What’s up with the changes to the site requiring a new user name or unlocking our old screen name?
Duckdogger:
I’m not really sure. This happened to me a couple of days ago, but I just chalked it up to my server AOL, which has been doing some very weird things, lately. I just typed my e-mail and password into the MR Forum and got back on with no trouble.
If it helps, I had to re-password myself into a number of the sites that I’m a member of–as I said, my server AOL has gone kind of bonkers, lately.
In fact, sometimes this particular site has gotten so slow that I’ve had to re-enter it by using the “Internet Explorer” site on my computer, bypassing AOL completely.
Tom
An example of not too great user interface design.
Kalmbach stores your login name and some settings about you (like what posts you have already seen, your last visit and such things) in a file on your computer called a “cookie”.
Those cookies have an expiration date - a month. After a month, you get a warning on the screen that you need to log in again.
About the time they changed over to a new forum software version, in October 2008, everybody had to log out and log in more frequently, to set new cookies with the new software.
So they changed text of the warning to “forum has changed”, and someone forgot to change it back to “it’s been a month since the last time you logged in - time to log out and log in again, so you get a fresh cookie”.
Not dangerous - just log out and log in again, and everything will be just fine. Will happen again in month or so.
Smile,
Stein
Dang funny this–I don’t seem to have to clear everything every month–seems to work really well and I end up unlocking screen name every three months—?[%-)]—
I’m with barry. I don’t think I’ve had to clear/re-enter anything associated with my password, or other member info, in a couple of years! However, I will say that this site is often very, very slow to load or access a thread lately, sometimes justy plain locking up.
CNJ831
Hmmm. Can’t say either way. I have my virus and Anti Spyware/Adware programs remove all temp files and cookies weekly. Logging in once every week doesn’t bother me so it’s not an issue. But that’s my situation, others may differ.
This is a periodic happening on these forums – possibly part of the security features of the software. I’ve been having to do this periodically, about every three months or so, for several years, now – it’s nothing new.
A minor irritant but nothing to get all warped out of shape about.
Yeah, it happens. Every now and then, I go on to the forum and notice that all the posts have yellow icons, as if I’d already read them all. That tells me it’s time to log out and log back in again. No big deal. If this is the worst thing that happens to me that day, well, it’s been a good day.
I don’t think the forum software stores which posts you’ve read and which you haven’t on your own computer as a cookie, by the way. I use multiple machines to access the forum (don’t tell the people at work) and they both know which threads I’ve read, regardless of where I read them. So, this info must be on the server, not the local machines.
I have to sign in every day because my anti virus program cleans out all the cookies every night.
I had a friend who was complaining about how slow his computer had gotten and was looking for advise on which new one he should buy. I had him install the cookie cleaning software and it found more than 1,000 cookies and over 50 applets embedded in his configuration files. Now he is happy with his old computer.
Switching from “Safarii” to “Foxfire” has helped with issues. I used to not even see the smilies,etc.
Something I’d like to see in future updates is the ability to hold our mouse over a post and see the lst few sentences or paragraph to see if it’s a thread we want to invest time in.
Either Atlas or modelrailroad forums has this feature and it’s a nice feature. I wondered why this forum doesn’t use that. Other than train sites like bass guitar and scuba forums use it…
Just a thought and request for future updates.
Thanks for all the replies. Assuring to know all is well within the trainiverse…
Sorta.
There was a ghost that went bump in the night when no one was looking. Luckly no one fed the troll. I think that is why forums get cleaned once in a while…
Or maybe they called Ghostbusters.
It happens to me once in a while too. I just log out then log back in and all is OK.
Not a big deal for me. I always clear all data, cookies, history, etc. when closing Firefox and I close Firefox five to eight times a day. That way the Temp file in the PC does not become bogged down.
I only login when I want to post some thing. Signing in is not a big deal many make it out to be.
Only when the forums says there will be a maintenance weekend, do I keep the data.
Rich
You don’t need to change your password or get a new user name. As Jeffrey stated, all you need to do is to sign back in with your current user name and password and you’re ready to go. Hardly takes 10 seconds.
Like others, I just stay logged in.
Tom