NNTP and Forum interfaces are disconnected.

[robin_listas]

Posts made in one do not appear in the other.

I have sent a post via nntp with details, but it does not show here. I just had to subscribe and make this double post so that admins can see the problem in one or the other interfaces.

If you want more details, please ask via email or via nntp, I don't track the forum via web.

[hendersj]

On Sun, 22 Aug 2010 02:38:38 +0000, robin listas wrote:

> Posts made in one do not appear in the other.
>
> I have sent a post via nntp with details, but it does not show here. I
> just had to subscribe and make this double post so that admins can see
> the problem in one or the other interfaces.
>
> If you want more details, please ask via email or via nntp, I don't
> track the forum via web.

Should be fixed for most of the groups now, we believe we've narrowed the
problem down to a couple of specific forums at present.

Jim



--
Jim Henderson
openSUSE Forums Administrator
Forum Use Terms & Conditions at http://tinyurl.com/openSUSE-T-C

[Carlos E. R.]

On 2010-08-22 06:25, Jim Henderson wrote:
> On Sun, 22 Aug 2010 02:38:38 +0000, robin listas wrote:
>
>> Posts made in one do not appear in the other.
>>
>> I have sent a post via nntp with details, but it does not show here. I
>> just had to subscribe and make this double post so that admins can see
>> the problem in one or the other interfaces.
>>
>> If you want more details, please ask via email or via nntp, I don't
>> track the forum via web.
>
> Should be fixed for most of the groups now, we believe we've narrowed the
> problem down to a couple of specific forums at present.

I think I have received the posts I noticed as missing. I have to check more carefully later.

Thanks.


One thing I have noticed, though, unrelated: I had to login with my novell account name, and this,
the login name is what appears in the forum posts. IMO, we should instead get a choosen name
displayed, independent of the login.

--
Cheers / Saludos,

Carlos E. R.
(from 11.2 x86_64 "Emerald" GM (Elessar))

[DenverD]

Carlos E. R. wrote:
> I think I have received the posts I noticed as missing. I have to
> check more carefully later.

the unplanned sometime-Saturday disruption was reversed during the
weekend..

*Thank*You* to those responsible for the repair!!

to me, this is very welcomed signal that we (the community of openSUSE
forum participants) are more important to the project than earlier
observations (of Monday action) might have led me to believe..

--
DenverD
CAVEAT: http://is.gd/bpoMD [posted via NNTP w/openSUSE 10.3]

[hendersj]

On Mon, 23 Aug 2010 13:43:20 +0000, DenverD wrote:

> Carlos E. R. wrote:
>> I think I have received the posts I noticed as missing. I have to check
>> more carefully later.
>
> the unplanned sometime-Saturday disruption was reversed during the
> weekend..
>
> *Thank*You* to those responsible for the repair!!

You're welcome. I'm the one who raised the issue when it occurred.

> to me, this is very welcomed signal that we (the community of openSUSE
> forum participants) are more important to the project than earlier
> observations (of Monday action) might have led me to believe..

As I'm fond of saying (and I know I've said to you many times), there's
always more going on behind the scenes than we tell everyone - this time
we were able to get things sorted out by disabling the gateway to a
couple of groups that apparently are problematic, so the problem's not
100% solved, but better than it has been for a few weeks now.

We haven't been ignoring the problem, but have been looking at different
things to identify the root cause so we can fix it for good.
Troubleshooting can be a long process of changing one thing and waiting
to see if the problem changes, and then trying the next thing. When a
failure is intermittent, that makes it that much harder to isolate root
cause.

We appreciate everyone's patience, and as always, please also realise
that we are *never* satisfied when a solution hasn't worked.

Jim
--
Jim Henderson
openSUSE Forums Administrator
Forum Use Terms & Conditions at http://tinyurl.com/openSUSE-T-C

[hendersj]

On Sun, 22 Aug 2010 13:54:41 +0000, Carlos E. R. wrote:

> One thing I have noticed, though, unrelated: I had to login with my
> novell account name, and this, the login name is what appears in the
> forum posts. IMO, we should instead get a choosen name displayed,
> independent of the login.

The login information is all integrated, so we pull the information from
the Novell login system.

Jim



--
Jim Henderson
openSUSE Forums Administrator
Forum Use Terms & Conditions at http://tinyurl.com/openSUSE-T-C

[Carlos E. R.]

On 2010-08-23 16:59, Jim Henderson wrote:
> On Sun, 22 Aug 2010 13:54:41 +0000, Carlos E. R. wrote:
>
>> One thing I have noticed, though, unrelated: I had to login with my
>> novell account name, and this, the login name is what appears in the
>> forum posts. IMO, we should instead get a choosen name displayed,
>> independent of the login.
>
> The login information is all integrated, so we pull the information from
> the Novell login system.

Can't the forum software recognize the login, and display a name as choosed by the user? I just
looked a little around. I saw that it is possible to customize how the time is displayed, personal
details to show to others, like what country one is from, what signature to put on each post... The
displayed name should also be customizable, no? :-?


--
Cheers / Saludos,

Carlos E. R.
(from 11.2 x86_64 "Emerald" GM (Elessar))

[hendersj]

On Tue, 24 Aug 2010 04:01:51 +0000, Carlos E. R. wrote:

> On 2010-08-23 16:59, Jim Henderson wrote:
>> On Sun, 22 Aug 2010 13:54:41 +0000, Carlos E. R. wrote:
>>
>>> One thing I have noticed, though, unrelated: I had to login with my
>>> novell account name, and this, the login name is what appears in the
>>> forum posts. IMO, we should instead get a choosen name displayed,
>>> independent of the login.
>>
>> The login information is all integrated, so we pull the information
>> from the Novell login system.
>
> Can't the forum software recognize the login, and display a name as
> choosed by the user? I just looked a little around. I saw that it is
> possible to customize how the time is displayed, personal details to
> show to others, like what country one is from, what signature to put on
> each post... The displayed name should also be customizable, no? :-?

It would be somewhat confusing for people to be able to constantly change
their display name - almost as bad as allowing people to use multiple
identities. You'd end up with another avenue for spammers to shill for
their products (I've seen that done in the past - where someone posted
under an account with one name, and then answered with another name -
same account - saying how wonderful "product X was and I heartily
recommend it to everyone".

No, I think opening up changing any part of one's identity to being
modified just leaves room for far more abuse than useful purpose.

Jim
--
Jim Henderson
openSUSE Forums Administrator
Forum Use Terms & Conditions at http://tinyurl.com/openSUSE-T-C

[Carlos E. R.]

On 2010-08-24 06:11, Jim Henderson wrote:
> On Tue, 24 Aug 2010 04:01:51 +0000, Carlos E. R. wrote:


>>> The login information is all integrated, so we pull the information
>>> from the Novell login system.
>>
>> Can't the forum software recognize the login, and display a name as
>> choosed by the user? I just looked a little around. I saw that it is
>> possible to customize how the time is displayed, personal details to
>> show to others, like what country one is from, what signature to put on
>> each post... The displayed name should also be customizable, no? :-?
>
> It would be somewhat confusing for people to be able to constantly change
> their display name - almost as bad as allowing people to use multiple
> identities. You'd end up with another avenue for spammers to shill for
> their products (I've seen that done in the past - where someone posted
> under an account with one name, and then answered with another name -
> same account - saying how wonderful "product X was and I heartily
> recommend it to everyone".

Hey, I can do that any minute! >:-)

Remember I post via NNTP, I'm not tied by registration, and can use any display name I choose. I
choose to display as "Carlos", instead of using my (faked) email login name.

What I suggest is not that different. People could register with a login name, and display a more or
less real name instead. Both parts of the names could be displayed, same as both sides of mine are
displayed via nntp. Readers could choose what to display, perhaps a skin or configuration. Hover the
mouse over the name and the login displays, for example.

And of course, you can impede the name from being instantly changed. Delay it for a day, or make all
past posts change to the new name, instantly. Thus they can not answer to themselves as another
name, both posts would show the same name - plot discovered :-)


I know almost nothing about forums. I'm just curious - because, for example, on Bugzillas people see
my real name, not the login name. And via nntp I can also choose a display name. Thus my surprise at
seeing how my posts, when done via forum, show with such a different name that those via nntp.

Hint: the first post of this thread is mine. ;-)

> No, I think opening up changing any part of one's identity to being
> modified just leaves room for far more abuse than useful purpose.

The important part, the login, is immutable anyways. Filters could work on that one, not the display
name.

--
Cheers / Saludos,

Carlos E. R.
(from 11.2 x86_64 "Emerald" GM (Elessar))

[hendersj]

On Tue, 24 Aug 2010 13:03:28 +0000, Carlos E. R. wrote:

> Remember I post via NNTP, I'm not tied by registration, and can use any
> display name I choose. I choose to display as "Carlos", instead of using
> my (faked) email login name.

As do I (use NNTP, that is). We don't say that the NNTP and web
interfaces are equivalent.

> What I suggest is not that different. People could register with a login
> name, and display a more or less real name instead. Both parts of the
> names could be displayed, same as both sides of mine are displayed via
> nntp. Readers could choose what to display, perhaps a skin or
> configuration. Hover the mouse over the name and the login displays, for
> example.

Would that we had developer resources to do this type of development. I
can put the request in the hopper, but I can tell you it'll be far, far
down the list of things we'll even look at to put resources into.

> And of course, you can impede the name from being instantly changed.
> Delay it for a day, or make all past posts change to the new name,
> instantly. Thus they can not answer to themselves as another name, both
> posts would show the same name - plot discovered :-)
>
> I know almost nothing about forums. I'm just curious - because, for
> example, on Bugzillas people see my real name, not the login name. And
> via nntp I can also choose a display name. Thus my surprise at seeing
> how my posts, when done via forum, show with such a different name that
> those via nntp.
>
> Hint: the first post of this thread is mine. ;-)

Which more or less proves my point about the abuse possible when one can
change one's display name. ;-)

>> No, I think opening up changing any part of one's identity to being
>> modified just leaves room for far more abuse than useful purpose.
>
> The important part, the login, is immutable anyways. Filters could work
> on that one, not the display name.

Sure, but it's also about how people perceive the conversation. In the
shill example I provided, that happened on CompuServe, and it was amazing
how long the vendor in question got away with it even though the ID
number was displayed on every message.

Needless to say, when people caught on, there was quite the firestorm. I
even have a T-Shirt somewhere commemorating the event (because someone
decided it was worthy of that kind of rememberance)

Jim
--
Jim Henderson
openSUSE Forums Administrator
Forum Use Terms & Conditions at http://tinyurl.com/openSUSE-T-C