PPRuNe Login Defaults Changed?
 

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

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

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

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

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

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

Try logging in with a blank p/w field.

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:

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:

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

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

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.

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

Rob,

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 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

Rob,

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

Timothy

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?:(

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

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

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

Regards again,
Rob

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

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

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