I know the work Carl puts in is an awful lot of the no one sees what I am doing thing. But I for one really appreciate what he does. If it weren't for Carl and the other Mods we would not be here today.
So lets all give a cheer for the thankless job they do behind the scenes.
Hooray for the Mods

[SkirtsDad]

In case it is of help, I recently had issues of having to re-log when posting from Android. It didn't seem to want to preview either until I re-logged. It is probably fair to say that I usually post pics from a Windows machine, and it was uploading and posting a pic from Android that was the issue, but I have previously posted plenty of comments from Android with no issues. Any issues I had had were, a long time ago, were due to timeouts. This was not the same symptoms. I have learned how to deal with that one by opening up a new tab to make sure I am still logged in, and logging in if necessary. Once I know I am logged I can post from the other tab.

[SkirtsDad]

I know the work Carl puts in is an awful lot of the no one sees what I am doing thing. But I for one really appreciate what he does. If it weren't for Carl and the other Mods we would not be here today.
So lets all give a cheer for the thankless job they do behind the scenes.
Hooray for the Mods

I second that