Please fix this Web board

lmayka · Post by **lmayka** » Thu Oct 27, 2005 5:00 am

I came to this board and found that
a) My account had somehow been deactivated
b) I could not re-create the account
c) I could not activate the account
d) The forum software told me to contact the forum administrator, but the site provides absolutely no way to contact this person.

Pretty goofed up.

My workaround was to create a new account, with a different username and a different email address.

My old username was lgmayka .

GeorgeW · Post by **GeorgeW** » Thu Oct 27, 2005 12:07 pm

Hi,

How are you connecting? Dialup, high-speed of some sort, through a firewall or network?

What OS, Browser version are you running.

And do you have any other software running like McAfee or Norton?

Just trying to gather some info to help resolve the problem some users are having...

Thanks,

lmayka · Post by **lmayka** » Thu Oct 27, 2005 2:06 pm

I connect via SBC's DSL. I do go through a home router.

I am using the latest Windows XP SP2 with all official updates, and similarly the latest Internet Explorer.

I do have Norton SystemWorks installed.

My own opinion is that your forum software somehow marked my (previous) account, lgmayka, as 'inactive.' This might be because you switched forum software, or simply because I haven't visited here in quite a while.

The real issue is that your forum software provided no way, automated or manual, to re-activate that account. It did not even give an email address of a forum administrator to contact!

BrianCee · Post by **BrianCee** » Thu Oct 27, 2005 7:07 pm

You seem to be saying that this is the first time you have visited these forums since the software was changed - that is pre-December 2004 - if that is the case then you have not been singled out - ALL of us - even those who were fully active in December 2004 had to register to the new forum when it was launched - none of us were offered the chance to transfer our old forum membership or activate our old forum name on the new forum - a fact of life I am afraid.

But I do agree that not only should there be a e-mail address for the administrator displayed on the 'Register' screen but more importantly that someone from 'Admin' should respond to e-mail problems.

lmayka · Post by **lmayka** » Thu Oct 27, 2005 7:33 pm

BrianCee wrote:You seem to be saying that this is the first time you have visited these forums since the software was changed - that is pre-December 2004 - if that is the case then you have not been singled out - ALL of us - even those who were fully active in December 2004 had to register to the new forum when it was launched - none of us were offered the chance to transfer our old forum membership or activate our old forum name on the new forum - a fact of life I am afraid.

It's difficult to believe that I've been away that long. But even if so...

What in the world is the logic of forcing us to choose a different username and email address? That 's nonsensical, because many people only have one email address. When I tried to register on this new forum software, it complained about both my username and my email address.

jchunter · Post by **jchunter** » Thu Oct 27, 2005 9:24 pm

I completely support your assertion that the forum needs proactive technical support.

1) My account was invalidated when I changed email provider in my account profile.

2) I have repeated problems (sporadic, intermittent) logging in to the forum.

3) After logging in, sometimes when I attempt to post a reply, my logged in status mysteriously changes to "not logged in" and I am presented with login screens ad nauseum. After I wait several hours, sometimes I can login.

These problems have been persistent for more than 6 months. I have made repeated requests for someone to start debugging. No one has fixed anything.

BTW, I have no such problems on any other of the many other forums that I attend...

John

Post by **Ken Berry** » Thu Oct 27, 2005 9:54 pm

I experienced a similar problem last week when I had to re-build my main computer from the motherboard up ('old' one -- one year and one week old, just out of warranty! -- burned out). Couldn't log on to this Board though my user name and password had not changed. Tried everything, including asking for a new password -- though that annoyed me as I would in effect be starting all over again. When I had tried to establish a new account, like Imayka I got silly answers that both my username and email were being used by someone else, who was of course me, though I could not use any of these to log on!! The really silly part was that I could still happily access the Board using my laptop. The fact is that I had never logged out of the Board on either computer.

Anyway, it all resolved itself the next day when I tried logging in again on my main computer, and for some inscrutable reason, worked! I will not log out again!!!

I too would add my note of protest about the total lack of any means of contacting anyone, apart from the automated new password procedure. But that requires the program to accept the username!!!

jchunter · Post by **jchunter** » Fri Oct 28, 2005 6:55 pm

Once again I logged into this forum but when I tried to reply to a post asking for help, my logged in status disappeared and I was asked to login again, and again, and again, ...

I think it is time to fix this forum!

AFAIK, Ulead tech support is responsible for fixing bugs on the forum.

Lets get some action.

Everyone should send requests to tech support to fix the problems on this forum.

John

Post by **Ken Berry** » Fri Oct 28, 2005 10:00 pm

John -- I think the secret is not to log out. But this is of course only a work-around and I agree Ulead needs to fix the problem.

Post by **Ron P.** » Fri Oct 28, 2005 11:37 pm

jchunter wrote:Once again I logged into this forum but when I tried to reply to a post asking for help, my logged in status disappeared and I was asked to login again, and again, and again, ...

I think it is time to fix this forum!

AFAIK, Ulead tech support is responsible for fixing bugs on the forum.

Lets get some action.

Everyone should send requests to tech support to fix the problems on this forum.

John

I've had the same problems, although it hasn't happened recently. Most of the time I ignore it, because it's obvious that the webmasters don't seem concerned about the quality of the site, or speed of servers.

So do we send the request to fix this forum from Ulead's website? I can't find any link here to contact them...

jchunter · Post by **jchunter** » Sat Oct 29, 2005 2:20 am

Vidoman,
Send your complaints about this forum to ronald@ulead.com

You know, running a forum is not exactly rocket science. Its one thing to put up with bugs in very complex video editing software and quite another to have to endure chronic bugs in a *&^%$# forum!

John

sjj1805 · Post by **sjj1805** » Sat Oct 29, 2005 10:25 am

jchunter wrote:Vidoman,
Send your complaints about this forum to ronald@ulead.com

You know, running a forum is not exactly rocket science. Its one thing to put up with bugs in very complex video editing software and quite another to have to endure chronic bugs in a *&^%$# forum!

John

John, would that include the ability to change the "you cannot delete your posts" thing. I often read/reply from my work computer during the bits of downtime I get. Problem is it connects to the internet via a firewall and being part of a large organisation every now and again seems to freeze up and I end up with the odd duplicate post.

jchunter · Post by **jchunter** » Sat Oct 29, 2005 2:40 pm

You bet. In addition to fixing software bugs, somebody has to be able to perform ordinary administrative tasks that do not neccessarily involve fixing bugs. These include setting up permissions such as allowing users to delete their own posts, send private messages, etc. Moreover, sombody has to make administrative decisions that include setting up sticky posts to communicate policies and procedures, and especially, to install the latest version of the forum software.

To this later point, many of these bugs that plague users might have been fixed already. At the bottom of this page you an see that we are using phpBB 2.0.11 © 2001, 2002 phpBB Group. This looks pretty old to me.

Ulead: how about upgrading the forum software?

John

GSR · Post by **GSR** » Wed Nov 02, 2005 1:54 am

hi everyone...

I received a word that they will upgrade this forum with the new released version. i think it will be next week.

Post by **Ken Berry** » Wed Nov 02, 2005 2:29 am

Thanks for the information, GSR. Hope it happens.

Can I ask, though, how and when you became a moderator of this Board? I mean, this current post of yours is said to only be the 5th time you have ever posted here, though you joined in July. How does that qualify you to be a moderator???