Poll: Who keeps getting logged out?

OK so for a while now Hub – usually only for a short time, but lately it seems persistently – is getting really flaky and keeps saying you need to log in. That’s not an inactivity timeout thing after a few hours or a day, which is normal; it’s when you’ll log in, go to the forum, try to send a message and you get told you need to log in (ditching your message, unless your browser has a Back button that retains input form contents).

I’m getting this a lot today and did so yesterday too. We’ve had very few reports of it, so I was tempted to think it might be not very widespread, but now I’m not so sure. I’ve still no idea what’s actually happening; I can’t replicate it in local development and can’t see anything in the code by inspection to explain the behaviour.

So here’s the big question: Should I expend a lot of effort on this? Do lots of other people keep getting kicked out as described above, or is it just a handful?

This has happened to me since I first created an account on here. I tend to copy the message to a text file before hitting SAVE REPLY, as it happens so often. Very annoying!

It has certainly happened to me, and I think to a number of others. The perceived wisdom is that if the post is only a line or two, it should be ok. However, more substantial posts are best composed offline in an editor, then login, etc, and drop the preprepared text into the form and post immediately. (I do not login if simply browsing, but only login when I wish to post something).

Happens to me from time to time but there doesn’t seem to be any pattern other than – it’s a lot more likely to happen using NetSurf than iOS.

Never happened to me (usually using Firefox).

Very rare. Firefox under Windoze

It used to happen for me a couple of times a week but I can’t recall the last time it happened, though my usage may have changed!

How strange. It’s common for me. When trying to tackle today’s spam attack, I couldn’t even get the “you have logged in” page back without the back-end session already having failed and the top right Hub account indicator was back to red, instead of green.

I’ve tried adding debugging in at the back end and after restarting all services it’s even more confusing as the debug output isn’t showing some of the lines, but is showing others – even when two consecutive lines of code unconditionally print stuff. One prints, the other isn’t shown.

I’m reviewing the code offline (with a cricket bat and an increasingly bad attitude). I’m also looking into upgrading Google’s reCaptcha implementation – but it’ll shut out users on a lot of browsers. Relies on JavaScript.

and the top right Hub account indicator was back to red, instead of green.

What indicator?

The only difference I get between being logged in and not is the box top right saying ‘Log In’ followed by a circle with a triangle pointing right or ‘Account’ followed by a spanner symbol.

The only difference I get between being logged in and not is the box top right saying ‘Log In’ followed by a circle with a triangle pointing right or ‘Account’ followed by a spanner symbol.

…and what colour is that box? red, or green?
FWIW – no rapid log out issues seen here

…and what colour is that box? red, or green?

Black text & symbols on white or very light grey

Update: I tell a lie it changes to a very light green background when you log in, so subtle that I only noticed when I logged in on another computer and saw it change (Windows 10 with Firefox)

I’m reviewing the code offline (with a cricket bat and an increasingly bad attitude)

DNS blacklisting? Having the server not talk to blacklisted URL / IP’s seem like a good idea.

To my knowledge, I have never been logged out.

Would I be right in thinking that “try to send a message” is a facility restricted to selected users? Not that I have ever fealt the need. :)

I believe “try to send a message” = “try to post a message on the forums”

Never been logged out that I can remember. I mainly use a windows laptop to access the forum if it is relevant.

So basically my own software hates me.

I HAVE CREATED A MONSTER.

It does log me out occasionally and I’ve made a habit of copying my post to the clipboard before posting. I use Safari on Mac and Firefox on Windows, but can’t say whether one is more problematic than the other. I don’t often post from NetSurf so I’m not sure whether I’ve seen it happen there.

For the past couple of days I’ve been logged out at about this time.

happened 4 minutes ago, when I replied to a post on my rPi3 using Netsurf with the development ROM.

I just made a post, went to another topic within seconds, and found the Reply box missing because it had logged me out. I’ve seen this happen a few times over the past week or so.

Safari 11.0.3 on MacOS 10.12.6.