Jump to content

No Emails


SWharton

Recommended Posts

Hello SWharton,

 

It seems you are correct: I've just checked and the last notification email I received was on August 8th, and since then there have been updates to some forum topics I've subscribed to, which I did not get notified about.

 

How can we call this to the attention of the forum administrators so they can look into it?

 

Cheers,

--

Vall.

Getting ready to join the RV full-time lifestyle in 2017!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

How can we call this to the attention of the forum administrators so they can look into it?

Anyone here can just use the "Report" function of the forum that is found at the bottom of each post. That calls the post/thread to the attention of the IT department. Those of us who have "Moderator" under our avatars are just "spam police" and have no access to program functions.

Good travelin !...............Kirk

Full-time 11+ years...... Now seasonal travelers.
Kirk & Pam's Great RV Adventure

            images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQqFswi_bvvojaMvanTWAI

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I thought the "report" function was only for spam. I'll do it now.

Actually, the "report" does not go to the moderators/spam police. It is only to the IT department but it does keep them aware of the amount of spam so it sure don't harm anything to use it that way. The volunteer "moderators" are just folks who all frequent the forums often and we were asked to assist the IT department with it's removal some years ago, before Travis was even involved. Today, Travis does keep a closer eye on the forums than most of the IT department but he is also moving more into the management side of the Escapee organization and taking more responsibilities from Cathy & Bud so he is probably going to be a little less active on the forums. We moderators do see evidence that Travis visits the forums pretty frequently but with the much bigger job that he has accepted, that may not always be the case. There are at least two in the IT department who receive the reports from those who use it.

Good travelin !...............Kirk

Full-time 11+ years...... Now seasonal travelers.
Kirk & Pam's Great RV Adventure

            images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQqFswi_bvvojaMvanTWAI

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Reporting spam posts/topics is a good thing, as is reporting user profiles that have spam links in them. While the weekend moderators don't see the reports they can often get a problem dealt with quickly even if we aren't around to see it.

 

Getting e-mail these days can be iffy, even if it is actually sent there is a chance the systems it passes through or your incoming mail server will reject the message. For the systems it passes through there is nothing to be done but you can sometimes improve your incoming mail server by adding the address to your contacts and by checking the spam folder and marking any found there as good.

First rule of computer consulting:

Sell a customer a Linux computer and you'll eat for a day.

Sell a customer a Windows computer and you'll eat for a lifetime.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Sue, I wasn't trying to say you didn't have a problem or that the problem was only your computer. Sorry it sounded that way.

 

With the way the e-mail system works today there is little a user can do about non-delivered mail, the suggestions I made are about it.

 

Notifying the admins by making a post and reporting it is the best way to let the admin types know there are issues. Even then their ability to get the system working is limited.

 

They can check and fix the mail sending machine if that is the issue and a report will let them know that but only if they log-in as the same machine that is not sending notifications is also sending the e-mail copies of the reports. If that happens the report will still be visible on the forum control panel but they won't be alerted until they manually check the control panel the next business day.

 

Sometimes it is an issue with the mail sending server being blocked by the systems it is sending to, there the admins can appeal the block but it can take hours to days to get it lifted, sometimes it can't be lifted for a fixed time period too.

 

The whole process is an aggravation but sending a report, if it isn't an issue at your end, is the best option for users.

First rule of computer consulting:

Sell a customer a Linux computer and you'll eat for a day.

Sell a customer a Windows computer and you'll eat for a lifetime.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Sorry about my interpretation. This forum has had a fair amount of problems on and off over the last month and you never know if it is just you or the entire system. It would be nice if there was a sticky with just a short note from IT saying they are aware of the problem or have reported problems. I participate in 8-10 forums and they are solid. This one seems to have problems on and off.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I participate in 8-10 forums and they are solid. This one seems to have problems on and off.

The situation where the forums were down for a couple of days was at the host server and beyond the control of the Escapee IT staff. Every site has problems occasionally, even if you don't happen to experience it. While I don't know what the problem turned out to be, I do know that Jim in IT had an open service request with the host pretty early in that event.

Good travelin !...............Kirk

Full-time 11+ years...... Now seasonal travelers.
Kirk & Pam's Great RV Adventure

            images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQqFswi_bvvojaMvanTWAI

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

If IT would tell us, even after the fact, that the problem was at their end it would help all our sanity. I spent a lot of time trying to figure out what changed on my PC that caused the problem. Several times. If I had known after the first time that there are problems I probably wouldn't have pursued it. Even after the fact gives one some peace of mind it is not something they messed up on their computer.

 

The other option when there is an outage is to have a better message come up. I get some sort of a "driver" message and spend time updating all the drivers thinking that is the problem.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

It would be nice to have more information available but there is nobody to do that.

 

James will sometimes respond to a post in the "About the Forums" topic that is reported if he gets involved in fixing things.

 

Forum errors like these are system problems and not your computer:

 

There appears to be an error with the database.

If you are seeing this page, it means there was a problem communicating with our database. Sometimes this error is temporary and will go away when you refresh the page. Sometimes the error will need to be fixed by an administrator before the site will become accessible again.

You can try to refresh the page by clicking here

An error occured with the SQL server:

This is not a problem with the IPS Community Suite but rather with your SQL server. Please contact your host and copy the message shown above.

An error occured with the SQL server:

mySQL query error: SELECT rep.*, rcl.my_class, rcl.extra_data, mem.members_display_name as n_updated_by, mem.members_seo_name as n_updated_seoname, mem.member_group_id, MAX(star.points) as points, ((rep.num_reports * stat.points_per_report)+FLOOR(((1453407393-rep.date_created)/60)/ CASE WHEN stat.minutes_to_apoint > 0 THEN stat.minutes_to_apoint ELSE 100 END )) as built_points FROM ibf_rc_reports_index rep LEFT JOIN ibf_members mem ON (mem.member_id=rep.updated_by) LEFT JOIN ibf_rc_status stat ON (stat.status=rep.status) LEFT JOIN ibf_rc_status_sev star ON (((rep.num_reports * stat.points_per_report)+FLOOR(((1453407393-rep.date_created)/60)/ CASE WHEN stat.minutes_to_apoint > 0 THEN stat.minutes_to_apoint ELSE 100 END ))>=star.points AND star.status=rep.status) LEFT JOIN ibf_rc_classes rcl ON (rcl.com_id=rep.rc_class) WHERE rcl.com_id IN(1,2,3,4) AND (rcl.com_id!=2 OR rep.exdat1 IN(44,97,46,45,1,16,90,89,3,4,5,36,6,33,19,9,8,10,12,11,13,7,15,31,35,92,93,104,96,17,18,20,21,22,42,91,23,24,25,37,26,28,27,30,98,99,100,101,102,14,32,29)) AND stat.is_active=1 GROUP BY rep.id ORDER BY rep.date_updated DESC, stat.rorder ASC, built_points DESC LIMIT 0, 10

This is not a problem with the IPS Community Suite but rather with your SQL server. Please contact your host and copy the message shown above.

First rule of computer consulting:

Sell a customer a Linux computer and you'll eat for a day.

Sell a customer a Windows computer and you'll eat for a lifetime.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Over time I have learned to just not use the site until the next day and sometimes it clears up, sometimes it takes longer. But initially I wasted a lot of time trying to figure out what was going on. It also seems an inordinate amount of our problems occur over weekends. Seems to me they do an update and go home for the weekend.

 

Not being very knowledgeable in the communication end of the PC world #2 and #3 imply it is me by saying "your SQL server". #1 says it could be me.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

If I am having an issue with the site I check the other areas where I communicate with some of the same people. Sometimes there is a post there about the RV Network site being down or sometimes I have to ask the question and in a few minutes usually have an answer. Sometimes it's only me, but most of the time it's everyone having an issue.

 

Rod

White 2000/2010Volvo VNL 770 with 7' Drom box with opposing doors,  JOST slider hitch. 600 HP Cummins Signature 18 Speed three pedal auto shift.

1999 Isuzu VehiCross retired to a sticks and bricks garage. Brought out of storage the summer of 2022

2022 Jeep Wrangler Sport S Two door hard top.

2007 Honda GL 1800

2013 Space Craft Mfg S420 Custom built Toyhauler

The Gold Volvo is still running and being emptied in July. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

It also seems an inordinate amount of our problems occur over weekends. Seems to me they do an update and go home for the weekend.

That is probably partly due to the fact that the Escapee IT department is only a few people who work a 40 hour week, more or less and who just like us they prefer to have time off occasionally. :P The Escapee organization is not nearly large enough to have a full blown IT department and they depend upon host servers, just as do nearly all small organizations. Since they don't work 24/7, problems that occur at night or on a weekend usually don't get attention until someone arrives at work, since they probably don't know that it happened. Travis does monitor the forums at odd hours and so he does sometimes catch a problem and get someone on it during periods that the office is closed, but that often isn't the case.

 

It is also true that the host servers do tend to do major upgrades at night and on weekends and for that reason if something they do should impact the sites of their clients, it will tend to be in one of those periods. Our professional geek son tells us that the reason for that is the fact that sites hosted are usually not being worked upon by the owners at those times so the server hosts do their work at those hours. Whatever the reason, having owned the 1tree domain now for quite a few years, I can tell you that server problems do mostly take place at night and on weekends and I too often don't notice until someone from my visitors sends me an email to point it out. My website staff don't work 24/7 either! :(

Good travelin !...............Kirk

Full-time 11+ years...... Now seasonal travelers.
Kirk & Pam's Great RV Adventure

            images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQqFswi_bvvojaMvanTWAI

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Having worked in mainframe computers for many years each application, system etc. had a series of Benchmark tests that the update had to pass before going into production. I would assume this is still practiced. Maybe this is a wrong assumption on my part and there is no testing after a change??? I am not saying the IT of Escapees(I don't know what they do) but for support systems that we purchase and are a valid commercial enterprise there should be testing done prior to production.

 

I do this for updates to programs on my PC and apps on my phone. Mainly to see if I lost any functionality. As I discover new things that I use in an app I may add that to my test script.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 4 weeks later...

I am new SKP member and have searched on club site for several answers to my questions. Having only "nothing found" as a disappointing answer. No problem, I realize I can't expect club site to deliver all like monster sites I.e., Orbitz or Wikipedia. Thanks club for all you do offer!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

As a fallback you can always use Google with the site option to restrict the search to just the forums or club sites.

 

Just stick the following in Google's search line: site:www.rvnetwork.com

 

So to search for Zinger here you'd get a link like this:

 

https://www.google.com/#q=zinger%20site%3Awww.rvnetwork.com

First rule of computer consulting:

Sell a customer a Linux computer and you'll eat for a day.

Sell a customer a Windows computer and you'll eat for a lifetime.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

×
×
  • Create New...