couldn't login, it wasn't just me!

[ChrisGreaves]

I was logged in and reading posts then was logged out.

This sounds like valuable data to me. The system knocked you out? Or you logged yourself out and then couldn't get back in?

Cheers
Chris

[ChrisGreaves]

The times it's happened to me have always been after 10 PM, my time,...

This too sounds promising.(apart from the pedantic view that it is always after 10PM except for one fleeting second! UTC, BST, GMT or whatever.
Cheers
Chris

[ChrisGreaves]

... and it occurred at random times of the day. Sometimes it lasts only 15 minutes, but sometimes much longer...

OK, so here's a question request,
can we see some sort of chart that shows, over a period of the latest month, how many minutes we couldn't log in at any time.
I worded that poorly.
Is there a window (say 1030-1130) when we have never had a failure?
What time slot seems to offer the best opportunity to login? (worst opportunity for failure). That is, some sort of probabilty chart with expected -rate-of-return?

Further thought: Would it help if a dozen of us promised to login simultaneously at a pre-specified time of day?
Those questions above are repeated for day-of-week, not just hour-of-day?
Has there been a day (of the week, of the month), when their were no reported failures?
I can't ask "no failures", because such a day may just mean that no-one reported a failure on that day.

Cheers
Chris

[ChrisGreaves]

My longest lockout lasted about 26 hours!

Can this be true (he said in a docile, friendly tone)
Were you awake and trying for all 26 hours? probably not.
Were you trying repeatedly every 5 minutes? probably not.
That is why I suggest that we users club together and maintain specific logs for submission.

By the same reasoning I could state that I was locked out for three days, "because I go to the cafe-WiFi every three days, and was failed on Monday and on Thursday)

Another thought: Assuming there is an anti-robotic filter, can one user be excused from that filter? If so could we not have a computer trying to log in every five minutes and reporting back its successes and failures?

Cheers
Chris

[HansV]

Chris, thank you for the offer and the ideas.

We have looked at what data we have, we have searched the phpBB3 forums (yes, the problem occurs on other sites, no, there is no discernible pattern). We have tried several suggestions, and none worked. I'm afraid that a committee isn't going to solve it either

[DaveA]

This sounds just like the job I retired from, Design by Committee, and it does not work.
Look at the current 737 flaws, and latest versions was designed by committee!

[BobH]

It has been said that a camel is a horse designed by a committee.

[kdock]

I was unaccountably locked out for the first time yesterday (using Chrome). I had last logged in with a different browser (Brave). When I opened Brave and steered to the Lounge, I was logged in. Chrome and Brave (based on Chrome) both have a setting to "Continue where you left off."

I haven't done any testing on this. I'll try logging out on Brave (currently using) and logging in on Chrome (which refused me yesterday) and see what happens.

Kim

[kdock]

Yep, logged out of the Lounge on Brave, was able to log in on Chrome. Does this help resolve for anyone else?

Kim

[HansV]

Thanks - we have observed similar behavior, but only some of the time. It's very unpredictable.

This morning (European time), I was logged in but couldn't post, and neither could I log out (!). I kept trying every 10 minutes or so, and after about an hour, I was able to log out and then in successfully, and I was able to post again.

[kdock]

Has anyone checked for Gremlins?

[ChrisGreaves]

... We have looked at what data we have, ....

I think this is my main point: that we need more data, and of a better quality.
The random "I had the problem too" data does not lend itself to pattern matching.

I am not fond of committees, unless they have but two people in them.
I am glad to hear that the PHP forums are aware of this.
That makes me think that if several users (Eileen's Lounge being just one user) pooled their structured data we might have a better chance of spotting the pattern.

I suppose, too, that one user has rolled-back to an earlier version to see if that corrects the problem?
Cheers
Chris

[HansV]

We have an older version. It might well be that the problem has been solved in the current version of phpBB3, but for several reasons we cannot update.

[BobH]

Has anyone checked for Gremlins?

I think AMC went out of business some time ago.

gremlin.jpg

[BobH]

Hans, does that mean that there is no path forward with php?

[StuartR]

does that mean that there is no path forward with php?

The lounge has been quite heavily modified over the years.
Updating the lounge would require every modification made to the base product to be reapplied, and we don't have the expertise to do this, neither can we find someone else who could do this for us.

[Nick Vittum]

14 hours or more for me yesterday. It was the first time I'd ever been locked out for more than an hour or two. It didn't occur to me to try another browser (I rarely use anything but Firefox) but I'll try that next time. The fact that switching browsers apparently helps makes me wonder if clearing cookies would help.I'll try that next time and see if it helps.

[HansV]

That's a long time! I hope you'll have better luck next time.

[BobH]

About an hour for me today beginning at noon CDT in the US.

[Argus]

The fact that switching browsers apparently helps makes me wonder if clearing cookies would help.I'll try that next time and see if it helps.

For some, at some times.
Not much to do, it seems.
I clean cookies every time (I leave the Lounge), and I think it has been mentioned by other in some comments. So what's my experience? Well I have mentioned some, I've been locked out two or three times I think, never during a "Lounge session", yet. Two different cases it seems (and it has been mentioned); in the first case *some* of us don't get a cookie (and something else doesn't work), in the second case a cookie for some reason isn't valid any longer, or cleared, during a session (and something else doesn't work).