JUNE 6TH, 2024 UPDATE Tech Issues Thread

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Jun 7, 2024 | 5:16 pm

#31

notquiteaff

FlyerTalk Evangelist

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Quote:

Originally Posted by IBJoel

I would have announced, but again: it went smoothly on every other site and we did not expect there to be impact with the product that handles certain custom notifications. It was thought that it would strictly simplify the two competing user tagging functions.

I was more thinking of an announcement when it became clear that an upgrade broke/took away functionality that probably 90% of the active participants use every day.

Quote:

It's always important to remember that FlyerTalk does not stand on its own. I liaise between a dozen communities and IB in my vertical, while there are about 200 total communities in the department I'm part of. Since IBobi left, we've made a considerable effort to standardize our sites in terms of products and plug-ins. Look, I get that as a community member, it can really suck. Stuff goes away and then you get new features you didn't ask for. I have sites outside of work where that's happened. On the other hand, there's a lot of custom projects in my vertical that were pursued and no longer maintainable because the people that set them up left and didn't document anything. And even if they did, that's more customization that new tech hires have to learn, which hurts productivity and even costs them jobs sometimes.

Is there a test environment that is a clone of FT (with limited data) to run acceptance testing before upgrading to a new version? I’d be happy to volunteer for testing. As a software engineer, I have done my fair share of testing .. and finding bugs… (and of course causing bugs).

italdesign likes this.

Jun 7, 2024 | 6:43 pm

#32

bmwe92fan

Join Date: Nov 2013

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As someone with a software development background I totally understand the challenges faced by FT -- and I am assuming that creating the ability to offer "likes" and to inform users of "post quotes" was enabled to increase the engagement with FT -- what I do not understand now is why tell me I have 17 new likes -- and no way to see what threads or posts they are in? Either support the function or don't -- otherwise why bother?

PHP 8.4 goes live in November -- is this just beta issues or should we expect that this is permanent?

SPN Lifer, HadesNL and diburning like this.

Jun 7, 2024 | 7:48 pm

#33

fumje

FlyerTalk Evangelist

Join Date: Aug 2015

Posts: 12,778

Quote:

Originally Posted by IBJoel

It just doesn't work that way anymore. Auto Communities has to develop/OK it and we roll it out. It's... certainly something

So if I'm understanding this correctly, it's not fundamentally a technical issue, but actually an organisational one, as the people who would be able to (re-)develop the quotes functionality are in the "wrong department" and have other priorities? Implying no judgement, only asking out of curiosity.

narvik and AlwaysFlyStar like this.

Jun 7, 2024 | 9:46 pm

#34

DeathSlam

Join Date: Oct 2014

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Like a lot of flyers I also have a modicum of knowledge of IT and software development.
And also like a lot of forum members I am not a lead on a major platform hub for a multinational advertiser.
Thanks IBJoel for being as straightforward and candid as you can be about what's going on.
I think it's obvious that the community has made you aware of the non-critical but pretty annoying blarps from the latest update and the team will do what they can when they can to rectify the situation. I suspect that process will not be aided in any way by back seat drivers with limited knowledge, so I won't add my own "Have you thought of turning it off and on again?" comments.

SPN Lifer, halls120, narvik and 3 others like this.

Jun 8, 2024 | 4:07 am

#35

T8191

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Thanks for the 'updates' ... at least I now understand why "Your Notifications" generates a blank page! Not life-changing, but somewhat inconvenient. Good luck with the recovery program!

rockflyertalk likes this.

Jun 8, 2024 | 4:30 am

#36

kale73

FlyerTalk Evangelist

Join Date: Mar 2012

Location: Klagetoh

Posts: 24,111

Quote:

Originally Posted by T8191

Good luck with the recovery program!

Recovery program? I suppose I’d be drinking heavily if I were in @IBJoel’s position right now.

At least we still have the breadcrumbs.

Jun 8, 2024 | 7:10 am

#37

narvik

Join Date: May 2010

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Quote:

Originally Posted by IBJoel

Post quotes unfortunately will not be coming back for the moment

I predict Internet Brands will lose advertising revenue when they can't prove the same engagement to its advertisers.
Post Quotes will be back in due course, I am sure of it!

Jun 8, 2024 | 9:27 am

#38

DenverBrian

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Quote:

Originally Posted by narvik

I predict Internet Brands will lose advertising revenue when they can't prove the same engagement to its advertisers.
Post Quotes will be back in due course, I am sure of it!

Agreed. I'm unable to see which posts I was liked on, and which posters quoted me, and that means I'm clicking much less on FT right now. Fewer clicks = less traffic = less ad revenue.

notquiteaff, narvik and kale73 like this.

Jun 8, 2024 | 12:34 pm

#39

kale73

FlyerTalk Evangelist

Join Date: Mar 2012

Location: Klagetoh

Posts: 24,111

Quote:

Originally Posted by DenverBrian

Agreed. I'm unable to see which posts I was liked on, and which posters quoted me, and that means I'm clicking much less on FT right now. Fewer clicks = less traffic = less ad revenue.

Pavlov's bell has lost its clapper..

Jun 8, 2024 | 12:50 pm

#40

notquiteaff

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Quote:

Originally Posted by DenverBrian

Agreed. I'm unable to see which posts I was liked on, and which posters quoted me, and that means I'm clicking much less on FT right now. Fewer clicks = less traffic = less ad revenue.

Not being able to see who liked my posts is probably a blessing in disguise. But not seeing who quoted me will definitely reduce my participation. It's less an issue in active conversations where I am looking at the thread again anyway, but I often see older posts quoted where I would have no reason to revisit the thread. E.g., I posted a review of a hotel stay and someone a month later follows up with a question - doubt I would bother going back into that hotel thread. Or sometimes I participate in forums that I don't routinely visit. Out of sight, out of mind.

I am still confused, was the removal of the quote notification feature expected and "by design", or unexpected and for some reason not readily fixable?

uanj, wrp96, HadesNL and 1 others like this.

Jun 8, 2024 | 7:24 pm

#41

javabytes

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Anyone else starting to get twitchy watching the Notifications count increase? After a decade and a half of habitually getting my notifications to 0 first thing every visit… 😂

irishguy28, goodeats21, HadesNL and 7 others like this.

Jun 8, 2024 | 8:05 pm

#42

notquiteaff

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Quote:

Originally Posted by javabytes

Anyone else starting to get twitchy watching the Notifications count increase? After a decade and a half of habitually getting my notifications to 0 first thing every visit… 😂

I ran a science experiment a few weeks ago to see how long I could ignore the Like notification. I think I ran it up to nearly three digits.

Likes are really not your friend. So I am sort of glad they are broken. Quotes on the other hand serve a practical need.

SPN Lifer, DenverBrian, emma dog and 6 others like this.

Jun 9, 2024 | 4:31 am

#43

Admiral Ackbar

Formerly known as newbie elite

Join Date: Feb 2002

Posts: 3,517

First they remove trending without telling anyone, now this "upgrade" breaks basic forum functionality like quote notifications. Seems the one size fits all ("we do this on hundreds of sites without issue!") approach has its limits.

Jun 9, 2024 | 4:35 am

#44

supine

Join Date: May 2018

Location: FRA

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Posts: 1,937

Quote:

Originally Posted by Admiral Ackbar

Also, I'm confused that a critical mass of sites don't care about post quotes.

What are those sites? Why do they care about likes and not replies?

notquiteaff, irishguy28 and wrp96 like this.

Jun 9, 2024 | 6:49 am

#45

dergon darkhelm

Original Poster

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Posts: 70,393

Quote:

Originally Posted by narvik

I predict Internet Brands will lose advertising revenue when they can't prove the same engagement to its advertisers.
Post Quotes will be back in due course, I am sure of it!

I hope so.

Put me among the large number of FTers who *very* much want to the see the post quote function restored.

DenverBrian, The Lev, halls120 and 4 others like this.

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