PPRuNe Login Defaults Changed?

[Timothy]

I'm sorry if this has come up in any of the long PPRuNe threads of recent days, but is there now a 24 hour limit on remebering your login profile?

Just for the last week or so I have been finding that I am unregistered when I log in, not every time, but maybe one time in four.

I don't have any other login, password or cookie problems and I have not changed my browswer settings.

Is it me or the server?

Timothy

[BOAC]

Same for me, Tim. Probably a 'tweak' of the system but I'm sure Danny will be on it soon!

[timmcat]

No problems with mine, either at work or at home (although I rarely go 24 hours without logging in, perhaps that refreshes it),

[PPRuNe Towers]

Timothy,

You are indeed correct - the PPruNe log-in cookie is now an environmentally friendly bio degradable version.

No waffle so here are the reasons:

Firstly our core readership, those for whom the site was originally set up, log on from offices, hotels, bars, and internet cafes. There's a long history of forgetting to log off and opening the site to other, often troublemaking posters.

Secondly we have a very heavy admin postbag, the joy of answering which falls upon my remarkably sturdy yet careworn shoulders. A consistent 30% of the mail concerns forgotten/lost passwords. Therefore the timeout on the cookie has been introduced to re-introduce many readers to the joys of having to remember their own password rather than me:suspect: :suspect:

It'll piss off a few, lead to a short term flood of forgotten password stuff for me to deal with but should pay off in the end.

Then again Danny and I both have been wrong many times in the past:ouch: :ouch: :ouch:

Regards
Rob

[goates]

Towers - Would it not be possible to automate the process for forgotten passwords? I've been to many sites that will email the password to you right away if you can't remember. The more secure sites will also reset the password before sending it. You would just need to ask the user for their login ID and then send the address to whatever email address the user has registered.

goates

[BOAC]

Its actually already there, goates (you obviously NEVER forget your p/w:O )

Try logging in with a blank p/w field.

[Danza]

If it already exists then what kind of people (choosing the word carefully) still have to e-mail the mods about password problems :confused: :confused:

[PPRuNe Towers]

goates,

Splendid idea! I'm not taking the mick mate but we've had that since day one. Try it for yourself - it's there and always has been.

Here in the giddying heights of the computer forum I resolutely point out the motes in the experts' eye. Our average user doesn't know what a cookie is, cant change their e-mail address. Wouldn't know what a bios is if it bit their arses and a computer should be like a fridge and simply work. Here's one just in:

I've lost my user name and password for pprune.
Please e-mail it to me.


No clues, e-mail of sender is not on the database. As I said 30% of my mailbag is dealing with this stuff. Anyone who's ever worked a tech support line will know the feeling.........

Consistently and over many years only 7% of PPRuNers post on the forums. It's a really tiny minority of the capable and the interested on this forum plus those with problems passing through. It has no bearing on the reality of the life we experience running the site for average users:confused: :confused: :confused:

That's why pulling up my posts on this forum show a consistent 'keep it simple and basic' approach for the average joe. That's because you lot here are very, very, out of the ordinary
:uhoh: :uhoh: :uhoh:

Regards
rob

[Naples Air Center, Inc.]

Rob,

It sounds like you need an auto responder keyed to "Lost Password" subject line or something close, that sends a canned email saying, "Here is the Forgot Password Link" ;)

Take Care,

Richard

[timmcat]

That's because you lot here are very, very, out of the ordinary

Gettaway...!

Good policy Rob, I always try to remember to log out of the office PC.. just in case (although now I cannot blame any of my more tactless postings on anyone else!).

Do you think this means we will see less of the occasional visitor? Not logged in, cannot remember password (or maybe even user name), goes away and looks at some nice piccies on Airliners.net.

[goates]

I should have known you would have that function already, but as BOAC suggested, I haven't forgotten my password yet (at least not for this site). :O :O :O

Another site I am a member of sends out an email every month with the user's ID and password. Would that help here? You could also include info on how to change email addresses. If an email bounces, force the user to update it the next time they visit the site. For the ones without email addresses currently, don't let them in until they have centered one or corrected the one you have.

goates

[Naples Air Center, Inc.]

Rob,

Firstly our core readership, those whom the site was originally set up, log on from offices, hotels, bars, and internet cafes. There's a long history of forgetting to log off and opening the site to other, often troublemaking posters.

I cannot tell you the times I have seen our Community Student Internet Access Computer with the username of the last PPRuNer still logged into PPRuNe when you go to the PPRuNe page. I do not know if it is because we have WatchDog (http://www.sarna.net/watchdog/) with 15 minute per session timer, (so everyone gets a turn at the computer), causing them to forget to go back in and log out or if it is they just forget to log out because they are not in the habit of logging out.

If anyone is looking for an option for work, they can set the computer not to remember passwords and not to retain cookies. That saves the embarrassing Identity Theft.

Take Care,

Richard

[Timothy]

Rob,

That's all fine by me...so long as I know it's not my PC gone funny :ok:

Timothy

[Out Of Trim]

Well it's been certainly p-----g me off!

An announcement would have been nice!

I thought my PC was playing up as well; and I have to keep going back into the old registration E-mail to find the password. It's an absolute pain..

Perhaps we could all change to new passwords that were easy for us to remember?:(

[PPRuNe Towers]

Out of Trim,

Every page we serve to you has the caption at the top of each page, the very first one, saying 'user cp.'

Have a look sometime you might get a pleasant suprise.

Regarding the other recent comments especially auto response I'm afraid they just don't work. With our readers the message header bears no relation the actual problem:confused: :confused: :confused: You are making the fatal but understandable mistake of applying knowledge, experience and logic to to the problem:{ :{ :{ Please refer to my earlier post regarding the mass market's understanding of basics. The actual problem is never apparent until I garner whatever sliver of information is offered, often accidently and apply it to the database. Then, and only then can I take any short cut at all and select from a boilerplate reply.

Regards to all,
Rob

[Out Of Trim]

PPRuNe Towers -

errr - What can I say! - I just found that you can change the password to a more memorable one.. Yes! I thought and then came back and found your post!

Well, I'll eat humble pie and say an embarrassed but big

SORRY

I really do appreciate all the hard work put in by all at PPRuNe, really I do! :O

[PPRuNe Towers]

Not a problem OOT - just glad to see you're sorted out.

Regards again,
Rob

[Timothy]

Rob,

Here's an idea for you. How about giving us a complex set of instructions to allow us to bypass this (admittedly rather irritating) change.

I have already saved today's cookie, with a view to saving the next couple and then to "backwards engineer" what you have done and rectify it.

If I am that knowledgeable (and we don't know yet that I am :ugh: ) then presumably you can trust me not to waste your time in the way that less knowledgeable people do?

So, perhaps you could let us on this forum know how to circumvent it, and then we can pass the knowledge on to anyone that asks, in the knowledge that anyone (to quote the Jewish liturgy) "who knows enough to ask" will be safe to pass the information on to?

Timothy

[PPRuNe Towers]

Timothy,

The cookie mods aren't a normal function of the control and admin software. If really interested you might like to visit the vBulletin boards and survey the frenzied world of the hackmeisters and reskinners. Not my cup of tea it has to be said.

Regards
Rob

[Timothy]

Rob,

Obviously I would rather not hack. I don't have spots and the closest thing I have to an anorak is a Barbour to wear when taking the Labrador for a walk (just need a Range Rover to complete the image :p )

What I am suggesting is there be a way of configuring users such that their cookies are persistent. This could, if you wish, be made a little complex (though I think that, given your reasons for doing this just a tick box would suffice.)

The default would be "off", but if anyone cared enough and knew enough, or knew who to ask, that would be proof enough that they could be trusted to tick this box.

Anyway, as I am always saying to you and Danny, it's your box, you set it up how you like. Some people, including me, find the change irritating, and you may or may not want to take that into account. I'm not going to stop using PPRuNe or stop giving you money, or stop singing your praises because of it...it's just a bit of a pain! :ok:

Timothy

[PPRuNe Towers]

I'll put it on the wish list to discuss with Danny but the next 4 months is overwhelming. Development mule server to run and troubleshoot our present code, add new code in development, once performance and reliability tested migrate to new co hosted server, when that checks out migrate the site and archives to it. Get that all running live for PPRuNers and then a complete revamp to the forums and redesigned skin on top.

Other than that not a lot on except the day jobs.:D :D :D

Regards
Rob

[Timothy]

Rob,

There isn't an emoticon for wheedling one's forefinger on the table-top and looking up pleadingly and seductively from under fluttering eyelashes (or at least, if there is, it's not on the panel to the left :O ) but now you've so successfully got everything going on the new co-hosted server, might you have a moment to think about giving us more sophisticated users an option to have persistent cookies? Pretty Please

Incidentally, some people tell me that their cookies are persistent. I wonder how they have managed that? Any thoughts as to whether there is a workaround that they have stumbled upon?

Timothy

[Golden Runways]

My IE/AOL cookies persist, and annoyingly the Firefox cookies degrade.

[kabz]

Rob, I'm a software engineer, and 'user cp' means absolutely nothing to me, and I would suspect, nothing to most other people.

'my settings' or 'my pprune account' would be clearer.

I REALLY hope you take some of the following suggestions in the positive sense they are intended !!!!!!!!!!! I am not whingeing, HONEST !!!!!!!!!!

From the number of emails you get about lost passwords, perhaps it might be a good idea to update the text of some of the prompts and links so that they are more clearly understandable.

There are a few things about pprune, such as the very small link text, highlighted links being yellow/invisible, some unclear link text and some strange formatting (notably on the login page - where tab doesn't take you to password from username) that could benefit from a couple of hours tweaking.

Also, I have seen quite a few posts about the PM facility. This is essentially broken to a lot of people as it is not obvious at all, as to how to use it.

Good luck with the new server, and thanks for all the effort you guys put in.

[drauk]

kabz, a couple of things you said caught my eye.

On which pages does pressing tab not take you from the username field to the password field? I just tried it in a couple of places and it works for me.

What is the problem with Private Messaging? If you click Private Message next to any user's post you get a form. Type in the body of your message and click send. That's it.

If pprune is not behaving in the way I've described perhaps it is a browser problem? What browser are you using?

[Timothy]

Oh, and Rob, while we are making helpful suggestions, you visited another flying related Forum today to help some guys out (no names, no packdrill, as 2D suggests).

While you were there, did you notice that although they use the same software as PPRuNe, quite a few bits of functionality work in a more user-friendly way?

For example, if you want to put something in bold you can highlight it and press the bold button and it puts the tags in automatically, and it inserts tags and emoticons to the cursor rather than always at the bottom.

I have spoken to 2D about this and he says that this is default behaviour, and certainly not difficult to implement. I am sure that he would advise if there are any tweaks necessary to do it.

Just a thought, as ever in a spirit of friendliness and helpfulness!

Timothy

[Ausatco]

If, like me, you have trouble remembering your user and account names and passwords for all the different sites, accounts and logins that you frequent, Roboform (http://www.roboform.com) is a great aid.

You never need to remember anything again - it automatically senses when logon details (and other details in other forms, if you wish) are required and fills them in for you at the click of a button.

There are security issues with this, of course. Eg if your lappy gets knocked off the thief would have ready access to whatever you had set up in Roboform. But they've thought of that; you can password-protect Roboform itself - yes, you will have to remember a password, but only one!

It also comes free with Slimbrowser (http://www.flashpeak.com/), my choice of tabbed browser.

Cheers

AA

[ratsarrse]

a complete revamp to the forums and redesigned skin on top.

Oooh, a makeover! PPRuNe does Changing Rooms...any chance of a preview?;)