First, let me say how happy we are to have resolved this issue at last, and how thankful we are to have had help from so many FTers in getting this done, from those who reported it, to those who provided their specific technical details, and those tech-minded FTers who contributed directly to tracking down the problem and leading to a plan of action.

But let me address the time frame as well. There are three parts to resolving tech issues like this. One is member(s) reporting a problem. Then there's me "triaging" the issue. Then there's tech addressing it if it appears to be a site issue. In most cases, there needs to be some sort of critical mass reached before tech gets involved; otherwise we are in the position of troubleshooting a hundred thousand users' computers for them, to see where the issue lies -- and clearly we can't do that.

This particular issue looked for all the world like a browser settings issue, and with conflicting reports there was no way to tell what exactly was happening early on. Read through the thread. Also, it was initially affecting a small group of users -- another sign that it was likely not a site issue. So we treated it as a browser issue and as you can see, at no point was the issue ignored; if it was a browser or settings issue, there's only so much we can say to resolve it from our end. But if you read the thread, you'll see that Dick, Kim and I frequently addressed this as it progressed from looking like an isolated browser issue to a clear-cut site problem affecting many users.

This was a particularly vexing issue and it took some time to resolve for many reasons, but not because we did not want to resolve it, not because anyone was ignored, or because there was foot-dragging. While of course we'd have preferred to get it done the day it was reported, things take time, and resources, and testing, and detailed behavior reports and some educated guessing to get resolved.

We're just happy it was.

Thank you again, all, for your patience and contributions.

Paul O'Brien
Community Manager