Forum / Various Technical Troubles

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    Jürgen Fauth
    Apr 28, 10:07am

    Hi everybody--
    you may have noticed that Fictionaut is experiencing a number of strange technical problems. I'm having trouble staying logged in, the messaging system isn't working as it should, some stories are losing formatting, and some of you can't leave comments.

    As far as I can tell, the trouble started when our hosting provider announced yet another scheduled downtime. We decided that it was time to finally move Fictionaut to a more reliable server. Carson completed the move over the weekend and then left on a brief Mexican vacation. I just got a message from him promising he'll take a look but there's not much he can do from where he is right now.

    There's probably a swine flu joke somewhere in there, but I'm not laughing. I'll use the forum to post updates and let you know when things are working again. If you notice any other symptoms, please post them here. I'm awfully sorry about the problems, and I'm hoping we'll have everything back to normal in a matter of days. Thanks for your patience -- and if you're worried about Carson's health, you can check http://doescarsonordaniellehaveswineflu.com/

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    Jürgen Fauth
    Apr 28, 11:32pm

    OK -- Carson sacrificed precious beach time to get things working again. Please let us know if you encounter any more problems.

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    Morgan Harlow
    Apr 29, 01:31pm

    thanks Jürgen and Carson, that was fast!

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    Carson Baker
    Apr 29, 11:38pm

    Sorry guys. I think things are mostly back to normal, but please let me know if things aren't exactly so.

    Now that we've switched servers, I expect we'll see fewer problems in the future.

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    John Minichillo
    May 14, 11:40am

    Tried to post a story today. I'm on an Apple, using Safari. Cut and paste the story in the box just fine, but when I hit "preview" all the text in the story box disappears. Grrrr.

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    John Minichillo
    May 14, 11:42am

    The same thing happens when I try to post a comment on a story.

  • Author_wide.thumb
    Jürgen Fauth
    May 14, 12:02pm

    Uh-oh. Sorry, John. We'll investigate.

  • Darryl_falling_water.thumb
    Darryl Price
    May 27, 08:49am

    I was just replying to a Fictionaut writer friend of mine-Ethel Rohan-spent about two hours getting the wording just right--and then it went blank! I can't retrieve it, I can't resend it, I can't rewrite it!Is there any way to get my words back and sent to my friend?

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    Jürgen Fauth
    May 27, 01:25pm

    Oh no -- two hours? So sorry. It's not in the database, so I'm afraid it's lost. My apologies.

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    Darryl Price
    Jul 09, 03:10pm

    I was kind of surprised to see my picture has vanished without a trace or forwarding address. I'd really like to know where it went. Perhaps I could even get it back 'cause right now there's a blank wall with a ghost square staring out at the world. All the words,however, seem to be safe in their beds.Thank goodness! DP

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    Jürgen Fauth
    Jul 09, 05:57pm

    We could tell you were your profile picture went, Darryl, but then we'd have to kill you. Actually, that's not true at all; I just felt like saying that. I have no idea where some of the avatars went either, but Carson is working on recovering them.

    You might notice a few other brand-new bugs, due to new features we've begun rolling out on our way to launch (one always seems to entail the other). Please let us know if you notice any other untoward behavior by the site.

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    Thomas Calder
    Jul 10, 12:27pm

    I'm on a Dell using Word Vista. I keep trying to post a story, but when I view it the entire thing is jumbled together in one single paragraph. I tried manually altering it and resubmitting it, but still one giant paragraph. Help!

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    Heather Fowler
    Jul 10, 04:17pm

    Hi Jürgen,

    I was going to post a story today and each time I went to "publish" it, the paragraphs all ran together. I couldn't get the hard returns to stay, even when I manually inserted them (2 or three times). I tried two different stories and in two different formats of copy and paste and still had the same trouble (paste from Word, paste from online site). Please help. :)

    All warmest,
    H

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    Heather Fowler
    Jul 10, 04:18pm

    P.S. Yes! Like Thomas said! Sorry I didn't notice his comment before I posted mine or I would have waited for your answer. :)

  • Author_wide.thumb
    Jürgen Fauth
    Jul 10, 06:11pm

    We're on it! I'll post back here when it's fixed. Apologies...

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    Gary Percesepe
    Jul 10, 08:07pm

    friends,

    i just posted a story for the hell of it, and let the 'grafs all run together. such fun!

    when we get back to "normal" will fix my grafs---or maybe not?

  • Author_wide.thumb
    Jürgen Fauth
    Jul 10, 09:09pm

    OK -- everybody's profile pictures are back, and Carson's working hard on getting the formatting working again asap.

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    Jürgen Fauth
    Jul 10, 09:18pm

    Formatting *should* be working again, as well. Gary, your story won't automatically fix itself, but if you paste it again, everything should show up properly.

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    Carson Baker
    Jul 10, 10:37pm

    Oops, sorry about that DP. Your picture is back.

  • Darryl_falling_water.thumb
    Darryl Price
    Jul 22, 12:31pm

    This is my last time on this thread because I'm beginning to sound like a broken record. The Fictionaut site just chopped my piece What Happens when we Die into some sort of Picasso looking thing. It's making me queasy. I'm sure it must be something I am doing wrong but it's completely messed up. I'll rewrite everything there myself if you can't fix it. Thanks for the ear. DP

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    Jürgen Fauth
    Jul 22, 01:00pm

    Sorry, Darryl. Does any of the advice in this thread help?

    http://fictionaut.com/forums/help/threads/29

  • Rg.thumb
    Roxane Gay
    Jul 24, 12:05am

    I feel pretty obtuse as I've done this before, but how do we delete stories? I can't find the link on the edit story page...

  • Author_wide.thumb
    Jürgen Fauth
    Jul 24, 09:25am

    You know what? I can't find it anymore, either. It was always a little too hard to find on the "manage stories" screen, but since we simplified the menus, that entire screen seems to have disappeared. We'll fix this ASAP and I'll post back here when it's done. Sorry about that.

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    Geoffrey Fox
    Jul 27, 04:58pm

    Well, panting hard, I clicked on the tag "Sex" and got "We've been notified about this issue and we'll take a look at it shortly."

    I thought it was deliberate.

  • Author_wide.thumb
    Jürgen Fauth
    Jul 27, 06:08pm

    Curious -- "minimalist fiction" and "death" work just fine, but "flash" and "sex" breaks it.

    We'll investigate!

  • Rg.thumb
    Roxane Gay
    Aug 02, 05:10pm

    Hi, when I try to delete a story now (thanks for making it easy to find now, btw!) I get a 404 page and the story doesn't delete...

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    Jürgen Fauth
    Aug 02, 05:30pm

    Whoops! We'll check, Roxane.

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    Roxane Gay
    Aug 06, 09:49pm

    It worked for me! Thanks so much for your mojo and magic.

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    Larry Strattner
    Aug 28, 08:01pm

    I'm having a "funny" problem - it's not critical but I can't fix it. When I post a new piece the copy box is about fifteen characters wide and it stacks the words up at no more than two words per line.

    When I "preview" or "publish" the lines and paragraphs arrange correctly. As soon as I go back to "edit" the stack returns.

    This began with my last couple of posts.

    I also began a thread in error on the Nurse group and then could not delete it. I've noticed people remark before that they cannot delete their own posts. Am I somehow missing an edit function like the one Roxanne refers to?

    Also - you guys are doing a really fine job here. It must be hell to run the technical side. Kudos to Carson and to Jurgen thanks for all of it.

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    Bear Savo
    Aug 29, 01:33am

    The system is not letting me update my profile information. No matter what I try to change, I'm getting an error message that my "name is invalid" and I'm not even trying to change my name.

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    Jürgen Fauth
    Aug 29, 11:58am

    Larry -- that sounds super odd. Could you send an email to support@fictionaut.com and tell us which browser/operating system you're using?

    I agree that the forums could use an edit/delete function. We'll look into that.

    John -- that also sounds super odd. We'll investigate.

  • Yankee.thumb
    Carson Baker
    Aug 31, 04:47am

    hey john -- you're all set now. let me know if anything else is goofy. sorry about that.

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    Emeniano Acain Somoza, Jr.
    Sep 02, 04:22pm

    hi there, i just would like to inform the technical team that the 'italicization' function right in the edit option doesn't work. it frustrates me so much because i needed to italicize a couple of non-english words in my story. i hope you guys could fix this problem. thanks!

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