Light bulb problems on this forum

[Bekariso]

Since Jan 1, the light bulbs on this forum have been doing strange things for me. Often they're all lit up, even for folders where I read all the new messages on my last visit. Sometimes none of them are lit, even when there are new messages. Sometimes I'll come to the forums and none will be lit, I'll read a message, then when I look at the light bulbs again, all are lit -- even though no new messages have actually been added.

As far as I understand, the "fix your light bulbs" is for people who are actually using the UBB on their site, not people just posting and reading at a forum?

Using Netscape 4.5 on Win95, if that matters . . .

I tried going into preferences and turning the "remember name and password" setting off and on, that changed the lights which were lit, but didn't solve the problem.

This isn't important, or even really annoying, just weird. Is there something I have to reset on my end, or is it a problem with the script?

Just wondering . . .

Bekariso

[Justin]

I don't have the answer, but being new here I didn't know how the lightbulbs were supposed to act. They do the same thing here, and I'm using IE4.0, Win98, cookies on, save password, etc. They just don't work.

I did click the link to fix lightbulbs, not realizing until I got there that it wasn't for users... But it did mention something about the cookie expiring after one year, and adding one to 99 gets 100 instead of 2000. So the cookie expired in 1100 AD or so, back on the abacus. Or is it 100 AD?

I assume they haven't fixed it here yet. Or we are doing something wrong...



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Justin Nelson, SFE Inc.
http://www.vdj.net

[Del]

This board does have the cookie fix in place. It works fine for me, I'm running Nutscape 4.05 (haven't seen the need to upgrade yet, 4.06 and newwer have a few bugs still...)

If you want to mess with it, exit your browser completely, and open up your cookies.txt file in your favorite text editor. Find all lines that are relating to this forum (should start with aota.net and some gibberish *s*) and delete them. Save the cookies file back where it came from, fire your browser back up, and come visit the forums again. All your previous info will be lost, but it's fairly simple to reset it (just post once, and reset your pref's). In theory, that might take care of it.



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Del
www.downinit.com/ (http://www.downinit.com/)

PS In 4.05, my cookies file is in c:\Program Files\Netscape\Users\[profile name]\cookies.txt

[This message has been edited by Del (edited 01-06-99).]

[Bekariso]

Thanks Del -- I'll try that when I'm done here (if I remember!) and tell you how it goes.

Take care!

[Justin]

I just deleted the cookie, and I never knew that they were plain text. Anyone with access to my 'puter could easily get all of my web passwords.

Anyway, I just had to post something to get my light bulbs to work. It was getting too dark in here...

Justin

PS - This is my fourth attempt - I guess it's not a good idea to delete a cookie when you forgot your password as well as which email address you used for the UBB!! hehehe :-)

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Justin Nelson, SFE Inc.
http://www.vdj.net

[Justin]

BTW, anyone using IE 4.0, the cookies are in separate files in C:\Windows\Cookies. To find the right one, go here as your last visited page, then close the browser and in Windows explorer, sort the files in the above mentioned path by date. It should be the first one.

I typed the words "above mentioned path" instead of "c:\windows\cookies". About the same length. Great. First I type extra junk to avoid typing extra junk, and now I type a whole paragraph about it. Boy, I'm smart.

Anyway, look in notepad first, to be sure, then delete the sucker. Um, I mean cookie.

Justin

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Justin Nelson, SFE Inc.
http://www.vdj.net

[Justin]

Ok, don't try the above at home. I did it, and now there are NO lightbulbs! And the folders are all yellow. Before the bulbs lit up, just not the right one's at the right times. Like christmas lights. Now there are none at all. No gif's there. Oops...

What did I do wrong? It remembers my password again, so I know it wrote a cookie. I already tried exiting the browser and re-opening it, and nothing. Not that it's a big deal, but I find it odd that I did affect the problem, and caused a new one. Oh, well, no big deal.

Justin

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Justin Nelson, SFE Inc.
http://www.vdj.net

[Bekariso]

Hmm, this dealing with cookies is definately weird. I deleted my aota cookies, then came back here and re-did my settings (when I first came back there were no lightbulbs at all). Now when I came back today, we have all lights on again. Hmm. It's getting so I don't even notice them again. Incidently, Shaytar's puter doesn't seem to have had any lightbulb problems at all.

bizarre. ..

Bekariso

[Deb]

hehe you guys http://www.aota.net/ubb/smile.gif

Ok.. the script is working fine...
Beka you did the right thing and it's normal when you first delete the cookies for it to loose the bulbs .. takes a reload or a post to get it all to reset itself.

Occasionally I have seen the lightbulbs just not show at all for every UBB I've ever been on... once I go into a thread and then back out they come back.

It's a browser thing ....

either that it's just trying to play with our minds http://www.aota.net/ubb/biggrin.gif

Deb

[Bekariso]

I restarted the puter (@#$^*$ thing has crashed once a day, every day, for the last week and a half . . . grr . . .) and now the lightbulbs seem to be working almost right -- showing me which folders have new posts since about three visits ago . . . so it seems to be slowly getting itself together.

Thanks everyone for your help!

Bekariso



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Bekariso
susogi.net/Bekariso (http://susogi.net/Bekariso)
*** We prefer to remain anomalous ***

[Justin]

Ok, I just deleted the cookie and now I have to post something. Um, well, I don't know what to say, so how about "Happy Saturday"?

Ok, I will leave now and see if my lightbulbs are normal. They've been all on for a few days now, and it's annoying having to check the dates, having to hink.

You unplug one, they all go out...

Justin

[Justin]

Ok, fine. Let's try nutscape. Maybe it will actually do something right. Maybe...

---

Figures Nutscape would work just fine here. I almost never use it, so I figured I'd try. I like explorer better (sorry http://www.aota.net/ubb/smile.gif ), but the index.dat file, which stored information for the cookies, is locked out. I can't access it in Notepad or even my own CheapPad. That sux.

I guess I'm using Netscape here from now on, just so it quits those "Illegal Operations" that it has a habit of committing. I'll put up with a few, if it means I don't have to think about the dates and times, or hink as I said above http://www.aota.net/ubb/smile.gif

Besides, the hour difference confuses my little brain http://www.aota.net/ubb/frown.gif

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Justin Nelson, SFE Inc.
www.vdj.net (http://www.vdj.net)

[This message has been edited by Justin (edited 01-16-99).]

[meikel]

Hi,

since all the fixes were applied, all light-bulbs (and colored folder icons) are working just like they should for me. I'm using IE4 (with some of the fixes). I feel that this is UBBs best feature. At least it's one of the features that makes it stand way above some other discussion forums.

I have no idea if I would visit this forum if I had no idea where to look for new things.

Greetings from Bonn, Germany
[nbsp][nbsp]Meikel Weber
http://www.meikel.com

[Bekariso]

Well, I don't even really look at the bulbs anymore, because they're almost always all on even when there are no new posts since my last visit. It doesn't bother me any more, but I did want to update and say that it still hasn't figured itself out. :-P

Thanks,


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Bekariso
susogi.net/Bekariso (http://susogi.net/Bekariso)
*** We prefer to remain anomalous ***

[Justin]

Well, mine are still @$^%&ed up. First they were all on, now they are gone, like unscrewed from their sockets. Netscape does just fine with them, so it's an IE thing. But Netscape crashes left and right, and I hate programs that do that. Even if the alternative is to use MSIE.

I have deleted the cookie altogether, and nothing. It remembers my password only while the browser is open (normal?), and the folders are all yellow, and have been for the entire time.

--

Ok, I just went to mp3.com's bulliten board and posted a dumb answer just to see - no bulbs there either.

I think we have a lightbulb theif on our hands... Of course, this saves on the electric bill...

I have an idea. Why not make the "out" bulb gif a light socket instead? Not that I would be able to see them, but that would be cool. Or a busted bulb. Just a thought.

Oh, BTW, on mp3.com's UBB, it remembered my name and password from months ago. And if I'm not mistaken, this one did at one time. Maybe I just need a good reinstall...

-------

C:\FORMAT C:
ALL DATA ON FIXED DISK C WILL BE DESTROYED!
ARE YOU SURE?
C:\>Y

[Justin]

There's nothing I hate more than a problem that fixes itself http://www.aota.net/ubb/frown.gif

I hate that. But anyway, they just started working today, out of nowhere. Lights On, Lights Off. Good job, Daniel son.

http://www.aota.net/ubb/smile.gif

[Justin]

Ignore the last post. They're back. All on again. Excuse me while I go buy a new mouse to replace the one that is now a part of the wall. Oh, I also need to do a little drywall repair http://www.aota.net/ubb/smile.gif

Just kidding. But they are all on again.

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Justin Nelson, SFE Inc.
http://www.vdj.net

[Justin]

Ahah! I figured out the problem (I hope)!

I had to go into the Preferences for this forum and redo them, after deleting the cookie. Now they seem to work. Then again, they may very well break again...

http://www.aota.net/ubb/smile.gif

The Cookie Monster

[Justin]

Ok, I promise that this is my last post in this thread.

I figured out the problem. It's not a javascript problem. It's not a cookie problem. It's quite simply a dumb user problem.

In my shortcut to this forum, when I bookmarked it, I must have done that before registering. I noticed that the shortcut ended in "BypassCookie=true". Hmm.. Bypass Cookie? So I changed it to read false. And guess what? hehe http://www.aota.net/ubb/smile.gif

Whenever it "fixed itself", I had clicked a link from somewhere else to get here. My own link was the only one that did this. Now I feel stupid http://www.aota.net/ubb/frown.gif Oh, well, I'll get over it. As much time as I spend here, those darn lights are really handy. Comparing dates and times, especially when I'm in Central and it shows Eastern - well, that confuses me. Then again, so does everything http://www.aota.net/ubb/smile.gif

So if you're still having problems, check out your bookmark! That's why it worked in Nutscape. No bookmark there. I'm happy now. A good end to a bad day.

Now, about making the icons show a light socket or busted bulb....



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Justin Nelson, SFE Inc.
http://www.vdj.net

[Deb]

LOL http://www.aota.net/ubb/smile.gif

I hadn't even thought about how you may be linking to the forums... but tis true http://www.aota.net/ubb/wink.gif

I placed two separate links on the forums themselves for those who haven't noticed yet.... If you click the links back to the forum at the top of the pages.. e.g. the CNC graphic etc... it holds the cookie info...but if you click the link at the bottom "Support Forum Home" it's the standard link w/o the info (I use the bottom one to clear everything out and the top one when I need it all to stay) was my personal way of storing the two options on-site hehe

Deb