When something breaks (2015)

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When something breaks (2015)

Post by Administrator »

Today's maintenance was to update the forum software for some security fixes intended to harden the software against potential attacks.

Unfortunately the update contains another maintenance fix that break the ability to perform wildcard searches, they'll return with the message
You must specify at least one word to search for. Each word must consist of at least 3 characters and must not contain more than 14 characters excluding wildcards.
We have filled a problem report and will await the developers response.

Our apologies, but hope you understand that we need to take security against potential attacks seriously.
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Re: When something breaks (2015)

Post by Administrator »

Fix has been deployed, so wildcard searches are again working.
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Re: portfolio mix for TFSA

Post by IdOp »

Note to Admins: I can't seem to edit my posts. (That's why this is in a new post.) I tried to fix a few typos and when submitting it, the fixes weren't there. Is this a problem with the new forum software, or my cookies? Never had this happen with the old software. Anybody else noticing this problem?
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Re: When something breaks (2015)

Post by Peculiar_Investor »

It does appear to be a problem with the new forum software and how it is enforcing our 48 hour time limit to edit your own posts. We are investigating and will report back when we have a resolution.
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Re: When something breaks (2015)

Post by Peculiar_Investor »

Upon further review, we are not so sure there is a problem with the 48 hour edit time limit. Could you please re-check, perhaps using the Testing sandbox as DenisD has done.
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Re: When something breaks (2015)

Post by AltaRed »

FWIW, I have had no problem editing and submitting and seeing the edited post.
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Re: When something breaks (2015)

Post by Springbok »

A few minutes ago, the link to New Posts stopped working - gives a SQL error. Other links to unread posts etc still work


General Error
SQL ERROR [ mysqli ]

User financl1_forum already has more than 'max_user_connections' active connections [1203]

An sql error occurred while fetching this page. Please contact an administrator if this problem persists.

Now back working again.
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Re: When something breaks (2015)

Post by Peculiar_Investor »

Thanks. That one happens periodically. FWF runs on a shared host and our hosting service configuration sets the limit. Occasionally when there too many FWF'ers accessing the site simultaneously we trip this limit.

As long as it only happens very intermittently, there isn't much we can do. If it does clear itself within a minute or so, then it is an indication of bigger problems. Of course the catch-22, if it is happening repeatedly you won't be able to connect to the site and report the error. Generally your admins are around enough that we'll be aware if/when this happens.
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Normal people… believe that if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. Engineers believe that if it ain’t broke, it doesn’t have enough features yet. – Scott Adams
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Re: When something breaks (2015)

Post by like_to_retire »

We use to be able to simply highlight text in any post with the mouse, and then click the "Reply with quote" icon in that post, and the highlighted area would be quoted in a new reply.

That has stopped working.

"Reply with Quote" simply quotes the entire thread.

What happened?

ltr
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Re: When something breaks (2015)

Post by Peculiar_Investor »

Your admins are aware of the problems reaching FWF and/or finiki. It appears that the server that runs our sites has been under a DDOS attack this morning (and possibly yesterday afternoon/evening). We're working with the hosting provider to mitigate. Your patience is appreciated.
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Re: When something breaks (2015)

Post by Shakespeare »

It appears that the server that runs our sites has been under a DDOS attack
Gee, Bylo and I must have really annoyed some people. :lol:
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Re: When something breaks (2015)

Post by AltaRed »

Peculiar_Investor wrote:Your admins are aware of the problems reaching FWF and/or finiki. It appears that the server that runs our sites has been under a DDOS attack this morning (and possibly yesterday afternoon/evening). We're working with the hosting provider to mitigate. Your patience is appreciated.
I found it sometimes helps to pace one's 'requests' to the server, i.e. perhaps a minute or so apart. It may be that our host has software in place to detect frequency of IP queries and rapid queries 'kicks' the IP address away, while at the same time trying to let in 'legitimate' queries.
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Re: When something breaks (2015)

Post by Bylo Selhi »

Hmmm... I'd assumed the issue was more widespread. I'm in Austria and have been having problems getting into multiple sites today, not just this one. And not just in NA. I'm getting timeouts trying to access even my own ISP, A1 Telekom.

Fortunately I'm in general agreement with most of the recent posts on Steve's thread so the need to contribute has been lessened. But once the DDOS attack gets resolved I'll be back in the fray.
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Re: When something breaks (2015)

Post by Shakespeare »

Suggest "The Watercooler" is misnamed. Should be "The W(h)ine Cooler".
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Re: When something breaks (2015)

Post by kcowan »

Some of the forums have an extra step like another password to get into the unregulated topic discussions. Does not seem to work too well. I think the only safe solution is to ban political discussions altogether and this would include non-financial policy discussions.

When we lose long time participants and even founders, there has to be some changes.
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Re: When something breaks (2015)

Post by Peculiar_Investor »

A reminder, we offer the option to omit Watercooler.
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Re: When something breaks (2015)

Post by kcowan »

Peculiar_Investor wrote:A reminder, we offer the option to omit Watercooler.
I list all the new posts and just skip over the topics that I know will not add value to my experience. (I don't want to solve the world's problems on this forum. For example, changing OAS!)

Once in a while, those ones I want to read are in Watercooler. For example, I find most of tedsters posts to be worthy of a quick peak because he struggles with many subjects that we all do and he relies on people here more than I do for those subjects. Bylo used to contribute there too and his contributions are of high value. But Bylo cannot control his impulse to contribute and that is what did him in!

(It is kind of the same as AA. The only way to avoid the irritation is to avoid the environment. I know because I have my own that I avoid.)
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