Inaccessible forum page

Mandelbrot

jrtfan wrote: »

I get an error on the first but can load the second...

Yep, me too.

And I get involved with some really long threads, and don't have any problems with their page 29 generally.

So that rather indicates the problem is with the coding for this particular page, somehow, in the way it interacts with a page size of 40 posts.

jrtfan

Yes it does, to me as well - are you any good with HTML?!

Mandelbrot

Don't MSE have people whose job it is to make sure that their site works properly?

One-Eye

It's an old problem that has resurfaced.

At one time it was so common that I put a note in the thread in question 4870437 (see post #2, item "7") and in its predecessor 3443191 giving a work around.

It has also been previously reported here in Site Feedback where it was investigated and apparently cured for a time:
January 2012 https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/3750905
June 2013 https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/4629215

MSE Ian & MSE Joe found and implemented a fix but they have both left MSE. The only "new" factor compared to previous times is that it also causes problems using the new forum design as well as the old.

Former_MSE_Andrea

Hi, can you let us know if you get this problem on any other threads and which page, browser etc?

Thanks!

Mandelbrot

One-Eye wrote: »

It's an old problem that has resurfaced.
...
It has also been previously reported here in Site Feedback where it was investigated and apparently cured for a time:
...
MSE Ian & MSE Joe found and implemented a fix but they have both left MSE.

MSE_Andrea wrote: »

Hi, can you let us know if you get this problem on any other threads and which page, browser etc?

Certainly.
Which techies should we contact, now that Ian and Joe have left?

One-Eye

MSE_Andrea wrote: »

Hi, can you let us know if you get this problem on any other threads and which page, browser etc?

There is a lot of detail in the 2012 thread https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/3750905

Is there a log that might show what Joe And Ian did at the time to solve it?

I haven't had the problem so far this time, but a lot of investigation was done in 2012 into the occurrences

In particular note:

b) It happens with all browsers, but even when the fault is occurring for some, other users can still access the page OK. In one instance there were two forum users using the same computer and browser – one repeatedly got the fault and the other didn’t!

c) It has occurred with the first pages, the last pages, and pages in the middle of a thread.

d) In all cases, if the user reduces the “number of posts per page" from 20 to 10, the whole thread will display correctly.

"b)" is of particular interest. It seems that this is primarily related to the user, and not to the OS, Browser, or thread.

Former_MSE_Andrea

Hi all, we've replicated the error and it happens for us too, but checking other threads it appears to be only on that one thread.

As it seems to be an isolated incident we can't ask the tech team to prioritise it but please let us know if you start seeing it on other long-running threads.

Thanks for flagging it!

Andrea

Mandelbrot

One-Eye wrote: »

Is there a log that might show what Joe and Ian did at the time to solve it?

Andrea,
what was the answer to this point?
It seems that should have been the first port of call after you "replicated the error" at MSE Towers.

Mandelbrot

MSE_Andrea wrote: »

but checking other threads it appears to be only on that one thread.

Somewhat ambiguous ...
Did you check some at random (and if so for which pages)?
Or did you do the obvious techie thing and run some superfast utility (put together specifically for that purpose) against all threads?