That weird technical bug is in play again. I don't want any advice from anyone about how to deal with it. I have tried them all. I just want somebody to look at that f-ing code, when appropriate. I appreciate all the work that is done here without any monetary compensation whatsoever. You are doing a great job. The code, on the other hand, is a mess. 

I can't post a long entry in my own log. Something seems to have triggered the recurring bug that only allows a certain amount of characters.

I think last time it was something to do with the system reorganizing its files, and it resolved itself after a few hours.

That's actually good to know. Thankyou!

Fantasy!

Yes it is so annoying! I just tried to post a comment like 3 times and every time it got eaten and I had to rewrite it.

All things are impermanent.

Hey Daniel Ingram,

I just graduated out of college with a CS degree and I am quite nifty with web technologies/making phone apps and all that good stuff. I would love to contribute to DhO's code. Let me know if manpower is required.

Regards,
Ashmin

Oh, you didn't copy it? My sympathies! I'm probably a hopeless clinger, because I have started to copy my posts before trying to publish, just in case. Then I paste them into a notes app on my ipad. 

I like this!

Wrote two long replies to Hibiscus Kid and both got swallowed by the system today. 

Knowing how buggy this place can be I'm starting to wonder about the human tendency to allow history to repeat itself. It seems very few have learned to compose posts elsewhere or copy their posts written here before hitting the "Publish" button, just in case.

What's it gonna take, huh?   

It was due to some weird Liferay upgrade glitch that Derek1 had to start again as Derek2. I would be in favor of a change to mobile-first forum software.

I have been managing technology for a long time and one of my principles is "KISS." This place is the opposite of that. But I know that the original motivation was to help people with many capabilities, not just forum software. Frankly, it feels "stuck" here because of the history and the difficulty of moving all of that or just dumping it all and starting fresh. This is a classic enterprise software conundrum, isn't it Siavash?

Just to add to your difficultly ... Daniel runs the forum on macOS Server platform.

I am aware, yes.

Well, I can always stop posting here simple stuff really  

That's your call, man.

Yes.
Any decision will result in loss of some sort. It depends on what you want to sacrifice. Money, time, data, integrity/consistency, etc.

I learned early on, thankfully. I do get lazy sometimes, but most times I just routinely copy everything before I try to publish it. I'm surprised that so few have learned that lesson. That’s an easy thing to do, even with my poor executive functioning, and then if the publishing doesn’t come through, it’s possible to paste the text somewhere. I use a simple notes app for that.

I have seen forums die because it wasn't possible to move it with the content when people finally gave up on the code, so I totally understand the complexity of the situation. It would be a huge loss to abandon all the knowledge that has been shared on this forum since it started. Worst case scenario, maybe it would be possible to archive it somehow? Preferrably before it crashes completely... But I’m nostalgic about this place despite being relatively new to it, so I hope it will survive longer.

Speaking about archives... I have noticed that lots of old documents that were accessible through this forum before can no longer be reached. Can they be found somewhere else?

I’ve got to say, I think the forum tech works surpringly well, given its age, if I understand things correctly. Or maybe it isn’t as old as I believe it to be? Obviously it has gone through at least one migration.

If you mean this forum and Liferay, it was after some new technologies became popular in Java world, open source technologies, that are still used in many web based systems. Although there have been new developments in Java world since then, but as far as I know, not very big breakthroughs, and still many are using the same tech that was used around 2000-2005. Although many companies have moved to new tech other than Java. There is an obvious reason about Java. Then it was Sun Microsystems, that had an open structure, and Java was an open technology for most part, but after this evil Oracle acquired Sun, Java stopped being the most cutting edge tech in many areas, and lost its open life.

One, I think. From a previous free forum to Liferay. That's why a lot of the oldest forum posts on DhO say "Wet Paint." That was the name of the forum hosting system when DhO was just a baby.

I was just kidding Chris  

Yes, it happens sometimes, so now I always hit:

Command-A (select all)
then Command-C (copy)

before I post, as then, if it eats it, I have it right there to Command-V (paste) back into a reply window. Quick, easy, not a hard habit to get into, and definitely helpful with LifeRay, which, while having its cool aspects, is also buggy sometimes.

Actually, the forum how runs on Hetzner Online, German servers, as I hit the road to travel for a while, and needed it to be able to be maintained remotely on something of pretty high quality.

ah! i love this. thanks fo the tidbit, Chris.

this neat hack shopuld be at the top and bottom of this thread. Thanks for it.

Yeah, that's what I was thinking of.

That's basically what I do, although I use an ipad so the keyboard doesn't have the command key. Instead I just click and chose select all and then copy. This simple maneuvre saves me a lot of despair. I still get cranky, though, obviously.

i knew you'd say that, lol.

Wau, I have no idea what Liferay is. It definitely is not in the buzz these days aka must be ooold. I have never made an enterprise-level application, however, I still would go with Java on the back-end if I was doing something serious. React is really cool in the front-end. If I was to remake this forum, I would go with React, Java (Spring Boot), and straight-up NoSQL, and put it on AWS. If there are any experienced programmers here: forgive my ignorance; I am but a child

well, "these days" is a relative term, same as these other ones: "old", "enterprise-level application", "serious"... .

I'd stay away from the buzz and stick to the problem.

Its swallowed 2 of my posts today already. The only thing that works is what Daniel said: Ctrl-A Ctrl-C from Word and then Ctrl-V. Also, pressing Quick Reply does nothing. Can someone look into this?
 

I'll second what Sam said. I did copy and paste what I had written, but if no point ever arises when it is pastable, then the problem remains.

   What choice do we have, chris? Can't post if we want to...

t

I have alerted the Powers That Be about all these issues today. I'm not able to do anything about them myself, so we'll have to see what happens.

I keep writing posts, and click publish - then the whole thing gets deleted. Frustrating after pouring your heart out.

Whenever I can remember to, I copy the entire text to the clipboard before posting.

Thankyou Chris! That's all we can ask for. 

Meanwhile, it is possible to post short entries. I just broke one entry into four different ones. It's a bit clunky, but it will have to do for the time being. 

I feel you. Select all and copy before attempting to publish is a greats means to minimize the discomfort. Then you can separate it into a number of shorter posts or save it somewhere for later posting.

Thanks Chris!

To avoid losing your heart, or your guts, or any of the effort you put into a post here, please save that post in Word or some other application before you lose it. That's the situation we're working under here, like it or not.

I don't like it.

But I do want to say things here and so if I want to make a large post or comment, I save it before I post it.

New mantra - save before you post.

Save before you post.

Save before you post!

One solution to all of this might be to install a new instance of a more modern forum system, then move this current site to a subdomain like archive.dharmaoverground.com - and lock it up; read only. That way you don't have to worry about migrating data. We could start fresh there without the problems.

Just a suggestion as it seems like there are issues with this platform and the logistics of moving to something else. 

Maybe there should be sort of a forum banner for that? Right next to every one of the different logos? Or as one of them, often enough to keep most of us on our toes? Or maybe I'm the only one who would appreciate the humor in that. The mantra for practicioners who are pragmatic enough to balance insight into anicca with skillful means... or just sufficiently cynical and lazy. 

sploink, these seem to me very valid terms to talk about. if you want to talk about relativity, the entire realm of concepts is relative. if you want to talk about the absolute instead, we would both be silent. 

Take it easy, please!

 apologies if you thought I called Siavash a name. 'sploink' is just a random sound 

Hi,

The posting issue should now be fixed and I apologize for the problems. Steps have also been taken to avoid this particular problem from happening again in the future.

While Liferay/the forum software is being discussed in this thread I'd like to point out the this issue (and the same issue a few months back) was completely unrelated to Liferay.

While Liferay has it's share of issues, from a day to day operations perspective it's been chugging along for a number of years and honestly doesn't cause that many problems.

It was also mentioned in the thread that the DhO runs on a OSX server which has not been true for quite a while. A couple of years back things were migrated to new modern hardware/OS (well, apart from Liferay perhaps), so the technical foundation for the DhO is actually pretty solid.

Let me know if you still encounter any posting issues.

(Yes, i did ctrl-c this text beforing clicking Publish

Simon

Excellent, Simon. Your help is very much appreciated.

I'd also like to tell everyone that Simon has installed a way to prevent (hopefully - fingers crossed) this from happening in the future, probably because he's as tired of fixing it as you all are of telling us about it. and I am of having to report it.

Now go, everyone, and post in peace.